This is day three of my “Authorship is a Business” blog series. Today I want you to concentrate on your audience. In fact, I want you to consider your audience throughout the entire writing, publishing and book promotion process.
By now you should have some understanding of how important it is that you identify your audience early on. That is, the primary target audience for your book. You’ll want to know, what books do they read and why? What periodicals (magazines, enewsletters, etc.) do they read? Where do they buy books? What enticements cause them to buy certain books? Where do they congregate?
This information is valuable when it comes to promoting your book. But it is also important to keep your readers in mind while you’re writing the book so that you are writing the right book for the right audience.
For a how-to, self-help or informational book, be mindful that you include all of the steps needed to follow any instructions. If your writing doesn’t have the clarity needed for an instructional type book, get help with this. If you’re not sure, ask others to read the book and point out any confusing passages.
Some books are more difficult to organize than others—history and reference books, for example. Some people have trouble organizing their memoirs. It may take a few false starts before the sections of the book fall into place. When organization is crucial, study similar books to find out what works and what doesn’t for your particular audience. Consider, are you writing or compiling this book for history buffs, tourists to your hometown, residents who are interested in the history or genealogists? Let your primary audience determine your book’s focus.
Keep your audience in mind as you write your novel so that the end result is coherent, consistent easy to follow and, possibly, fun to read. Stay in your own little world—write what you want without consideration for your readers—and you may end up with a book that is rejected by your audience. One way to make sure you are staying on track is to think about your readers as you write. This should keep you from using obscure words, writing cumbersome sentences, assuming that the reader knows your intention without an explanation, inconsistency in your story and so forth. And don’t forget to consider the entertainment value of your story.
Write what you want, the way you want to write it, never giving a thought to your audience and you could end up with a book that only you love.
Many new authors don’t give their audience much thought until they have a book to sell. They go through the writing process alone, publish the book quickly and then put it up for sale. It isn’t until much later that an author might realize his scattershot method of promotion isn’t working. He isn’t reaching his true audience because he hasn’t even defined them. Perhaps she wrote a straight memoir not knowing that a how-to aspect might have made it more appealing to a wider audience. Maybe he wrote a book for a particular audience—a bulldozer book (one designed to change minds). And his intended audience isn’t interested.
If you are just starting the process of writing a book, identify your audience early on. Don’t assume an audience—get out there and do a serious study to discover what segment of the population is truly interested in your topic or genre.
If you have published a book and it isn’t doing well in the marketplace, consider that maybe you are marketing to the wrong audience. Perhaps I can help. Order my ebook, The Author’s Repair Kit, Heal Your Publishing Mistakes and Breathe New Life Into Your Book. http://www.matilijapress.com/author_repairkit.html
Tune in tomorrow and learn more about how to study the publishing industry—an absolute must for any serious author who hopes to sell more than a dozen or so books.