It’s very easy to fall into the trap of believing that your book is for ‘everybody’. But in order to promote a book successfully, you will need a targeted approach. Defining who will most likely read your book is essential. The very first step is to identify your genre so that you can minimize your book marketing efforts to those set of customers who are most likely to read your book.
For example, if your book is about dog health, your most obvious audience will be those with pet dogs. In reality, determining your target audience needs to be done even before you actually begin writing. After all it’s important to know whether you book is ‘sellable’.

Without defining a market, all your promotional efforts will be in vain. So, if you would like some focus while you promote your book, narrow down to your probable readers and gain initial traction for your book.

Here are a few things you could do to determine your audience:

Isolate what type of people your book would interest
This is the very first and the most crucial step in book marketing. Identifying your genre and then determining what type of people will be interested is the key to book promotions. If you are writing teen tales; your most likely target is the young adult crowd. If you are writing about archeology, determine the level of expertise that your book covers and then select from either a ‘basics’ or ‘intermediate’ or an ‘expert’ level book. The main classification for deciding the genre of a book is fiction and nonfiction.

Identify books similar to yours and look at their profiles
Promoting your book is not an easy task. It requires a lot of effort on your part as an author. After you have identified your genre, one way to narrow down your search for the audience is by looking at books that are similar to yours. Checkout their readership so that you get a clear picture of what to expect and how many readers you are targeting.

Pinpoint what is special about your book
In order to entice your probable readers, you will need to pin point what is special about your book, that a dozen other similar books do not have. There should actually be something unique about your book. Say if you are writing about ‘Time Management’, there should be some new technique, or new methodology that you discuss that ten other books don’t.

While you scout out your target market, you can also check out organizations, institutions or libraries that may be interested in your book. Getting these institutions interested in your book is a great way to get the initial readership that can influence the future promotional efforts. Book shows and exhibitions are a great platform for gaining that extra visibility. It is important however to select the right kind of shows and exhibitions. Do a little research about their previous work and successful events.

Looking for a great platform for showcasing your book? The Combined Book Exhibit can help you display your book to the right audience!

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