Slapping is a Moment...Family is Forever

By Barbara Poelle

At first glance, my grandmother, my mother, my sister and I all have similar tastes in reading. We like genre fiction, upmarket prose and a protagonist that we can feel both voyeuristic and empathetic towards.   We are partial to black humor and we think that red herrings and double crosses are better than doughnut sandwiches. (This is, of course, just two doughnuts smashed together, but you would be shocked how well that gets the job done. You’re welcome.)

However, recently my sister and I got into a “gentle” dispute about a book series and we were at such heated polar opinions that I was concerned there might be biting. (She weighs maybe 100 pounds, but she fights like a puma on crystal meth.) Oh, and don’t even think for ONE SECOND that I can pull the, “Well, since I actually work in the publishing industry…” Good God. She will soon be tossing a handful of my teeth across the floor as if throwing dice with a bunch of ragamuffin city street urchins in 1899.  My mother also liked this series, but not enough to choke me over it. Besides, she is much more the, “Oh Barbie honey, I’m so sorry you didn’t like it” variety rather than going with the glaring followed by the slapping.

So, here we are: I hate this series with the white hot rage of a thousand spitting geese, and my sister and mother want to invite it to Thanksgiving dinner and let it sit in my chair and tell it embarrassing stories about me eating dirt in the backyard.  

Meanwhile, there is another series that my grandmother and mother read as if on a heroin binge.  My sister? Stonily refused to even pick one up based on the cover copy. Personally, after reading the first two, I was still somewhat impartial and so I probably wouldn’t read another. But I PROMISE you, demographically speaking, this series was absolutely aimed at my sister and me.

There’s the rub:  we are all voracious fiction reading women over the age of 30, come from the middle of the country and have the same basic moral code, (let’s be honest, mine is probably a BIT looser) and would make up a certain demographic of readers on some book analyst’s computer print out, and we all seem to like the same types of books…but we don’t.

So who is the actual target audience?

That is such a basic question that I ask myself with every project, that I sometimes forget I’m even doing it.  Like Breathing.  Or drinking this mai tai. As an agent, you have to keep it in the back of your mind, it’s part of the job, because you need to make sure you are not pigeonholing yourself with a project that would make a killing in the south western dog owners who operate small businesses demographic, but would be ignored everywhere else.  Sometimes in meetings at the agency when someone is on the fence about a project they love, someone else will pipe up, “Who is the audience?” and often, THAT is what the agent is hesitating over, a lack of clear focus on the intended readership.

Meanwhile, it is to a certain extent important for an author to keep this in mind while crafting a novel, but not to the point of agonizing over plot details and protagonist traits. Sure, sometimes the age of a protagonist can focus the arrow towards a specific group of readers, but I bet you can think of about a few books where the protagonist was a young female under the age of 18, yet people of all ages where reading it.  And sure, Stephen King is read by 11-year-old girls and 75-year-old men, but please, most of the greats transcend actual demographics, that’s what makes them the greats. However, it is something to think about, especially if you have been receiving a lot of rejections on a particular project submission. Is it CLEAR who your audience is? Are you mixing heavy sci-fi elements with something you are referring to as women’s fiction? Have you placed your edgy crime fiction in a nursing home with a geriatric detective? That’s okay if you did, just make sure you are drawing those comparisons RIGHT AWAY in your query letter with previous titles that have done this and done this WELL. That will help to jar a reader into the right head zone to digest and enjoy the read.

There is a simple diagnostic tool to knowing your audience, and that is READING within the intended genre, and being able to draw comprehensive and viable parallels to your work. Read not only the bestsellers in your genres, but also those that had a solid and commendable performance on the shelves. This will instinctively help to hone your subconscious instinct in targeting the audience.

Biggest caveat: In the end, you can’t write for anybody. You must write because it is the story you HAVE to tell, and the characters you love, and the journey you HAD to go on. But this is just a little diagnostic tool to use when maybe the motor isn’t running as soundly as you would like. And also when thinking about what to get my sister for Christmas.

 

Comments

[Jeff Cohen]

Come on, Barbara, you can tell me: Which one was my series?

[Carrie]

"...white hot rage of a thousand spitting geese." Hee! Few animals possess the talent for rage that a goose does, and yet it's always mad dogs, angry bears, pumas on crystal meth... nice to see a shout out for geese!

[Mark Phialas]

I think mud wrestling would be a great way to settle it.

[LaurenDeStefano]

So... that gritty new crime series about a forensic analyst who moonlights as a shark whisperer would only have an audience of one? Is that what you're telling me?

[barbara]

But WHAT an audience.

[Janet Reid]

If I want to read it, everyone should want to read it. Whaddya mean that's not the right answer to "who's the audience???"

PS I'm not sure what you do in publishing can rightly be categorized as "work". Attacking, yes; tackling, yes; beating the crap out of, fer shure. "Work?" not exactly.

[Heather Snow]

I'm so glad you're in my corner of this literary ring...sounds like I'm going to have to work to get your sister on my side, too. Everyone needs a puma on crystal meth to have their back!