#finding readers

[topazadine]

Reading is a cognitive process, which means our preferred books also appeal to our cognitive style. Learn how different phases of life are interested in different themes - and how to bring these front and center in your blurbs and othe rmarketing.

Finding Your Selfpub Book's Audience Through Developmental Psychology

[selfpublishingnews]

6 Tips for Finding Your Book's Audience

Before you can do any book marketing, you have to know your book's audience. Get tips on how to find and attract your book's audience.

From the useful and interesting blog at Ingram Spark.

When some authors begin the writing process, they do so with their target audience in mind and a marketing plan in place. This allows them to focus on creating and promoting the right content. Even before you begin writing, you should first be aware of what you are trying to accomplish by writing. You should also know what message you are trying to promote, who the message is for, and how the reader will benefit from reading your book. If your goal is to attract as many readers as possible in order to sell your book, here are six tips to help.

1. Who is Your Most Likely Book Audience?

Think about who would be interested in the content of your book. Visualize who they are, and what they look like. Your author brand such as your book cover, writing style, font size, title metadata, and other components will help dictate who your audience is by attracting certain people, so you should use these elements to define who your primary audience will be. When your audience feels as if you are speaking to them, you are more likely to convert them into customers.

2. Expand Your Target Audience

It’s also important to consider secondary markets. Secondary markets are those that are not the most obvious, but who would also be interested in your book. For example, a children’s book written to help kids manage anger would have a primary audience of children, and a secondary audience of parents, educators, therapists, or others working with children. As tempting as it might be to think the parent would be your primary book audience (children don't usually buy their own books), avoid overthinking this process and focus in on who will be reading the book.

Try to come up with at least five markets for your book—a primary market and four secondary markets. To help you discover other secondary markets, you can start in reverse with a broad audience and then narrow it down.

3. Identify Books That are Similar to Yours

Take the time to research other books that would be in the same category, genre, or niche. Search for ‘established’ and ‘top-selling’ books within the category and make a list of the titles and authors. Once you recognize who your competition is, it may be easier for you to pinpoint your potential readers because chances are, you share the same target audience.

4. Look at Social Media

Now that you have identified the established and top-selling books within your genre, look at who is following them on social media. Don’t be surprised how much information can be gained by looking at the interactions and posts. Keep an eye out for the demographics, trends, and other habits that might not be obvious, but can provide a tremendous amount of useful information.

Another strategy for social media is to connect with groups and online communities that have shared interests. Run a search on Facebook for groups who are interested in books similar to yours. Look for followers for your book’s genre on Twitter by searching for tweets that contain related hashtags. Carve out some time each day to work on these strategies.

5. Find Other Channels

A few simple Google searches will direct you to online communities, blogs, and networks where your target audience is already engaging in information sharing and promotion activities. Look for blogs that are within your genre. Look at the author websites of the established and top-selling book authors to see what their articles are about and who is commenting. Engage in guest posting and guest hosting activities to gain exposure to other audiences.

6. Ask for Help

If you’re having trouble identifying your target audience, ask other authors or industry professionals for help. Most authors would love to help a fellow author identify their target audiences and share knowledge. Make sure you ‘pay it forward’ when an indie author is looking for guidance from you. This keeps the book industry thriving.

Once you find your target audience, the focus shifts to building a following. There are a couple of ways to do this. First start with creating and sharing well thought-out content appropriate for your audience. Figure out the right times and platforms to post the content. Use software to automate and track your post schedule. Be generous with your time and thoughtful promoting others. Promote your message and book no more than 20% of the time. The other 80% should consist of promoting others along with tips, quotes, and content relevant to your message.

Once you’re posting consistently, reach out and follow others aligned within your target audience. With more activity on your social media platforms you should have more success with others following you back. Connect with like-minded people and promote each other. Go beyond just following or liking their profiles. Retweet or repost relevant content and connect with their followers as well.

Find groups, organizations, and associations to help you be successful. You never know who will help you reach the next level of success.

[masterkirby]

how to, as a cultural magazine, get more in touch with readers? But also quite low-effort and low-budget since the magazine is mostly a labor of love type of project

ask box? different platforms, not just boomerbook

workshops?

conference-type things?

[kblackship]

Where are the Romance Lovers?

Do you love the romance genre? Are you a fan of spicy, steamy romance books? Have you ever struggled to find the right book to fit your current reading mood? Do you love all romance subgenres and flit from one to another like a butterfly? If this is you, then welcome! You’ve found the perfect reading community. If you don’t know me, then let’s start with introductions. I’m Kirsten S. Blacketer,…

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[rozmorris]

What do we most want as writers?

What do we most want as writers?

I recently asked an artist what his dream job would be. He then bounced the question back to me. ‘What would your dream be as a writer? What would you wish for? What would your dream writing job be?’ Let me think. Is Succession hiring? Seriously, the writing I most want to do is my own books. I’m always fighting for the time to work on them, fitting them around other gigs and commissions. And,…

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[agwitow]

Hi! Im a very new writer, and I was just wondering how you got people to read your stories? I’ve finished my first chapter to my book and posted it everywhere I could think of. I understand it takes time but just looking for pointers to get my name out there I guess..

Hi there thehighscribe, thanks for asking :)

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to give you the answer you want, as there's no magic formula, but I'll give you some tips.

Now, I've gotten a lot (for me) attention on Eloise and the Laundress Fic, but not so much on other stuff I've posted. And that's pretty normal.

There are always going to be pieces that only resonate with a few people, and some that resonate with many. There's not really much you can do to predict which will be popular and which won't, but I find the pieces that make me squee while I'm writing do better than those that don't.

A big part of getting attention is having people share/reblog you writing. And, short of breaking into people's homes and physically forcing them to share it, you can't make your readers do anything. All you can do is write something you enjoy and share it with the world.

You can try places like the Book Robin Hood's, which helps authors find book reviews, or critique sites like Inked Voices to trade critiques with other writers. Both are good for getting eyes on your work and some feedback, but not might be what you're looking for at the moment. I'm not sure which other sites are good, so hopefully some lovelies will reply/reblog with suggestions.

The only thing I've found to reliably increase the number of people who see my stuff is to be prolific. Lots and lots of short stories and excerpts and fun character profiles and stuff like that. I definitely see a difference in the number of notes I get when I'm sharing lots, versus when I'm not.

Also, I think it's helpful to have a place where everything you've written/ shared is in one place. Like a list of all your writing with active links. And don't be afraid to end pieces with a "if you liked this, check out X"

Hopefully this helps, and I wish you the best of luck! It takes time, so don't be discouraged. You'll get there eventually!

xoxo

[clcurriewriter]

Get my latest novel ABSOLUTELY FREE!

Get my latest novel ABSOLUTELY FREE!

  Do you like Science Fiction? My love of sci-fi didn’t start well. When I was seven years old, my eleven-year-old sister took me to a double feature movie: “Them” and “Tarantula.” One could argue those are horror movies, but they’re based on science-gone-wrong. “Them” is about nuclear testing creating ten-story high ants, and “Tarantula” is about a chemical accident creating a ten-story tall…

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