A crystal clear, *can’t fail* roadmap for predictably identifying, getting in front of and selling books to your ideal readers
Who is this course for?
- Yet-to-publish authors who want to get a head start on their marketing before launching their first book.
- New authors who are just beginning to figure out how to connect with readers and market their books.
- Authors who have published several books but not seen the exposure or sales they hoped for.
- Any author feeling overwhelmed or frustrated by book marketing and looking for a simpler approach.
What you’ll learn
- Mapped out what you and your books have to offer readers, and how to share that in a compelling way that sets you apart from the competition.
- Created your target reader avatar - the detailed picture of your ideal reader, which will make future marketing and publishing decisions easy.
- Discovered where to find your ideal readers online and offline and how to reach them with your marketing, so you can spend less energy shouting into the wind and less money on poor-performing ads.
- Leveraged a shared readership to reach new readers and let them know you exist - the underused shortcut that takes the trial and error out of book marketing.
- Chosen the best tools and tactics to use to reach your target readers - no more being everywhere and trying (and failing) to keep up with All.The.Things.
- Crafted a plan for what to do with readers once you have found them, so they become not just book buyers, but your personal cheer squad, loyally buying ALL your books and recommending them to others.
About the course
Target Readers Academy is the proven, easy-to-follow framework that gives authors a crystal clear, *can’t fail* roadmap for predictably identifying, getting in front of and selling books to your ideal readers, so you can stop feeling invisible and frustrated with book marketing, and start growing a loyal readership that supports your creative life.
Target Readers Academy is a 6-week online program where you will learn everything… and I repeat everything, that you need to identify and attract your target readers and turn them into buyers.
…Target Readers Academy is the proven, easy-to-follow framework that gives authors a crystal clear, *can’t fail* roadmap for predictably identifying, getting in front of and selling books to your ideal readers, so you can stop feeling invisible and frustrated with book marketing, and start growing a loyal readership that supports your creative life.
Target Readers Academy is a 6-week online program where you will learn everything… and I repeat everything, that you need to identify and attract your target readers and turn them into buyers.
Throughout this course you will accomplish many things, all without headaches or time wasted.
You’ll kick it off by mapping out what you and your books have to offer readers, and how to share that in a compelling way that sets you apart from the competition.
Once you have clarity on what it is you have to offer and your big promise to readers, you’ll move on to creating your target reader avatar – the detailed picture of your ideal reader, which will make future marketing and publishing decisions easy.
“How?” — you ask. Well, I give you the step-by-step process that combines head, heart and real-world research that allows you to identify your target readers with more certainty than ever before and get closer to growing that loyal readership you need to support your author career.
You’ll discover where to find your ideal readers online and offline and select the best tools and tactics to reach them. Plus, you’ll craft a plan for what to do with your readers once you find them, so you can nurture them to become loyal fans of your work.
If it sounds too good to be true… it’s not. It’s just exactly what you’ve been waiting for to finally get a grip on your book marketing and become visible to your target readers, so you can start making consistent book sales.
Read More Read Less
Course Content
5 Modules
Lesson Name & What’s Included
Module 1: You and Your Book
4 Lessons – 30 mins
We’ll kick things off nice and easy by starting with what you know - your book! This is where you’ll create a bulletproof foundation for growing your readership with total confidence. Remember, the main reason you get overwhelmed with all the book marketing tactics out there is because they aren’t rooted in a SOLID foundation and strategic framework that guarantees a visible and consistent payoff. By the time you’re finished with Module 1, you’ll have a clear understanding of what you have to offer as an author, and what makes your books special, so you can focus on attracting your most loyal, genuinely interested readers.
Module 2: Reader Research
4 Lessons – 36 mins
In Module 1 you thought about what you had to offer and who might be attracted to that. Now, it’s time to look beyond your own books and think about what your potential readers are reading now. This is the shortcut to finding die-hard fans. I’m talking about LEVERAGE! By looking at your book’s genre and its typical readers, as well as identifying your comps, you’ll step a long way towards defining your ideal readers. Plus, you’ll know where to start looking for them online. Why reinvent the wheel when readers are already out there devouring books similar to yours? As you consider why they are attracted to those books and what it is they love about your genre, you’ll flesh out what you know about your own readers.
Module 3: Create Your Target Reader Avatar
5 Lessons – 29 mins
Before you can attract your target reader, you need to be crystal clear on who it is that you’re trying to reach. That’s where your Target Reader Avatar comes in. This is the detailed description of the perfect reader for your book. When you have one person in mind as you write your Amazon description, post on social media or draft an author newsletter, you’ll feel more confident about what to say. You’ll know exactly what your reader needs to hear in order to click buy, which will save you time, energy and $$. Drawing on all the research you have done in modules 1 and 2, you’ll define your Target Reader Avatar using psychographic and demographic information. With your TRA firmly in mind, every book marketing and publishing decision will become easier. All you have to ask yourself is, “What would John want?”, or “What would Jane prefer?” You’ll walk away with total clarity around WHO your ideal reader is, HOW to talk to them, and WHERE to find them.
Module 4: Test Your Avatar
9 Lessons – 86 mins
So you’ve created your TRA, your work is done, right? WRONG! Not many authors take the time to figure out their TRA. But those that do often make a fundamental mistake with it - they fail to test if it’s correct. In this module, you’ll don your lab coat to test your theories about your TRA. You’ll go where you believe they’re hanging out and put yourself in front of them, with the aim of checking that your TRA really exists, and really wants your books. This is also where the rubber meets the road as you start to implement effective book marketing strategies, which you can continue to use for years to come. You’ll discover what works, and what doesn’t, when it comes to attracting your target readers. This is where you get to ditch all those activities that drain your energy, and focus instead on what truly works to get your books into the hands of the readers who will most value them.
Module 5: Revise Your Avatar
4 Lessons – 32 minutes
High five! You now know who your target reader is, how they think, where to find them and how to talk to them about your books. You know the best ways to reach them with your marketing, which is saving you both time and money. As you have worked through the program you will have moved from making decisions based on your gut, to testing your theories, to finding real readers. In this final module, you’ll explore powerful strategies for learning even more about your real readers as you start attracting them to your books. If you had to make instinctive choices earlier in the program, you’ll now be able to confidently replace these with solid facts. Your reader avatar will continue to evolve and may change for different books. Your job is to keep paying attention and iterating your avatar as you grow, as your audience grows and as you learn more about your real readers. By the end of this module, you'll know how to continue your research to get to know readers even better and further refine your strategies for finding them and getting in front of them, so you can continue to improve your book sales.
Instructor
Belinda Griffin
Belinda K Griffin is a Book Marketing Coach and Author Publicity Expert at SmartAuthorsLab.com. She helps authors of all kinds launch and market their books with impact, so they can grow a thriving community of engaged readers, sell more books and make the difference in the world they care about making. Growing a loyal readership and securing publicity through authentic relationship building and outreach is at the heart of everything Belinda teaches. Belinda has worked with trade and self-published writers including Nick Duerden, author of The Smallest Things: On the Enduring Power of Family, Alexandra Amor, award-winning author of Cult, A Love Story, Brad Borkan and David Hirzel, authors of When Your Life Depends On It: Extreme Decision Making Lessons From The Antarctic and David Lowe, bestselling author of The Innovation Revelation. A former magazine editor and a CIM certified professional marketer, Belinda has been featured on numerous websites such as The Creative Penn, Reedsy, The Book Designer, Kindlepreneur, Write To Done, and The Alliance of Independent Authors and is a contributing author for Writers' & Artists' Guide to Self-Publishing: How to edit, produce and sell your book.
Reviews
One thought on “Target Readers Academy”
Review This Course
Leave a Reply
Interested in book marketing?
Join the community
Join 111,585 other authors who receive weekly emails from us to help them make more money selling books.
I highly recommend this course. I have a reached a point in my author career where I realized all my efforts with self-promotion were failing to get me anywhere because of the simple fact that I was not targeting any of it to the right people. Belinda’s course provided me with a road map to start remedying this. It implies a lot of work, but it’s work that you do once to get you started, and then you have the tools to always adjust and improve your understanding of who your target readers are, and how to get to them.