The Essentials of Selecting a Book's Ideal Audience

Developing authors often overlook the need to pinpoint who exactly they’re writing for early on. A consultant might imagine that anyone looking for a more efficient approach to work tasks will reach for their book, and a history buff, that a work centered around the rise of the steam engine times would appeal to all Civil War history fans, for instance.

Defining your ideal reader often starts with identifying a broad group, such as college students, and narrowing down from there ((credit, Magnific)

That belief may stem from knowing about widely popular, broadly focused works by authors like Deepak Chopra, or breakout works that cross genre like the crime/travelogue of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, and timeslip works like Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series that combines romance and historical fiction.

But such big name writers already had some notoriety, likely published their content at the very start of a trend, and likely had several other factors adding to their work’s popularity. Plus, the rise of self-publishing means tons of added books in every genre for readers to choose from (even if the quality can vary). Authors also often spend more time on outreach today because many other ways exist to obtain information, some of which are free. More to the point, as a popular maxim puts it, trying to write for everyone is likely to lead to reaching no one. The field of demographics has thrived because certain things appeal much more to certain groups of people. And not keeping a particular, well-defined reader in mind can lead to less refined, mediocre content.

When you write to a specific type of reader, on the other hand, they might talk it up, raising the possibility that other readers will pick up on the buzz. A famous example is the Harry Potter series that was targeted to middle-grade readers; it was so well crafted that it also appealed to so-called Soccer Moms, a secondary audience that helped spread the word. Knowing who your primary audience is can also provide an emotional anchor while in the writing trenches, beyond allowing you to engage more personally with the readers that could benefit most from what you develop.

The Audience of Me

If you’re thinking, I’m my ideal reader, so why bother? For instance, you love urban fantasy novels, but haven’t found any that touch on a particular theme or subject, so will be writing about it. You get to take six steps ahead on the Audience Refinement Board for knowing some major reader characteristics. Trust me, though, taking the added step of digging in to who your primary audience is will bring rewards. It can be hard for someone to think through all the layers of their own identity, in part. I’ve had clients miss relevant factors, including that their main readers for a career guide were blue collar workers like them.

You’ll likely be able to learn some things about yourself too while doing research to flesh out a mirror image or related ideal reader’s profile. A tool that might help with this process is a power wheel developed by the Canadian Council for Refugees, which you can use to map out your identity related to privileges and how people perceive you in life in ways that can make it easier or harder, depending on the situation.

Regardless of whether you’re starting with a blank slate, understanding the reader profiling process is a helpful process. So let’s dive in.

Broad Content Considerations

Most good books, on some level, are an argument for or against something. So, identifying the main theme of your work can help pinpoint demographic factors like a certain age range, gender, life goals, etc. that your target readers are more likely to have.

Other topical factors that relate to your target audience include pegging an experience (like kayaking, or playing board games) that will be a focus, or a lifestyle choice that a fair number of people feel connected to. Someone who roots for the unlikely hero in a fantasy novel, for instance, may feel a thrill while being inspired by the character’s brave behavior, and fit a certain demographic; meanwhile, someone else may get a vicarious thrill from being fascinatingly disgusted by a psychopath in a book like Silence of The Lambs (I’m not in that demographic, so have no clue what these readers are like!).

Finding Your Key Audience

To help see how narrow your categorization might need to get, let’s consider a book about learning how to cross stitch. Just by deciding that the book is not about all materials that people craft with, and the reader’s experience level, you’ve already narrowed down the primary target audience some. A bit of research reveals that three fourths of U.S. cross stitchers are female, with an average age in their late 30s. Younger stitchers are very active online, and sales of cross-stitch kits have climbed above other crafts in recent years, potentially because it’s easier to learn (and cheaper to get started, suggesting a broader economic audience) than several other crafts .

You may have decided to incorporate into chapters wording that directly touches on the value of learning this craft as a creative outlet (that is, have developed a main theme for the content, which is always wise). Highlighting that aspect can help readers engage more with the content, and peg the audience even more if there are demographic details to guide your thinking related to what type of people tend to seek new hobbies, such as empty nesters.

Once you ID the exact type of cross stitcher or other audience your work will most appeal to, that makes many book-development steps clearer, including what language style and tone (credit, Magnific)

An important step to your research will also be looking at whether popular beginners’ books on this craft with this theme are already on the market. If so, a wise added step would be narrowing the book’s main point/theme, such as emphasizing how the activity requires readers to step more fully into the present moment because of the number counting required, compared to something like needlepointing on a pre-stained canvas. (Note that this narrowing process might happen naturally while refining the book idea, an important pre-writing step I work with authors on, or while writing the draft.) Some cross-stitch articles highlight that it can reduce stress levels as much as meditation, for instance. Identifying mindfulness-oriented readers as this theme-focused work's ideal audience opens up the door to writing in a way that appeals to self-development readers. A lot is known demographically about them, which can guide specific wording and other choices (the many ways that defining your ideal reader impacts your writings and outreach will be the focus of an upcoming post).

Some authors will hone even further what makes their book reader unique. For example, a male-identifying writer who served in the military, and writes a book about cross stitching as a tool that allowed him to overcome PTSD developed during war experiences could access a completely untapped reader market for this creative outlet (after becoming aware that there are millions of cross stitchers nationally, so that focusing on the 25% who identify as male is not niching too small).

Leaning In to Their Story

Once you’ve broadly sketched out your ideal reader, it’s time to deeply consider what they’re about. One option is to flesh out their key characteristics using a fictional character development guide. Even factors like where someone is from can add specificity to your understanding of the ideal reader; the part of a country, and even the neighborhood, they live in might suggest to you what kind of lifestyle they have, their attitudes about certain topics, and more.

Because readers often connect deepest to content and characters they feel emotionally invested in, a particular emphasis will be on considering the ideal reader’s primary wants and fears, related to your content focus. In the cross stitch example, the most tailored book niche fits with meeting a fear/desire to have a healthy outlet for addressing specific personal behaviors. That author might also realize that part of the activity’s appeal could reflect that it doesn’t involve doctors and medications. To most effectively reach them, then the writing style would need to steer clear from being sterile and academic-sounding, for example.

Added Readers to Consider

The good news is the male-oriented cross stitching content will also likely be picked up by some men who haven’t had a military career, yet seek an activity to help overcome PTSD or other forms of trauma. These men represent a broader, secondary audience that writings targeted at the primary audience will likely also reach. Life partners of the primary and secondary audiences could also be looking to guide them to such a book, particularly if the partner is crafty themselves. Or, with that historical fiction work that gets into the development of steam engines, engineering buffs and train lovers might be second- or third-tier audiences.

As an aside, an exception to the niche-down mantra is that some writers find success staying with a relatively broad audience because they’ve found a new angle to a common experience, such as an unrecognized, but well-documented, lifestyle approach to reduce the likelihood of Parkinson’s disease; others might retell a broadly popular story in a compelling new way. An example is James, the multi-award-winning remake of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn by Everett Percival, told from the perspective of the slave. Or they tackle a popular subject matter from a new angle, as did Louis Bayard in focusing on the developing relationships of Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln (and Joshua Speed) in Courting Mr. Lincoln.

But regardless of what angle to a topic you land on, and who your ideal reader turns out to be, truly knowing on an intimate level who those readers are allows your writings to more fully meet their wants and needs. As the late author and poet Nicki Giovanni put it, “Writers write from empathy.”

By Barbra A. Rodriguez

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