Find Out Your Audience's Preferences

Are you ready to get your book out there? Do you know what reading formats you’re going to publish? Do those formats meet your target audience’s preferences? These are all important questions when it comes to the next step of marketing towards your target audience.

You see, once you know your target audience, you’re going to want to cater to them. This will not only establish a bond between you and your audience, but it will allow for your audience to find you. It’s not simply about hitting the publish button and hoping that your book will find its way to your audience. You need to convince your readers to read your book.

Need help figuring out your target market or finding your ideal reader? Check out the linked posts where I dive into the steps you should take.

With your target audience and ideal reader in hand, it’s time to find out what they are looking for when it comes to reading formats.

What are reading formats?

This is the way your book is sold. Your book can be print, eBook, or audiobook. Some formats work better than others depending on the type of book you’ve written.

For example, a fiction book can work well in all formats. However, an instructional guide with pictures would not work well as an audiobook. Knowing how your book will work in a particular format is important to determining which formats you should use for your book.

If you’re looking for help on formatting your print or eBook check out my guest post on Elgee Writes. If you’re looking to create an audiobook check out my Creating an Amazon ACX Audiobook post.

How to Find Your Audience’s Preferences:

Research

Spending your time researching how your readers like to read is important. You can use the spots they hang out that you found after you read my last post on finding your ideal reader. Get a feel for what your readers enjoy and go from there. This research can aid you in finding the information you need with staying out of the conversation.

You can also look into book selling sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble and see the formats offered in your category.

Take a Poll

Use your social media platform, blog, or any other way you can to reach your readers and conduct a poll. Ask them what formats they enjoy reading in and provide check boxes. That way you can get a response without having to reach out individually.

Now the above 2 methods are great for getting a response from random people that may not be 100% your ideal reader. That is what leads me to my last point.

Talk to Your Readers

You’ve found where your readers hang out so go ahead and reach out to them. The only way you will know if you’re getting responses from your ideal readers is to ask them yourself. Starting a conversation with potential readers can open up many opportunities as you set out to publish your book.

Talking with your readers in some form will provide you with the most accurate information. So get ahold of your readers anyway that you can to ensure your marketing efforts are worth your effort.

Stay tuned for the final installment of this series! I will be talking with you about taking everything you’ve learned and targeting your target audience as you prepare to launch your book.