How to Connect With More Readers in Just 5 Minutes

Finding your readers
Photo by hatalmas / Flickr

Today’s guest post is by Toni Tesori (@duolit) of Duolit, which offers a free guided workbook, the Weekend Book Marketing Makeover.


You’ve been plugging away, day after day, trying to build the fan base you know your work deserves, but it’s not going the way you’d pictured when you started out. It’s like you’ve tried everything under the sun (including blogging, tweeting, and participating in promotion after promotion), but you can’t find passionate readers for your work.

It’s not that your book isn’t any good (you and your editor spent tons of time making sure it is) and it’s not that readers are uninterested in your genre (your author friends are selling books by the truckload).

Perhaps the problem is that your message simply isn’t connecting with readers on a personal level. Your tweets, blogs, and e-mails aren’t convincing them to check out your work.

It’s a problem I see quite often, and I’ve even given it a name: Superstar Author Syndrome. That might sound a bit backward, since you’re not (yet) on any sort of author walk of fame, but hear me out.

Authors with SAS commonly have an issue connecting with readers because their blogs, social media updates, and promotional materials sound too vague, almost corporate. There’s nothing personal or engaging for a potential reader to “hook” onto and remember.

That’s because those of us in charge of our own book promotion may be modeling our communications on our big-name brethren, most of whom have entire PR teams crafting those blog posts and whatnots for them. For Stephen King or James Patterson, using that impersonal, third-person speak in their website, tweets, or blogs may be entirely appropriate.

But for those of us trying to build a grassroots following, it’s a one-way ticket to obscurity.

Luckily, there’s an easy way to inject life into your marketing efforts.

Narrow your target

To find the perfect balance between professionalism and personality, craft your messages with just one crazy-dedicated fan in mind.

This may seem counterintuitive. After all, you’re probably trying to attract as many readers as possible. Won’t targeting a single reader exclude thousands of others who are nothing like that person?

Surprisingly, narrowing your promotional focus in this way helps you better connect with more readers by giving you (1) focus and (2) direction.

Gain focus

When you tailor your marketing decisions to one person, you’ll attract a wider variety of readers because your communications will sound far more personal and engaging. You’ll sound like a real human being having a conversation with folks who love your book.

Find direction

Targeting one reader helps you find marketing direction. Trying to figure out where to spend your limited book promotion time can be overwhelming and confusing, but having a unique person to center your marketing decisions around makes this task much easier. Instead of trying to figure out what appeals to everyone in your target market, you’ll be able to ask a single person. And it’s a lot easier to figure out what appeals to one person than thousands, right?

3 steps to create a No. 1 fan profile

Here’s how to craft a reader profile (kind of like a character profile) that will uncover your biggest fan. Keep in mind there is no right or wrong answer here. If you’ve met a few of your readers, base your profile on one of those folks. If you’re just starting out, simply imagine someone you think would love your work. And if that’s too difficult, but you’re a fan of your genre of work, answer the questions as yourself.

1. Picture someone reading your book and devouring every single word. Someone who’s dreading the book coming to an end.

2. Describe the person you see just like she’s a character in your book. If you have a preferred character profiling method, you may use that, or you may choose to answer the following questions:

Where is she reading your book? Describe the setting. Is she at home, on a train or out in the park? Is she in a chair, a bed, the bath?

How did she find your book? Is she reading an e-book or a paperback?

Fill in her personal details. What’s her name? Where does she live? How old is she? What does she look like?

3. While continuing to picture your No. 1 fan, think of two or three ways to connect with that person. Think about the following:

How does she choose books? Does she search for new titles on her own or follow the recommendations of her friends or family?

Where does she hang out online? Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, blogs? What about offline? Is she in a book club? Does she have a favorite bookstore?

What are her other hobbies and interests? Are there any ways you can use those to reach out to other readers like her?

Now that you have a basic profile of your No. 1 fan, feel free to spend a bit more time fleshing it out. The more detailed your reader profile, the more effective it will be for helping you make those difficult marketing decisions.

The next time you craft a tweet, write a blog post, send an e-mail, or share an update on Facebook, think about your biggest fan and the profile you created. What type of content would she want to read (and share)? What wording would appeal to her? What promotion would she gladly take part in?

The answers of your biggest fan are sure to connect you with others just like her.

In the comments, let’s hear about your No. 1 fan. Do any of her characteristics surprise you? How will you use your reader profile to better focus your book marketing and promotional efforts?

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Colleen Kelly Mellor

I like the back-door approach to finding your fans…In essence, let THEM find you, by envisioning and going after who’d LOVE your stuff. I started out, blog-writing, 3 years ago, with “Biddy Bytes: Encouragement in a Difficult World” With that wording, I got labeled (by Google) with Born-Again’s and Bible Thumpers (not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Now, that association works for Joel Osteen (and as you say, people like him have entire PR teams,) but Not For Me. So, I niched myself–Now, I write to audiences who travel between states, for residence…Specifically Asheville, NC and RI. narrowed my audience. I’m looking for die-hard fans. Thanks for the timely advice.

Toni @ Duolit

You’re very welcome Colleen, and thank you for sharing your experience. One reason I like this style of marketing is that it feels more natural and comfortable to many of my author friends, who (like me!) tend to be more introverted and a bit timid around promotion in general. Putting yourself in front of those most apt to love your work naturally increases your “batting average” and builds your confidence. It sounds like you’re doing a great job of finding a niche, which makes things easier as well. Best wishes!

Kathryn Barker

Thanks for sharing these great ideas. Can’t wait to get started….it helps to have a “picture” of someone in mind!!

Toni @ Duolit

Thank you for reading and commenting, Kathryn! I hope it helps you out. I’m a very visual person myself, so having that “real” someone in mind makes it much easier to plan out promotions. Good luck (and please let me know how you do on the exercise!)

Angela Ackerman

Good post and advice–would have loved to see some examples of static vs “ideal fan’ tweet marketing. I love the idea of brainstorming up one’s ideal fan in a similar way a person brainstorms a character profile!

Happy writing,

Angela

Toni @ Duolit

Thanks, Angela! Although it’s not *exactly* what you were looking for, I recently wrote a post with my thoughts on creating a good mix of updates on Twitter: http://selfpublishingteam.com/25-author-tweet-ideas/ In general, however, anytime you add some variety into your messages (including some replies, retweets, links and your own promos) it makes you come across more like a “real” person. The way the message itself is structured can do that as well. For example, “Check out my latest blog post: http://link” feels far more impersonal than “How the monsters in my daughter’s closet helped me crank out 5,000 words: http://link” That’s a quick example, but I hope it helps! 🙂

Esther Aspling

I’ve been surprised by who some of my readers are, leading me to try to re-brand a little. I had started talking to women, and now find that I need to broaden and include men (who seem to comment the most).

http://forthisisthetime.com/

Toni @ Duolit

It’s so interesting how the group of people we *think* will love our work and those who it actually ends up connecting with are often completely different! You’re absolutely doing the right thing — that constant cycle of connecting with readers and refining your message is very important. Thanks for reading and commenting, Esther!

Connie Flynn

This is fresh and incredible information, Toni. It makes complete sense and I’m going to sit down and write my reader profile today. Thanks for sharing.

Toni @ Duolit

Aww, thank you so much Connie. I’d love to read your profile, but at the very least I hope it helps you in your promotional efforts. Best wishes!

Anne R. Allen

Fantastic advice. I’ve been blogging this week about the futility of racking up Twitter numbers/FB “Likes” and all the nonsense that means nothing when trying to connect with actual fans. This is such a great antidote to that “corporate” approach. Love it.

Toni @ Duolit

You’re so right, Anne. Those actual connections (instead of numbers and all that jazz) are so important, because it’s those big fans who like you as a person who will do the best to promote you to their friends and family — taking some of the marketing burden off of you. Thank you for the kudos! 🙂

trackback

[…] connecting with readers or imagining who your readers will be? Toni Tesori (@duolit) suggests in How to Connect With More Readers in Just 5 Minutes that you focus on just one (ideal) reader. The idea isn’t new but the point behind it is simple: […]

Victoria_Noe

This is very interesting.
I write nonfiction, a topic that’s admittedly a tough sell: grieving the death of a friend. I could say my audience is everyone, because let’s face it, eventually we all go through this experience. But…
I split my book into 6 separate small books, each focusing on a different audience (like people who lost a military buddy, or lost a friend on 9/11). The latest one is on AIDS. I wrote it from the perspective of someone who was around for the horrific beginnings, who lost a lot of friends, who remembers the bad old days. My editor is much younger than I am, and she was stunned when she read the draft. “Really?” she kept commenting. “These numbers are real? This really happened?”
That’s when I realized that there was another audience: people who are too young to remember the dark days, but find themselves in a resurgence of the epidemic. Maybe, just maybe, if they can understand what we old folks survived, they will become advocates themselves.
I don’t know. That’s pretty lofty, isn’t it? But it’s opened up my eyes, too.
Viki

Gabrielle Mazur

I really enjoyed this! It really helps focus in on the target. I may come back and read this again when I feel overwhelmed marketing my book.

Toni @ Duolit

Thank you, Gabrielle! When you feel overwhelmed, getting back to basics and refocusing can be incredibly helpful in “unsticking” yourself.

kathunsworth

Toni and Jane I love this idea, I have been doing a similar thing in the Jeff Goins writing course we have to define who our tribe is, the people we can speak out for. So it narrows our focus down to who our readers would be. This post adds some more depth to the concept and will be very useful thank you so much. After reading so many posts on how to be a better writer etc this is the most original piece I have read in awhile.

Toni @ Duolit

I love Jeff’s work as well! You’re right, defining your audience is so important, and the more detail you can put in, the better. I’m honored to hear the “reader profile” concept goes along with Jeff’s teachings and I’m so glad you enjoyed the post.