Who Is Your Audience?

Honestly, my audience is me.

By extension, I’m looking to attract readers who have similar tastes, experiences, dreams, and obstacles that I have faced before or am dealing with now.

When I lose sight of what I think is a good story or I like to write and try to focus on someone else, I get lost.

Since the last time I took this course, my audience has shifted a bit. I began my journey writing for me and girls who liked a certain branch of YA fiction. Now I’m still writing for them, but I’ve added middle grade kids to the mix. It depends on the day, and sometimes even the time of day, what project I’m working on and whom I’m writing for.

My audience will shift depending upon the book as I write genre and non-fiction. The one that scares me the most is The Grove which is literary fiction and the one story I want to get out there if, as all of the writers say, if it’s “your last day on earth.

For my other books, The Social Media Murder Mysteries, are part-cozy mysteries and part suspense, techno-thriller. The idea for the first one, based on a tweet sent I sent out long ago, will have a female lead, so more female mid-20-40’s. The second of the series, The Face (imagined before the real facebook killings & that’s only a working title as some author has taken that book title already, I forget his name 😉 I was going to base on the same age group but spread it more for males and females with the characters that come into the story on the first book.

The non-fictions will be changing based on the subject.

Thanks, Joe!

I don’t really know who my audience is. I write stories for adults–crazy short stories, memoir–but my some of my favorite books to read are about Very Young Adult horse-crazy kids. I’m better at writing the first than the second.

The audience I know consists mostly of friends, some family (although, ‘Gee, that’s very cute’ is not the reaction I’m hoping for) and, basically, anyone else willing to give them a go.

Clearly, I have to refine my audience profile.

My audience seems to be people who want to go on an adventure. So much of what I write people tell me is “weird” or “out there”, however they say it kept their interest. I wish to bring that to light in everything I write.

My audience is my blog readers. I don’t know the demographics, but I do know that one of my colleagues shares some of my posts with her students. I think that my audience is primarily adults who want to feel inspired. Maybe I’m drawing this conclusion because when I write, that is my intention — to inspire people.

Elise, I had the same experience. I have three sons and when I wrote The Way Back which illuminated life on my home dairy farm-life with Grandma and Grandpa (a vet. of the First World War) you would think they would want to read it. But, they weren’t really very interested. My Champion was from my life and two of my Grandchildren were pictured in it (I am an artist and used them as models). Now, wouldn’t you think they would find that interesting? Not really. But, my writing group did. I think a group of your peers trumps family and friends. They soon buy into your project and every week, they want to hear more. I really wrote for them and they were my audience. If I didn’t have them, I would never have finished my books.

Hopefully in the weeks ahead we will discover who we could enjoy writing along with. This is a primary reason why I am taking this course.

I want to try to pinpoint my audience with more clarity, not just speaking about disappointments or praise for the writing group I have in Mazatlan. I would love to find people who are like minded. You know—animal lovers, adventurous people who enjoy the outdoors, exploring, philosophical types who are seeking some meaning to life, people who tear-up over poetry or live with passion, are slightly crazy and full of enthusiasm, and who have read enough that they can give straightforward criticism. I would try to do the same. That is really why I took this course-—to find an on-line group.

Originally, my audience was my children. I am smoothing out many short stories (okay, maybe just a couple) that I wrote for them. Currently I’m’ working on a book, and the protagonist is a twenty-something female who finds a world of horror, less scary than her real world. I believe my audience is that age category, but I’m trying not to limit it. Much of her difficulty in life is a direct expression of my own. So I guess much of my audience is myself. Does that make any sense?

I’m still trying to figure out why I’m writing – so my audience for now is just me. I’ve shared a few stories on Facebook in the past and people liked them and commented on them but there was no overarching theme to them, so I can’t really say that was an audience – they were just internet friends who read what I posted.

Really, really, really need to figure out why I’m here…

The more I think about it the more it sounds like I really do write for me. The me I used to be. So my audience reflects the struggling me I once was. Okay still am sometimes.

I’m with the majority here (as of this post). My audience is me.

Most members of my family are not big readers and they’d be far more likely to read non-fiction than fiction. They’d be looking for short pieces that express ideas or experiences in an intelligent way, ideally with a bit of humor. I need to get better at short, as this post (and others) will demonstrate!

Among those family members who are readers, most are readers of fiction. My sister-in-law seems to prefer quiet novels, my sister enjoys suspenseful ones, and I have a college-aged niece enjoys a touch of young romance to be thrown in. I have one brother who reads books (not just headlines or tweets) and he seems to read fiction and non-fiction, but I have 3 others who probably have read less than a handful of books between them in the last couple of years.

I suppose my initial audience for my fiction would be my 13-year old niece. She’s the family’s most avid reader who reads at a level quite a bit above her age. She reads a wide range of fiction, though I sense she tips in the direction of the mysterious and suspenseful. This is an individual who loves to read so much, that when she goes on vacation, she’s excited for the long car ride because it gives her time to read 4-5 books or more from the backseat of the car.

I had a blog once that I wrote for pretty regularly for a period of time. I felt like I was going out on a limb sharing what I was writing, but I also felt like I was doing something, other than just writing for myself, and that felt good. But as the weeks went on and I just had a family member or two occasionally respond – very occasionally – I decided it was probably not worth maintaining it. In part, while it was related to my core project, it was distracting me from working on it. Beyond that issue, the longer I lacked for an audience, the worse I started to feel (not surprisingly). There are obvious reasons why I didn’t have an audience – I wasn’t out there promoting it or even commenting on other peoples’ blogs and giving them an opportunity to track back to my work. (The chance of someone stumbling upon it was very, very slim.) Rather than do the work of figuring out how to connect with others around it, I just let it go. I suppose I didn’t feel enough commitment to it to go the extra mile.

All of the above gets to one simple point: I don’t have much of an audience right now (outside of me). I’m consuming content from the internet all the time, but I’ve chosen to connect only with family on Facebook and beyond that I’m not a part of any communities. I believe they would call me a “lurker.” Somehow, I need to get out there more. And that’s why I’m here, of course!

I think in life I share different parts of myself with different people. With my little cousins I’m playful and with my parents I try to be responsible, and with my friends I’m super goofy and nerdy. And when I am writing for myself it probably depends on the mood I am in. I think my writing is the same way. When I am writing for my cousins I am super silly, or my parents more serious, or friends I would write dumb jokes and do more word play. It varies project to project for me.

This is a challenging one! Yet, two people come to mind when I think of this question, both of whom seem to love my WIP even more than I do. I hadn’t thought about writing it for them, per se; I was worried what others (vague term, that) might think of it.

This would definitely alter its direction.

I suppose I don’t have an audience yet for the writing I’m passionate about. I do a good deal of business writing for my corporate job. I write well for that group which is an audience, but my heart is not in that writing. For my business audience I’m simply aiming to persuade, influence, present a strategy, etc which will make money for the company and me. That’s as far as my caring for the subjects I write in the “business genre” goes. It’s superficial and all about the $$$. There’s no soul in it.

Nothing I’ve written and shared outside of my corporate life has been published. I’ve taken a few classes online in different areas of the writing world – blogging, freelance and now story cartel – searching for the outlet that suites me. I’ve never had a blog that’s been widely read, never had a press release that’s been picked up and never had a short story published (and I was never passionate about the two former). So I’ve never had an audience, other than me, for the writing that I share from my soul and care most about. Sure I’ve had supportive friends and family, but never a group checking their inbox hoping to God to see my next blog post 🙂

I don’t feel discouraged or lost about that. To the contrary I feel confident. The writing I’m passionate about comes from my soul and is part of me so I think by default I am my primary audience. I write science fiction because I love the genre more than any other. I write stories that explore the unknown because that’s what my heart and soul crave to do.

My stories – especially the novel series I’m working on now – explore the “what if” of biology, space, other life forms and humanity. Books like The Ender’s Series, movies like Star Wars, and TV shows like Star Trek, all of which I love, are tremendously popular and loved. Since I love and emulate them in my writing also, I suppose my audience is out there and is just like me.

I’m here because I need to learn how to more effectively connect with my audience and improve my writing craft. The audience is there and waiting for another great story. I’m trying to see if I have one in me.

The concept of audience is a difficult one for me, because I write about the horrible things that are going on in the world and why and how people make justifications to themselves to let those things continue.

I know that I upset people. One reader told me that they had nightmares. Yet, they also said they couldn’t put the book down.

I don’t understand why I need to write about what I do, nor why people find reading such things a compelling experience.

It’s a mystery to me. My next novel, is also about how we justify ourselves, but takes a lighter touch.

I’m having a hard time envisioning who my audience is. But I know that I’m supposed to write what I’m writing.

For marketing purposes and tagging, everything is labeled paranormal thriller, but I would like to think it is literary fiction that is a page turner and which defines reality in very broad terms 🙂

I am still struggling to find my audience. Right now my audience is my husband and my two best friends. But I mainly write for me. I am terrified to share my own writing (even with some positive comments from those who have read my work). And when I do share my writing I’m always second guessing it; wondering if it’s good enough, if I followed the right rules, if anyone will actually like it. My husband repeatedly tells me “JUST WRITE” and don’t let all that “other stuff” keep you from writing and I think he’s right. It’s comforting to be connected to a group of writers as well because we are all going through (or have gone through) many of the same fears of being a writer.

I think sometimes as writers we just want to tell a story with no real person or group specifically targeted. That’s at least the way it is with me. But I wholeheartedly agree with Joe that stories are meant to be shared.

Tricky question! I tried to answer this by seeing who enjoyed my stories, but that didn’t narrow it down. The demographic contains both young and old, male and female. For a while, I just sort of despaired that it was “people who like a good yarn” combined with “folks who are not afraid of ebooks.”

Since then, I’ve had some time to think, and here’s what I’ve come up with, in order. If it’s:

1. A story I would like
2. A story my husband would like
3. A story my few close friends would like

Then I’m fairly sure it’s safe to send out.

None of that may make sense at all. 😀

I wrote my first children’s story, not sure what age group but probably second, third or fourth graders, Samson’s New Family, to express that we are all family in the eyes of God and that they can have many different families in their lives and how if we just trust OURSELVES we can accomplish or learn how to take care of ourselves. My second story is about our little dog and how much enjoyment she brings to our lives. Over the Mountains was just a travelogue of a once-in-a-lifetimes experience I enjoyed with my sister. We are the only ones left of a family of six. The Orphan and the Sea was a rewrite of a story I wrote about Anna’s New Home. I am fascinated with lighthouses and so I guess this story was written for me. I can only imagine what life must have been like and it opens up my imagination to write that book.
I am preparing to write my life story — the story of my step-father, who portrayed life of the traveling preacher who went from church to church on horseback — I also would like to do something totally out of character for me but don’t know if it will ever evolve.
I guess like almost everyone else, I write for myself, but I want the world to read it.

You and I are my audience. At the moment, we are only people who read what I write. I think I’m a pretty safe audience for myself because I know what I intend to say even when I fail to say it well. However, it feels a bit risky having an audience of relative strangers. I imagine friends and family would be in my camp from the get go and perhaps better understand my intentions. At the same time, you are my comrades in arms, and I imagine you are more motivated to encourage me to write than many of my family and friends.

I have a parenting blog in the works so I anticipate a different audience, however small. I have delayed blogging for so long because I just know I’m going to get comments from the contentious and the haters. I have friends who write great blogs and still get hateful mail. Perhaps it’s just a matter of developing a thicker skin.

Hello. I believe that my audience is mostly women who are hurting or just trying to survive in marriage and motherhood. I also write for family members who are living with someone with an addiction of some sort. I found with my first book (my only book) young moms really resonated with it the most. I also have some men website readers. My desire in my writing is that people would draw closer to God and fall in love with Jesus. I try to teach steps for a closer walk with the Lord and intertwine my personal stories along with it.
Thanks. Brenda

As the audience has grown a tiny bit for my novel, I’m seeing that the people who enjoy it or are willing to review it are different than whom I thought might do so. I am starting to discover that the work, in this case my novel, begins to define it’s audience for itself. It is very interesting and sort of eerie.

Michael

I had hoped my own children would be a part of the audience for the last book I finished, but no one seemed interested. Quite frankly, my students (who are the same age as my own children) seem more interested.

My audience is middle grade to high school boys and girls who are mature readers and who like paranormal stories (my latest novel has seers, zombies, black magic, an empath, and relates religious iconography to paranormal beliefs, as one of the characters is a priest). I am hoping that “new adults” and adults will also find interest in the story because there are a few adults that are central to the story as well (the seer and the priest). My audience will watch “Walking Dead”, “Supernatural”, “Vampire Diaries” and similar shows, and have read novels like “Beautiful Creatures” or “Miss Perigrine’s Home for Peculiar Children”. I am also including the parents of these young adults in my target audience, because they are likely to be the ones buying it for their children, but I’m also hoping that they may want to read it as well (see eliseabram.com/the-revenant).

The audience for my work in progress is similar, but I’m targeting mostly girls who like sci fi (especially time travel) and romance. Still mature readers and their parents.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by  elise abram.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by  elise abram.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by  elise abram.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 11 months ago by  elise abram.

I posted some of this in the previous section, but as I moved on, it’s still kind of relates the same way.

I agree with several people here, many times it starts with me. I’m the one who want’s to hear the story. However, depending on exactly who I’m targeting, it can be a specific individual or group that pops into my mind to direct my focus. If its posting to the homebrewers group I belong to it may be one thing – The people in my Farmer’s Market Co-op group are looking for different information and I kind of know their tastes and that’s who I write for. If it’s for my friends, well although some of it I would never put in print I’d want the public to see, that is also who I write for. It just depends on my target audience, and that can vary for me.

The main story I am working on is targeted as a story for my two young nieces.

RECAP FROM PREVIOUS SECTION POST:

One Thanksgiving holiday with all my immediate family all together – I was tasked with putting my nieces to sleep. They like have stories told to them – so like any good uncle – I told them one. Off to sleep they went.

When I came down to join the rest of the adults, who honestly were tired and had been enjoying a couple of glasses of wine, I was getting teased a bit about how I went and told a story to the girls. My sister and parents usually grab some favorite book and read it, not me. We tell the story as it comes to us, my nieces add their own parts.

Anyway – the family was joking because one of my nieces made the comment that Gandalf reminded her of one of her teachers (I think she meant Old). As we started talking and laughing together, different people began coming up with new what-if’s ( What if Yoda was the funny old lady down the street (who is hilarious by the way – I wish she had a YouTube Chanel), What if Harry Potter was actually the nerdy computer guy that works in the office and smokes like a steam engine, etc.) You get the idea. It was pretty funny and ridiculous – and then all of a sudden it wasn’t.

After a while of doing this, my sister says, “Hey that’s not bad. You should tell that story. Your nieces would love to hear that story.”

And, for me, that’s how it began. Frank Baum (Wizard of Oz) , Tolkien (Hobbit), Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)

James Schmidt (J.L.S.)

In my experience, it depends on what I’m writing about and what my intention for writing the piece is.

I’m currently adhering to a Poetry for Others pledge where I’m writing poems and gifting it to those who want poems from me. Usually the piece speaks to this person or the idea of a “you” where I’m writing and sharing an experience, thought, or idea with him or her directly. The response I get after sharing these poems are positive, especially when they can relate to the narrative or the message in the poem.

In other cases, I write for myself. I see something, experience something, and I simply want to write about it. Oftentimes the idea of an audience doesn’t come to me until I feel that the poem can and is ready to be shared.

—

This is actually a timely exercise (late as I am) because I’ve been struggling with this idea of an audience. I know poetry can be read and enjoyed by everyone, regardless of age, gender, location, and culture, but I always hear that same old marketing advice that you gotta know who your ideal reader is to be able to craft stories or messages that he or she will respond to.

While it does make sense, I feel silly writing an ideal reader persona just to be able to flesh this out. Can’t I just say that I write for the universe and all who inhabit it?

What do you guys think? Is a reader persona exercise a necessary thing for creative writers to do? How do we make it work for us?

• This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by  Stephanie Gonzaga.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 10 months ago by  Stephanie Gonzaga.