How to Identify & Impress Your Book Audience

In an increasingly crowded market, the success of your book can hinge on your ability to identify and impress your ideal readership. You need to know who is going to pick up your book, read it, and like it.

This article will provide some tips on how to do just that.

Creating Customer Personas

Start by creating customer personas that represent your audience. Personas are fictional characters that represent your readers. By answering a few key questions about your personas, you’ll know crucial information about your audience and what they want.

Here's how you can write effective personas:

1. Sketch out the most relevant demographics for your book such as age, gender, ethnicity, income level, and occupation.
2. Create a persona that matches your target demographics. You may have to create multiple personas to fully represent your audience.
3. Prepare a list of questions to figure out what makes your personas tick. These questions produce insights to inform the styles, stories, or takeaway advice you can use to help your book hit home.

Audience-Identifying Questions

To better understand your audience, ask your personas questions like these:

• What are your habits?
• What do you like to read?
• What are your hopes and fears?
• How do you feel about the world?
• What motivates you to take action?
• What problems do you have that my book will solve?

Evaluating your personas will help you identify how your audience thinks, and how you might connect with them.

Thought-Leading Insights

Consider how your approach solves problems differently than other books in your niche. If your book offers unique insights, your audience will notice, follow, and share your ideas.

To write a thought-leading book, consider the following:

• What unique perspective does my experience, education, and personality allow me to offer?
• Will readers find this information relevant in their lives?
• How can I convince my audience this will be useful?

Applying these tips will help your book resonate with readers, attract a loyal following, and spread your insights.