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Who Is Your Audience?
How to find your ideal reader
There’s much talk about knowing the demographics of your audience. How do you find that person? How do you figure out who will like what you write if you don’t know who to write for?
I suggest beginning writing for someone just like you and doing it with integrity. As William Shakespeare said, “To thine own self be true.”
Why wouldn’t you want to write for someone vastly different from yourself? Well, I write because I enjoy writing and decided a long time ago that I would never write something I didn’t believe was true.
One was a book written by a Neo-Nazi. First, I saw fallacies in that man’s ideology. I couldn’t bring myself to edit his work. Although he offered good compensation, I opted out of editing his work.
Another book that another person wanted me to help him write along erotica lines. I didn’t want to do it. I view erotica as disrespectful to human sexuality. Again, the book probably would have offered me a sizable income, but it wasn’t something I read and refused to write.
How do we find our ideal customer? We start with ourselves. Who are we? What do we like?
I write what I want to write because I want to enjoy what I am doing so I don’t worry about what the market claims to want now.