How to Write Non-Fiction: Who is your reader? Identify your target market
“Niche is the new mainstream.”
—James Watt, Business for Punks
Most authors writing their first book think that it’s for everyone.
But it’s not.
The good news is that there is likely to be a perfect group of people who really want your book. You just have to identify who they are and where they might hear about it.
Put yourself in the mind of the reader
What’s in it for them?
You have to switch your head from author to reader, from artist to business person. It’s not about you. It’s about them.
People read non-fiction for education, inspiration, or entertainment, and the promise of transformation from where they are to where they want to be. The reader wants to understand something about themselves or their current situation, and they’re reading a book to learn from your experience as well as gather specific steps for how to deal with their own.
Why will someone want to read your book?
Knowing the answer to this question will help you narrow down your audience and begin to think about how you will be able to reach them. Here are some different reasons that might apply.
(1) It helps with a specific problem
This explains the popularity of weight loss and self-help books every January!
You’re reading this because you want to write a non-fiction book. You will take what’s relevant from these pages and (hopefully) go on to write one yourself. That’s the transformation I want to make in your life. My job as the author is to provide information, inspiration, and strategies that will help you reach that goal.
What problem does your book help people with? And what strategies and solutions can you offer?
(2) Your book is on a specific topic
Many non-fiction readers have special interests on specific topics and may buy lots of books in the niche, as well as in related niches.
I buy lots of books around death culture and memento mori, as well as the deep ocean, investing, and travel. What topic is the focus of your book and how does that topic intersect with other niches?
(3) The reader knows and likes the author
This reason is why those with a large platform get book deals. YouTubers, TikTokers, celebrities, and anyone with a big enough reach can easily find readers. If you have an audience, you might get a book deal because people will buy and read it, anyway. Do you have an audience already? What do they want from you?
These questions will help you make a start on your target market. Once you determine who is already in your audience, you can expand to think of intersecting audiences your readers might be able to reach.
Demographics and psychographics
Some books are obviously aimed at particular demographics; for example, What to Expect When You’re Expecting by Heidi Murkoff is a classic book for those who are pregnant. It’s still a bestseller, and frequently updated with new research.
On Amazon, it’s often bought together with We’re Pregnant! The First Time Dad’s Pregnancy Handbook by Adrian Kulp, a clear demographic switch in an adjacent niche.
Personally, I don’t find demographics so useful, since there are people who want to write a book across the divisions of gender, race, age, religion, country, and political persuasion.
Psychographics are more related to aspects of personality and can be more useful. For example, my book Public Speaking for Authors, Creatives and Other Introverts has a clear psychographic target market. While the tips in the book are just as relevant for the wider public speaking niche, I wanted to target a sub-niche that intersected with my other books for writers.
You also need to consider where the reader is on their journey. Are they a beginner or an expert?
For example, Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki is a great book for those starting out in financial education, whereas Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins is a doorstop book with tips that are more suited to those who know what they’re doing with money.
Stages of life also apply; for example, consider the different audiences being targeted by Time Management for Students in Grad School versus Time Management for Busy Mums versus Making the Most of Your Grandkids and Still Having Time for Holidays.
If you’re still struggling, consider who your book is not for or what you won’t cover in your material. For example, this book is not aimed at people who want to write a novel. I have a different book for that, cunningly titled How to Write a Novel.
You are your reader. You are not your reader.
It’s a paradox, I know, but in many ways, you are your reader because you will generally be writing a book inspired by problem you’ve faced or a challenge you’ve overcome. I’ve written non-fiction books so I can share my tips and experience with you, because I’m a few steps ahead on the same journey.
But in other ways, you are not your reader because your demographics and psychographics might be completely different. It’s likely that you and I differ in age, gender, race, religion, political persuasion, life stage, and all the other things that make up who we are.
Even the very act of writing and finishing a book will set you apart, since most people never achieve that goal.
So as you write, keep yourself in mind, but don’t fixate on reaching readers who are exactly the same as you.
Research other books in your niche
You can also define your target audience by researching comparative titles. What are the five to ten books that your book will be like? What can you find out about this market by how books are packaged? What do the titles and covers have in common?
What language is used in the sales description?
In what way will your book be similar to those other books? In what way will it be different? Will you be trying to reach the same audience or a slightly different one?
What if there are no other books in your niche?
If you’re writing in an emerging area, then there may well be no books in your niche, but it won’t be long until there are more.
When I wrote Business for Authors: How to be an Author Entrepreneur, there were no other books on business for authors, as it was generally assumed that agents or publishers did all that stuff for you. Now there are lots of them as authors take control of their own creative careers.
It’s much easier to sell books to an existing market! It’s easier to identify readers and you’ll have better category and keyword choices, as well as books and authors to target with advertising.
Given how fast new niches are filled now, it’s more likely you haven’t identified all the potential crossovers with other markets.
Use AI tools to help you find your target market
Use ChatGPT or another AI tool to help you. Here’s a simple prompt example:
I have a book with the themes of pilgrimage, solo walking, menopause, midlife, and the deeper side of walking — please give me 10 different target markets for this kind of book.
You could provide a lot more information, like a synopsis or your table of contents, or a draft sales description, or anything else. You could even upload your work in progress if you’re happy with the terms and conditions of the tool.
With even my basic prompt, ChatGPT answered with ten potential target markets including women in midlife, pilgrimage enthusiasts, solo travellers and walkers, spiritual seekers, midlife career changers, and more, each with an explanatory sentence. You could then expand these by asking for customer avatars, detailed descriptions of your ideal customers in different niches. Having all of this information gives me a much clearer idea of who my readers might be and how to craft sales descriptions and other marketing copy to appeal to them.
You can use this same technique to go deeper and find other books in the niche, using a prompt like,
Please give me 10 books published in the last 10 years that are aimed at midlife career changers who are also interested in health and wellness.
I can then see what kinds of books are available and which are highly ranked. I often find a lot of different books doing this kind of search on the various AI tools, so spend some time playing with this and seeing what you can find.
Is your niche too big or too small?
Understanding your niche can help you position your book and make sure it appeals to specific people, rather than going too broad.
A book on ‘gardening’ is too big, whereas a book on ‘growing organic tomatoes in your window box’ might be too small.
Understanding your target market can help you with this, both in your content and also your title and subtitle.
With my memoir, Pilgrimage, I struggled with the subtitle, eventually settling on Lessons Learned From Solo Walking Three Ancient Ways. I wanted to attract solo walkers, particularly women, who often feel unsafe walking alone, in order to provide encouragement and practical tips. While there are elements of spirituality in the book, it’s not Christian; and while there are aspects of mental health, it’s not primarily about that either.
I’m happy with the balance but it took some consideration of the target market to get right, as well as working with ChatGPT to come up with options.
Is it worth writing in a small niche?
My memoir Pilgrimage is aimed at a pretty small niche, so clearly, I believe it’s worth it to write your book regardless — if you care enough about the topic and it’s personally important to you.
There is no point in spending your precious time on a project that you only write for commercial reasons unless you can be sure of making money on it. But if you’re writing from the heart about something you care about, a book that might change your life in the process of writing it, then it’s absolutely worth it.
Write to market
Rather than taking a ‘top-down approach’ in which you first decide on a topic and then define your audience, you can use a ‘bottom-up approach’ by starting with a market and then designing a book for them.
Writing to market is more common for established writers who have already written the book of their heart and are now looking for other income streams — thinking like a publisher rather than an author.
You can find hungry markets by looking at Amazon categories and the ranking of top-selling books. You can do this manually yourself or you can use a tool like Publisher Rocket, which can help identify under-served niches, as well as giving you a sense of the income for comparison books.
* * *
Ideally, you will now have some idea of who your target market is and perhaps a list of different groups to consider. You don’t need to have it exactly mapped out yet. You can hone it further as you work through the process of writing.
“Don’t try to sell your book to everyone… Far better to obsess about a little subset of the market — that subset that you have permission to talk with, that subset where you have credibility, and most important, that subset where people just can’t live without your book.”
—Seth Godin, “Advice for authors,” Seth’s Blog
Questions:
• Why will someone want to read your book? What problems does it help solve? What topic is your book on, or does it intersect with different topics?
• Do you have an audience already? What do they want from you?
• Do you have particular demographics or psychographics in mind as a target audience?
• How are you like your readers? How are you not like your readers?
• Examine five to ten books in your niche. What can you find out about this market by how books are packaged? What do the titles and covers have in common? What language is used in the sales description? In what way will your book be similar to those other books? In what way will it be different?
• If you used AI tools to help you, what did they identify as some of your possible target market niches?
Resources:
• Business for Punks: Break All the Rules—The BrewDog Way — James Watt
• Seth Godin’s advice for authors — https://seths.blog/2006/08/advice_for_auth/
• ChatGPT — www.ChatGPT.com
• Publisher Rocket for category and keyword research: www.TheCreativePenn.com/rocket
• Write to Market: Deliver a Book That Sells — Chris Fox
