It makes perfect sense to aim at the largest possible audience for your nonfiction book. Why create a book that’s designed for digital marketers when you could aim for all marketers — or maybe all executives? Hey, there must be millions of folks like that! Unfortunately, aiming at the largest possible audience is a dumb…
There are three types of audiences to which you can pitch your book. You could aim for a big, well-established audience. Maybe your book is for marketers, managers, coders, or people who lack confidence. The good news is, you could potentially sell millions of copies. The problem, of course, is that hundreds of other books…
The call came in to my mobile phone. An author wanted my help. But after 15 minutes, I still couldn’t figure out what her book idea was about. If you want anyone to take your potential nonfiction book idea seriously, you have to be able to answer four simple questions — hopefully without thinking very…
There are four questions you really should answer before setting out on a business book journey. They’ll determine everything from your title to your content to your publishing model. I first created the ROAM test for general business writing. It includes four elements: Readers, Objective, Action, and iMpression. If you’re going to work on something…
Versatile writers can end up writing for clients and bosses, for colleagues and collaborators, or just for themselves. Here’s what I’ve learned from writing in all these different modes: Writing for “them” The nonfiction pieces you write in business settings must satisfy somebody else: a boss, an editor, or a client. When writing for “them”:…
Yesterday, in a writing workshop I was conducting, a woman interrupted me to tell me my explanation of the concept of flow was incomplete and not quite right. And a commenter pointed out an embarrassing grammar mistake in the title of my post. I had only one emotion in each case: gratitude. People seem to…
The only purpose of business writing is to create a change in the reader. Create the change and you succeed; fail to make the change and you’ve wasted your time. Before you spend hours on a piece of writing, spend 15 minutes on the one tool that will make it most likely to be effective. Learn…
Effective writing creates a change in the reader. Whether you’re writing an email, a blog post, or a strategy document, four elements determine your success: Reader, Objective, Action, and iMpression. I use the (slightly skewed) acronym ROAM to keep all four in mind as I write. Readers: Who is the audience? Before writing anything, visualize your readers….