By Rachel M. Anderson, RMA Publicity 

   When you sat down to write your book, did you write with a target audience in mind? Hopefully the answer is yes, and you are successfully selling to those people.
   If, however, you went into the publishing process thinking everyone who can read is your target audience, it’s time to do some rethinking. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all book. Let me repeat that—there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all-book.
   The best potential audience for your book are those people you best connect with on a regular basis. For example, if you’ve written a book that offers a step-by-step guide to self-publishing, it would be of interest to people who do a lot of writing, not necessarily someone who spends all their free time in the gym.
   Along the same lines of thinking, if your book is a romance, it’s pretty easy to determine that women between the ages of say 16 and 65 are going to be your most likely target audience. There probably won’t be too many men reading it.
   Whether your book is still in the writing or editing process, or it has already been out for a while and you’re disappointed with the sales figures to date, here are a few ideas for going about determining your best potential audience(s).

#1 Write up a book proposal.
   This will force you to really think about who your publisher, be it you or someone else, will be able to reach through the book. For a book about healthy living and yoga, for instance, you would likely want to focus on both men and women between the ages of 18 – 49.
   Sure, there may be some people older and younger than that who would be interested in your book, but the majority of your audience is likely to be in that age range. As an added bonus, that is the demographic advertisers are typically most interested in reaching. That should tell you something about who is most likely to have disposable income available to spend on books.
#2 Identify comparable books and read their reviews.
   Reviews can tell you a lot about who a particular book appeals to. If you haven’t done so yet, familiarize yourself with some of the comparable books in your genre, as you can learn a lot from them.
#3 Determine where your target audience is spending time and join them.
   This bit of advice is applicable both in the real world and online. If, for example, you’ve written a book sharing tips for getting into the college of your choice, it would be a good idea to start spending time where college-bound kids do—libraries, coffee shops, museums, etc.
   Online, seek out blogs aimed at college-bound teenagers and join in on the conversations people are having, being sure to subtly mention your book every once in a while.
#4 Come up with your book’s elevator speech early on.
   What is the key selling point of your book? Once you determine that, you’ve got your hook, and a way of communicating to potential buyers why the book will appeal to them.
   If you’re not sure how to determine the hook(s) that will get the most attention, hire a publicist to review the manuscript and help you make that determination.
   RMA Publicity would be happy to help. Contact us for a free publicity consult to get started.