For Love or Money

Are you writing for yourself or writing to be published? Many of us will say we write because we love to write; we’ve always written, since we were very young, and we couldn’t stop even if we wanted to. We have a story to tell and we must put it down on paper, whether anyone else ever reads it or not. Many of us love research and the learning that comes from it, through travel, libraries, personal interviews, the Internet.

If we’re honest, we say we write for ourselves, but we’d also like others to read our work. We have something to share, for others to, hopefully, enjoy. That usually means getting published. Getting published means marketing the book. Marketing the book means targeting your audience, which brings us back to the original question: who are you writing for?

Are you writing for young adults, men, children, older women, doctors, new mothers, teachers, who? As you write, do you have an audience in mind, or does the audience develop along the way? Personally, when I write, I don’t think about who will read it until I’m done. Maybe that’s not smart. Maybe it won’t help me sell. But if I think about who might read the book, I find myself stifled. If I aimed for gray-haired ladies or young teens, I might avoid swear words or gritty murder scenes that make my books more authentic. So I don’t shoot for any particular market. I simply write . . . and hope I can find the best audience for it later, in the marketing phase.

Only after my book is done, edited, re-written, edited and re-written, do I focus on target marketing. Who would like this book? An adult audience that enjoys history, forensics, and puzzle-solving. I can also shoot for readers interested in the time and place of the story ie: New York City in the early 1900s. You might target readers who love horses, dogs, do yoga, play golf, tennis, are musicians or mathematicians.

Can you stretch those audiences to include YA readers? Possibly, but probably not unless there are YA characters in the story. I don’t think many teens want to read solely about characters of their parents’ generation. What about other genders, sexual orientation, or ethnic groups? If your characters are gay or lesbian will a straight audience be interested? Likewise, gender and ethnicity. What about political or religious affiliations? All important considerations. For marketing.

For writing, however, write because you love to write, whatever the audience turns out to be. You’d be surprised. If a book is a delight to read, you might get audiences you never dreamed of.