What do readers want?
Giving readers what they want can be tricky. Finding out what they want can be even trickier. Gary Dalkin guides you through identifying, and delivering, the material that will satisfy your readers and keep them wanting your work
Gary Dalkin
There’s a remark, quoted in many variations but frequently attributed to Hollywood comedian Red Skelton about the head of Columbia Pictures, Harry Cohn, or sometimes about Louis B Mayer, head of MGM. Commenting on the vast crowds which had turned out for a dramatic event, Skelton is reputed to have said: ‘Give the people what they want, and they’ll come out for it.’
The sting is that, Skelton wasn’t talking about the premiere of an eagerly awaited new film, but about a funeral. Both studio bosses were widely hated, and their funerals proved smash hits. Give ‘em what they want…
Of course Hollywood is always trying to give audiences what they want. Studios don’t set out to make films few people want to see, and with even lowbudget movies costing millions of dollars film production is an expensive gamble. Writing a magazine article or book or a story is nowhere near as big of a risk, but it can certainly feel like time badly spent if you write something which doesn’t connect with your intended audience.
So if you are looking to be a writer who is, even in a small way, commercially successful, someone who writes at least in part to make money, then it will help enormously to give some thought to who you are writing for, and to ask, ‘what do my readers want?’
A little bird tells you
Happily, it has never been easier to find out directly. If you are not already, get onto social media. Open a Twitter account and start making contacts, then join some conversations, or start one. ‘Follow’ readers who like authors whose career you would like to emulate, and get twittering with them about the sort of books they would love to read.
Even if you are on Facebook you could start a separate author page purely for your work as a writer. Then even if you keep your personal page private, you can have a professional public page where you can talk about your work and have discussions with potential readers about the direction of your writing. You’ll soon attract some robust opinions! And the great thing about having an author page is that anyone with a Facebook account can visit it (that’s currently 1.8 billion people) while your personal page remains private. As an example here is my page where I post about my work as a freelance writer and editor: www.facebook.com/ToTheLastWord/