I’ve had questions recently about the concept of identifying your target audience. Authors just starting out—that is, before they have a book to promote—typically become stuck in the belief that their book is for everyone. While in the process of writing your book, it’s easy to visualize everyone reading it. But when you begin to promote that book, reality sets in and you learn that not everyone is interested in purchasing and reading it.
You suddenly understand that, while it is possible that people from many cultural and social groups with varying interests might pick up your book, there are segments of people who are more likely than others to read it. And you are wasting time to try to write a book that will appeal to everyone and then try to promote it to everyone. “Everyone” includes people who don’t read, people who only read fiction, people with no interest in your book’s topic as well as those people who do—your true target audience. Doesn’t it make more sense to promote to those who want/need books in your book’s genre/topic?
If you were selling mittens, you wouldn’t make much headway promoting them to people living in the tropics. Mittens are not for everyone, just as your book on raising rabbits, astrology, curing relationship problems, successful public speaking or parenting isn’t for everyone. Books on some of these topics might have larger target audiences than some others. But they all fit into niches. It is the same for fiction. There are many avid readers of fiction. Some of them read books only by certain authors. Some read science fiction, romance novels, adventure stories or fantasy. Expecting an avid reader of romance novels to suddenly become interested in your western adventure is unrealistic.
Look at magazines and websites—most of them have themes designed to attract and serve a particular segment of society: children’s book writers, parents, motorcycle riders, pet owners, those who enjoy cooking and foods, photographers, hobbyists, quilters, people who like to travel, etc. Magazines and websites are designed with specific audiences in mind. Sure, they might attract an occasional visitor/reader who isn’t typically a part of this audience, but they target their promotion toward their most realistic audience and that’s what an author must do, as well.
Obviously, some target audiences are larger than others. Some have more layers than others. For example, my book on long-distance grandparenting is of interest only to grandparents who are dealing with the challenges of living a distance away from their grandchildren. The only other audience for this book consists of friends and family of these grandparents who purchase it as a gift. But is it realistic to spend time and energy pursuing everyone in case they know someone who could use this book? Not really. By targeting your primary audience, you will also pick up gift sales. But if you were promoting to everyone, you would seriously dilute your efforts and actually miss out on many sales opportunities.
The target audience for my book on the history of the Ojai Valley, California consists of locals who are interested in the history, residents and visitors with ties to the history of this area, visitors who want to know more about the valley, historians, librarians, genealogy buffs and local teachers. If I’d tried to promote this book nationally to everyone, I would have missed my opportunity to sell to my true target audience. If I’d been sending press releases nationwide and traveling all over the globe talking about Ojai, I would have wasted a lot of time and money, don’t you see? Instead, I spoke to local civic groups, presented programs through the museums, lead historical tours, got local newspaper publicity, wrote about Ojai history for local magazines and so forth. I also had my books in local bookstores, in museum and hotel gift shops and at the library, for example. I wrote the book for a specific target audience and I promoted it to that audience. Any other tactic with a book on local history would have made little sense.
I know that some of you are saying, “But my book is of universal interest.” That’s what I thought about my metaphysical memoir and my book on how to present a Hawaiian luau on the mainland. Why wouldn’t these books appeal to just about any audience? And my book on youth mentoring—certainly everyone wants to help our youth. But, while I found members of my audiences all over the place—widely spread—I still had fairly specific target audiences for each of these books and, when I pursued those avenues toward those audiences, I sold more books.
Sometimes, while you’re in the process of promoting your book, you discover an unexpected audience. This happened to me with my luau book. I expected to sell this book to tourists in Hawaii, which was definitely one of my true target audiences. But what I didn’t expect was such an interest from hog barbecuers in the south. This turned out to be a strong target audience, as well. When I discovered this, of course, I began aiming some of my promotional efforts in that direction.
How important is it that you key in on your book’s target audience? Maybe some of these examples will help you to understand the importance. If some of you have had experiences around identifying your target audience or you have learned the value of identifying your audience, we’d like to hear from you.
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