Knowing who you are writing for is just as important as knowing what you are writing about. Profound, I know but you’d be surprised how many proposals I get where the potential author has not taken the time to really define and understand who will be reading his/her book.
When defining your target audience, consider these points:
- Your audience is probably not as broad as you think. Avoid statements like “all programmers,” or the simple “web developers.”
- Tell me what your audience already knows, or what prerequisite knowledge must they have before they tackle your subject.
- Tell me what your audience wants to do, or how they will benefit from your book.
- If possible, break the audience down into at least 2 camps – the primary audience, and secondary audience and what each will get from your work.
For example:
Professional XNA Game Programming is for readers who want to use their existing programming skills to create games for the Xbox 360 and Windows platforms. It is intended for readers with previous experience with C# or a similar .NET language, although no game programming experience is required. Readers with experience using DirectX will find that it proves useful in tackling the 3D portions of the book, although it is not required.
(Photo credit: jambe)
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