Define Your Audience For Publishing Success

We continue our discussion with Dale L. Roberts with a discussion around how to define your audience. That is an important step in any product. Books and written content are no different. We continue the discussion with getting that book written and your first steps in self-publishing.

Define Your Audience

There are some guides that refer to your ideal audience as your avatar. This vehicle should be a well-defined image of who you are speaking to. That is a key factor in success whether you are selling or communicating. Therefore, the avatar must be defined early and preferably before the writing process begins.

Dale provides a perfect example. He wrote exercise books and it seems only logical that an exercise routine differs by age, goals, and fitness. The routine for Betty White is not the same one for my goals. We have people that benefit most from our content. Those are who we want to speak to. Therefore, define your audience by who “needs” to read your book.

Perfect Is Not An Option

A critical step in self-publishing is writing the thing to be published. That may seem an obvious statement. Yet, Dale mentions multiple times where people ask about publishing before they have written even a word. Start with writing. Also, do not worry about a perfect first draft. Get the content down and then focus on the clean-up. Once you have that rough draft, it can be a basis for crafting your work of art.

Note the discussion about editors. An editor is not simply a grammar-checker. This person helps the writer craft a story and present content in the best way. Think about selling a house. Your house may be perfect for a buyer. However, staging the house will help drive that point across and often increase the offer you receive.

A Little Background

Dale L. Roberts is a self-publishing advocate, award-winning author, and video content creator. Dale’s inherent passion for life fuels his self-publishing advocacy both in print and online. After publishing over 40 titles and becoming an international bestselling author on Amazon. Then, Dale started his YouTube channel, Self-Publishing, with Dale. Feedspot voted it among the Top 50 YouTube channels about self-publishing. Thus, Dale cemented his position as the indie-author community’s go-to authority.