Skip to main content

Write for the Fans You'll Have in Ten Years

Yesterday while I was peddling away at the gym, I stumbled across the Science Fiction and Fantasy Marketing Podcast and it quickly became one of my new favorite podcasts to listen to. The episode I watched was #139 with guest author Joanna Penn. It was refreshing to hear authors talk frankly about what works for them (so many seem to keep their trials and errors close to their chest). My big takeaway was: Write for the fans you'll have in the future.


I tend to get caught up in the daily stats of what my writing is doing. Sometimes that can be a really empowering and exciting thing, when a book is climbing the charts because of a promotion or ad campaign. Sometimes, it's immensely depressing when there's nothing but crickets chirping on the charts and graphs. But Joanna Penn made a great point, and it's one that I want to keep front of mind as I continue to work on Curie, book three in my Adaline series.
I'm not writing for the readers that are looking at my website today.
I won't lie and say that my core readers of today aren't my rock. They are! I'm always so excited when someone who has been reading me for years comments on my most recent work. But they aren't really the person I'm writing for. The person I'm writing for is the person ten years from now who discovers one of my books and thinks it's pretty interesting, then falls in love with my writing and reads the rest of my backlist.

So how can we cater to the reader of the future? By writing more quality books for them to stumble upon. Yes! By writing more, we cast a wider net. Instead of finding those mega fans onesey-twosey like we do when we have one or two books, we can find those fans a dozen at a time as we have a broader catalog of work. To make your book successful, you need to have fans who are so excited by your writing that they'll tell everyone they know about it. That's how word of mouth marketing works. When we only have one book for them to trumpet about, they'll be selective in who they tell about us because they likely think that the book they read will only apply to certain people that they know. But what if we have a dozen books? Then they'll be able to share our work with more people because they'll be able to find a reader for each of our books because they enjoy our overall writing style and will find readers who can also connect.

How do I write for my future readers?
I'm doing my best to fill my catalog with interesting and wonderful works so that when those readers find me, whether it's a year, or ten years, or twenty years from now, they have a whole list of works to read through. So what I'm doing today is working towards completing the Adaline series. Later this year I'm going to expand the Convention series to three books, and then I'm adding the second title to the S is for Serial series as well.

So, if you're getting discouraged that your books aren't flying off the shelves (or they aren't getting put on shelves to begin with), take heart. Life is long and winding. As long as you keep pushing forward, readers will find you. Just keep doing your best to put yourself out there. Build your brand, build your backlist, and the success will come.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Getting Ready...

... for my very first author appearance in November. It's exciting! It's nerve wracking! It's a great opportunity! It's terrifying! It's going to be a great way to kick off the holiday season! I've got some books on order so there will be copies of both Age/Sex/Location: Love is Just a Click Away and A Giraffe In The Room available for sale. This is my first step into taking my writing on the road - maybe 2014 will include a book tour if this goes well...?

Make Them Pay: A Thriller Anthology

OHMYGOSH you guys. A couple weeks ago I had the absolute pleasure of reading all twenty-two stories in Make Them Pay: A Thriller Anthology   and I couldn't put it down. I'm a fairly slow reader compared to many of my author friends, but I finished this nearly six hundred page behemoth in just four days. Granted, one of the stories is one I wrote ( Innocence Lost by D.K. Greene), but I devoured the other stories, too. Make Them Pay is a mixture of thrillers from authors who write military, vigilante justice, science thrillers, kidnappings, murder, hit men, and more. The stories are varied and fast paced, and you may just end up filling your TBR with a host of new authors you enjoy. At the time of this writing, the anthology is free with a  Kindle Unlimited  subscription (it's just a few bucks otherwise), and is also available in a handsome print edition. One of the really wonderful things surrounding this anthology is Michelle PW's author spotlight  series. She has inte

True Midnight Ramblings

Ah, July.  Normally a time of constant celebration, this month has been especially trying and filled with sleepless nights and wandering days.  I am looking forward to August when friends return from far off places, grief will be a little closer to subdued, and life will begin to return to normalcy (I hope). In a fit of sleeplessness spurred from a sorrow filled day on the horizon, a late-night emergency and lots of random thoughts and feelings I decided to hover around the internets a while until my eyes start to feel a little more heavy.  I had received a notification that there have been some updates here on Blogger/Blogspot and so I decided to check them out now that I am left with very little to do for the next 8 hours or so. You may notice that this blog, as well as my other two blogs ( A Smaller Bottom and Meet Your Marker ), has received a sudden face-lift.  I was really surprised at the new backgrounds and customizations on the templates toolbar, and had a lot of fun putt