How to Stop Writing to Everyone and Create a Book Your Reader Can’t Put Down starts with clarity about who you’re truly writing for. In this video, you’ll learn how to Design a Book That Speaks Directly to One Person instead of a vague audience category.If you want to focus your book on the right reader, this practical shift will transform your structure, tone, and impact.In this video, you’ll discover:
- How to stop writing to everyone and start connecting deeply with one ideal reader
- Why you must design a book that speaks directly to one person to build real momentum
- Practical ways to focus your book on the right reader’s fears, obstacles, and beliefs
- A simple exercise to align your message with what your reader is truly ready to hear
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Mm hmm. Welcome back to author Odyssey the planning Realm.
I am Melody and your guide. And last week we
defined your intent. We asked the question what do you
want this book to do for you? And that was
(00:24):
meant to give you direction and to give you purpose.
Intent gives you reason to keep going when writing is hard,
and I promise you there will be times when writing
will get hard. But intent alone is not enough. That
may keep you writing, but will it keep your reader reading.
(00:45):
So last week we talked about your intent, your goals,
why you are going to keep writing. Today we're going
to be talking about your reader, because you can have
a strong reason to write and still miss the mark.
We're about to step into quest two, the reader compass,
(01:07):
and this quest may be one of the most underestimated
quests in the entire planning realm. Most authors believe they
already know the reader. They can name the demographic, they
can describe their industry, they can summarize the problem their
book addresses. Because they can describe all of those things,
(01:29):
they assume they have clarity. But knowing the category is
not the same as knowing the person. And if you
do not know the person, your ideal reader, your book
is likely going to struggle to land. A lot of
writers believe reader clarity is in the is like a
(01:51):
marketing exercise, something you do after you've written the book.
You write the book, and then you figure it out,
and then you do your marketing materials, and then you
do a sales page or pitch an age. It's not
it's something secondary external to the writing of the book.
But it's not that. Reader clarity is what shapes the book.
(02:11):
It shapes the content, the structure. We're going to get
into that a little bit more. It determines what you
say first. It determines how much context you need to give.
It determines what stories you choose, which examples you emphasize,
and which chapters come earlier rather than later. It determines
(02:32):
your tone you're pacing an even your level of boldness.
So if you skip this work, you may still write
a good book. It may be thoughtful, it may be
well structured, it may even be insightful, but it will
not feel personal to your reader. Your reader won't feel
like you are speaking directly to them, and that is
(02:55):
what keeps readers turning pages, and that's what creates transformation.
So I hear you if you're saying, but I know
who I'm writing to. I get that because a lot
of authors fall under a few of these categories. Maybe
you were once the reader. Therefore you have lived experience.
Maybe you've already solved this problem, You've climbed out of
(03:17):
the valley, and now you want to guide others through it.
Or maybe you work with this reader every single day.
You coach them, you serve them, you see their patterns,
you hear their questions on repeat. Or maybe you're just
a few steps ahead of them on the path and
you still remember the confusion clearly enough to translate it.
(03:42):
Maybe you studied the pattern, you researched, you interviewed, you
analyze what keeps surfacing in your field. This one is good.
You interviewed that is important. Or maybe you lived an
adjacent life to this experience. You could have watched someone
you love navigate through it. It could be that you
(04:02):
really saw the inside of that struggle without actually feeling
that struggle yourself, feeling the empathy of watching the struggle
or supporting the struggle. Or maybe you've built a framework
that works and you've tested it and then you've refined
it and you have seen repeatable results, so you know
(04:23):
it works. Or maybe you stand between two worlds, translating
research into practical language or lived experience into strategy. Or
you could be carrying a message that feels bigger than you,
something that you just must say to the world. Or
maybe you represent a voice that's missing and you're writing
(04:46):
so the next person feels seen the first time without
feeling invisible, without that struggle. All of these are valid
origins for an author. Every single author above that I've
listed can create an incredibly powerful book, and yet every
(05:09):
single one of them can still miss the mark. I've
seen it time and time again. Because here's the truth,
and I hope this could lands with you. You last
week kind of drew the arrow intent. You had your intent,
(05:30):
and intent points the arrow, but the reader determines the target.
Without that reader, you are pointing the arrow at the abyss.
You need something to point the arrow at, and that's
your reader. So intent points the arrow. The reader determines
(05:53):
the target. If you do not know your reader intimately,
you will write what you want to stay in instead
of what your reader is ready to hear. And there's
a difference between what they're ready to hear and what
they need to hear. I mean, even in my own
work with authors, sometimes I understand that saying something is
(06:13):
futile because they're just not ready to hear it, and
so I need to back up and figure out what
they're ready to hear before I get to what they
need to hear. It happens in your coaching, it happens
in my editing. It happens for readers and writers. Authors
need to figure out what they're ready to hear and
(06:36):
move from there, and that readiness changes everything, because when
your reader is ready to hear the message, when you
can help them get into a place where they're ready
to hear the message, they are open to what you
have to say. So you might want to open with theory,
but your reader might be drowning in emotion. Or you
(06:58):
might say I've got the solutions, but don't realize that
your reader's in denial. Or you might jump to some
advanced strategy but your reader stuck in fear. You might
assume they trust you. You haven't earned that yet. This
is not about your ideas. This is not about your
(07:19):
ability to serve or your writing skills. It's you don't
live in the heart and soul of one ideal reader.
And I hear you, one reader, what I want millions
my book. My books can be able to change lives,
not a life lives. I hear you, bear with me.
(07:42):
I will explain. Reader clarity is about understanding where your
reader is before they open your book. What do they
believe right now? What do they assume is true? What
are they resisting? What are they afraid might be true?
What have they already been told? What secretly embarrasses them?
(08:04):
What would they never say out loud in a public
forum that might whisper to a friend. When you know
those answers, your book shifts, The content shifts. So without
the reader clarity, something subtle happens. Your book feels fine,
it's not bad, it's not swappy, it's not confusing. You've
(08:28):
got good content like it all feels like it should work,
but it just doesn't connect with your reader. Have you
ever started a book but not finished it. That's really common.
What stopped you? The book wasn't for you. Why you
(08:49):
picked up a book on a particular topic because you
were looking for something on that topic, and then you've
got three chapters in and you realize this is not
for me. And it might be the information was really good,
but the author did not fully connect with you as
a reader. You don't want readers to start and stop.
(09:13):
You want them to finish. You want them to nod
along and act. You ever read a book where you're
not eying long and yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes.
But you get to the end, you put it away,
You give it back to the friend who lent it
to you, put it on the shelf, I don't know,
take it back to the library. But you don't act
(09:33):
on it. Most nonfiction authors want their readers to nod
along and act. You want them to not just appreciate it,
but you want them to be changed by it. And
when that doesn't happen, that can crush you as an author.
I've seen it, and it actually leads to you know,
(09:56):
three four star reviews, good book. Yeah you know it
was a good book, but five star this transformed my life.
Reviews That sells more books. And the other thing I've
seen When authors are getting mediocre reviews, people are just
not it's just not taking off. You want to rationalize
(10:18):
that to yourself, right, so you might start believing things like, oh,
this topic's too saturated. I'm just not a good enough writer. Oh,
the market is crowded, you know, people just don't read anymore.
But sometimes the problem is different. Sometimes the problem is
(10:39):
that the author wrote from their position rather than meeting
their reader where they are. Reminds me of what I
used to look after my mother whood Alzheimer's. Eventually we
had to put her in a home with a lift
as I could no longer help her up. And sometimes
I go visit her and when she saw me brighton
(11:00):
and she'd call out, hi, mom, and then look around
to say to everyone near, that's my mom now, and
very helpful people used to try to correct her, since
I was obviously younger than her, I was obviously her daughter. No, no, Anne,
that's not your mother, that's your daughter, my mother. She'd
(11:21):
have this look at confusion spill unto her face, and
she'd look up at me with you know, concern, and
I would look at her and say, hi, dear, just
kind of shrug my shoulders at everyone else's confusion. Because
I learned that every day I went to visit, the
(11:42):
best thing I could do was to meet her where
she was that day and help her move forward from
that and I've translated that into my author coaching, and
I've helped authors translate that idea into writing their books,
into creating a reader avatar, and creating an ideal reader
(12:05):
that works. So let's look at what happens when you
do know your reader deeply, When you know them intimately,
you use their language. You don't use your tech speak,
your industry jargon. You use their language. You don't have
this polished I need this perfect version. You have something
(12:28):
that's real and raw that they connect to. When you
know them intimately before you get into content, you can
anticipate their objections and help them through. If you understand
where they might hesitate, you can validate that hesitation and
(12:49):
then help them through it. You can structure your chapters
around their emotional readiness rather than your logical sequence. Now
they might be the same, but they might be different.
You can slow down where you know they're going to
need it, reassure and use reassuring and encouraging language when
you know that's going to be helpful, and you can
(13:09):
move quickly where you figure they're already confident. When you
do this, they feel seen. And when someone feels seen,
they lean in. They trust you, They keep reading, they finish,
(13:29):
they act, and best of all, they tell a friend,
they write a review, they pass on the idea that
your book is worth reading. And this is why in
the planning realm we do not treat the reader compass
as oh, you know, optional if you want to it's
one of the few quests, or I say, you really
(13:52):
want to do this. It's not an accessory. It's your
targeting system. If your book is for anyone struggles with burnout,
you are aiming into the fog. You're gonna land up
in the fog of confusion, and that's going to unanchor
you from your book. Because the question I will ask
(14:15):
is which anyone the corporate executive on the edge of quitting,
the stay at home mum drowning in invisible labor, the
entrepreneur who loves their business that hasn't slept in six
months or only catches naps under their desk because they're
in startup. Each of these readers will have a unique
entry point into the topic of burnout. They may want
(14:36):
a different tone, they may want an original example, They
may need a different promise. Specificity is not narrowing your impact.
It sharpens your aim and when your aim sharpens, Your
confident rises. Confidence rises because you're no longer guessing who's
(14:59):
on on the other side of the page. You can
picture them. You can imagine the expression on their face.
You can hear the questions they are silently asking. I mean,
you can picture that one ideal reader sitting across from you.
As you write, you will make everyone who picks up
your book feel like you somehow God inside them. You
(15:23):
know them, you know things they have not said out loud.
So here's where this quest becomes real. Ask yourself, who's
my ideal reader? Not demographic terms, but in emotional terms.
What tension are they living inside? What outcome do they
(15:45):
want or long for? But they're afraid to claim? What
belief is keeping them stuck? And then write one paragraph
directly to that one person, to the whole market, not
to some algorithm, not to a vague crowd, to one
human being who needs what you have to say. Because
(16:08):
when you write to one person with intent and clarity,
many people will feel understood. This intent will give you direction,
this reader clarity will give you precision. And when direction
and precision align, your book lands. You don't need to
know more about your topic. Well maybe you do. Maybe
you do need to do a little bit of research.
(16:30):
But I find a lot of people who are researching,
research and researching aren't narrowing in on who that one
ideal reader is. So before you do more research, you
want to know more about the person who will be
holding your book. That's the reader's compass. And when you
claim it, you stop one wandering. You can really take
(16:53):
aim at what you need to say, and then your
words matter in a way that maybe they never had before.
So we talked about Quest one last week and that
gave you the arrow, and this week, Quest two gives
you the target. And if you haven't crafted your errow yet,
(17:13):
download Quest one, then join me in the Quest two
workshop where we sharpen her him. I will see you
in the next episode.
Mm hmm. Welcome back to author Odyssey the planning Realm.
I am Melody and your guide. And last week we
defined your intent. We asked the question what do you
want this book to do for you? And that was
(00:24):
meant to give you direction and to give you purpose.
Intent gives you reason to keep going when writing is hard,
and I promise you there will be times when writing
will get hard. But intent alone is not enough. That
may keep you writing, but will it keep your reader reading.
(00:45):
So last week we talked about your intent, your goals,
why you are going to keep writing. Today we're going
to be talking about your reader, because you can have
a strong reason to write and still miss the mark.
We're about to step into quest two, the reader compass,
(01:07):
and this quest may be one of the most underestimated
quests in the entire planning realm. Most authors believe they
already know the reader. They can name the demographic, they
can describe their industry, they can summarize the problem their
book addresses. Because they can describe all of those things,
(01:29):
they assume they have clarity. But knowing the category is
not the same as knowing the person. And if you
do not know the person, your ideal reader, your book
is likely going to struggle to land. A lot of
writers believe reader clarity is in the is like a
(01:51):
marketing exercise, something you do after you've written the book.
You write the book, and then you figure it out,
and then you do your marketing materials, and then you
do a sales page or pitch an age. It's not
it's something secondary external to the writing of the book.
But it's not that. Reader clarity is what shapes the book.
(02:11):
It shapes the content, the structure. We're going to get
into that a little bit more. It determines what you
say first. It determines how much context you need to give.
It determines what stories you choose, which examples you emphasize,
and which chapters come earlier rather than later. It determines
(02:32):
your tone you're pacing an even your level of boldness.
So if you skip this work, you may still write
a good book. It may be thoughtful, it may be
well structured, it may even be insightful, but it will
not feel personal to your reader. Your reader won't feel
like you are speaking directly to them, and that is
(02:55):
what keeps readers turning pages, and that's what creates transformation.
So I hear you if you're saying, but I know
who I'm writing to. I get that because a lot
of authors fall under a few of these categories. Maybe
you were once the reader. Therefore you have lived experience.
Maybe you've already solved this problem, You've climbed out of
(03:17):
the valley, and now you want to guide others through it.
Or maybe you work with this reader every single day.
You coach them, you serve them, you see their patterns,
you hear their questions on repeat. Or maybe you're just
a few steps ahead of them on the path and
you still remember the confusion clearly enough to translate it.
(03:42):
Maybe you studied the pattern, you researched, you interviewed, you
analyze what keeps surfacing in your field. This one is good.
You interviewed that is important. Or maybe you lived an
adjacent life to this experience. You could have watched someone
you love navigate through it. It could be that you
(04:02):
really saw the inside of that struggle without actually feeling
that struggle yourself, feeling the empathy of watching the struggle
or supporting the struggle. Or maybe you've built a framework
that works and you've tested it and then you've refined
it and you have seen repeatable results, so you know
(04:23):
it works. Or maybe you stand between two worlds, translating
research into practical language or lived experience into strategy. Or
you could be carrying a message that feels bigger than you,
something that you just must say to the world. Or
maybe you represent a voice that's missing and you're writing
(04:46):
so the next person feels seen the first time without
feeling invisible, without that struggle. All of these are valid
origins for an author. Every single author above that I've
listed can create an incredibly powerful book, and yet every
(05:09):
single one of them can still miss the mark. I've
seen it time and time again. Because here's the truth,
and I hope this could lands with you. You last
week kind of drew the arrow intent. You had your intent,
(05:30):
and intent points the arrow, but the reader determines the target.
Without that reader, you are pointing the arrow at the abyss.
You need something to point the arrow at, and that's
your reader. So intent points the arrow. The reader determines
(05:53):
the target. If you do not know your reader intimately,
you will write what you want to stay in instead
of what your reader is ready to hear. And there's
a difference between what they're ready to hear and what
they need to hear. I mean, even in my own
work with authors, sometimes I understand that saying something is
(06:13):
futile because they're just not ready to hear it, and
so I need to back up and figure out what
they're ready to hear before I get to what they
need to hear. It happens in your coaching, it happens
in my editing. It happens for readers and writers. Authors
need to figure out what they're ready to hear and
(06:36):
move from there, and that readiness changes everything, because when
your reader is ready to hear the message, when you
can help them get into a place where they're ready
to hear the message, they are open to what you
have to say. So you might want to open with theory,
but your reader might be drowning in emotion. Or you
(06:58):
might say I've got the solutions, but don't realize that
your reader's in denial. Or you might jump to some
advanced strategy but your reader stuck in fear. You might
assume they trust you. You haven't earned that yet. This
is not about your ideas. This is not about your
(07:19):
ability to serve or your writing skills. It's you don't
live in the heart and soul of one ideal reader.
And I hear you, one reader, what I want millions
my book. My books can be able to change lives,
not a life lives. I hear you, bear with me.
(07:42):
I will explain. Reader clarity is about understanding where your
reader is before they open your book. What do they
believe right now? What do they assume is true? What
are they resisting? What are they afraid might be true?
What have they already been told? What secretly embarrasses them?
(08:04):
What would they never say out loud in a public
forum that might whisper to a friend. When you know
those answers, your book shifts, The content shifts. So without
the reader clarity, something subtle happens. Your book feels fine,
it's not bad, it's not swappy, it's not confusing. You've
(08:28):
got good content like it all feels like it should work,
but it just doesn't connect with your reader. Have you
ever started a book but not finished it. That's really common.
What stopped you? The book wasn't for you. Why you
(08:49):
picked up a book on a particular topic because you
were looking for something on that topic, and then you've
got three chapters in and you realize this is not
for me. And it might be the information was really good,
but the author did not fully connect with you as
a reader. You don't want readers to start and stop.
(09:13):
You want them to finish. You want them to nod
along and act. You ever read a book where you're
not eying long and yeah, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, yes.
But you get to the end, you put it away,
You give it back to the friend who lent it
to you, put it on the shelf, I don't know,
take it back to the library. But you don't act
(09:33):
on it. Most nonfiction authors want their readers to nod
along and act. You want them to not just appreciate it,
but you want them to be changed by it. And
when that doesn't happen, that can crush you as an author.
I've seen it, and it actually leads to you know,
(09:56):
three four star reviews, good book. Yeah you know it
was a good book, but five star this transformed my life.
Reviews That sells more books. And the other thing I've
seen When authors are getting mediocre reviews, people are just
not it's just not taking off. You want to rationalize
(10:18):
that to yourself, right, so you might start believing things like, oh,
this topic's too saturated. I'm just not a good enough writer. Oh,
the market is crowded, you know, people just don't read anymore.
But sometimes the problem is different. Sometimes the problem is
(10:39):
that the author wrote from their position rather than meeting
their reader where they are. Reminds me of what I
used to look after my mother whood Alzheimer's. Eventually we
had to put her in a home with a lift
as I could no longer help her up. And sometimes
I go visit her and when she saw me brighton
(11:00):
and she'd call out, hi, mom, and then look around
to say to everyone near, that's my mom now, and
very helpful people used to try to correct her, since
I was obviously younger than her, I was obviously her daughter. No, no, Anne,
that's not your mother, that's your daughter, my mother. She'd
(11:21):
have this look at confusion spill unto her face, and
she'd look up at me with you know, concern, and
I would look at her and say, hi, dear, just
kind of shrug my shoulders at everyone else's confusion. Because
I learned that every day I went to visit, the
(11:42):
best thing I could do was to meet her where
she was that day and help her move forward from
that and I've translated that into my author coaching, and
I've helped authors translate that idea into writing their books,
into creating a reader avatar, and creating an ideal reader
(12:05):
that works. So let's look at what happens when you
do know your reader deeply, When you know them intimately,
you use their language. You don't use your tech speak,
your industry jargon. You use their language. You don't have
this polished I need this perfect version. You have something
(12:28):
that's real and raw that they connect to. When you
know them intimately before you get into content, you can
anticipate their objections and help them through. If you understand
where they might hesitate, you can validate that hesitation and
(12:49):
then help them through it. You can structure your chapters
around their emotional readiness rather than your logical sequence. Now
they might be the same, but they might be different.
You can slow down where you know they're going to
need it, reassure and use reassuring and encouraging language when
you know that's going to be helpful, and you can
(13:09):
move quickly where you figure they're already confident. When you
do this, they feel seen. And when someone feels seen,
they lean in. They trust you, They keep reading, they finish,
(13:29):
they act, and best of all, they tell a friend,
they write a review, they pass on the idea that
your book is worth reading. And this is why in
the planning realm we do not treat the reader compass
as oh, you know, optional if you want to it's
one of the few quests, or I say, you really
(13:52):
want to do this. It's not an accessory. It's your
targeting system. If your book is for anyone struggles with burnout,
you are aiming into the fog. You're gonna land up
in the fog of confusion, and that's going to unanchor
you from your book. Because the question I will ask
(14:15):
is which anyone the corporate executive on the edge of quitting,
the stay at home mum drowning in invisible labor, the
entrepreneur who loves their business that hasn't slept in six
months or only catches naps under their desk because they're
in startup. Each of these readers will have a unique
entry point into the topic of burnout. They may want
(14:36):
a different tone, they may want an original example, They
may need a different promise. Specificity is not narrowing your impact.
It sharpens your aim and when your aim sharpens, Your
confident rises. Confidence rises because you're no longer guessing who's
(14:59):
on on the other side of the page. You can
picture them. You can imagine the expression on their face.
You can hear the questions they are silently asking. I mean,
you can picture that one ideal reader sitting across from you.
As you write, you will make everyone who picks up
your book feel like you somehow God inside them. You
(15:23):
know them, you know things they have not said out loud.
So here's where this quest becomes real. Ask yourself, who's
my ideal reader? Not demographic terms, but in emotional terms.
What tension are they living inside? What outcome do they
(15:45):
want or long for? But they're afraid to claim? What
belief is keeping them stuck? And then write one paragraph
directly to that one person, to the whole market, not
to some algorithm, not to a vague crowd, to one
human being who needs what you have to say. Because
(16:08):
when you write to one person with intent and clarity,
many people will feel understood. This intent will give you direction,
this reader clarity will give you precision. And when direction
and precision align, your book lands. You don't need to
know more about your topic. Well maybe you do. Maybe
you do need to do a little bit of research.
(16:30):
But I find a lot of people who are researching,
research and researching aren't narrowing in on who that one
ideal reader is. So before you do more research, you
want to know more about the person who will be
holding your book. That's the reader's compass. And when you
claim it, you stop one wandering. You can really take
(16:53):
aim at what you need to say, and then your
words matter in a way that maybe they never had before.
So we talked about Quest one last week and that
gave you the arrow, and this week, Quest two gives
you the target. And if you haven't crafted your errow yet,
(17:13):
download Quest one, then join me in the Quest two
workshop where we sharpen her him. I will see you
in the next episode.
Popular Podcasts
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.