A REAL AUDIENCE
As I work my way through all the book proposal advice I am soaking up; I realize one essential task, of course, is to outline the audience I wish to reach. Because I'm working on a commercial non-fiction book that falls in the personal development category, I'm taking this piece of guidance to heart. Don't try to be everything to everybody, but rather be something to someone specific. Write what you know.
In my user experience work, it's common to draft personas based on real people or research, and I have decided to take a similar approach to refine my target audience.
It occurred to me this morning that I should leverage the real stories I know from the folks around me. As it turns out, I see a lot of people struggling to work their way through the challenges of being a parent and mid-career or mid-life. I know it's something I deal with often.
Something is tugging at me inside to help the individuals I know overcome their self-created obstacles. I believe that once they begin to see how they currently think they'll be able to realize ways to start changing their thinking.
I'm a guy who has perfected visualizing my ideas; it's something I have developed over the past 20 years. I know many that feel stuck, who put their needs and dreams on pause and miss out on achieving more of their potential. Why not leverage my gift for seeing thoughts and connecting dots? Perhaps one of my greatest talents is for helping others think out loud where they can see what goes on in their head.
As I continue to work through my proposal, I will respectfully keep their needs in mind while protecting their identities, but I expect this lens to bring another layer of purpose to why my book needs publishing.










