Many writers fall into a “topic trap” when they pay more attention to the topic of the book than the potential reader of the book. The topic trap mindset doesn’t ask why any reader would care enough about the topic of the book to buy it and read it.

In fact, a book is an interactive medium. You might not think so when you spend so many hours working by yourself to write it, facing the blank page or the empty screen.

Your objective, as you write your book, is to keep your potential reader involved every step of the way. You can easily lose sight of this objective while you are working alone on your book. The more you can remind yourself that your ultimate objective is to persuade potential readers to buy and read your book, the better your book will be.

The first question a writer asks about writing a book depends on whether the writer is thinking about the book from the persuasive writing mindset or the topic trap mindset. With the topic trap mindset, writers begin with the question: What is the book about? With a persuasive writing mindset, writers begin with a different question: Who would want to read this book? An even more important question to ask is: Who would actually pay to read this book?

Consider what happens when your book is published and available in the bookstores. Typically, a bookstore browser will look at a book for a few seconds before deciding whether or not to buy it. This means that you have only a few seconds to persuade the book browser to buy your book.

Writers who write from the persuasive writing perspective understand the difference between offering information and offering a solution to a problem. Especially in the “Information Age,” when most people are overloaded with information, it is critical to understand that book buyers are not really looking for more information. They are looking for solutions to problems.

The tried-and-true way to make sure that your book solves a problem for your readers is to write the book with a clear thesis that identifies and solves a problem for a particular type of reader.

The most basic requirement of writing to persuade is that your book solves the reader’s problem.

This means that a persuasive writing mindset is also a strategy that will increase your book sales. The more you can persuade a potential reader that your book is the solution to a problem the reader wants to solve, the more likely the reader will buy and read your book.

Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD. http://writetopersuade.com/whats-your-point/.If you need help understanding the difference between the “topic trap” and writing a book with a thesis, I have a persuasive writing resource for you. My ebook, What’s Your Point? A Writer’s Guide To The Simple Idea Behind A Great Book provides a simple and clear guide to identifying your problem-solving thesis, which will help you sell more books.

For you to write your thesis, you must position yourself as an expert. This is a change in self-identity. You no longer see yourself as a student, but as someone who has earned the right to position yourself as an expert in your field.

For most of us, our educational experiences don’t prepare us to make this psychological shift. How often did anyone regard you as an expert on anything in your student years?

Throughout our lifetimes, most of us experienced educational processes that taught us the “right” answers. Who decided the right answers? They were the real experts, who wrote the books we read. They graded our exams and papers. They taught us that we were not experts, but were supposed to learn the answers provided to us by the real experts.

It is entirely possible that you can reach the point of writing a dissertation without ever writing an original word about anything in your field of study. Teachers tend not to shower good grades upon original thinkers. Good grades are most often given to those who supply the predetermined “right” answers.

If your educational experience was typical of most of us, you learned how to write essays and term papers. You learned to demonstrate that you had learned your lessons and could provide the right answers. In all of this, you were probably never taught how to write a thesis.

The typical term paper usually consists of gathering information on a topic. Your goal is not to provide original information, but to organize existing information provided by experts in your field.

What about essays? You can express your opinions on a topic in an essay, but an opinion is not the same as a thesis.

You can go through high school and college and never be required to make an original contribution to your field. Yet, this is what you must do when you write a thesis. This is one of the primary reasons the transition from essays and term papers to theses and dissertations is so difficult.

What happens when you come to the point of writing a dissertation? You must now take your place among the experts in your field. Now it is your turn to ask new questions and provide new answers. After a lifetime of learning the right answers, this is a dramatically new stage of your educational process.

The secret of success behind a successful dissertation is that you become the expert. Your success lies in your ability to ask new questions. Your success is no longer measured by your ability to learn the right answers. You now become the one who provides the answers to your questions.

It doesn’t matter if your thesis becomes a landmark dissertation in your field. It doesn’t matter if your thesis is just a baby step forward. The critical issue is that you must claim that you are an expert in your field, by offering an original perspective. If you don’t offer any original answers, you are not writing a thesis.

A dissertation is a claim to the world that you are now an expert in your field. You are no longer simply a student. This is the expert’s secret behind a successful dissertation.

Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD. http://www.WriteToPersuade.com. Nothing is more important to writing a dissertation than a clear thesis. If you need help with your dissertation writing, I have a persuasive writing resource for you. My ebook, What’s Your Point? gives clear methods to clarify your thesis and make your point.

The question I asked was: “What do I need to know to write and finish my dissertation?” I knew that he was a street-smart scholar, in addition to being a prolific author, outstanding teacher, and brilliant scholar. I knew that he would have practical wisdom for me.

I will never forget his answer: “By the time people reach the point of writing a doctoral dissertation, they are smart enough, they know enough, and they work hard enough to finish. But everything they hear is: ‘You aren’t smart enough, you don’t know enough, you don’t work hard enough.’ And so they never finish because they think they can never do enough.”

After that brief conversation, I wrote on a 3×5 yellow index card: “What Is Enough?” I put that card on the wall in front of me, where I could see it any time I sat down to work on my dissertation.

I think that this simple question: “What Is Enough?” is the single most important reason why I was able to go from ABD to Ph.D.

As I worked on my dissertation, the question: “What Is Enough?” kept me on course. Whenever I realized that I had just spent two hours on some interesting bit of information, the question reminded me of my purpose. My purpose was to complete the dissertation, defend the dissertation, and finish my degree. When I asked the question I could evaluate whether the particular topic I was working on was relevant to my purpose. Sometimes it was. Sometimes it wasn’t. But simply asking the question reminded me that I was working toward a specific goal.

Scholars are driven by the word “more.” “More” is the enemy of completion. There is always more to know. One more article to read. One more book. One more expert to consult. The question: “What Is Enough?” cuts through this relentless quest after “more” to focus on the single task at hand.

Since I completed my own dissertation, I have offered this question to other scholars, and I now offer it to you. The question will keep you on track to finish your dissertation. It is especially valuable whenever you feel overwhelmed, focused, and off-track. If you wonder if you will ever be able to finish, ask yourself: “What Is Enough?” to finish.

When you are writing a doctoral dissertation, “What Is Enough?” means that you write a clear argument to prove a clear thesis. You don’t have to write everything you know on a topic. “Enough” means that you write enough to prove your case. You don’t have to write more than “enough.”

By Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.

Nothing is more important to dissertation writing than a clear thesis. If you are unsure about your thesis, here’s a persuasive writing guide for you. My ebook, What’s Your Point? gives simple steps to get to your point.

• The first type is private writing. You write for yourself, for your own reasons.

This type of writing can be a journal, a letter to yourself, or anything else that you write just for yourself.

Private writing is not necessarily persuasive writing, unless you are writing to persuade yourself about some course of action.

• The second type of writing occurs when you write with the intention that someone else will read it. It can be as simple as a letter or as complex as a book or dissertation.

This type of writing is always intended to persuade in some way.

This blog is about writing to persuade, whether you are writing a love letter, a dissertation, or the non-fiction book you intend to get you on the New York Times bestseller list.

My goal is to provide simple, practical, immediately usable information about how to write to persuade.

Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D.