We want to get our audience just right, so we know exactly what words and language to use, both in the book iself as well as in the marketing process. If it’s too broad, it will be hard to define and categorize our book, thereby making it hard to differentiate it from the many other books out there.
It’s difficult to think of our books as products sometimes; after all, we’re pouring so much passion and love into creating it. They are a glimpse into our very own world. But in order to ensure that our book sells, we will have to treat it like a product and we will need to make sure we have defined the correct target audience.
It’s important to think about this even BEFORE we start writing our children’s book. In order to identify our audience more easily, we can ask questions, such as:
- Who is going to buy the book?
- Who is going to read the book?
- Will your book appeal to boys or girls? Or both?
- What is the appropriate age group?
No book will be for everyone. And if we’re trying to appeal to everyone, we’ll end up appealing to no one. Some themes, for example, seem to appeal to certain groups more than others. And the amount of text we choose for our book depends entirely on our audience’s age group.
In order to connect with our target audience, we (1) want to make sure that our characters are culturally diverse, so that the readers can better identify with them, and (2) we want to make sure to have at least one underlying theme that our readers will have in common. We can have more than just one underlying theme as well, which we can combine in our story. The more you can pinpoint and incorporate the main character traits and interests of your audience, the more powerful your book will be.
Let’s look at an example to illustrate what I mean when I’m talking about an underlying theme combination. For example, a lot of kids love dinosaurs and lots of kids love vehicles. Combining those two can broaden your audience, providing you with a wider enthusiastic reader base (in case you’re wondering, dinosaurs and vehicles have already been combined in Netflix’s brilliant DINOTRUX series).
Without identifying your ideal audience first, however, you will not be able to make potential connections, and your book will not be relatable to any group.
DO YOUR RESEARCH
The best way to identify and further define your audience is to research and study them by going directly to those places you believe they like to spend their time. You may also want to talk to teachers, librarians, or your friends with kids.
You can also try to take your research online. Frequenting the U.S. Census, for example, can provide a wealth of democratic data, while sites like Nielsen provide free segmentation to find out how particular demographics behave.
Remember, with children’s books you will have to please parents just as much as the kids, because it is them to actually purchase your book. Combining all our findings should provide us with a pretty good idea about our book’s audience, setting us up for an amazing start.
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