A discussion on target audiences

[Paul_Tromba]

Target audiences are a huge topic for writers, mostly because it allows the author to Guage who may be interested in their story at any given time. A target audience, for those that are unaware, is the group of people that your story is meant to be read by. Sometimes, we write for one target audience but ultimately end up targeting a completely different audience by mistake. This is usually due to writing discrepancies, lack of understanding of the target audience, and/or because the author dislikes their original target audience.

What I would like to discuss are ways one can best determine their target audience, reach them, and grow readership within those audiences.

Spoiler: Rant about Target Audiences

I will say though, I do have one issue with target audiences. When authors, including myself, will tell a reader that they aren't the target audience if they have problem with anything in the book. It feels like an excuse to not consider what they say because usually, the reader is the target audience, and having the them be interested in is what you want. I'm not saying that authors need to change everything based off of readers but that they should at least consider them before brushing them off as not part of the target audience.

 

[Corty]

Huh. I never thought about who are my target audience when I write.

Although, I do tell some commenters to just drop my book instead of bitching about it.

 

[SailusGebel]

It might be an excuse, but at the same time, there is no "right" way to write. As long as a reader can comprehend what you write, you can do whatever you want. You have to adjust your expectations, but it is not related to how you should write I think. Anyway, you can, for example, infodump as much as you want. And you are going to be right. Now, if you infodump and expect people to praise your story, and sell billions of copies, and be the modern classic, this is where the problems appear, and where you are wrong.

Anyway, I think it's not an excuse as long as you are self aware. You can write a flawed book on purpose. Why? Because some people want flawed books, that is your target audience. And I don't think this is an excuse.

 

[Tempokai]

There isn't THAT much target audience in webnovels. There are niches and the random assortment of people seeking that niche. Basically a subculture of a subculture that seeks what it likes.

Sure, the usual tactics used by marketeers will work, but the efficacy is certainly will be small. It's not 1990s and it sucks.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

There are cases where I do consider a suggestion/feedback/comment from a reader, especially when I know that the reader is invested, and his ideas improve my works more. However, unless I'm going to monetize my story (as in publish it officially), I'll dismiss comments that aren't in line with my visions for the story.

But yeah, I don't fully consider target audience with what I write now. (I mean, I do give some considerations, but not really 'write' for them)

 

[Paul_Tromba]

There isn't THAT much target audience in webnovels. There are niches and the random assortment of people seeking that niche. Basically a subculture of a subculture that seeks what it likes.

Sure, the usual tactics used by marketeers will work, but the efficacy is certainly will be small. It's not 1990s and it sucks.

I would say those niches and subcultures, IE the tags are the target audiences.

 

[LesserCodex]

I think this is where we have to look at the tags we put on our stories, specific groups of readers always search for certain tags they want when looking for something to read and through that is how we try and draw in our target audience, which is why we should be mindful of the tags we put on our story. On the statistics page for authors, we can look at our views and down to our referrers which lets us see where our readers come from some just browse until they find something.

But some search for specific tags, like adult, fantasy, Girls love, futanari and smut and get recommended the stories that fit their requirements and then it also comes to the audience wanting the story to be ongoing or completed which would mean an active reader base. And also just readers sharing the story can help draw in more with the same tastes.

 

[AutumnPlunkett]

I hate the idea of "it's an excuse" for an author to refuse to cater to a single reader's POV. If they want a story that's written a specific way they can go write it themselves. Target audience or whatever else is besides the point.

My books have always been a love it or hate it thing. I have a small handful of the vocal minority complain about something only for that to be something others are all "Oh my God! This is exactly what I've been looking for in a story!" Yes, pretty much those exact words are something I've heard a few times from my readers. Either way, both the vocal groups are the minority. I still have hundreds to thousands of readers on those same books across the sites I cross-post to, so clearly *some* people enjoy it.

Also, I'd like to echo what others have already said. Some people need to learn to stop reading something they clearly don't enjoy instead of spewing hate on every chapter as they continue to read the story.

 

[LilRora]

I think, what's primarily seen recently in games but also in stories, is that in the past 10-20 years the consumer-producer (here reader-writer) relationship has shifted drastically. In the past, the consumers had to adapt to the product. There were so few of the latter available that abandoning one we had issues with and searching for another similar thing was difficult at best, impossible at times. That promoted learning and adapting to the challenges given to us.

These days I sometimes feel like consumers (again, this is primarily visible in the gaming industry, but also in stories) want the product to be adapted to match their expectations. This is, depending how rough I want to be, either backwards or idiotic. People want to remain in their comfort zone and repeat something over and over again with minor variations instead of trying something new, which might be a good thing for a moment, but becomes problematic if they cannot recognize this fact or if it prolongs over months and years, and they stagnate in that comfort zone until they rot.

Why this is bad from the perspective of authors is that it's impossible to match a product to a wide group of people - like a fairly popular quote goes, a game for everyone is a game for no one.

Mainly for this reason I think that matching a story to the audience is putting the cart before the horse. No matter what it is, how niche and how unpopular, there will always be people interested in it - you just need to find the right audience. For this... well, this is the difficult part.

Determining the target audience, at least for me, is fairly easy. You need to find a core part of your story - as simple as that. It can be LitRPG, romance, girl's love, cyberpunk, space opera, mystery, body horror, psychopathic main character, or whatever else (it will mostly be a genre or a sub-genre in most cases), you find at least one - or ideally at least a few - and start searching for audiences.

This can be extremely difficult because searching blindly is very unlikely to yield any results (I had been reading stories online for well over a year before I found Scribble, for example). The best way, like with most things, is to ask other people on forums and sites you're aware of. You might know the memes about that one guy from five years ago who had the exact same obscure problem as you.

When you find an audience that broadly matches your story, which generally means there's at least one core part of your story that's popular somewhere, you can post there. Growing readership is a whole nother topic, but I think it's primarily about consistency and transparency (other than the obvious factor, which is quality and quantity of your content).

 

[Paul_Tromba]

It might be an excuse, but at the same time, there is no "right" way to write. As long as a reader can comprehend what you write, you can do whatever you want. You have to adjust your expectations, but it is not related to how you should write I think. Anyway, you can, for example, infodump as much as you want. And you are going to be right. Now, if you infodump and expect people to praise your story, and sell billions of copies, and be the modern classic, this is where the problems appear, and where you are wrong.

Anyway, I think it's not an excuse as long as you are self aware. You can write a flawed book on purpose. Why? Because some people want flawed books, that is your target audience. And I don't think this is an excuse.

There are cases where I do consider a suggestion/feedback/comment from a reader, especially when I know that the reader is invested, and his ideas improve my works more. However, unless I'm going to monetize my story (as in publish it officially), I'll dismiss comments that aren't in line with my visions for the story.

But yeah, I don't fully consider target audience with what I write now. (I mean, I do give some considerations, but not really 'write' for them)

I think I may have chosen my words poorly. A target audience is meant Moreso for when publishing or releasing chapters. No one has to change the way the write or what they write unless if they are trying to fit into a specific audiences cookiecutter. I was looking more for how we interact with and grow our readerbase by knowing what they want. It's your story so you don't have to change anything. Though it is always good to consider what your audience says.

I hate the idea of "it's an excuse" for an author to refuse to cater to a single reader's POV. If they want a story that's written a specific way they can go write it themselves. Target audience or whatever else is besides the point.

I never said that. I said it's an excuse to not consider it and just say they aren't the target audience. You don't have to cater but at the very least consider what was said, whether it will be beneficial or unhelpful, and move on.

My books have always been a love it or hate it thing. I have a small handful of the vocal minority complain about something only for that to be something others are all "Oh my God! This is exactly what I've been looking for in a story!" Yes, pretty much those exact words are something I've heard a few times from my readers. Either way, both the vocal groups are the minority. I still have hundreds to thousands of readers on those same books across the sites I cross-post to, so clearly *some* people enjoy it.

Also, I'd like to echo what others have already said. Some people need to learn to stop reading something they clearly don't enjoy instead of spewing hate on every chapter as they continue to read the story.

This is why knowing a target audience is good. You know that those thousands of readers across sites are your readerbase and should be considered your target audience. The vocal minority that are haters, I wouldn't consider part of your target audience. So how do you go about filtering them out instead of them continuing to read with a hate boner? Why are they continuing to read it? Was there a tag that they saw that they expected to be one way rather than the way you approached it? If so, this is an easy fix by altering tags or putting labels in the Synopsis. Knowing your target audience isn't all about adjusting to fit what they want, it's also a tool for authors to filter out readers they may not want, meaning less poor review and bad comments in the long run.

I would also like to say that this thread and topic was not meant to start discourse, but instead to help us learn and grow. I apologize if my rant about my own personal gripe has bothered you. I would also like to apologize for said rant spiraling this thread into something negative.

 

[wresch]

I love the way this thread is evolving. Lots of back and forth leading to more clarity and more insights. Me? I have discovered my audience since the move to draft2digital. I have twenty novels on there, and I can see each day what my readers want. I have a series of alternate history (fun to write), a series of romance/action (a chance to evolve a character over 8 books), and a mystery series. Each morning I can see which is being downloaded. The mystery series. So, guess who's writing another mystery novel. Why not? I enjoy the characters and I have readers. Will I keep writing mysteries? Maybe. Maybe my muse will take me off in a new direction. But for the moment, I enjoy what I am writing, and I love having readers.

 

[Seaspecter]

When I wrote my story I put zero thought into who my audience might be I just wrote the story I wanted to. Now that it's been out for a few years I've gained a small group of readers which is made up of people from all over the world and from just about every demographic there is so I guess my target audience is people who want to read weird shit.

As a side note I actually have a blind reader who uses a text-to-speech program to listen to my book. He's super helpful and comments when he hears something that doesn't sound quite right.

 

[xuduxixi]

My target audience is the one typing this, I have to impress him with good ideas so that he wouldn't lose motivation with his writing.

 

[Akaichi]

You should really know your target audience! You like it or not!

For my novels, I usually make it very clear that they are Harems, not only in the tags but also in the description. This is because way before I made things clear, I discovered that many people hate this subgenera, so despite that tags clarifying this, i kept getting all kinds of negative reviews, especially on RR. The guy who cursed at me for making a harem, was IN FACT, not the novel's intended audience. They were never expected to like it in the first place!

In the end of the day, it is not about targeting specific Audience, but making sure that your target audience finds you while at the same time warning others without spoiling too much.

Western literature is still very lacking in this area, the only separate their audience by age and by genera. You could only know the things you are expecting to like by asking others who might spoil the novel for you, or by following authors who you liked on the past.
Webnovels on the other hand added the concept of tags, which changed the game. Now, you find the tags you like, and you read novels about them. That's the best way currently to communicate who might like your novel!

 

[TwistedRomcom]

One of the advantages of novels as a medium is that they have the freedom to be way more niche.

Movies, for example, take a team of hundreds of people and millions of dollars. They must have enough mass appeal to make their money back at the very least. But this often results in stories that are good enough, never incredible or amazing.

Almost by definition a great story is also one that's niche. It hits all the little things you like while avoiding the parts that annoy you. Everyone's opinion is unique when it comes to what those things are.

Worrying about appealing to a specific demographic and including all the things those people like on average might be the objectively correct move for maximizing popularity and profit, but it also dooms you to make a story that's only 'good'.

For me, 'good' isn't good enough. I would rather make something that's one person's favorite story of all time, instead of a story that a 1000 say is pretty good. Instead of making a story for your target demographic, make one for your ideal reader.

 

[owotrucked]

When I wrote my story I put zero thought into who my audience might be I just wrote the story I wanted to. Now that it's been out for a few years I've gained a small group of readers which is made up of people from all over the world and from just about every demographic there is so I guess my target audience is people who want to read weird shit.

Yeah, most people who start art initially do it for themselves. Hobbyists who don't earn money have no pressure to worry about audience and just throw their works like bottles in the sea. It's very enjoyable to have a fanbase growing because they share your taste.

It feels like an excuse to not consider what they say because usually, the reader is the target audience, and having the them be interested in is what you want.

I see feedbacks as a negotiation between a readerbase and the author in a pulling contest to move the story between what fans want and what the author wants. A fan wants something from you: a story that fits their standards. Authors don't even need excuse to disregard such request. Do you have to consider what I have to say if I ask you to sell me your car for 500 $?

Feedbacks and edits imply that the readers want a refined script, but what if the author just want to shit a first draft without too much effort? There are plenty of readers who are ready to consume webnovels that might not be the best quality but release entertaining chapters fast. In other words, if a reader wants refined stuff, they can buy something at the library instead of yapping in the comment section of a hobbyist writer who doesn't even earn money.

What could be hypocritical is an author who complains that they don't have enough readers but they refuse to compromise to cater a wider market.

ways one can best determine their target audience, reach them, and grow readership within those audiences.

The only method for market research I see matching your story to another established works in the same genre, vibe, etc. that have enough data about its market (how many sales, gender, age of the buyers, etc)

If nothing else, you can try to stalk your readers and look what they have in their reader list.

In other words, you have to become like those ads marketing companies that suck people's private data like a digital vampire

 

[Thraben]

My solution to this problem is always a mirror.

My target audience is always me; whether that's middle school me, high-school me, one-year-ago-me, or now me, as long as I'm writing something that I would have read or enjoyed at some point in my life then at least one standard deviation of humanity is included in my target audience.

 

[lambenttyto]

I love the way this thread is evolving. Lots of back and forth leading to more clarity and more insights. Me? I have discovered my audience since the move to draft2digital. I have twenty novels on there, and I can see each day what my readers want. I have a series of alternate history (fun to write), a series of romance/action (a chance to evolve a character over 8 books), and a mystery series. Each morning I can see which is being downloaded. The mystery series. So, guess who's writing another mystery novel. Why not? I enjoy the characters and I have readers. Will I keep writing mysteries? Maybe. Maybe my muse will take me off in a new direction. But for the moment, I enjoy what I am writing, and I love having readers.

Speaking of D2D, do you think it's any good? I've been using Smashwords, but not much traffic on my works. I got about twenty as well.