Find Your Readers: Marketing for Authors
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Marketing for authors doesn’t just mean selling your book after it’s released. Before you write your book, it’s important to know who you’re going to sell it to. This starts with finding out who your reader is and what they prefer. Whether you're navigating self publishing or working with an independent consultant, understanding your readers is essential for success. Ashley shares practical tips on researching your audience through direct engagement, online tools, and community involvement to tailor your book marketing effectively.
The conversation also highlights the importance of leveraging trends and keywords in your publishing and marketing efforts. Ashley explains how authors can use feedback to refine their work and enhance connections with their readers.
Tune in to learn actionable strategies that will help you connect with your audience and grow your book sales. This episode is packed with expert advice to elevate your marketing for the author's journey and boost your publishing success.
Takeaways
Your book should target a specific audience, not everyone.
Research your audience before writing your book.
Speak directly with potential readers to understand their needs.
Join community groups on your book’s topic to observe and gather insights.
Feedback from readers can help refine your book's content.
Your book should serve the needs of your readers.
Chapters
00:00 Finding Your Reader: The Foundation of Profitable Publishing
05:11 Understanding Your Audience: Research and Engagement
09:53 The Importance of Pre-Research Before Writing
14:43 Utilizing Online and Offline Spaces for Audience Insights
19:40 Analyzing Trends and Feedback for Book Development
23:59 Creating Value Through Your Book: Blueprint vs. Starting Point
28:29 Join the Pre-Order Profits Challenge: Next Steps for Authors
Watch the video from the episode instead of just listening.
Resources Mentioned:
Preorder Profits™ Program https://www.preorderprofits.com/join - learn preorder mistakes to avoid to generate income before your book releases.
Raw Transcript
Welcome to another episode of Profitable Publishing. This is the podcast for coaches, consultants, service providers, and speakers to be able to package your expertise into a profitable book. Now, today we're going to be talking about how to find your reader. Since you are already someone who is tuned into who it is that you're serving, you may find a lot of similarities within what you already do for your clients or for the people that are inviting you to speak if you're a speaker.
However, we're gonna focus on shifting that just a bit to align with your book. So I'm Ashley, I'm a five-time author and book marketing strategist as well as a self-publishing consultant and I support authors with profitable publishing. So let's get started. Now, one thing I want you to keep in mind throughout this episode and in general on your author journey is that you really wanna focus on finding people who are already aware that they have a problem that they need to solve or those who are already actively trying to solve that problem. So for example, let's say you are a speaker who focuses on empowerment or personal development, then you are already gonna wanna look for those industries, those organizations who are looking for that type of speaker. You might do a couple touch points with people who are not quite ready for that just yet. However, you predominantly are gonna spend the majority of your time focusing on those people who are already like ready to buy or closer to being ready to buy. The same is true for your book when you are writing it, selling it, all of that jazz. So you want to really focus on folks who are already aware that they have something they're trying to solve. They maybe have already tried a few other solutions, maybe they haven't worked, or they're not quite really finding what they're looking for out there already.
And so your book is going to basically fill that gap for them because they are already problem aware. They know, okay, I really need to fix this issue. And I know that when I find that person, it's gonna be the perfect fit. And so that's really one of the great things that your book can do. So one thing I have in my book, Profitable Publishing with Pre-Orders, is a quote in chapter five that I wanna share with you that will kinda help you to keep this in mind and really think about it as you are drafting your book, as well as moving into that publishing phase. And so it says, instead of trying to convince people to buy your book, find people who are already interested in your topic, but just don't know you exist yet. And so this one shift can be very instrumental or very, what is the word I'm looking for? can be very influential for you because when I work with authors, one, problem that I help them solve is really understanding who it is that they are serving, so who it is that their book is helping, but also really understanding the purpose that their book serves. And so one thing that I was finding is that many authors feel like anybody can benefit from their book. Or I've heard often when working with clients or even just being in author spaces as a guest expert in different author groups or as a moderator in author groups.
One thing that I find quite often is that many authors say, okay, my book is for everyone and your book is not for everyone. It's for a very small group of people and not so small in the sense that you're not gonna have enough people who want to purchase it, but you're not trying to sell to all eight billion people on the planet. That's definitely not the case. You are trying to focus on the people who need help with your specific problem. And so it's important to really not be pressed, not be worried about, well, for example, another thing that I hear is that my friends and family aren't supporting or they're not buying my book or they don't quite get my book or being able to find that right audience. And so we'll talk about more of that. We'll talk more about that today. But when you really understand that you are really only focused on a very small group of people who are like your ideal folks, you may have heard your ideal client in the business space, your ideal reader is what we're gonna use in this case.
Eventually, they hopefully will turn into an ideal client But when you really realize that you're not trying to convince everybody to buy your book It can be very freeing because it's less pressure. You're not trying to attract everyone You really just want to focus on your people and so with that that means that you will have people who you're repelling Which is a good thing you're gonna have people who are like, This is definitely not for me and honestly, that's great because that helps you to get closer to the people who are free and so one way that I do this to support clients is with my fans framework. so fans like not where the fans at, basically fans, F-A-N-S. ⁓ And so it stands for finding your reader, attracting your reader, nurturing your reader, and then shouting your reader out. So today we're going to focus on the finding your reader part. And this is a framework I use in my books as well as my programs to be able to support clients. And so when you are thinking about how to find who your book is for, this work starts before you even start drafting. And that's something that might be kind of surprising because typically people who are new to being an author or haven't seen the success that they want to see as an author, they typically think, okay, well, I'll worry about marketing or selling my book or trying to find my readers after it's written or after it's published. And I internally cringe when I hear that because if you're creating something for someone and you are not thinking about them, you're not spending time learning about them until you've already made the thing, then there's a very high chance that the thing is not gonna be a good fit for them. Whether it's an offer you created, whether it's an event, whether it's a service, and in this case if it's a book, if you're waiting until your book is fully published and you haven't spent any time really considering who the book is for, then there's a very high chance that that book is not gonna attract the audience that you want.
And so with this, you really want to think about starting this process before you start drafting because when you are understanding who your reader is, that affects the words that you use. It affects the examples that you give. It affects, in essence, everything about your book. It affects how you basically tell your stories. So for me, my people typically are millennials or older. They are aware of like modern technology, things of that sort. They're typically working a nine to five and or have a additional business. So they have some familiarity with the online marketing space. They're not entirely new to those types of terms. And so those are all things I keep in mind when I am writing books and or writing my content because honestly this carries over into your online content as well, online and offline content. And so another thing to consider is don't assume that your reader is the exact same as your client.
However, they are likely gonna be very close to them. So let's say you are a service provider and you already have a base of clients that you work with. That's a great place to start, but don't assume that whatever book that you're writing about that same topic is automatically gonna be something that that group of people wants. It's always important to start and do your research and I'm gonna share some strategies with you to be able to do that. But just wanted to put that out there that it's important to be mindful that just because you think you know the group, it's still very important to ask them. And I kind of liken it to if you have a spouse or a significant other that maybe, for example, like we do kind of like running gift lists. So like my birthday is very close to Christmas. And so typically I just put stuff on a list and then you can pick one thing for Christmas and one thing for my birthday.
And those things change throughout the years. And so sometimes I might want hair stuff, I might want cooking things, like it really just depends. So checking in with your person or checking in with your people in this case is important because their thoughts and opinions change. This can be adjusted based upon the economy, it could be because of whatever's going on outside in the world. All of these things matter and will make a big difference in how you attract that audience and how you actually find them because they're gonna hang out in different spaces based upon what it is that they're kind of going through and experiencing. So the first step of how to find your audience is to really spend time researching where they spend time. So you are gonna be a detective, whether you grew up on Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers, ⁓ whether you are of the Benson and Stabler era of Law and Order, or I didn't watch the main Law and Order, so I don't remember the names of those detectives, regardless you are gonna be a detective. You are going to learn as much about your audience as possible, legally and ethically of course, and then you are going to then use that in your content and also use it to help you develop your book. And I'm gonna give you some practical ways to do that. And before I do that, I wanna explain that this is something that will help you in pretty much all areas of your business because once you have a really fine-tuned understanding of who it is that you're talking to, who it is that you are trying to get to buy your book as well as to eventually work with you as a client, then it makes it lot easier to be able to communicate with them, to be able to resonate with them, and actually to get them to take action. And so a few ways to do this is to actually ask them directly. So if you have a client base or you have a group of people who you think may be your ideal customer, whether it's for your book or your service that's related to your book, then just asking them, asking them directly. Hey, I think that you might be someone who's a good fit for what I'm working on. Can I ask you a few questions? No pressure, I'm not trying to sell you anything, but I'm trying to shift my audience or I'm trying to learn more about my audience and I wanna see if what I am thinking about for my new book will resonate with you. And you don't have to tell them it's a book, but people generally get excited when you tell them you're writing a book, especially if you haven't written one before or if it's about a topic that they are interested in. And so, develop questions for them, to ask them to really deeply understand what it is that they want, what it is that they are worried about, what it is that they are trying to achieve, and then those are gonna be a gold mine of information that you can use.
If you already have existing questionnaires for clients, so for example, one thing I do when people work with me is I have them complete multiple questionnaires depending upon what the service is. So if you are participating in my profitable publishing partner service, then I have an onboarding questionnaire that gets to know you better, as well as gets to know your book so that we can actually complete the publishing process for you. Or there's questionnaires that I have about book cover design to make sure we're creating a book cover that aligns with what you want.
And so if you already have these questionnaires, you already have these surveys in place, go back through and comb through that information and see what's in there and notice trends and commonalities because that could mean that that's something that might be helpful to include in your book, especially if your book is gonna be something that works as a precursor to your actual service. That's excellent option to be able to have that in a book so that way you can direct people to that before they actually work with you. Another option is to do a focus group that obviously takes a little bit more work because of logistics and scheduling and things like that. But that's another great way to be able to get information from folks as well to see what it is that they are interested in and what they want to focus on. And so your goal is to get a sizable group of people to interview, so anywhere from 10 to 20 people. And it doesn't have to be formal. If you can, get them to do it on video or audio because people are typically going to be more willing to share kind of like nitty gritty details when they're speaking to you rather than when they're typing something out. Typically when people are typing things out, they're self editing, they're thinking about how things sound and then they might be more likely to go back and reread it. Whereas like if they are just doing audio, they're just kind of talking off the top of their head in response to your questions. ⁓ Of course, let them have the option of reviewing the audio as well.
But you can also let them know like hey, this isn't going to be published anywhere It's just for my purposes kind of like when you when you have those phone calls and When you have like a service or whatever and they say hey This is gonna be recorded for quality control or quality whatever the worst that they use For quality and training purposes. So the same thing you can use that same language with them people are familiar with it Then you also can use search engines and the plethora of information that's available online, so sites like Answer the Public are great option. And I'll give some more specific examples. Google Trends is another one that I'm gonna share in just a bit with a little bit more detail. But when you do that, you want to make sure that whatever source you're using, that's an online source, is a credible and valid source. In the world of AI, we are finding that people are tending to find ways to have themselves rank higher in these language learning models. So like in ChatGPT, I've seen services of people that help you as a business owner to be able to rank higher within those. And so take the information, of course, from these language learning models with a grain of salt, because obviously we know AI can make mistakes, but really use
your library skills, like using it, seeing, okay, is this a credible source? Does this have multiple citations? Things like that. Use your degree and use those things where you had to have all these scholarly journals and that kind of stuff to be able to verify the source. Don't just take whatever comes up from that little AI summary at the top of Google or even within these language learning models because it can lead you astray. So definitely talk to actual people if you can and then take that information that you searched from there with a grain of salt or use trusted sources that have been out longer than AI, such as other books or other resources, like I mentioned, Answer the Public, to be able to get that information. And so the research that you're doing is honestly the same type of research that you would be doing if you were starting a new offer or if you were launching a new branch of your business or a portion of your business. You are wanting to make sure that whatever you are creating that you're going to package into your book is really going to serve the people that you're trying to attract. And so that's just so important.
Now, one shift that is different than what you might find on your typical Google search is that instead of focusing on just who is searching for this, you also want to try to see who is buying for this issue. So I know often people use Google and I didn't mention Google, but you want to also look on sites like Amazon because people who are searching on Amazon are more likely to want to buy something to solve this problem.
Doing that, doing your keyword research on Amazon will actually help you to be able to use those keywords later when you are uploading it to Amazon KDP, if that's your choice, and or potentially using it on SEO on your site if you sell on your site. And so just keep that in mind that yes, things like Google Trends are helpful, so the public are helpful, but you want to decide, you want to look at it a little closer to see, okay, is this just something people are searching for and they're trying to like DIY?
And if your book isn't gonna help them DIY, then that might not be a good fit, but really just take that into consideration. Then with that, you want to also look for things that are already in existence and see how you can tie into that and kind of just ride the wave. And so I'll give you an example of that. ⁓ My second and third book are both on the Daniel Fast.
And the first one came out in 2020, late 2020. The second one came out in 2023. And which is funny because with both of those, I had just had a baby within the year or so before it. So anyway, those both came out around that same time. But one thing I noticed is that for that keyword, so the Daniel Fast or Daniel Fast, it is something that had a perpetual trend towards
typically December through February each year, where people were consistently purchasing and searching for that. And so that's evidenced because I can see, when I look at my Amazon sales, whether I am advertising for those books or not, they're selling within that time period. So they're selling between that December, February time period and throughout the year, but there's a spike that I see. And so one thing that helped me to kind of to see this and to learn more about this is something called the Purple Line Test. And this is something my brother shared with me. Shout out to Conrad. He actually helped me to get into this whole business world. And ⁓ I'm the little sister that asked him 50 million questions about business. And so ⁓ he's an email copywriter and also all around just business guru and author of multiple books. anyway, ⁓ he shared this strategy with me. And so it's something that you can use within Google Trends.
And basically you search certain topics that are like well known to be things that people are consistently searching for. And so you can do it for the five year mark or even the one year mark, but typically you wanna do it for five years so you can see some of those peaks across time.
So some of the categories that he uses are beekeeping, leadership And then you would put in your topic and see is that something that people are also consistently searching for over time. Now this does take some tweaking. This is a bit of an oversimplification. However, this can kind of give you some guidance of okay, is this a topic that's just kind of hot right now or is this a topic that people are consistently looking for to be able to get those questions answered. Now.
⁓ We've been talking about search engines and then the next option is to look at online spaces. so earlier I mentioned that you want to put on your inspector gadget, your Benson and Stabler hat because you are a detective. And this is where it's going to come into play even more. So with this, you are going to be an observer in online spaces where you think your ideal reader and or ideal potential client hang out. So this can look like.
being in the comments section of blogs and looking and seeing what kind of comments people are putting on blog posts that are in your industry that may be similar to what it is that you are trying to accomplish. So for example, if you were in the food industry, then you would look at recipe blogs for bloggers that might be similar to what type of vibe that you're trying to have and see what kind of comments that people might have. Now, I know in food blogs that people get kind of wild in the comments. They talk about, well.
I changed five ingredients and now the recipe came out totally different. It's a thing. Some of you know, as I mentioned that I have experience in the food space. So just speaking from experience, but looking at things that are similar and looking at people who are aligned with what it is that you're doing can be helpful because they will also have feedback that will be helpful for you to see, okay, does this apply to my audience? Is this something I can tweak? Is this something that I can show my unique perspective with?
things of that sort. Then you also want look at comments on social media. So looking at Reels comments, if there's posts that have blown up better about your topic, then you want to look at those and read the comments. See the sentiment. You don't necessarily have to engage in the comments unless of course it's your own post. But in each of these, you want to read and observe and notice trends. So earlier we talked about Google trends. At this point, you are becoming the one who's kind of tapping into what the trends are.
And then another area of course is book reviews. So you want to look at book reviews of other books that are in your same genre that are trying to accomplish the same thing you're trying to accomplish. Now you're not looking at it in like a messy way of like, ooh, this person only got three stars on XYZ. That's not the point. You were looking at those reviews to see a couple of things. You want to see what are some common things that people really like about this book or books that are similar to it.
What are some areas that people are wanting that are missing from this book? And how can you tie those into your book? so let's say you're an accountant for small business owners and you're writing a book about bookkeeping. So that way it's not a big headache when it becomes taxed out.
So you would look at other books that are in the market and see, or on the market and see, okay, are they being well received by small business owners? Is this more geared towards larger corporations? Is there a gap? Maybe there aren't any books for small business owners who are doing their own bookkeeping. All of those could be different options. You wanna look and see what makes sense and how you can kind of fit in that area. And when you do that, then,
If you're using Amazon, they actually have made this a lot simpler for you because they have an AI resource that basically compiles the different information and they'll say, okay, this many people said this positive thing about it, this many people said this negative thing about it, and these five categories. So for example, I might say like the length of the book. Customer data could say that this book is too long.
to get their point across. Whatever the case may be, it summarizes it for you in the review section. So that's a very nice plus that they've added recently. Now the next place that you are gonna wanna look online is to look at Facebook groups. Now I know people think Facebook groups are dead, but however, Facebook is the OG. They are one of the originals in the social media space. And a lot of people are still in Facebook groups. And so nine times out of 10, you're gonna be able to find a group.
that is free to join and also has a large amount of people for your topic. So join the Facebook group, of course follow the rules. You're not entering the group to try to sell things at that point. You're not entering the group to try to collect customers. You are strictly entering the group to be someone who is observing information and watching to see, what trends do I notice? What questions keep coming up all the time? How are these people being supported? And then use that to be able to develop your book.
use that to be able to make it so that you are also developing your content. So content that you're going to post outside of the group, unless the book, unless the group allows you to post inside the group. And once again, I want to reiterate, you're not joining these groups to sell your book. that's a huge mistake that I see with authors before they work with me, ⁓ is that they join Facebook groups and they think, well, I can't post my book in this group.
or this group doesn't want us to promote. When you're joining a Facebook group for the intention of just wanting to post your book, you have to think about it like this. If everybody in the group is just wanting to post their book, then that group is going to be a group full of just people posting their book and people are less likely to buy. You want to find groups that are focused on your affinity, so focused on your topic. So going back to ⁓ my Daniel Fast book, I am someone who's a participant in multiple Daniel Fast groups.
And some of them, I am a moderator. For example, I'm a moderator in two different groups and I have my own group and that helps me to reach over 150,000 people just from those groups. Now that doesn't mean everybody in the group buys from me. That doesn't mean that I'm using it just to be able to have a place to sell my book. I'm also providing value, I'm giving recipes, I'm helping them to continue with their devotionals, things of that sort.
but it's a place where I formed a relationship with the host and they know that I'm someone who can support people and I also answer questions in the group. So that's the way to basically use it as a tool to sell your book. However, that's a long-term strategy for our purposes today. We're talking about being able to get that information to see what it is that you could do to support folks, whether or not you're having them buy from you now versus later.
you're going into that group in this case to be able to observe, to understand, and then eventually if you end up selling something, wonderful, but that's not really the intention of this part of the strategy. And so just once again, you are finding groups that align with your topic
not with you as an author if your goal is to better understand your audience. that's just so important to remember. Now, next, we want to think about offline spaces. It can be so easy to get caught up in like, everything's online, everything's online. On threads, I see a recurring theme of people saying, okay, well, I want to sell my book, but I don't have a way to focus on social media or can I sell a book without social media?
And I always respond, yes, you can. And I give them ideas of how to sell their book outside of social media. For our purposes in the research phase, we are going to want to focus on spending time in those offline groups, such as Chambers of Commerce. Those are a great option to rub elbows with folks and see what the needs are, especially if you are a business that is going to eventually potentially support the members of the Chamber of Commerce.
And then you want to think about conferences, trade shows, organizations and nonprofits. Once again, you're focusing on those areas that are going to need your books topic as an area of support. So once again, you're not finding these groups for authors, you're finding these groups for your industries, for these purposes so that you can research and understand and really get a good grasp on who it is that you're supporting. And then fraternities and sororities.
Other affinity groups like that are always a great option because they are generally looking for people to be able to come into their programs and to be able to support what it is that they're doing. And so here are a few questions to ask yourself as you're going through this process. So how can I tie in what I'm hearing in these different spaces to develop my offer further, whether it's for a product or service or your book? And then what pre-work might be needed before someone is ready to work with me?
or to hire me to speak. So your book could serve the purpose of being the foundational skills that they need before they jump into your program or before they sign on with you for a service. And then what common trends am I seeing? So what trends are you seeing? What common phrasing are you hearing? What common words are you hearing? What's kind of a recurring theme that you're noticing as you're spending time in these spaces? And then next.
What do I need to refine or to be a better fit for my reader? So is there something that you need to tighten up? Is there a process that you have your clients do now that when it's translated into a book that it might need to be adjusted? What additional maybe case studies or stories do you need to kind of pull together to further illustrate your point to make it easier for your reader to understand? And lastly, does this
reader, do they want a blueprint or do they want a starting point? And so that can look like two different ways. So if they want a blueprint, that would be where they want you to tell them every single thing about every single thing on that topic, start to finish so they can use your book as their guide to be able to accomplish that step. Then the alternative is maybe your book can serve as a starting point to provide the frame and the structure.
So that way you're opening up their mind to the possibility of this new concept that you have and then they come to you to be able to complete the full process. Now both of those could work and you could still have clients from either option of those. And so for me, the way that works is with profitable publishing with pre-orders, this helps them to be able to complete the process if they're someone who already has a foundation in the skills. So for example, I have people who have gotten results with just the book.
for example, if you missed episode five, I encourage you to go back and listen to it because I share how author Kendra Pecci was actually able to use this book to be able to help her to make $4,000 in pre-orders. And so for her, that was enough for her to get that done.
For other people, they decided to go ahead and enroll in my Preorder Profits™ accelerator or Preorder Profits™ course to be able to get the next step that they needed in order to complete the process. So one thing I've learned as an educator is that people have different preferences, they have different levels of support that they need, and so the same is true for your readers. Some people are going to need to work with you one-on-one in like a VIP day or with a done for you service.
Other people are going to want to be in a group setting. So for example, like my Preorder Profits™ group accelerator, and that is fine. So some people can read the book and they're good to go. It just depends on their readiness level and you want your book to be able to fit one of those areas and fit that gap. So that way they have something to either give them a foundation or give them the whole shebang and give them the whole picture.
If this is something you want to learn more about, then I encourage you to join the Preorder Profits™ Challenge we actually do a deep dive of this process and I show you how to generate income before your book is out.
grab your ticket at preorderprofits.com and I would love to see you there I will put the link to that in the show notes at the time of this recording, you can join for free or you can secure your VIP seat at preorderprofits.com. And so until next time, stay profitable.
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