The Importance of Being Able To Identify Your Target Audience

Share

One of the challenges that a neophyte writer has to face is figuring out who is their target audience. If you try presenting your literary work to an experienced publications agent or an editor, one of the first things they will ask is, What works of other authors are comparable to yours?, this in the publishing industry is termed ‘comps’.
What they are trying to do is ascertain your book’s target market. This helps them assess the marketability of your work.


There are a lot of writers who make the mistake of believing that their literary style can be appreciated by everyone. However, to be able to promote your work successfully, you have to veer away from writing something that you think will please everyone and instead, concentrate on a specific demographic. The chances are very good that the demographic you are writing for is one that you know very well…because you ARE one of them. You love to read the type of book (genre) that you are going to be writing.


To illustrate more clearly on how a writing style varies based on the kind of audience, imagine yourself being involved in a minor vehicular accident where you are partly responsible. If you had to inform your parents or the insurance company on what happened, how are you going to deliver your story? How about if you are telling the story to your friends? A story’s version changes depending on who is the intended audience. This example illustrates how writers customize their work to suit a specific audience. Just as what you tell your parents or your friends may be different from what you report to your insurance company. How you deliver your story will vary depending on your target reader.


Being able to determine who your audience is will help you decide on the kind of information you should include in your story. With the target reader in mind, you are able to organize your story, flush out the details, and fill in supporting details that are necessary for the reader to understand and become engaged in your story.


This influences the structure and tone of your narrative, impacting your story development and the progression of your conflicts. In order to present an argument that will be understood and embraced, you need to deliver it to the right audience. Not knowing who your audience is can be likened to narrating a fairy tale to adults or reading a romance novel to 3 year-olds. Inappropriate at best.


Knowing your audience also entails understanding what their specific needs, wants and desires are. This will help you plan out your story more effectively. If your target audience are people who like reading suspense thrillers, you need to focus your research on how popular suspense thriller novelists are able to grab their readers’ attention, creating a desire to want to read more.