Many things restrain people from actualising their desire to write or sustaining it after they start. One of those things is the fear that no one would read what they write. Now, I’m not speculating. People who suddenly stopped writing have said this to me on various occasions. And I can’t count the number of people who could not write the book they should have written because they were worried that no one would read. It’s impossible to invalidate such a fear, but then again, they’ll never discover how far their words could have traveled if they never wrote them, would they?

You Are Not Alone

If no other person can answer that question, I can. I didn’t know whether anyone would read the first piece I wrote or not until I did, and I got a couple of responses in my email. You can say I got some sort of early validation since I got readers’ reactions to the first essay I put in the public space, and you’ll be right. But I would never have known that if I didn’t write that piece. More importantly, however, the fact that someone read the first piece offered no guarantee that subsequent one would get any attention. And that was exactly what happened! The next set of articles I wrote didn’t get noticed, but of course, I wasn’t discouraged. I kept at it until I started getting recognition in the most shocking of places.

A couple of years back, I was attending the graduation of a friend in the United Kingdom. I was in conversation with some other friends when a gentleman walked up to me and asked, “Good afternoon, sir, are you Mr Niran Adedokun?” I hesitated for a moment, and when I finally answered in the affirmative, he screamed and held me in a tight embrace. I was lost for words because at that stage, I didn’t know where the familiarity came from. When he finally let me go, he explained he was a regular reader of my articles in The PUNCHand how happy he was to have met me. He went on to explain what he thought my writing represented. I was, of course, elated!

But an even more gratifying incident happened not too long after that. I was with a friend who is a far more accomplished writer. We were sitting at a restaurant waiting for our order when someone who had walked past us a few seconds earlier stopped abruptly, turned to look at us and then walked back.

“Good afternoon, please, are you Niran Adedokun?” He asked. While I looked on in shock, my friend graciously told the stranger that I was indeed the person he thought I was. He immediately launched into a long song of praise, which still makes me smile every time I remember. I mean, I haven’t had many of those commendations, but the few occasions someone had stopped me on the road or sent an email, a tweet, or something to commend my little contribution to public discourse, made me realise that someone, somewhere is paying attention to what you write because it makes sense to them.

What You Must Do

You must, however, do your own bit. This means you should define your target reader. Ensure that your target reader is someone in a specific situation. In this regard, loose definitions such as demographic labels like men aged 30 ‒ 40, or young professionals, do not adequately describe your target audience.

I’ll recommend three questions you must answer while trying to define your target audience. The questions are:

i. What problem is this reader trying to solve?

ii. What do they already know, and what don’t they know yet?

iii. What change do they hope this book (or whatever you are writing) will help them achieve?

So, rather than get crippled by fears about whether someone will read your article, book or any other thing you have written, I suggest that you pay attention to defining your target audience from the outset.

The truth is that many unfinished manuscripts get abandoned because the writer did not see the target reader as the compass for their book, and so, they lost direction. I suggest that every writer should find their target reader early and write to them consistently. Whenever doubts or discouragements creep in, as it always happens, return to your target reader and find out what would serve their best interest at that stage. The answer you get is what will keep you writing. And it is what wins the loyalty of your readers. “I’m telling you this because I also face these hurdles. But I still find a way to get the work done. I’m rooting for you to do the same.

And if you need someone to share your struggles with, just reply to this email. I look forward to walking the path with you.

 Have a great week ahead.

You can buy my book, Every Journalist Should Write a Book, here.

Niran Adedokun,

Writer | Communications Strategist | Book Strategist | Author of Every Journalist Should Write a Book