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Synopsis
Your needs and wants, as an author, can be surprisingly and distinctly different than those of your reader. But, once you realize these differences between you and the reader, you can focus on truly understanding your reading audience and their needs and wants. So, here is a short discussion to help you define and understand what your reading audience needs and wants in their own life, which has led them to you and your non-fiction book.
What You Will Learn In This Post
1. You will learn why your needs and wants don’t necessarily coincide with those of your readers.
2. You will learn how to begin asking yourself the right questions to understand your readers better.
3. You will learn how and why understanding the needs and wants of your audience will make you stand out from the crowd and thereby help you sell more books.
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Introduction: There Is Great Value In Understanding Your Reader
Your needs and wants, as an author, can be surprisingly and distinctly different than those of your reader. What we non-fiction authors need and want within our own lives and what our readers need and want within their own life can sometimes be a far cry from each other.
But, once you realize this difference, you can then focus your attention on understanding who your reading audience is, what their needs and wants are about, and what it is that’s motivating your readers.
So, here is a short discussion to help you start to define and understand what your reading audience needs and wants in their own life, which is what has led them to you and your non-fiction book:
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A. NEEDS (Functional Needs) Of Your Readers
Your readers (book buyers) have a functional need they are trying to satisfy when looking for a book that can help them improve their quality-of-life issues. This need might include finding out how to start a business. Or how to solve a business problem, such as finding more clients.
The list of specific quality-of-life issues we all need help and guidance with is endless. You, the author, have expertise in a few of these issues. Your job is to help your readers with one particular quality-of-life issue they seek help with.
Thank you very much to Sylvia Hubbard of the Motown Writer’s Network, for sharing my post.
By talking to your customers and clients, prospects, students, patients, co-workers, employees, friends, and family, and doing an in-depth search on Amazon, you will begin to hear and see the most common quality-of-life issues people are searching for answers to.
Some problems will be simple and easy to discuss, and others will be much more complicated. But your job as an author is to provide practical and easy-to-understand and implement solutions for the reader.
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B. WANTS (Emotional Needs) Of Your Readers
Your readers (book buyers) also have an emotional need, or desire, that they are trying to satisfy. This want might include feelings of joy that develop after completing a project, starting a new business, helping a new client succeed, or helping a student pass an exam, for example.
Thank you very much to Chris Graham for sharing my post on his blog The Story Reading Ape.
The list of emotional needs that people desire is also endless. You are helping your readers achieve, satisfy, or find the answers to the functional needs that led them to buy your book in the first place. And you will also be helping them achieve the wants or emotional needs they are trying to satisfy.
The readers might have first sought you out, visited your blog, and purchased your book based on their functional needs. Their drive to experience or satisfy their emotional needs led them to you for help in finding answers to their functional needs in the first place.
Thank you to Joel Friedlander of TheBookDesigner.com for linking to my blog post from his blog Carnival Of The Indies #102
Conclusion: Bringing It All Together For Success
It Must Be A Win-Win Relationship Between You And Your Readers
When you write your non-fiction book, you must remember that needs and wants go hand-in-hand – they’re inseparable. When a reader is searching for help, advice, guidance, and answers for a problem in their own life, they’re not thinking about their pain as a needs and wants situation – they’re thinking about getting solutions to their problem.
“Your understanding of what motivates your readers is what will help make your book one that can truly help people improve their own lives – which in turn will make your book a success.” (Tweet)
And you, as an author, expert, book marketer, and person looking to help others, already understand this about your reading audience. Your understanding of what motivates your readers will help make your book one that can genuinely help people improve their lives – just as you have already done with your own life.
This “understanding” you have of your reading audience’s perception of their needs and wants will put you in a much better position to create a book that can help them discover the answers to what they are searching for. Your book will then help you get a more devoted and trusting following and thereby help you sell more books. You get what you need and want, and so does your reader. It’s a win-win relationship for you and the reader.
Talkwalker Alerts for Joel Friedlander’s Carnival of the Indies #102
Understanding Your Reader’s Needs AND Wants Can Lead To Higher Book Sales https://t.co/z10uCAH7dJ pic.twitter.com/6meThcB0h9
— Sylvia Hubbard (@sylviahubbard1) May 8, 2019
Questions For Us To Think About And Discuss
1. What needs and wants are you trying to satisfy that made you become an author?
2. Can you state your reader’s needs and wants in just a few simple sentences?
• This article also appears in Joel Friedlander’s online publication Carnival of the Indies – Issue #102
• This post also appears in Sylvia Hubbard’s blog Motown Writers Network
• This article also appears on Chris Grahams’s blog The Story Reading Ape
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