Audience

Quick links, bringing you great articles on writing from all over the web.

This is the second article in Angela Quarles’ series on finding an audience, hosted at Fiction University. She has some great points about being genuine and building a connection instead of bombarding people.

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Finding Your Audience Part Two – Think Long Term & Build Relationships

By Angela Quarles, @AngelaQuarles

Thursday, June 30

Part of the Indie Author Series

In last month’s post, I talked about the pre-release steps you can take to find your audience. Today, I’m tackling finding your audience after your book’s launch.

Lessons to learn from non-fiction writers

As you’ve probably already noticed, it’s easier to find articles on this topic for non-fiction writers because their book’s subject helps direct them on where to find their audience. Plus, there are clear strategies one can take to build a platform. The challenge is slightly different for us, but I think it’ll be helpful to understand a little why it’s easier (not easy, but relatively easier) for them so that we can find the right approach.

Why is it easier for them? Non-fiction writers can go to where their audience is, since humans are great at organizing around shared interests and goals. If their non-fiction book is about grooming long-haired dogs, they can search out forums and blogs and podcasts on the subject. They can also set themselves up as subject matter experts by creating their own platform through the internet and through speaking engagements.

Think beyond sales

I think most writers worry about finding their audience because they’re staring at the barely moving needle on their sales dashboard. So most will go about it by thinking the solution is to blast their book anywhere and everywhere on social media. That will make people buy it, right? Or they think that’s the only way, and they hate even the thought of it, so they bypass looking at it in any other angle. Instead, they hope that if they put their best book out there, the writing will speak for itself and the audience will eventually come.