The question of "who is your audience" is something that I think is in the back of my mind with each article I write but the idea was driven home in a class I was taking from Mary Ann Donovan at Writers & Books. It was a business writing class, but the basics remain the same. You need to know who you are writing for before you can craft a compelling piece of work whether an article or a book.
Once you've made the determination that you are going to write that book, take a step back and figure out who your audience is. A publisher -- whether you go the self published or traditional publisher route -- will want to know that. Publishers want to make sure your book is as successful as it can be and if you don't know your own audience (market) the publisher's hands could be tied in helping you get the word out about your book.
What need will your book fill for the reader? What questions will you be answering for them as they thumb through the pages in your book? What is your title? Whether your title is changed in the final process isn't really the question here, the question is, what title calls to you? Write it down. Heck, go into your computer and make a mock-up of your bookcover. What color will the cover be? What does the font look like? Figure it out, hang it up, and be inspired everytime you look at it!
When you compiled your research and decided what information was going to into each chapter, look and see if there is a question that can be raised (and answered) within each chapter.
Can your chapters have a "call to action" in each one? Could you raise a question that would leave the reader thinking about the words he or she has just read? Could there be an exercise at the end of each chapter?
Remember, who is your audience? What kind of questions/exercises would be relevant? Perhaps, your audience just wants the facts and exercises aren't applicable, in that case, leave them out. After all, you know your audience and what they want, don't you?
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