Perfect Reader Profile, Your 1st Step In Selling 1000 Books
Creating a detailed reader profile is the ONLY way to monetize your target market for consistent book sales!
The goal of every self-published author is to have consistent book sales. It validates the hard work that goes into being a writer. But without knowing who your perfect reader profile (target market) is, let alone understanding their unique reading and buying habits, it can be hard to sell one hundred books, much less one thousand books.
And let’s be clear, one thousand books sold isn’t that big of a deal. Yep, I said it, and here’s why.
Most self-published authors think that a thousand books must be sold after they do a book launch for that launch to be successful. And if you can do that, great, but if not, let’s look at selling one thousand books… practically.
There are four quarters in a year (every three months is a quarter). Now, if you were to sell 250 books every three months, you’d have your thousand books sold.
Is selling 250 books every three months still a big number to you? Then let’s go a bit deeper, shall we?
If you can sell 2.78 books a day (roughly about 3 books a day) for 90 days, then that would give you 250 books in 90 days.
So, from a practical standpoint (and one that’s more doable), all you must do is sell 3 books a day to sell over one thousand books.
See, I told you that selling a thousand books wasn’t that big of a deal.
But it doesn’t matter if your goal is to sell one book, one thousand books, or one million books, if you’ve yet to develop your perfect reader profile, you’ll only be selling books to your friends, family, coworkers, and a few random strangers who stumbled upon your book.
Lack of consistent book sales is the number one reason most self-published authors never go on to make a career out of writing.
Harsh but true.
But today, you’re in luck! I’m going to share with you how to define your ideal reader, how to develop your own reader persona, what common habits your ideal readers share, how to properly use the information you’ve learned from your reader
persona, and how to market to your ideal reader on your way to selling a thousand books or more!
So, keep reading for more details.
Who Is My Ideal Reader?
First things first, who is your ideal reader? To create your perfect reader profile, you need to dig deep into who would enjoy and benefit from your book.
Think about demographics like age, gender, occupation, and interests. Consider their reading preferences and habits.
Are they avid readers who devour books in one sitting, or do they take their time savoring every page?
Understanding your reader profile means knowing what they like and dislike, what motivates them to pick up a book, and what keeps them turning the pages.
This isn’t just about guessing—use data from social media, book reviews, and reader feedback to paint a clear picture of your ideal reader.
How To Develop A Reader Persona?
Once you have a general idea of your ideal reader, it’s time to develop a detailed reader persona.
A reader persona is a fictional character that embodies the traits of your perfect reader profile. Give them a name, a background, and a set of characteristics that define their reading and buying habits.
For example, let’s say your ideal reader is Emily, a 35-year-old marketing professional who loves romance novels with strong female leads.
Emily reads during her commute and enjoys discussing books on social media. She prefers eBooks because they’re convenient, but she’ll splurge on a beautiful hardcover for her favorite authors.
By creating a reader persona like Emily, you can tailor your marketing strategies and content to resonate with real readers who fit this profile.
What Common Habits Do My Ideal Readers Share?
Now, let’s talk about the common habits your ideal readers share. These habits will give you insights into how to reach and engage with your audience effectively.
- Reading Preferences: Your ideal readers might prefer certain genres, formats, or styles of writing. Knowing these preferences helps you create content that appeals to them.
- Social Media Usage: Where do your readers hang out online? Are they active on Instagram, Facebook, or Goodreads? Understanding their social media habits allows you to target your marketing efforts more effectively.
- Buying Behavior: Do your readers buy books impulsively, or do they wait for recommendations and reviews? Knowing their buying behavior helps you plan your book promotions and pricing strategies.
How To Properly Use The Information You’ve Learned From Your Reader Persona?
Now that you have a detailed reader persona and understand their habits, how do you use this information? Here are a few strategies:
- Tailored Marketing Campaigns: Use your reader profile to create marketing campaigns that speak directly to your ideal readers. Highlight aspects of your book that align with their interests and preferences.
A great way to do this is by sharing a juicy excerpt from your book, but as an audio file that will eventually be turned into a video. All done for free. Let me explain.
Copy a “hook worthy” portion (the juicy excerpt) of your book, then go over to ElevenLabs and find a voice that captures the essence of the excerpt you are about to share. Paste the text (your juicy excerpt) into ElevenLabs.
You now have just turned your books excerpt into an audio file. Save that file to your computer.
Now head over to Canva, upload the cover of your book or a picture that will grab your readers attention.
Upload the audio file you saved from ElevenLabs to Canva.
Now with the attention-grabbing picture or your book cover, plus your audio file, you are now set to create a video that speaks directly to your ideal readers.
If all this techy stuff has you pulling at your hair, simply just Google, how to turn text to speech. Then Google how to turn an audio file into a video file.
The process is about 10 to fifteen minutes at the most. You’ll spend most of that time trying to decide which part of your book you want to share as an excerpt.
Which A.I. voice you think sounds best and whether to use your book cover or an attention-grabbing picture as the visual for your video (go with the book cover, the more your readers are familiar with it, the easier it is to make the sell).
- Content Creation: Whether it’s blog posts, social media updates, or newsletters, create content that resonates with your reader persona. Share behind-the-scenes insights, character interviews, and other engaging content that keeps your audience hooked.
One of the easiest ways to connect with your reader persona that represents your target market is through emailing and the simplest kind of email.
Let me explain.
If you have an email list, if you are not already, you want to engage with them on a personal level.
At least 4 times a month (I usually do this every Sunday) along with the rest of your emailing campaign you should be emailing your list nothing about your books, its characters, or any pending sale.
That goes for writing too. How you came up with your book idea, character development, nothing book related at all.
Why?
Glad you asked.
Consumers (which are your readers) are more apt to buy from people they know, like, and trust.
Always emailing them book related content does nothing to foster a personal relationship and in today’s age without that connection, you’ll always struggle to sell books.
And the crazy part is the easiest emails to write are the ones that have nothing to do with your books, but everything to do with you.
You could share a funny story. An awkward moment. How your spouse is driving you bat-shit crazy.
How you love your kids, but you long for the day they move out and see for themselves how tough it is out there.
When your readers get these kinds of emails, they can relate because they too “are going through it”.
And if they are relating to you, they are seeing you are just like them. And this is the centerpiece of the know, like, and trust factor.
- Engagement Strategies: Engage with your readers where they are most active. Join conversations on social media, participate in book clubs, and respond to comments and reviews. Building a community around your book helps foster loyalty and word-of-mouth promotion.
Simply put, you must get active. You must show up and stand out on social media.
Until you can funnel your readers off social media and onto your email list, you must create as much noise as possible.
This is the hardest part of engagement, but the most needed part if you are currently relying on social media for organic traffic.
Being brutally honest here, most self-published authors are doing the same thing, saying the same thing, and sharing the same things.
This is a huge reason why it’s so freakin’ hard to market to readers because the messaging from authors have grown monotone.
If you are introverted, then clearly this strategy isn’t for you.
But if you are tired of not seeing any results from your marketing efforts its time to get active by:
Taking an unpopular opinion as it regards to your genre, writing, or marketing.
Share your best work for free. Not all of it, but enough so that readers can take notice.
Readily go against the industry standards and have proof backing your claims.
How To Market To My Ideal Reader
Marketing to your ideal reader is all about being strategic and consistent. Here’s a few ways you can do it:
- Leverage Social Media: Use platforms where your readers are most active to promote your book. Share teasers, cover reveals, and snippets to generate excitement.
Also keep in mind that posting on social media drives organic traffic.
To elevate your book sales without creating and posting content all the time, you might want to look into running paid ads.
Don’t let paid ads intimidate you, it’s just another skill to be learned in order to scale as a self-published author.
- Email Marketing: Build an email list and send regular updates to your subscribers. Offer exclusive content, discounts, and sneak peeks to keep them engaged.
Something to think about when it comes to email marketing, most self-published authors give an ebook away as a lead magnet (a lead magnet is when you exchange something of value for a person’s email address so that you may market to them continuously), this is how they build their email list.
An alternative to this is instead of giving an ebook away for free, sell it to your potential readers.
Do not use Amazon KDP for this, because they don’t allow you to get the reader’s email address in exchange for your ebook.
Instead use Payhip, Pensight, or even Aweber.
It’s free to set up on any of these platforms and all it will cost you is 3% transaction fee for each sale of your eBooks.
If you’re wondering what’s the difference between giving your ebook away for free vs. selling your ebook is this, when you give your ebook away for free you are growing an email list.
When you are selling your ebook instead, you are growing a customer list.
And with a customer list it’s easier to sell to your readers again, since they have already purchased from you.
With an email list you still have to convince them to eventually buy from you.
Just a little food for thought.
- Collaborate with Influencers: Partner with book bloggers, influencers, and other authors who have a similar reader base. Their endorsement can help you reach a wider audience.
Partnerships in self-publishing is one of the more effective ways in scaling your business.
The best way to strike up a partnership is to pursue a relationship first, being of immense value to the person you want to do business with is always the easy way in.
Don’t look at it as you’re using this person, if it’s a value exchange, everybody wins!
In Conclusion...
Creating a perfect reader profile is your first step in selling 1000 books. By understanding who your ideal reader is, developing a detailed reader persona, recognizing their common habits, and using this information to tailor your marketing efforts, you set yourself up for consistent book sales.
Remember, it’s not about selling a thousand books overnight—it’s about building a loyal reader base that will support your writing career in the long run.
Even with this detailed blog on how to create the perfect reader profile it seems like a lot, and it can be.
But what if I was to tell you that the heavy lifting was already done for you with over 20 completed reading personas ready to be downloaded?
Practically cutting your time in half on your way to selling your FIRST 1000 books.
All you have to do is CLICK HERE and get your copy of The Self-Publishing Target Marketing Cheat Sheet.
So, whether you want to download my value packed guide to truly knowing and understanding your target market and their reading and buying habits or take the time to define and create your own perfect reader profile, and watch your book sales soar, the only way your first or your one thousand book sales is by having a perfect reader profile at your disposal.
Happy writing!
Table of Contents
Unsure of where to find your ideal readers? Do you feel like your marketing efforts are falling flat, leaving you frustrated and overwhelmed?
It’s time to put an end to the guesswork, take control of your author journey, and start to consistently sell books with our comprehensive guide, The Self Publishing Target Marketing Cheat Sheet: Your Shortcut To Book Marketing Mastery.
Do you find yourself wondering why some authors succeed while others fall short? The best kept secret in self-publishing today is marketable books guarantees book sales!
Introducing our comprehensive guide to crafting marketable and genre-specific books that captivates, compels, and positions your books into guaranteed sales. The Hidden Gems Of Self-Published Marketing.
Ready to ditch writing overwhelm, lagging creativity, and skyrocket your self-publishing productivity?
Introducing The Author’s Secret: Learn How To Think And Grow Rich With The Right Book Idea AUDIO BOOK — your comprehensive guide to navigating the journey from book concept to published manuscript with clarity and confidence.
Ready To Turn Your Fully Edited Manuscript Into A Professionally Done Self Published Book You Can Be Proud Of?
Schedule A 30 Minute Meeting, Personally, With Literary Success Consultant, DK Walker To Guide You Through The Self Publishing Process And Develop A Self-Publishing Plan That’s Specific For Your Author Success. Click The Button Below To Get Started.