Why You Need to Know Your Ideal Reader

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash.

Have you ever thought about who’s going to read your book?  

Your ideal reader is out there, even if you wrote your book for yourself! As an indie author, you need to know who your ideal reader is so you can market your book properly.

If you wrote your book for you, that’s great! Chances are if you want to read it, someone else will too! But once you’ve decided to publish your book, it’s no longer just for you anymore. You’ve got think about who’s going to read your book.

Knowing who’ll read your book and what you want your reader to take away from it will help you edit and market your book because you want to connect with the people who are going to love your book not with those who won’t get it. The best way to do that is to know who will love it and talk to that person.

You have limited time and energy to put into your marketing, and it’s to both you and your reader’s benefit if you can connect with your ideal reader quickly and persuasively!

Even multi-national companies do this. A company like Coca Cola will have many ideal customers, so they’ll assign different teams different customer personas to make ads. The way they market Coke in Canada is different from the way they market it in Germany, and they have different market segments within those countries too! The best way to create your ideal reader is to get specific.

So let’s get started!

Who do you picture loving your book?

The first thing you’ll want to do is find the demographic categories of your ideal reader.

Imagine a person reading your book and adoring it. Who are they? What do they look like? What demographic characteristics do they fall under? If the answer is someone like you, think about what kind of demographic categories you fall into. For example, are you a student? A mom? A working professional? A combination of those? Do you fall into any minority categories?

Here are some characteristics to think about.

Demographic Characteristics

• Age

How old is your ideal reader? What kinds of books are targeted at this age category? How does your book fit in?

• Gender

What gender is your reader? What books does this gender typically read? Does your book fall under any stereotypical categories for this gender? Does it break any norms?

• Race

What race is the person you picture reading this book? Why is this book something they’d feel drawn to? For example, is your book an Own Voices book about a Black woman that will make other Black women feel seen?

• Income

What income bracket does your ideal reader fall under? What kind of expendable income do they have, and what kind of an investment is your book for them? How much would your ideal reader expect to pay for this book?

• Interests

What hobbies and interests does your ideal reader have? Are they creative? Do they have any crossover interests with your book? For example, if your book is a contemporary rom-com, does your ideal reader also like watching rom-coms? What TV shows do they like?

• Special demographics

Do your readers fall under any special demographics? For example, if your book is a romance about a non-binary teen in Toronto, a special demographic might be the teen LGBTQ+ community in Canada. Another example is Helen Hoang’s books, which feature Asian American characters and autistic characters. Those are her special demographics.

Once you’ve figured out the general demographic characteristics of your ideal reader and you have a picture of them in your mind, you can get even more detailed.

Here are some questions to help you dig even deeper into your ideal reader.

• Where do they live?

• What are they afraid of? What keeps them up at night?

• What do they want most in life?

• How does your ideal reader read? What are they looking for from a book?

• What other books will they have read that are similar to yours?

• What’s their favourite book?

• Why do they love it?

• What do you want your ideal reader to think when they finish your book? What feelings do you want them to come away with? How will your book help them feel these?

• How would they recommend it to a friend?

When you can picture your ideal reader and understand their desires, needs, and fears, you can more easily connect with that person. For instance, if you know your reader is a teenager, you can use the social media platforms they’re on to connect with them. Or if you know what other books your ideal reader likes, you can research those books’ marketing strategies or even mention those books in your marketing material.

If you go into your marketing not knowing who you think will adore your book, you probably won’t connect with the right audience, and that’s never good. For you or for the reader!

What do I do if I’m not sure who my ideal reader is?

If you’re not sure who your book is for, ask! Ask beta readers or your editor who they think is your ideal reader. Someone who’s read your book with fresh eyes will probably have an idea of who will love your book.

If your beta readers already love your book, you can base your ideal reader off them! Ask them more about other books they read, what they like to do in their free time, and what aspects of the book drew them in the most. Then, use that information to create your ideal reader!

If your beta readers didn’t vibe with the book, ask them about why. Ask who they think would love the book. Then, find those people and ask for their feedback.

Your editor will also have insight. They read a lot of books, and most specialize in certain genres, which means they’re intimately familiar with the kinds of people who read the genre. They can let you know who is a best fit for your ideal reader based off their professional experience.

Does choosing an ideal reader mean I’m limiting myself?

Not at all! We all know that many people can and do love all sorts of books. The idea of the ideal reader is to connect quickly with the kind of person who will most likely be your superfan. Those people are the ones who’ll recommend it to their friends and spread the word about your book! It’s not about excluding people but speaking to your fans.

If you think there are a couple of different people who will love your book equally, I’d suggest filling out ideal reader sheets for each of them. You might make a couple versions of your marketing material so you can speak directly to those different people. It’ll be a bit more work, but again, companies like Coca Cola do this all the time. Just be mindful of how much time and energy you can spend on your marketing efforts!

To sum it up…

You only have so much time to dedicate to marketing your book, so you need to figure out who’s going to be your super fan—or ideal reader—and focus your marketing efforts on them. That way you can connect quickly with those who will love your book.

To figure out who your ideal reader is, think about books that are similar to yours and look at the kind of people who love them. If you’re having trouble narrowing it down, talk to your beta readers and your editor.

If you want to learn more about how your ideal reader’s expectations should inform your marketing, check out my last blog post.