Know Your Reader
By Jerry D. Simmons | June 19th, 2009 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
I received some questions from a reader about a blog I wrote two weeks ago entitled Know Your Reader. The questions were: How do I know my reader? Does it mean who I’m writing to, or the group I would like to read my book, or whom I think would buy it? Great questions Kim, thank you for sharing with other writers.
Writing instructors will tell you to write in your own voice. Never try to mimic another writer, try to write to fit a style, or match a hot cateogry that seems to be selling books. Your story and writing are unique because of who you are and how you write. Know your reader does not mean write to fit what you think is your audience. Know your reader equates to knowing your market, knowing your audience, knowing who are the likely consumers.
If you visit bookstores on a regular basis, and if you read authors in the genre in which you are writing, and you read books similar to the one you are writing, you should begin to get a clear idea of your market, and in turn who your reader will be. Your reader defines your audience, the consumer who buys books like the one you are writing.
For example, if you were writing a manuscript with spiritual overtones, the questions about knowing your market would be: Spiritual in terms of religious, or spiritual in terms of the supernatural? The answer would help to define your reader, your audience, the end consumer. It tells your publisher how to focus their marketing. The importance in knowing your reader is related to the marketing of your book, not the writing.
Tags: Book Marketing, Book Sales, Booksellers, Editing, writing
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