Who are you writing for? Maybe before you even finish that novel you’re working on you should try to answer this question. Many author’s would respond by saying that they are writing for people like themselves, but that isn’t good enough. You need to write a detailed description of who that person is. If you don’t know who you’re writing for how will you be able to market to those people when your book is ready to be published? Marketing should start before your book is even ready to be sold.
If you think that saying your target market is women between the ages of 30 and 45 is good enough, think again. You have to be more specific. What type of job does she have? What are her problems? Which television shows does she like? How does she spend her free time? When you know specific information like this about your target market it’ll be easier for you to find them.
With a complete profile about your ideal reader mapped out you’ll have the information you’ll need to start marketing your book. If you’re marketing your book to the wrong audience you might as well not be marketing it at all. The wrong audience will not like your novel. Actually marketing to the wrong audience might be worst than not marketing it at all because you’re likely to get a bunch of bad reviews from unsatisfied readers. You need to get your novel into the hands of the people who will like it most. Those people will love your book and spread the word. Having devoted readers is the best advertising you can have.
I’m not going to front and pretend I had everything together when I put out my first novel. When I released The Box I had no plan and no idea who my audience was. I didn’t try to market it one bit and I didn’t treat my writing career like a business. I did everything wrong. Doing everything wrong taught me a few lessons, but I learned those lessons the hard way. Don’t make the same mistakes I made.
I recently read John Locke’s How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months. It’s an fast interesting read. John Locke is a marketer and his book will teach you a lot of things you need to know when you start marketing your book. I recommend checking it out.
Picture by cliff1066
