Targeting Your Audience (Elizabeth)

Ready

First of all, what kind of readers do you want to hunt down? If you don’t know, there are several ways to figure out. First of all, if you post your story on a website like Wattpad, you can track the demographic of your readers, specifically age, location, and gender.

If it’s not posted online, have a variety of beta readers read it and see if your book appeals to a certain age group or gender.

If all else fails, you can generally look at the protagonist’s age and assume the reader will be a bit younger. Readers have a tendency to read upward. Of course, this doesn’t always apply. Take Ender’s Game, for example. Ender starts the story at age 6, but a huge portion of its audience is teenagers.

Aim

Once you know what you’re hunting, search out their natural habitat. The best place would be on blog of a reviewer or writer in your genre. As far as social media goes, it’s pretty easy to research what audiences are where. For example, Instagram and Snapchat would be used for YA. Facebook’s users tend to be older. Want more social media audience information?

Fire!

Do a bit of research on how to use the social media you’ve chosen, and ask for advice from the professionals. I’d recommend reading The Extraverted Writer. Then go for it! Pull that trigger—er, send that social media post! You might feel awkward and stupid at first, but that’s okay. You have to let yourself make some mistakes.

What’s your target audience? What social media platforms have you tried? Do you have any tips for targeting your audience?

Thanks for reading!

-Elizabeth Newsom

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