Writing the Book Should Be Fun
Writing a self-help or how-to book is like having a conversation with the reader. If you have information to share or a message to convey you're going to want to deliver it in an easygoing manner and not appear distant or aloof. After all, if you bore the reader or make the book cumbersome to read, all the reader has to do is put the book down and walk away. This is not what publishers want nor will it result in achieving your objective to deliver the information or get your point across.
All self-help and how-to books are written either in the first or second person point of view. This makes it easier to adopt a conversational tone in the book. Keep in mind, as always, not to shift from one point of view to the other.
Now that you have reached the stage when the actual writing commences, kick off your shoes, relax, and settle in at your computer or with pencil in hand and begin a conversation. Like any real-life conversation, from time to time, you will want to address the reader directly. But when writing a book, since you obviously don't know the reader's name, call the reader “you,” which is common to this genre and helps define the second person point of view.
