Finding a Niche Market for Your Book

In her post, “Saving Me from Myself” Yvonne Reilly, an aspiring author, writes about some unsolicited advice from someone who has never published nor written a book.

Yvonne’s advice giver fancied himself as an expert about the path to publishing so he was full of questions and suggestions. Most of the questions caused her to bristle and become defensive… however, as a published author myself, I can see merit in her cohort’s train of thought.

Yes… writing a book is MUCH harder than it looks… and yes, when it comes to being an author you’ll find that everyone is an expert. It was probably an aspiring author who coined the phrase, “Opinions are like a**holes… everyone has them and most of them stink!”

However, authors need to view their work as a product… and it’s much easier to sell a product that appeals to a tightly targeted niche market.

When her cohort asked “What’s your market?” her response (according to her post) was to talk about the structure of her book.

A better way to construct the question (ah, I sound like a writer with that phrase, don’t I….) would be, “WHO is your market?”

In other words… WHO IS GOING TO WANT TO BUY YOUR BOOK.

In response to the question, Yvonne cited an award winning book of similar structure. Hopefully what she has in mind is that the target audience of the book she references frequently will also be the readers who will want to buy her book as well.

See… readers are customers…. and it’s a GREAT idea to target loyal readers of another successful author.

Long ago, Blockbuster videos  had blurb printed on the jackets of the DVD’s offered for rent. It simply read, “If you like this movie, then you’ll probably like these movies as well…”

While these other movies had different actors, different writers and different directors, they still appealed to the same target audience. The same is true for your book. Even the most prolific author can’t write enough books to satisfy a voracious reader. In other words… targeting a niche audience that has already demonstrated an appetite for your type of writing is BRILLIANT on many levels!

As for the oafish opinion mongers… just ask yourself if THEY are part of your intended tightly targeted niche market or audience.  If they are a member of your target audience, then consider their input carefully.  If they are not a member of your tightly targeted niche market or audience… then see the reference to the value of opinions above.

Finding a niche market for your work is perhaps the hardest task any author faces.  However, it’s essential information you’ll use in every step of writing the book – from writing the book to creating your author website and finally selling your book online.

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