I once was talking with a friend of mine who is writing a series of YA fantasy novels. But it had become clearly evident that the books she was writing had subject matter that was much too mature for a YA audience.
Sometimes finding your audience is as simple as doing a bit of market research. Looking up your chose genre and the demographics it serves is a well-traveled way to finding out who you should be writing for. You can also go the reverse route. Pick a demographic you are interested in and look up what those people are into, then see if you can craft a story that caters to their interests.
Asking around helps, too. If you have an idea of what genre your story fits under, try joining some social media groups dedicated to that genre. Pay attention to what they are posting about, and ask plenty of questions. You can get a ey good sense of what is popular with that group. I am a member of a few groups dedicated to science fiction and fantasy from the African-American perspective. So I have a finger on the pulse of what that audience is reading. It’s also a good networking tool for when I need beta readers (but that’s a topic for a whole noter post).
Another way to find an audience is to follow an example. Researching other top-selling books that are in the same vein as your story and finding out information about who is reading those books can give you a good ballpark idea of who would be drawn to your story. For instance, There was a good ten-year period where YA books were ntrenched in the Hunger Games formulas. Everything from the Percy Jackson series to the Divergent series to the Maze Runner Series followed the ragtag team of teenagers with special abiliies saving a dystopian world from adult oppressors. But the formula worked and many of those series were successful.
Once your research is done, you need to do this exercise. Take some time and describe, in your own words, what the target audience is for your story. Write it down so you’ll have a reference to go back to. Write the age range, gender ratio, racial and cultural background, average income, usual places of residence, social-political leanings, and any other hard data you can find on your target. Write down any interests, hobbies, attitudes and opinions these people might have. You can even list some of the books, movies, games and TV shows they might be consuming.
Now, with that data written down, ask yourself how exactly does your story appeal to this group of people? And how can you further develop your story so that these people will find it even more appealing?
That is the more business-like way of approaching this topic. There is a more organic way to do it, also. Just write the damned story you want to write, and then try to see what kind of audience would buy it. It’s a tougher, less organized way of doing things, but it allows you the freedom to tell the exact story you want to tell without having to make compromises or concessions for the people you think might want to buy the book.
This method will require a lot more legwork, however. You will have to find similar stories and look into who is buying them. Maybe dissecting elements of your story and looking up who finds those elements interesting may help. Utilizing beta readers and asking them which elements of your story stand out or that appeal to them may work.
Whichever way you choose to do your research, It would be beneficial for you to make the effort to find out who exactly you want reading your stories. That way you can better focus your writing, and you’ll have a better target for the next step of the process once you’ve gotten published, which is marketing your story. Give it a try.
