NARROW YOUR CONTENT AND
WOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Too much material? Here's how
to effectively narrow down your copy points and wow your target
audience.
I'm starting a new e-book, and
I am swimming in material. I have three small e-books and two
or three teleclasses all containing material that is relevant.
So, I have to decide what is going to be different about this
e-book, what new ideas and concepts I have discovered since
I wrote some of that material several years ago, and what points
do I want to make in this e-book.
That last point is crucial.
Years ago when I was teaching
in the Education Ministry of my church, our teachers material
would come with the statement "Students Leave Class With
An Understanding of…." That is the most valuable question
I can ask as I begin any project. What exactly do I want my
readers/students to learn? What exactly do I want them to experience?
What shifts in consciousness am I hoping for? What beliefs do
I want to have them reconsider and reframe?
So out of the myriad of details,
stories and ideas you have swirling around in your awareness
about the subject, how do you select what needs to be said?
As a person with knowledge of
marketing I would say, "What does your target market need
to know."
As an intuitive writer who writes
from her heart to learn and to share that knowledge with others,
I say, "Go within." Ask your intuition and your inner
guidance to select the points that have been the most valuable
to you. What knowledge about the subject has changed your life?
What created in you an important shift in concourses?
Still you will have to sort
and narrow it down. What three to five points do you want to
make in this e-book? And to make these points, what foundational
information do you have to provide the reader?
Determine the knowledge base
of the reader you wish to attract and act as if you know only
as much as they do and must have it explained to you. Then explain
it.
You will probably find you have
more than one book. Allow that to be all right. Maybe you are
writing a series.
I think writing starts with
a passion, a need to share, a powerful desire to explore and
uncover, to illustrate and share what you have discovered with
others.
Once you have gone within to
find what you are most passionate about sharing, find out who
needs to know that. Locate your target audience, get specific
about what they need to hear, what they need to experience,
what you are writing will do for them.
"Readers leave with an
understanding…" An understanding, not a list, not
a few illustrations, but a real understanding, enough information
to make a change in their life.
Let your passion show, love
your audience, and get excited about cheering them on to a new
realization or an affirmation of a current one. Do your best,
bless it and let it go. It will fly straight to the hearts it
needs to touch.
© 2006 Cara Lumen
