Crafting Connections: How To Consider Your Readers

Unveiling The Reader Connection Blueprint: A Tool to Connect Your Writing and Audience

There’s an ongoing discussion in writing circles that asks one of our most existential questions: Am I writing for me? Or am I writing for readers?

But I don’t think this is an and/or proposition.

Because the reality is: both writers and readers exist in the exchange of published writing.

As writers, I think one of the best things we can do is cultivate an inner sturdiness around our writing, our voice and our perspectives. But once our drafts feel final—and our voice feels ready (enough)—there’s more work to be done. 

How do we consider the other half of the published writing exchange? How do we know if we’ve invited readers into a piece of writing and honored their time and attention? 

In order to answer these questions and to make our editing process more robust and effective, I’ve learned to intentionally take inventory around what my readers may need from me. Giving readers attention as an afterthought doesn’t work. Because just as you are growing as a writer, readers are growing, too. How you relate to one another will necessarily evolve.

For the last 10 years I’ve been tracking an evolving understanding of my ideal readers, thanks to something known as a marketing persona. And in 2015 (when I was working with self-published authors) I re-envisioned this classic marketing tool for my one-on-one work with clients and called it the “Reader Persona.” 

And today I’m sharing an updated template with you that comes nestled among a helpful, step-by-step guide so you can start the work of understanding your ideal readers on your own. 

This new digital guide is called The Reader Connection Blueprint and includes:

1. Eight specific areas of a reader’s life to contemplate; 

2. Step by step questions to consider; 

3. A template to fill in; and

4. Ideas for how to apply this knowledge in service of your writing.

This tool is ideal for writers who may:

• Already have a growing body of writing. (Let’s say 20 to 30 published essays, either on their own website or elsewhere online.) 

• Feel stuck in making decisions around marketing or packaging their work. (The Reader Persona is a North Star for me!)

• Want to intentionally move from a private writing practice into a public-facing one.

This tool was included in paid memberships until July 1 and is now only available here

The Reader Connection Blueprint helped launch a new season in my work, and I wanted to share it as a way to say thank you (seriously, genuinely, from my heart: THANK YOU!!) to all the wonderful readers here at The Editing Spectrum who have changed my writing and editing life. 

Now the guide has found its new home over in my Resources library on my website.

I answered your questions in a discussion thread

On June 5, I opened a discussion thread to explore to all paid readers to answer their questions about The Reader Connection Blueprint! I love a casual come-and-go Q&A format, and I’ll be doing more of these, especially around these in-depth pieces in the future.