Considering The Writer/Reader Relationship...

I’ve referenced Joel Friedlander and his blog, The Book Designer, a number of times on this blog.

One post in particular, Where’s The Gate? ~ More Thoughts On Publishing…, would make a good paired-reading with this post…

There’s no doubt that the relationship between writer and reader is undergoing fundamental change.

My personal take, stated briefly, is that we’ll see the reader replacing the publisher as the force determining which books get read.

Certainly, since books have been in existence, readers have shared their book picks and had some influence on book sales. However, much of the influence readers have been able to wield has been leveraged and/or payed for by publishers.

So, assuming readers are capable of gaining power in the process of book sales and distribution, how can an author facilitate the transfer of power?

Joel invited Mary Tod to guest post about the writer/reader relationship in, How Self-Publishing Changes the Bond Between Readers and Writers.

I’ll share her bullet-points about what the self-published writer should consider when they ponder their readers:

• Listening – create ways to listen to your readers and collect data about what you hear; use focus groups and surveys to support regular listening mechanisms. Make sure you respond when they ‘talk’ to you.
• Customer knowledge – find out why people buy your products (or not), why they recommend you to others (or not), why they are repeat buyers. Understand what else they buy.
• More customer knowledge – understand who your buyers are, what segment and communities they belong to.
• Conversations – find unique ways of connecting with readers, ways that will enhance your brand as an author, ways that enable dialogue not one-way broadcast.
• Collaborate – go beyond listening and conversation to collaborate with your readers, perhaps testing your products in advance of a full launch or soliciting ideas for additional content.
• Long term relationships – develop mechanisms to foster long term connections with your readers. Keep them engaged even as you create new offerings.
• Community – build a community of your readers. Facilitate mechanisms for readers to interact with one another as part of this community and to broaden the reach to additional readers.

I strongly encourage you to read the whole article.

Then, come back here and help me have a conversation about it, ok?
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