“Whoever they are?”
A year ago, I wrote a book proposal for Swallow Your Pride or Your Shame Will Eat You Alive. Part of creating a book proposal the writer needs to include comps. The comps are the comparable titles, books that have been published, that are comparable to their own book.
Sizing up the competition is a lot easier if I know who my competition is!
This past year I stepped away from the publishing process. I took the time needed to get to know my target audience, my book, and the others who have written books on recovery. A year later, I discovered my book isn’t what I thought it was and my approach to marketing my book would need to be different.
Sizing Up My Audience
“Who are they?”
You are the ONE
YOU are the ONE who reached out to me, following a night of binging.
I know YOU.
YOU are the ONE who texted me for a friend, who needs help.
I know YOU and your friend.
YOU are the ONE who loves her wine, concerned with her drinking and my writing helps to keep you in check.
I know YOU.
YOU are the ONE who is championing my efforts, because you care.
I know YOU.
YOU are the ONE I met in middle school who loves an alcoholic and doesn't know how to be in that relationship.
I know YOU.
YOU are the ONE whose daughters said, "Mom we are concerned."
I know YOU.
YOU are the ONE who I crossed paths with in high school and thirty-six years later our lives collide from my writing.
I know YOU.
YOU are all the reason I write.
And I am not just writing for anyone, but YOU.
~ Karen Esbenshade
Not much has changed this past year on who my ideal reader is. It’s dependent on the subject matter, because my topics vary. Each blog I write addresses a struggle and is unique, but the book I wrote was written for a target audience. A good start for me is to communicate with my potential audience and get to know my reader. I write a blog post weekly and share it to my social media.
“Do you know your reader?”
We are told as writers to find where our audience hangs out and that is where we should be. Initially, I created an author page from scratch and started posting to an audience who doesn’t know me. I am not famous so of course it didn’t take off. What I know now is that the best place for me to be is on my private Facebook page. I share history with the majority of the people on my social media, so I already have background information on most of them.
For over a year, I diligently posted on my story and then to my page. I discovered that Instagram/Facebook stories offer insight on the who and posting to my page offers insight on the content of interest which translates to hits on my website. Eventually, my target audience organically showed up. They openly express with me their struggles and I already have some basic background information to sympathize with them.
I started to question, “How well do I know my book?”
Sizing Up My Book
It took me fifty-plus years to get to know myself and within eighteen months, post traumatic event, it is through my writing where I discovered who I actually am. The last eighteen months I continued the learning process through my blogging.
The structure of Swallow Your Pride is as a speculative memoir, but I am deciding to classify it as self-help. I share a period of my life that was the most transformative time for me. The difference between memoir and self-help: memoir uses storytelling techniques of fiction, so the reader can reflect on their problems; while self-help has a reader who is looking to have their problems solved. The book incorporates both storytelling and is instructional. It is entertaining and educational.
My book walks my reader through the steps of recovery, without them even knowing. The reader will introspect their own lives, revealing and embracing their flawed self. The speculative part of my book is how the characters are used to guide my reader into questioning, “what would I do?” The goal is once the reader has finished Swallow Your Pride their experience will be transformative.
“How does this impact my comparable titles?”
Sizing Up My Peers
Another discovery I made, that is apparent from page one of Swallow Your Pride, is its not an alcohol recovery book, but a character defect book. And if anyone has looked at their local library or at Barnes & Noble they will discover there are very few books on character defects.
My book weaves scripture throughout and doesn’t shy away from taboo topics, like shame, addiction and temptation. It is not your typical Christian book. It’s for the woman who is wrestling with her faith. And my writing style has already ruffled some feathers within the Christian community.
I had to rethink how I was going to find the comparable titles and authors who write my genre. It took me back to Amazon to do more homework. Amazon ranks books according to categories. This is a helpful tool to determine where a writer’s book falls in comparison to others. Using the information from my research on ranking I determined my book will fare better in self-help and not solely alcohol recovery.
My peers are not my competition. If I market my book correctly, I will reach the woman who is aware she has a drinking problem, but struggles identifying that the root of her problem is within herself. She is a woman with a faith foundation, but has strayed. The typical alcoholic memoirist and Christian author is not my competition.
“Why did it take me so long to figure this all out?”
There is no competing with God.
God has been very purposeful and has a plan for my life. He put the plan into action March 17, 2021. It takes time, a lot of time, to produce fruit. The seeds need planted, our roots need nourished, and lastly, pruning needs to be done for continued growth. I wasn’t ready a year ago to sell my book to an agent or publishing house. I am still continuing to grow, but I am getting much closer!
He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more.
John 15:2 NLT
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