Hunting Your Audience by Braxton DeGarmo

(This is the second part of Braxton's post. Read "Audience? What audience? here.)

For many, finding their audience is like a novice out duck hunting. Imagine, up at the crack of dawn, sitting in a blind on a gray autumn day. You’ve thrown out some decoys, hoping they attract the right ducks, and sit—and wait. An hour later, nothing. Two hours, four hours. You rub your hands for warmth and say a quick prayer. Suddenly, you hear them. You look up and there are thousands of ducks heading your way. But then, the flock passes by overhead. They aren’t landing with your decoys. In desperation, you raise your shotgun and shoot into the middle of the flock. Two ducks fall into the water nearby . . . while the rest fly on.

Yep, as an Indie author, finding the right audience has been like that. I started out blind to all things marketing. Branding my book covers? Took three tries. The decoys? Ads aimed at people I thought would like my books. Rubbing my hands for warmth was actually wringing my hands wondering what to do next. And my attempts at advertising? Pretty much a shotgun blast that brought in a fraction of a fraction of the readers the ads went to.

I’ve learned much by doing and a lot more by failing. If only the failed attempts weren’t so expensive . . .

Not all of the failures were my fault. The market keeps changing. What worked last year isn’t

working now. As I write this, we—I and nine other authors—are about to release a box set of brand new novellas: Kill Zone: Ten Deadly Thrillers. Our goal was simple. Sell enough (at

$0.99 on pre-order) to make the USA Today bestsellers list. Jan Thompson spearheaded the effort after a box set she developed last year made the list. Despite the efforts of ten authors, we’re a week away from release and have only 20% of the numbers we need.

A year ago, advertising on Amazon held a good chance of turning a $200/month author to a $10K/month author. Then everyone and his cousin flocked to Amazon ads. Now, you’re fortunate to get your ads to show. Facebook was the same way a year before that. Bookbub, the holy grail of book advertising, accepts fewer than 20% of submissions. They’ve turned me down 15 times. Other promotional venues have shown moderate success, as long as I gave my book away for free. With over 25,000 eBooks given away, I’ve grown tired of that.

So, the bottom line is that you really do need to understand your audience because it will require thinking outside the box to be someplace where they can find you . . . as well as faith and prayer. How do you stand out from the ever-growing crowd? First and foremost, write a quality book. Then, with that knowledge of your audience, find a venue that directly targets them. Don’t go with a certain promo just because everyone else says how great it is. That might be old news. For me, I’ve got a new place to try—now that I have a fresh perspective on my audience. And with faith and maybe more than a little prayer, that effort should pay off.

Have you discovered other ways to "stand out from the crowd" to get your book into the hands of your audience?

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Braxton DeGarmo spent over 30 years in Emergency and Family Medicine, both in and out of the military, before retiring to focus on writing in 2014. He writes from a Judeo-Christian worldview, but he writes his stories to reach and entertain people of all backgrounds. Many of the incidents in his books are based on real occurrences, people, and experiences in his own life, such as learning to escape a water crash in a helicopter. Human trafficking, medical kidnapping, government corruption, and other social injustices have become the premises used for his stories. And the technologies described in his books are all current . . . and possible. His latest novel, Kidnapped Nation, was released in April of this year and is book six in his MedAir Series of suspense and thrillers. Kill Zone: Ten Deadly Thrillers will remain available for a limited time after its release October 3^rd.

Audience? What audience? by Braxton DeGarmo

We all know what an audience is. A big challenge for many is finding that audience. That’s certainly true for Indie authors, and becoming truer for trad pub authors, whose publishers expect more and more marketing from them.

If you Google the phrase “finding an audience as an author,” you’ll come up with dozens of blog posts and articles on the topic. They all pretty much say the same thing. You might read the first one and your eyes glaze over as you think, Duh! That’s obvious. But had you truly considered it before and acted on it?

A lot of it is just common sense. Geographic: Where do my readers live? Are they urban or rural? Does their climate have them hibernating over long, dreary winters with a pile of your books by their reading chair to brighten the day? Demographic: Age, gender, race, native language, social status, and more. Some bloggers tell you to know your target before writing your book. True, to a point. You don’t want to write for action-oriented males, ages 18-25, if your real audience should be women, ages 25-50, seeking a romantic escape . . . because their own action-oriented male is asleep on the couch. <Ahem>

A branch of demographics has been labeled psychographics. That might include things like

readers’ backgrounds/upbringing; their health; their goals, beliefs, and values; and their lifestyles. Then there’s their behavioral traits. Do they prefer paperback or eBook? Are they already loyal to your genre? Do they tend to buy on impulse and throw money at books, or are they Amazonians who struggle to pay $0.99 for a good book? (Yes, that’s a dig at Amazon, the epitome of love/hate relationships for authors.)

The answers to some of these questions really are apparent. The USA is the #1 market for books and the native language is English, obviously. But some answers don’t become clear until you’ve established yourself as an author. If you’re just starting out, your demographics are likely to look like . . . you. Makes sense. You’re writing what you like, so it stands to reason that others like you might as well. By the release of book two, you’ll likely have discovered other traits that help broaden your perspective about your readers. Things like Facebook pages and Google Analytics (to track your website) can be a tremendous help.

Having said all this, there is one thing all these blogs and articles don’t mention—our faith. As Christians, we can’t ignore our beliefs when discussing audiences. Are you writing to the choir? Maybe you want to pull fence-sitters back to earth. Perhaps you’re called to reach the fallen, heathen world. Maybe it’s not a task of you finding your audience, but of God’s targeted audience finding you . . . and Christ through you. Knowing this, understanding God’s goal for your writing, is what really counts before writing your book.

So, you’re thinking, Okay. I’m getting a sense of who sits in my audience. What next? Well, stay tuned for Part 2.

Have you found your audience? How did you go about it?

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Braxton DeGarmo spent over 30 years in Emergency and Family Medicine, both in and out of the military, before retiring to focus on writing in 2014. He writes from a Judeo-Christian worldview, but he writes his stories to reach and entertain people of all backgrounds. Many of the incidents in his books are based on real occurrences, people, and experiences in his own life, such as learning to escape a water crash in a helicopter. Human trafficking, medical kidnapping, government corruption, and other social injustices have become the premises used for his stories. And the technologies described in his books are all current . . . and possible. His latest novel, Kidnapped Nation, was released in April of this year and is book six in his MedAir Series of suspense and thrillers. Kill Zone: Ten Deadly Thrillers will remain available for a limited time after its release October 3^rd.