As a society, we often talk about writing a book as if it is one of the last solely achievable goals in life. But in reality, books are always a collaboration. You’re working with agents, editors, publishers, beta readers, and book sellers. But most of all, you’re collaborating with readers to build a story in their mind.
While there are many times an author should focus on their craft and the natural exploration of their story, there are others in which it can be enormously advantageous to consider your readers. Here are a few:
During the Clear Blue Sky Phase
When you’re first starting to explore the idea of your story is a great time to really consider your readers. Who are they? What are they interested in? What is their age, reading level, educational background? Starting your planning phase with them in mind will help you select a story that will engage and entice them. Plus, it’s likely to help you stay focused on your style by having a goal in mind for who will read it.
While Building Your Cast of Characters
You’re not going to build a whole cast of characters based upon your own life experience alone. Ideally, your characters would have a wide variety of intersectionality beyond your own point of view because the world is full of diversity. But it’s when you bring in these aspects of your characters that are outside yourself that you should be considering your readers. Hopefully, and likely, you will have readers with those same circumstances, and they will be able to smell even the faintest whiff of bullshit you apply to their context. So, please do write diverse characters, but take the extra time to imagine them complexly. How would their reactions differ from yours? Build characters that challenge your readers as well as some that help them feel comfortable.
During Your Developmental Edit
Spoiler alert: You’ll see in my next blog that I highly suggest you take a break from thinking about your readers while you’re writing your first draft. So, by the time you get to your developmental edit, you’ve had some space to capture what you want and are now doing your first, big reshaping. It’s likely your story has changed significantly since your early planning phases (we all know characters have a mind of their own), but this is the round of edits made for huge shifts. It’s a great time to reapply those plans in a new way. Are the same readers going to want this story? What will keep them reading, and when do they need more noise or quiet in your story?
While Punching-Up Bits
During your copyedit, there will always come a time to punch up momentary experiences for readers whether they be literary, comedic, horrific, or drama. It’s this review of key moments in the text that can bring a story from drab to grab—that is, the thing that holds onto your readers and won’t let them go. Think back to your target audience once again. What do they expect in these moments? How can you surprise, engage, challenge, or delight them in this moment? What will make your story stand out from competitors in its genre, and what will make it fit so perfectly?
When Preparing for Querying and Marketing
This is probably the time when having a clear sense of your audience is most important. Agents need to sell their clients’ books to publishing houses by knowing who will be interested in reading them. So, your best bet for snagging an agent is by writing a query letter with your own sales pitch. And with your marketing techniques, it’s even more important to have a clearly defined audience to ensure your posts are seen by the most applicable users. It’s the best way to see a great return on your investment. Have a few mini excerpts in mind that will really appeal to your readers.
There is absolutely a time and place in which authors should work to keep everything except for their own exploration and creativity in mind while writing a book, but there are many times when it can be to their advantage to consider their readers’ desires, point of view, and fears in mind to captivate them or attract the right audience. No matter where you are in your journey of writing a book, there’s help to make sure you’re meeting your readers half way. Reach out to our team if you’d like to know more.
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