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What if I don’t have a big enough audience?
Posted in Marketing with Meaning
Found by the Right Readers: A 3-Part Discoverability Series — Part 2
This Week's Question:
What if I don't have a big enough audience to reach the people who need my book?
Last week, we talked about why you don't need to be everywhere for your book to be discoverable. You simply need to be intentional about showing up where your right readers are already looking.
But there's another piece to discoverability that authors often overlook: Sometimes the best way to reach your right reader is through someone who already has their trust.
Let's say your book is written for women walking through grief.
Your reader may be the grieving woman. Think about who is already serving her.
A grief-group leader.
A hospice chaplain.
A pastor.
A Christian counselor.
A widows ministry leader.
These are what we often call micro-audiences. They are smaller, very specific groups of people who already have access to the readers your book was written to serve.
Instead of trying to reach grieving women one at a time, you might build a relationship with a ministry leader who serves dozens of them every year.
Or if you wrote a devotional for teachers, your audience isn't only teachers. It could also include Christian school administrators, teacher ministry leaders, or organizations that equip educators, pastors who recognize and pray over teachers at the beginning of the school year.
So ask yourself: Who needs my book?
Then go one step further: Who already serves, influences, teaches, leads, supports, or buys resources for those people?
That might be a specific podcast, ministry, Facebook group, YouTube channel, church program, support group, newsletter, conference, school, library, or professional organization.
And sometimes a small, highly specific place where your reader already gathers is far more valuable than a large platform filled with people who aren't looking for what your book offers.
Your simple action step:
Identify at least three people, ministries, organizations, groups, or leaders who already have a trusted relationship with your right readers.
- ___________________________________________
- ___________________________________________
- ___________________________________________
Then choose at least one and ask: What is one natural way I could begin a relationship or introduce my book as a resource?
Maybe you:
- Send a personal introduction
- Offer a review copy
- Pitch a helpful podcast topic
- Ask whether your book could support the work they're already doing
The goal is not: how can I get them to promote my book?
It's: how can my message serve the people they are already serving?
Because discoverability becomes much more powerful when your book is introduced through someone your right reader already trusts.
And next week, we'll bring it all together.
You'll know where your readers are and who already has their trust.
But there's still one critical question: How do you create a clear pathway from that point of discovery to your book?
Next week, in the final part of Found by the Right Readers, we'll talk about why availability is not the same as discoverability, and what you can do about it.
Until then, who is one person or organization you could begin building a relationship with this week? Comment below and share it with us.
Cheering you on ... always,
Shelly Brown &
the Redemption Press Team
P.S. Have a book idea stirring? Whether you've published with us before, still on the fence, or you're just beginning to wonder what that could look like, we'd love to hear about it.
