Who needs your book? Why focus is key when defining your audience.

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 idea. You can’t solve everyone’s problems. More importantly, they won’t see the solution to their problems in your book.

A tightly defined audience is far more likely to see your book and say, “Ah, yes, I have that exact problem.” Survivors of prostate cancer in their 60s and 70s have a similar set of challenges. So do accounting managers who want to generate greater insight from AI. So do new college graduates who want to make an impact working for a nonprofit.

Focused audiences have huge advantages:

• One reasonably-sized book can be general enough to hit all of their issues.
• They visit the same sites and go to the same conferences, so it’s easier to market to them.
• They talk to each other, so they’ll spread word-of-mouth about your book.
• A solid hit on a focused audience often spills over into related audiences; ironically, it’s easier to win over more people by starting with fewer.

Have an interactive conversation about your book’s audience

Of course, there’s only so much I can tell you in a blog post. But starting today, there’s another way to get answers. You could ask the Bernoff Book Coach, an interactive product for nonfiction authors.

Here’s how the coach responded when I asked it about a book I’m working on about entrepreneurs and timing (my prompts are in bold italics, the rest is the response from the virtual coach).

I am ready to start working on a book. It is a book on the power of timing for entrepreneurs. Can you help me focus down on the right audience?

I appreciate your enthusiasm, but “the power of timing for entrepreneurs” is way too broad. Let me help you sharpen this.

First, let’s get specific about your audience. “Entrepreneurs” could mean anyone from a 22-year-old launching a tech startup to a 55-year-old opening a franchise. These people have completely different problems and need different advice.

Here are the questions you need to answer:

1. What stage entrepreneur? Are you talking to people still in corporate jobs thinking about starting something? First-time founders in year one? Serial entrepreneurs on their third venture? Someone buying an existing business?
2. What specific timing problem are you solving? Is this about:
   • When to quit your job and go full-time?
   • When to launch a product vs. waiting for perfection?
   • When to raise money vs. bootstrap longer?
   • When to pivot vs. persist?
   • When to scale vs. stay small?

The tighter you get on the specific problem, the more valuable your book becomes. As I explain in Build a Better Business Book (Chapter 2, “Identify Your Audience”), trying to reach “everyone” means you reach no one effectively. . . .

How about: Tech entrepreneurs pioneering a product based on what technology is newly available.

Now we’re getting somewhere, but you’re still defining your audience by what they do rather than what problem they face. Let me push you harder.

“Tech entrepreneurs pioneering products based on newly available technology” describes a situation, not a reader with a specific pain point. And honestly? That could still be thousands of different people with wildly different challenges.

Here’s what’s missing:

What’s the actual timing problem? Someone building on new technology faces multiple timing dilemmas:

• Launch before the market understands the technology, or wait until adoption grows?
• Be first-to-market with a rough product, or let competitors validate while you perfect yours?
• Raise money early when the tech is novel, or wait for proof points?
• Build for early adopters or wait for mainstream readiness?

What’s the ONE timing decision that these tech pioneers struggle with most? The one where getting it wrong costs them their company, but getting it right gives them a massive advantage?

Give me the specific fork in the road where your reader is standing. . . .

The power of conversation

Blog posts are cool. I’ve written thousands of them here on Bernoff.com. But they just sit there. I knew I needed to do more.

A chatbot lets you engage in productive dialogue. I’ve tested it with some authors and they found it useful. So now, with the help of a new startup called Soqratic, I’m making it available to you — backed by the 4 million words of advice and two whole books I’ve written for authors. No, it’s not free — it costs money to code this and AI queries aren’t free. But it’s pretty damn cheap for a product that can answer almost any question a nonfiction author might have.

Go ahead. Click here to try it out.

Then tell me what you think.