- The best books make a reader see themselves
in the situation.
They allow them to see solutions,
feel changed and inspire that reader to action.
That's never going to happen if your book is boring
and it also isn't going to happen
if you don't know how to get into the mind of your reader
and meet them right where they are today.
If you don't know how to figure out the hopes, dreams,
and fears of your ideal reader,
this video absolutely is for you.
(upbeat music)
Hey, there I'm Julie, the Book Broad from Book Launchers,
we're your professional self publishing team,
helping you write, publish, and promote
a nonfiction book that will help you have a huge impact
on your readers,
and done right it's going to help you grow your brand,
build your business and make you money.
And the best part you keep all rights and royalties.
Unless you're a mind reader.
- You're thinking
when am I going to get a vacation
away from my husband, son, and dog?
I knew it.
- Or you spent many years working one on one
with your ideal reader,
you should plan to do a little market research
to ensure your book will connect deeply
with your ideal reader.
First let's chat about who your ideal reader is.
Please allow me to tell you who your ideal reader is not.
It is not everyone.
Your ideal reader is specific.
Nobody has everybody in their audience.
There are always people who won't be in your audience,
health conscious folks like myself,
won't drink Coke or Pepsi,
no matter how many feel-good commercials they put out,
or how many coupons they put in front of me.
We all need to see a doctor from time to time,
but we all look for something different
in our medical care professionals.
And while we all have eyes,
some of us may want to have surgery
while others are content with contacts,
while others have great vision
and don't need anything at all.
We may have universal needs,
we all fulfill them in different ways.
Forget that idea that your book is for everybody.
One person I spoke with told me that
my book is for everybody with a paycheck
and I laughed and I said,
do you think your books for me?
And he said, well, no, you run your own business.
And I said, yes, but I also get a paycheck from it.
Then I said, well,
is your book for everybody working at McDonald's
or In-N-Out Burger?
And he said, sure, if they want to move up.
And there was the key,
his book wasn't for anyone with a paycheck.
It was for people working in jobs
where they wanted to grow their career.
And then as we dug deeper, we found,
well, they're actually not even at any company.
They're at fortune 500 companies
where there's a clear hierarchy
and a career path and there's things to do to move up.
So your book is not for everybody.
And for goodness sakes,
your ideal reader is not a demographic.
It is not women between the ages of 25 and 40.
It's not millennials,
which is a typical thing I hear all the time these days.
Let me give you a couple of examples
of what I'm talking about
when it comes to figuring out
who your ideal reader is.
This is Alec Hanson, and he has a book out called "Bypassed"
it's for mortgage professionals
who are getting left behind by the digital consumer.
Now, Alec could have said
my ideal reader is a mortgage professional,
because everyone who's in the mortgage business
will benefit from what he's teaching in the book.
Online marketing is a must
for great business building strategies
and smart tactics to attract new clients
and build a mortgage business.
But an audience of every mortgage professional
isn't specific enough.
And it's not clear enough
to allow you to get into the mind if that reader.
So his book is for mortgage professionals
who are getting left behind.
These are likely to be people
who've been been in the industry for quite some time.
And they're used to building their business from referrals.
They've built a website 10 years ago
and probably haven't updated it.
And if they have Facebook, they probably don't use it.
So these professionals, they're not getting found
when somebody searches for a mortgage professional online,
and they also sure as heck have never gone live
or used TikTok or Instagram or any of those kinds of things.
So in other words,
his ideal reader is not him because he's super tech savvy.
Heck, he did a live stream of his book unboxing
and goes live regularly, streaming to many platforms,
but he has done intense research into the industry
and knows who needs his help.
And as a result, he knows his ideal reader mindset,
their fears, their hopes,
and he can speak directly to them in his book.
And he did.
Oscar Damas' "Oscar's A+ Band Director's Guide:
"a veteran band teacher's guide to teaching music."
His book is super niche
and his audience is also really, really clear.
It is for band directors,
not even people who teach music,
although they'll get ideas and benefit,
it's for band teachers and band directors.
It's so clear who this was for
that the podcast we pitched was a short list,
but an easy sell because it's obvious his book is something
they want to talk about.
So if you're listening to these examples and you're going,
Whoa, I don't have my audience nailed down like that.
What can you do?
Well, number one, if it makes sense,
do some one on one coaching
to help people solve the problem you can help themselves.
This will allow you to hear their objections,
their obstacles, and get a clear sense
of what helps and what doesn't,
when you give them guidance.
If that doesn't make sense for your book topic,
or you just don't have time for that,
I recommend you lurk around forums and Facebook groups,
LinkedIn groups, basically anywhere
your ideal reader is hanging out
and read the questions and the answers.
This is good practice anyways.
I do it for Book Launchers 'cause I'm always curious
about what problems people are encountering,
what questions come up over and over again.
And I even like to read the advice people get.
By the way, this is also how I get a lot video ideas.
There's other sites you can also lurk around on:
quora.com is a pretty cool one to check out.
You type in a question and then people answer it.
And you can see what answers get up voted.
You can see related questions on the right hand side.
And if you really aren't sure about the conversations
people are having around your subject right now,
this is a great way to see
who's getting recommended as a resource,
bad and good advice being given,
as you start to narrow down the audience
and the problems that they have
that you want to address in your book.
Now you want to find books that people are reading
influencers they're listening to,
and you can do this in a lot of ways.
My three favorites are searching on Amazon for books.
Then looking on Audible and looking on Barnes and Noble.
Ask people on Facebook what resources
they have to recommend.
And I would say is ask them
what resources do you recommend to solve X problem?
You know, the problem you plan to solve
for readers in your book.
Finally, if you have an audience already,
a client base, or you have a podcast audience
or a YouTube audience,
ask them what books or podcasts or YouTube channels
they follow in addition to you,
this is going to be useful for a few reasons.
One, you're gonna be able to get a sense
of what messages they're getting already
by checking out who they're referring to,
and two now, you know who might be a great endorsement
or promotional partner for your book
because your audience is already paying attention to them.
When you come across a book repeatedly,
read the comments.
I might read to see what people like,
but actually I like to focus on what they didn't like.
What do people want that's a bit different?
I'm not looking for haters.
I'm looking for people who provide constructive ideas
like this one, for example,
this comment says this book neglects the emotional aspect
of dealing with cancer;
or this review that this book is a little bit dry.
I might write these things down
and glance at common themes for what people didn't like.
So I know how to make my book different
and something that they would like.
You spend about 30 minutes a day
for two to four weeks.
And you're going to have spent 20 hours working on this.
And now you're going to have a really clear sense
of what the people in your audience are thinking about,
who they're already listening to,
the messages they're already getting.
And what's got them worried right now.
And you're going to be able to speak directly to this.
Now, not doing this does not mean your book will flop,
but a book that goes, Hey, I know you're worried about this.
And you're probably wondering
how this could even be possible.
And that's exactly what they're worrying about.
Then you better believe your book
is going to jump right out at them.
So tell me, do you do any kind of reader research
before you write a book?
Let's chat about it in the comments below.
And when you comment the day of video is released,
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We have new videos every Tuesday and Friday,
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I'm so happy you finally got your mug by the way.
Allan West, Brian K. Morris, Sandra Rodriguez.
Thank you so much for your likes, shares and comments,
you make my day.
Now, I've really enjoyed our time together today
and there's so much more to share.
I'm thinking you might really love this video
on the Dr. Seuss' is quick tip for writing fast,
or perhaps you feel like you're suffering
from writer's block.
In that case, this video is a must-watch.
Either way, I've put on some coffee
and I'd love to have you join me.
In case you prefer tea, I've got you covered there too.
So see you on one of these it's two videos.
(upbeat music)