Always Consider Your Audience

Whether writing or speaking, always consider your audience. I'm so glad I did.

Publishing a book is so much more than writing words on a page. We must consider our audience. In formatting Praise the Lord and Pass the Chemo: A Hopeful Response to a Hard Reality, I pictured my audience. Writing for cancer patients, I realized some of them would be sick, possibly nauseated, very tired, unable to concentrate. I told my publisher this book needs to be easy to read, larger print, double spaced. A cancer patient myself I realized, cancer treatment is hard, and a cancer patient doesn't need a book that is hard to read.  

When the publisher and I settled on this size and font, I was pleased.

When this five-star review appeared on Amazon, I knew we had made the right decision.

5.0 out of 5 stars

Great First Book to read after radiation

January 29, 2019

Format: Paperback

I really appreciated the lyrics of old hymns. This book has larger print, wider spaces between the lines, 

reads in short stories like a devotional, and has clear headings. Also, each chapter follows a pattern; all of which 

I found helpful when reading what so difficult for me after brain radiation. It was one of the first books after a giant

 print Bible that i picked up when I began to attempt reading again. I kept a pen in it as a bookmark. 

So many quotable, encouraging lines! Very hopeful! So positive.

Always consider your audience. I purchased a devotional book for my early elementary age granddaughter. When the book arrived from Amazon, I was was not happy to open and find tiny, single-spaced print in long paragraphs. There was no way my learning-to-read grandgirl would enjoy the treasures in the words thoughtfully written but thoughtlessly formatted.

When speaking, also consider your audience. Preparing to speak at a retreat I asked the event coordinator the make-up of the audience. "Mostly young moms," she replied. A week before the event I felt the Holy Spirit nudging me to call the event planner again. I'm glad I did. In the weeks of registration a group of 30 single women had decided to attend the retreat. Wow! I was thankful to have a week to tweak my talk geared to young moms to now ministering to the needs of all women.

Considering our audience also works for me when writing. I picture the faces, the hurts, the needs of those I am writing for and the words come easier from my heart to the page.

God has given us voices and pens that are influencing the world. Our ministries are not about us, but about those listening to us. May we do all for the glory of God.

"And whatever you do, 

whether in word or deed, 

do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus,

 giving thanks to God the Father through Him."

Colossians 3:17

Be a Splash of Serenity in someone's life today,

Edit, Edit, Edit, and Then Edit Some More

If four eyes are better than two, then twenty eyes are near perfection. Except there is no perfect book. Some reader, somewhere, will find the misspelled word.

Ten people blessed me and blessed cancer patients when they volunteered to read my book searching for typos, stupid errors, and grave mistakes. I read my book over and over and over. No book is perfect, but every book can be improved. We owe ourselves and we owe our readers the time and the hard work of editing. Our goal is to produce the cleanest and clearest copy possible. Thank you for all who helped me achieve that goal.

Dianne Barker, friend and author of eight books, was my books eleventh read. Wow! She poured her heart and her expertise into my book. When she sent her edits, I felt like I was attending a college writing course, as she not only sent suggestions, she told me why.

If you would like to contact Dianne to edit your manuscript, I give the highest recommendation.

www.diannebarker.com

e-mail: diannebarker@embarqmail.com

Here's a sample of Dianne's work:

I wrote: "Too stunned to react, I sat silent knowing that in a moment of a test result life had changed forever."

Dianne suggested: "Too stunned to react, I sat silent. In a moment, a test result had changed life forever."

Dianne packed power into those words, yet didn't change my voice. My appreciation of her is immense.

Editing is tough, yet necessary. Don't sell your book short (literally).

 Edit, Edit, Edit, and Then Edit Again.

Some tips for surviving the editing process:

1. Let go of your pride. 

The editor has one goal: to make your book better. Be happy, not devastated or embarrassed when the editor changes the sentence you spent three hours perfecting. The book belongs to you. You choose whether to accept or reject each edit.

2. Keep your voice.

"Write the way you speak." Thelma Wells said at an Advanced Writers and Speakers Conference. So, hold on to your voice. An editor may change your "do not" to "don't" to make the sentence more conversational, but if you say "do not" and rarely say "don't," then not a good idea to change.

3. No two readers or editors think the same.

One editor said, "You don't like commas do you?" She filled the manuscript with perfectly placed commas to enhance the readability of my book. I sent the comma-laden script off to another editor who removed most of them. When in an English-usage quandary, check your heart, and discern which read makes more sense to you. Both of these editors are award-winning authors. They know the punctuation business. I trust them both. But, they are human so they think differently.

One reader loves a paragraph. Another says to get rid of the beloved words. Again, use your discernment.

4. An editor does more than find typos. 

They make your work shine. Shine for Jesus, dear author, shine!

Have a Splashes of Serenity Kind of a Day!