Who do you write for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mean, readers, yes, obviously. But who? Your mum? That old English teacher you loved? Crime fans in general? People who love Patricia Cornwell in particular?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are two reasons to ask these questions. The first is marketing. If you\u2019re writing people who want a fresh take on the Patricia Cornwell vibe, that would suggest a certain approach to book covers, titles, marketing slogans and so on. You might even refer directly to Cornwell, or her most famous character, Kay Scarpetta, in your marketing yadda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second reason has to do with the choices you make as you write the book itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you write, and as you edit, you are faced with 1,000,000 choices: again and again and again. Are you happy with this sentence? What about this one? Does the attacker strike your heroine? Strike her with what? Does he hurt her? Does she hurt him back? Does she escape? How does she escape? Is her breath \u2018hoarse and rasping\u2019 afterwards? Or does it come in \u2018juddering heaves of relief\u2019? What phrase do you prefer? And what does she do next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, obviously, you\u2019re going to make all those choices on the basis of what seems right to you<\/em> \u2013 you have no other option. But at the back of your mind, there\u2019s always a sense that you\u2019re writing for one set of readers rather than another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if I were writing forensically-led crime fiction, I\u2019d have to assume that my readers knew Patricia\u2019s Cornwell work and would be wanting me to break new ground. I couldn\u2019t just reprise Cornwell\u2019s tropes and expect success myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indie authors \u2013 intelligently analytical as they are \u2013 often take this further, and try to conceive of an \u2018Ideal Reader\u2019 \u2013 a dog-loving, mother-of-two Kansas 40 y.o. housewife, with plenty of friends, love of hiking, watches true crime shows on Netflix, reads mostly crime, but will cry at soppy love stories too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The idea is that if you know your \u2018Ideal\u2019 reader, you can craft your book and your marketing material to appeal perfectly to that one person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And? OK. Very smart writers I know do just that and they say it works for them. In part, it works because book marketing works best when it\u2019s micro-targeted. A good campaign is one that gets excellent conversions happening amongst a very tightly defined group of readers. A bad campaign is one that starts so-so conversions from a much broader group. So: a hyper-detailed picture of your Ideal Reader keeps your marketing focused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I have a somewhat different take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think you have to turn yourself into your own Ideal Reader.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Partly, that means bringing your own tastes to bear. As I say, when it comes to editing, you don\u2019t really have a choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But you also have to ensure that you become your own readership. What books do you expect your readers to have read? What authors do they love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n You need to have read that book and know those authors. If you\u2019ve read Patricia Cornwell as keenly as your readers have, you won\u2019t just repeat that stuff. In the end, your desire for novelty will be the same as theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These things go deep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know, for example, that more of my readers are American than British. So I have a particular love of giving my American readers a taste of Wales that\u2019s very<\/em> Welsh. So, for example, a few miles from where my Mum lives, there\u2019s a village called Newchurch. Easy to say, easy to spell, right? But I\u2019d pretty much never use that placename in one of my Fiona books. Near Newchurch, lie the settlements of Rhosgoch, Glascwm, Llanbadarn-y-garreg, and (where my kids go riding) Bryngwyn. I\u2019d use any of those placenames instead, joyous in the knowledge that Kate from Kansas and Ali from Arkansas will struggle to pronounce any of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or again: I wrote a book that had to do with the archaeology of the British Dark Ages. I know my readers to be literate and intelligent. Plenty of writers might have avoided a ton of ancient history detail, but I knew my guys would like it. (I know I<\/em> like it. I\u2019ve become them.) So the book is spattered with chunks of Latin, and late Celtic poems, and mournful Romano-British monks, and factoids about Anglo-Saxon vs British burials. (The main difference being that the Anglo-Saxon invaders were pagan, the ancient Britons were Christian, so their burial rites looked different. I am English, but I\u2019m still on the side of the ancient Britons. Twll d\u00een pob Sais<\/em>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n One last example:<\/p>\n\n\n\n How fast or slow do you take a scene? Do you hurtle through? Offer a reaction shot or two, but still move at pace? Or do you allow yourself a paragraph or two of considered reflection?<\/p>\n\n\n\n My writing creates my readers, but my readers also create my writing. I know that my readers relish the Fiona character \u2013 they want more of her, not less. So, while I\u2019m hyper-sensitive to anything that feels boring or self-indulgent, I\u2019m happy to allow proper space for reflection. On the whole, my scenes go slow but deep, not fast and shallow. That\u2019s respecting my readers, not ignoring them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over time, any difference between you and your readership gets snuffed out. You learn from them what they do and don\u2019t respond to. You learn what books and authors they like. You follow down those trails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You don\u2019t have to like everything that every one of your readers like. I\u2019ll get book recommendations from readers (either via email, for example, or from names cited in an Amazon review) where I read the book and don\u2019t like it. But that\u2019s fine too. What matters is knowing (roughly) the universe that your readers inhabit, and using that knowledge to shape your tastes and your choices. The process becomes a rolling, laughing, respectful conversation with a multitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if you follow that path, things become easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your Ideal Reader? It\u2019s you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ***<\/p>\n\n\n\n