Last time I talked about the three deadly shortcuts that authors take on the journey to writing their books. I want you to avoid those mistakes, so I’m going to dive into the first shortcut today:

Not connecting on a personal level with your readers.

You’re writing a book so you can help people, right? You are teaching your system, philosophy or program aimed at making a difference in people’s lives and businesses. But you are also telling a compelling story from your unique perspective and experience, so it helps your readers to get to know you.

There are a few ways I’ve seen writers avoid having to connect in the way that gives readers what they need:

• Preach: Some writers just tell you the way it is, without including the background on how they got there. This is the equivalent to going to a dull lecture by a person you’ve never heard of.
• Fictionalize: I’ve seen this a lot in business and leadership books. An author will conglomerate their experiences and then make up a fictional business and fictional characters to act out the story. This approach gets the point across, but as a reader, it’s hard for me to see myself in the situation. When your content is hard to connect to, you leave your readers hanging – wanting and needing more.
• Provide too little substance: I recently read a book by a well-respected business coach and media personality. The book was purely memoir, going into deep detail about her childhood, family, and personal relationships. Her book was an enjoyable read from a personal perspective, At the very end she included a  few pages about what it takes to begin your own transformation. But I was disappointed because I wanted to learn more about how her story affected how she grew her business success.

So – what’s a good balance? I have the good fortune to know (and coach) some authors who get this right. You can check out their books here.

Part of becoming an author is finding that balance. The best way to find it is to always keep your reader at the top of your mind. Let the needs of your readers will guide you. (As your coach, you’ll hear this from me a lot!)

Another great way to to find your balance and get some guidance is to work on your book together with others who are doing the same.

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Ready for Summer School? Unleash Your Inner Author Mastermind 16-week workshop is starting again in June!  
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Colorado folks – I’ll be teaching an hour-long workshop: “Discover The Power of Your Unique Story: how to lead, succeed, and stand out in a copycat world” at Women of Denver on Thursday, June 2nd at noon. I would absolutely love for you to come! It’s free for first-time guests and it’s a terrific group of people (women and men are welcome). Get the details here.

Happy writing!