Let me make it easy:
Write about your readers.
Not exact matches
No, the real reason to
write a book is because there is something you have to explore that you think
readers want to learn
about, not because you think putting «author» on your LinkedIn profile is smart.
Faithful
readers will recall that I've
written about three developing trends for the new year and beyond: self - aggregation, de-hospitalization, and (yesterday) the bet on RNA - based therapies.
If you want
readers to care
about your story, you need to give them a reason; for instance, may like to start off by explaining why you decided to
write the piece.
The key to keeping
readers interested is
writing about what they're interested in.
Since I
wrote about this two days ago, I've heard from a lot of
readers with questions
about the fine print.
When Scoble
wrote about the solo entrepreneur with the ugly website making millions of dollars a year, his
readers were in disbelief.
Many of the environmentalists who responded angrily to Steiner beseech
readers to, as the Minneapolis non-profit
wrote, «think
about «profits» a little more broadly» to include the job creation and environmental benefits that recycling brings.
Not only does it creates an urge within the
reader to read more
about what is
written, but it can also boost your brand and presence.
But whenever I
write about how success is often based on outworking other people — both in terms of effort and in terms of hours spent — I get indignant emails from
readers.
I don't
write as much
about the other two businesses these days, but fast - food has strangely proven to be a popular topic with
readers.
Getting
readers to fall in love with the brand you're
writing about may seem a formidable task.
Recently, when I
wrote about how email as we know it will become obsolete by 2020, several
readers took issue with the prediction, arguing that email might change but we will still rely on it as a primary form of digital communication.
With the continuing downtrend in oil prices, many
readers may be surprised that I am
writing about an energy stock.
Instead they spend their days eating fresh ceviche on the beaches of the Riveria Maya... hiking with howler monkeys in the Ecuadorian jungle... and sipping Sherry at outdoor cafés in the heart of Andalucía — living the dream they
write about and constantly searching out the best of what the world offers for our
readers.
When we first
wrote about this last year, many of our
readers mentioned that they have also been experiencing such a fall.
«I might lose whatever credibility I have with
readers if I suggested flat out that a book centered around the subject of oil,
written by an economist, was a page - turner, but I am willing to say with conviction that Why Your World Is
About To Get A Whole Lot Smaller, by former CIBC Chief Economist Jeff Rubin, is a fantastically compelling read.
Writing content that
readers will love isn't only
about what you
write, but how you
write it.
What's so great
about the book, and what makes it different from the countless other books and articles
written about the «Oracle of Omaha,» is that it offers
readers valuable insight into how Buffett actually thinks
about investments.
Ken, one of the fun things
about writing an article is that I almost always have no idea what sentence in a piece will capture a
reader's attention.
It's almost as if I cracked your wordpress password and
wrote this fake post
about myself in an attempt to steal the sophisticated
reader base of the Monevator!
Anyway, when I
wrote about it recently, some
readers wanted to know if they were still allowed to contribute to the fund, given the fund's press release on February 28th, 2013:
If you're a regular
reader of the HubSpot blog, what I'm
about to say next shouldn't shock you: Use a blog on your website to
write about your industry.
Many
readers wrote in
about their journeys since the recession.
Frequent
readers of this weekly know that we
write often
about credit.
I would love for you to
write a post for my more advanced
readers about this strategy and how it might play out when a market correction occurs.
In my experience, the phrase usually pops up when an author wants to
write about a topic just because he finds it interesting, but feels like
readers won't care
about the topic unless he can convince them it's somehow important.
•
Readers of C. S. Lewis will want to know
about the first, and as far as we know only, peer - reviewed journal dedicated to his
writing.
Start with Perpetua, throw in a part
about a book that takes pot shots at the GOP (an easy enough target), Refute what was just
written, add some questionable «
readers digest» history, then end back with Perpetua?
Then we
wrote this article, fulfilling the prophecy of a supposed RELEVANT
reader who tweeted: «Aaaand que RELEVANT with an article titled «You won't believe what Chris Pratt just said
about prayer!»
There's been a noticeable influx of
readers from forums like these, so I though I'd take some time today to talk
about the
writing and publishing process.
I read his post twice, and I wondered why he chose to focus in on a single word like «Sure,» without also telling his
readers what I
wrote about Mark's personality.
Suggestions to Christian
readers: When reading
about another faith, do not read books
written by Christians, read the ones
written by believers themselves.
Writes one
reader about yesterday's announcement that archeologists have found the oldest known image of the apostles Andrew and John in Rome:
In it, the
reader mentioned the fact that sometimes she felt insecure
about her decision to pursue a family life before a career, explaining how challenging it can be to find time to
write amidst the craziness of having young children at home.
Little did my
reader know that as she
wrote «compare and contrast» essays
about me in her head, I was
writing «compare and contrast» essays
about Anne Jackson in my head.
Responding to a piece I
wrote for the Washington Post
about my journey from young earth creationism to evolutionary creationism, Mohler told
readers that my «glib and superficial endorsement of evolution and its reconciliation with Christianity is all too common and all to irresponsible.»
Writing the Confessions
about a decade after the cataclysmic event that altered the rest of his long and productive life, Augustine gave his
readers a detailed account of his conversion — an event intimately intertwined with hearing and reading.
• «What Nostra Aetate failed to do was to tell the truth
about the essence of God's Grace and Mercy, the truth
about our Salvation,»
writes a
reader of our weblog First Thoughts, responding to something I'd
written about our Jewish brethren.
Readers are thus made to feel like witnesses to what actually happened, with access to the thoughts and motives both of the characters in the drama and of those who
wrote about them, the authors of the sources used to build an uncluttered reality.
During a period of study as the Area Coordinator for South America of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I decided to
write about Latin American Pentecostalism for
readers in the United States.
Seaver denies that Wallington can be regarded as a typical Puritan artisan (the fact that he
wrote so much was itself unusual), but he presents enough material in addition to that of Wallington — from Puritan sermons and other autobiographies — that the
reader is likely to come away feeling that he or she has learned something
about Puritans in general.
Robert L. Wilken, also familiar to our
readers, says, «Hans Urs von Balthasar is a thrilling writer and Edward Oakes has
written a thrilling book
about him....
When Dorothee Sölle
wrote in 1971 of the indivisible salvation of the whole world, she and her
readers assumed without reflection that the whole world is the world of human beings.1 But as the seventies progressed and the environmental crisis forced itself on public attention, more and more Christians became troubled
about the separation of humanity from the rest of nature.
Indeed, the epic is «very much
about its own
writing,» a
writing that at every moment threatens to turn into what it purports to condemn: «Milton must summon the devils into poetic being in order to warn a
reader... but he runs the risk of fascinating the
reader with that very poetic creation.»
But the only thing that each of us can and should do is what we each must do ultimately alone, if we have vocations to be writers: Go off and
write out of the very fullness of human experience
about the very fullness of human experience and hope to find and affect contemporary
readers and the greater world, and in the meantime leave the distracting and finally pointless diagnoses of who were the Catholic writers, and how much, and how well, how little, how importantly, to the critics and scholars.
Well, you know you have those of us who are regular
readers and would miss your
writing, but maybe you can think
about just posting when a topic really excites you in some way, and not feel obligated to
write otherwise.
Then everybody got together and
wrote a whole bunch of stories
about him... and centuries later, a Muslim convert got together with some of his homies and put them all into one book... kinda like
Readers» Digest.
Apropos of my remarks below, a
reader writes: It seems to me that you're taking his quote
about the politicization out of context, first of all.
As I continue to research and
write about the violence of God in the Old Testament, a
reader of my blog told me to read Girard.