Writing for Busy Readers

Communicate More Effectively in the Real World

By: Todd Rogers, Jessica Lasky-Fink

Narrated by: Todd Rogers

Writing well is for school. Writing effectively is for life.

Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink offer the most valuable practical writing advice today. Building on their own research in behavioral science, they outline cognitive facts about how people actually read and distill them into six principles that will transform the power of your writing:

• Less is more
• Make reading easy
• Design for easy navigation
• Use enough formatting, but no more
• Tell readers why they should care
• Make responding easy

Including many real-world examples, a checklist and other tools, this guide will make you a more successful and productive communicator. Rogers and Lasky-Fink bring Strunk and White’s core ideas into the twenty-first century’s attention marketplace.

When the influential guides to writing prose were written, the internet hadn’t been invented. Now, the average American adult is inundated with digital messages each day. With all this correspondence, capturing a busy reader’s attention is more challenging than ever. This is how to do it.

* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF with examples and tips from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

**A Next Big Idea Club must-read title for September 2023**

“Genius! A succinct, sage guide to writing effectively—and the only one I know of that is grounded in evidence of what really works.”—Angela Duckworth, University of Pennsylvania, Founder and CEO of Character Lab, author of Grit

“It’s Strunk & White for the internet age.”—Publishers Weekly

“This book won’t just make you a better writer—it will turn you into a more effective communicator. WRITING FOR BUSY READERS is a surprisingly captivating guide to conjuring words that captivate people. Move over, AI: this is the ultimate guide to sharpen every meaningful message you craft.”—Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and Hidden Potential, and host of the TED podcast Re:Thinking

Excellent practical tips & an enjoyable listen

This book 1) establishes that the writer is responsible for writing clearly and concisely so our message gets through and 2) gives us the necessary tools to achieve effective writing.

It explains the reasons and techniques for the six principles (listed in the Publisher's Summary), which are practical, well-organized, and ready to be used.

The book is excellent for a casual listen when commuting or chilling, and its recommended tools are readily applicable. If you are familiar with neurological studies on attention span, feel free to skip chapter one on the necessity for effective writing.

If you like this book and want more like that, "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White is a must for all writers (though probably better in a paper book than an audiobook); for research writing, check out "They Say / I Say, The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing" by Gerald Graff & Cathy Birkenstein; for inspiration to write, check out "The View from The Cheap Seats" by Neil Gaiman (also ready by the author, highly recommended).

Must-read for writers and communicators

Writing for Busy Readers transformed the way I view writing and gave me practical strategies to implement right away. I now use the six principles in my job in education and for my author newsletters. I highly recommend this book for educators and writers. It will give you a new lense for your work. I've already purchased two additional copies for colleagues. Well done, Rogers and Lasky-Fink, and thanks for this incredible resource.

Takes a subjective topic and provides statistics alongside advice.

I think the ways they handled the topics and issues in this book are second to none.

Cuts right to the heart of effective writing

This book is absolutely brilliant in its ability to distill simple lessons from complex human tasks

Well organized & appropriately, concise

A well written and concise set of rules for communicating in today’s busy environment. Appropriate for everyone. 15 word minimum 15 word minimum 15 word minimum 

Magnificent!

The book which speaks for itself - it's written for busy people who value clear, easily understandable, well structured text.

A “Must Listen” + game changer

Rogers and Laskey-Finke give practical and research-backed strategies to communicate more effectively in writing. Rogers is the audiobook narrator and he is easy to listen to. Feels like chatting with a longtime friend. Applying these principles has already improved my performance at work, and colleagues have noticed/commented on the change.

Required reading for writing for readers

This is a book our company has been wishing into existence for the last several years. So glad we didn’t have to write it ourselves!

Common Sense…repeated repeatedly.

The irony of the fact that this book was far too long for the messages delivered is not lost on me. I don’t disagree with the messages the authors were getting across but it was a lot of common sense and probably could have been related at a tenth of the length.