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How To Connect With Your Readers

By on August 14, 2016
How To Connect With Your Readers - Writer's Life.org

How To Connect With Your Readers

Without being able to connect with your readers, your book cannot possibly make an impact. In some ways, writing is as simple as that. Whatever kind of writing you happen to be doing - it could be a book, a social media post, an article for a newspaper or magazine - without capturing your reader's attention, holding it, and provoking an emotional response from them - you cannot expect that piece of writing to be successful.

Readers, however, are a pretty tough crowd. They are overwhelmed with so much choice when it comes to reading that making your blog, your post, your book the one that stands out can be very challenging. The marketplace is tough; it’s highly competitive, and therefore if you want to connect with your readers, you must be cunning, determined, and above all have a plan!

Here are some easy ways to connect with your readers and grow your audience.

Propose something interesting

Readers want to be challenged; they want to hear points of view they have not yet considered, they want to go ‘ohhhh I never thought of that.’ If you simply regurgitate old material or refuse to take a stand, then your voice will just get lost in the crowd.

Make them wonder

A curious reader is an engaged reader. If you can get them to the point where they can’t help but scroll down, turn the page, buy the book, because they simply HAVE to know what happens next, then you certainly have them hooked.

Don’t take too long to make your point

Whether it’s a fascinating article or a thrilling novel, you don’t want to take too much time before you throw your readers right into the action. If you spend too long on your introduction, dilly dallying around the central point or you explain your characters and their world in painful and exacting detail before anything happens in your story, readers are going to get bored before they find out what your piece is about.

Don’t be afraid to get emotional

Readers are humans too! Be vulnerable in your writing and they will respond, share something personal, emotional, or intimate, and they’ll react. Be heartfelt and sincere and they will acknowledge that. People connect with people, if your readers can’t feel the human being there, your writing will leave them cold.

Be your weird self

No one likes someone who tries too hard, and everyone loves a weirdo. You need to let some of your idiosyncrasies shine through - show your unique and beautiful self to the world and people will respond. Everyone has their little quirks, and most of the time we like to keep them buried safe away where no one can examine and ridicule them. If your characters reveal them in your stories people will empathise, if your articles are unconventional or off-beat people will engage with them more.

Readers are smart so make sure you treat them that way.

Don’t patronise your reader, and don’t feel you have to explain everything to them. Trusting in your reader is so important, if you don’t you’ll end up ruining your work in a bid to ensure they understand it.

Connecting with your readers isn’t easy, and you have to constantly make an effort to increase your audience engagement. But if you write with your reader in mind, and always try to reach out to them and connect with them in some way, they are far more likely to lend you their ears and pick your work to read over something else.

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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