Thursday, July 12, 2012

Know your Market and Write to your Audience!


Bullshit!!
This is crap comes from agents, publishers, writing teachers who have never written a book in their life.  It’s trying to apply marketing psycho babble to writing.  Artists, Musicians and Writers cannot qualify, identify, label, profile, or categorize their audience much less attempt to be authentic and creative in a true sense to their audience through trying to target them.
If you write with this approach you are probably doomed for failure in an already difficult and competitive playground.  Especially in today’s Global market economy where you never know where your stuff is going to end up or who might be reading it.  This is probably more true for the new and rising Indie Authors than traditionally published authors.  E-books are literally available to anybody with a computer, cell phone, pad device or e-reader on the globe from the moment it is published.
We all know it will take time for people to discover your work and begin to talk about it and for the word to spread about your books, as my friend explained so eloquently in her post which I provided a link to on Tuesday on my blog post.
If you want to sell more books, write more and better books.  PERIOD.
Write what you know.  Write about what you’re passionate about.  Write the best book you have ever wanted to read that hasn’t been written yet, because it is still rattling around in your head.  Write for yourself!  Your market, PLUGHH.  Readers, whoever they may be will either like it or they won’t, we have no control over that.  Those that like your work will come back for more.
I self-published my first book to see if I had any talent whatsoever at this stuff called writing.  When the reviews came in the only bad things people had to say was about the Grammar and the English.  That we CAN control.  Three edits and corrections later and my first book isn’t half bad.  It hopefully will always be the worst book I’ve ever written.
My second book has the same deficiency of Grammar, English and formatting issues which are all currently being addressed and soon will be re-released in much better form.  You don’t see me pushing the hell out of it yet because the version that is out there for sale has problems.  Beyond the grammatical problems my second novel either resonates with readers the way it does with me or they hate it.  People have expressed issues with the ages of the characters, the language, kids smoking and talking about sex.  First off it wasn’t written for anybody but me, I absolutely love it.  I get excited even going through it again editing and correcting the stuff from my editor.  The numerous five star reviews for a new authors work says that some people get what I was aiming for even in spite of the books inherent mechanical flaws.
I have learned, which is part of my growth as a published author, that if you don’t ruffle anybody’s feathers there probably isn’t any truth or passion in your story.  What really bothers people is things which tug them away from their conceptual ideas of what a perfect world could be or challenges their daily delusions about the world we actually inhabit every day.  If you do your research you would find that many books that are considered great were highly controversial at the time they were written.  If I publish a novel of fiction that gets banned from entire countries I would be over joyed at the prestigious company I have just been lumped in with.
I have some stories which I will be doing later which will not just ruffle some feathers, but will be like an elephant squishing out its cigarette on the entire foul in question.  I am polishing, studying and learning how to be the most eloquently multilayered steeped with undertones of symbolism of a writer I can become before I hit the one million words published mark.  Then I will delve into pissing off most of the delusional world through epic tales which will break the molds of established bullshit taught in schools and handed down by narrow minded adults to their young.  I will challenge people to think while carrying them along a roller coaster ride of intertwined plots and dilemmas.  I like stories that are real, messy, complicated and morally inconclusive like life really is on many fronts.  There won’t be any happily ever after’s as in true life doesn’t let the weary alone to relax on their laurels in that manner.
My hope is that in this sea of people taking the leap to become published that a few others arise out of the sea as Leviathans and scare the shit out of the world as a whole.  That we force people to open their eyes and question things as we entertain them and challenge their beliefs.  That besides just trying to sell books or write for your market or audience that they pour themselves into their work so that together we may change the world in the process.
“Ulysses” by James Joyce was at one time banned in the United States and Great Britain.  Today it is considered by many as a primary piece of epic literature from the 1900’s.

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