Finding Your Book’s Target Audience & Benefits and Filling a Need

Three things that will not only help with marketing but also in writing your book: audience, benefits, and filling a need. Ask yourself:

• Who is my target audience?
• What are my book’s benefits?
• Does my book fill a need?

Let’s consider audience first. Create a reader profile sheet. This can guide you when writing the book, but the greatest benefit comes when you’re ready to begin marketing. Write down the following aspects as they relate to your target audience:

• Age
• Gender
• Income bracket
• Location
• What are their hobbies and interests?
• Where do they shop?
• Where do they frequent?
• What magazines, websites, and news sites do they read?
• What are their needs?
• Where do they hang out online?

Fill in as much information as possible. Refer back often to your reader profile and continue to add details. The more you know about your readers, the better you can tailor your book to appeal to them. (Still write the story you want to write but be aware of what your audience likes.) Really get to know them. It will also be that much easier to reach them when you’re ready to promote.

Now, what are your book’s benefits? How will it enrich your readers’ lives?
Are they reading for entertainment? Will your book amuse them? Will you help them to escape their everyday lives? Will they enjoy the experience?

Are they reading for enrichment? Will your book deliver meaningful and deep views? Will readers be moved by the experience?

Are they reading for information? Will your book expand their knowledge and understanding?

Are they reading to better their lives? Will your book help them save time or money? Will it provide healthier options? Can your book solve their problems?

This is where you really need to place yourself in your reader’s shoes. There are millions of books on the market. Why should they read yours? “They’ll enjoy it” is not enough. You must give people compelling reasons to read your book, appealing to their logic, their emotions, or both. Brainstorm every possible benefit.

Finally, does your book fill a need? There are several aspects to consider.

Does your book provide information people are actively seeking? Is it new information or a unique take on a subject? Are changes in the world (technological, political, etc.) making this information necessary or beneficial?
v Is your book tied to events, locations, or people? Is there a demand for this information? If other books already exist, will you provide new or more current details?

If a work of fiction, is it part of a new or growing trend? (Current trends will be on the slide by the time your book hits the market.) Is your story unique and fresh? Is there a demand for the storyline or specific genre?

That’s a lot of questions! However, the more you can answer, and in as much detail as possible, the better equipped your book will be to succeed.

Five Reasons To Promote Your Book

Many writers detest promoting their books, but it’s a necessary evil if we want readers. Too many of us indies publish our books, promote them for a few weeks, leave them to flounder and then fade into obscurity. If you’re going to be writing for the long haul, there are at least five excellent reasons to promote your books.

It’s great for visibility. This is obvious and, clearly, the number one reason to share information about your work. People are busy and there are oodles of things vying for their attention. If you don’t put your book in a position to be seen, it’s a sure bet that after release day visibility will taper off and soon the rankings will blow up to a huge number.

2.   You never know who you’ll reach or who’s watching. It’s a good idea to have several graphics for your books that you can rotate on advertising platforms and social media. I’ve found many readers simply by posting my graphics in various places, on some kind of schedule.

3.    It provides a mind shift. Most of us are writing and promoting at the same time. The intervals we use to showcase our work puts our brain in another gear and gives us time for fresh inspiration to take root until we sit again to write. If you like playing with graphics, that’s another way to change your mental channel to another station for a while.

4.    It keeps your eye on the prize. Including promotion as part of your day helps you stay disciplined. It’s also a great reminder that your aim is to sell more stories. All of us would like to find our tribe of readers, and regular promotion helps us to gain traction one reader at a time.

5.    Promoting helps expand your knowledge. Indies have to know a little bit about a lot of stuff. I now know what promotional material works for me and what doesn’t. I know what time of day I can catch my audience,  I’ve found out where my ads do better, and I continue to read books that talk about the why and how of promoting and marketing.

What is the most valuable thing you’ve learned about promoting? What works best for you? Do you know you can swap/share promotional material with other authors to get the word out about your book/s? What can you do differently to promote your book/s?

Six Reasons to Collaborate on a Boxed Set

Since late 2015, starting with a Christmas set, I've been fortunate to collaborate with several groups of writers. The books have featured themes including Christmas and Pets, Valentine's Day and Pets, Paranormal Romance and Friends-to-Lovers.

Although this form of publication is relatively new to me, it has been around for a while. I'm coming in on the tail end in terms of popularity, but there are some great advantages to being in a boxed set.

1. Expanding your skill set. I've been pleasantly surprised to find that I like writing sweet romances and have a knack for it. After learning from others, I organized the boxed set that is pictured here.

2. Working within certain word counts.  Most of my books are over 60,000 words, so confining myself to between 20k-40k words was a new challenge, which I completed successfully.

3. Learning new marketing and promotion tactics.  In each set, every writer is responsible for some form of promotion/marketing. I've become better at making teasers and coming up with ideas for visibility.

4. Exposure to new readers. Some readers like the value they get from buying a bundle of books at a great price. The pay off for writers is being discovered by new readers.

5. Boosted Amazon Author rating and visibility. With 8-12 persons promoting a set, there's a greater reach than with an author promoting a single book. Two of the sets I mentioned reached #1 bestseller status, which naturally boosted my ranking on Amazon and which author doesn't need that?

6. Greater body of work for writers. Since I've been writing novellas, I've completed five of them, three of which have been published. One will be out in June and another will be released next year.

Of course, there are disadvantages to being in a boxed set, chief of which is that the earnings have to be split based on the number of writers. However, if you aren't making the same amount as a single author, then this isn't a major problem. Also, not everybody will do the same amount of work, but with most pulling in the same direction, things do work well.

Through working on boxed sets, I've met a host of wonderful writers who have been generous with their time and skill with graphics, promotion and marketing savvy. What say you? Is this something you think you'd participate in? Why or why not?

A Definition Of Author Platform

Platform is one of the most difficult concepts to explain, partly because everyone defines it a little differently.
But one thing that I know for sure: Editors and agents are attracted to authors who have this thing called “platform.”

What editors and agents typically mean by platform

They’re looking for someone with visibility and authority who has proven reach to a target audience.
Let’s break this down further.

• Visibility. Who knows you? Who is aware of your work? Where does your work regularly appear? How many people see it? How does it spread? Where does it spread? What communities are you a part of? Who do you influence? Where do you make waves?
• Authority. What’s your credibility? What are your credentials? (This is particularly important for nonfiction writers; it is less important for fiction writers, though it can play a role. Just take a look at any graduate of the Iowa MFA program.)
• Proven reach. It’s not enough to SAY you have visibility. You have to show where you make an impact and give proof of engagement. This could be quantitative evidence (e.g., size of your e-mail newsletter list, website traffic, blog comments) or qualitative evidence (high-profile reviews, testimonials from A-listers in your genre).
• Target audience. You should be visible to the most receptive or appropriate audience for the work you’re trying to sell. For instance: If you have visibility, authority, and proven reach to orthodontists, that probably won’t be helpful if you’re marketing vampire fiction (unless perhaps you’re writing about a vampire orthodonist who repairs crooked vampire fangs?).

What platform is NOT

• It is not about self-promotion.
• It is not about hard selling.
• It is not about annoying people.
• It is not about being an extrovert.
• It is not about being active on social media.
• It is not about blogging.

(This excerpt is taken from an article written by Jane Friedman and posted on her blog, Jane Friedman: Helping Authors and Publishers Flourish In The Digital Age. You can read the rest of the article HERE )

Ten 'Must Knows' for Indie Writers

In Jamaica, we celebrate August 1 and August 6 as Emancipation and Independence Day respectively. Considering the changes in the publishing world, I thought this would be a fitting time for me to talk about being an indie writer

It is not always easy to find our niche, or readers who will become rabid fans, but since making the transition from writing for small publishers to going indie, I've put together a list of the ten important things I've learned on my journey.

• Hone language skills. Anybody can write a book, but attempting to do this without a good grasp of the English Language is setting ourselves up for failure.

• Learn the craft of writing. This is the biggest favour we can do ourselves. A period of apprenticeship is necessary no matter how we slice it.

• Don't get in a hurry to publish. Just as traditional publishers take time to prepare a book for publication, so should we. Virtual bookshelves mean our books will be available for a lot longer than a 3-month sales window. I've set unrealistic deadlines that resulted in mistakes I could have avoided. 

•  Treat writing as a business. While some of us may never make a living exclusively from writing, it is necessary to set goals and make plans. As the adage says, those who fail to plan, plan to fail.

• Never stop learning. It is important to stay current on publishing trends, as well as book marketing and promotion. Frustration with going back and forth forced me to learn how to format eBooks. Continue reading craft articles and books on writing.

•  A manuscript is never complete. We'll never cross every t’ and dot every ‘i’, but we should submit the best possible manuscript every time. Smart writers know how to let go and move on to the next book.

•  Develop meaningful relationships. Most of my online friendships have come through writing networks, hops, challenges and visiting other people’s blogs. These friendships extend to email exchanges off the blog and even Skype calls.

• Never be afraid to ask for help. Writers are open and giving. I've never put out a cry for help and not received it.

• Practice the principle of Paying it Forward. The blogging world has taught me the value of helping other writers. Unexpected benefits come through the kindness of other bloggers.

Relax and enjoy the ride. While it's important to be disciplined, remember there is life outside of what we do to earn a living.  Creativity is a funny thing. Writing loses its attractiveness for me when it starts to feel like work—even though I’m handling my writing as a business. The point is to find your rhythm and make it work for you.

What things have you discovered on your journey?

This is a quick reminder that that Wednesday is post day for the group. If you haven't signed up, please do so here.