Narrow Your Niche
Alright, author, so you’ve got your book, your website, and your social media account(s). What next? (And if you don’t have those, I highly recommend working on them in that order.)
Why it's time to narrow your niche, of course! But what does that mean? Merriam-Webster defines niche for this context as “a specialized market”. So that’s what you need to figure out, author: what is your specialized market?
It means taking the genre you’re writing in and fine tuning who you are marketing to. That means narrowing the focus instead of taking the broad approach. Now I’m not saying to disregard the wider view, not at all! But the mileage you’ll get should increase when you fine-tune your method.
For example, are you a romance author? Ok, now what type of romance author? Contemporary, historical, futuristic? Now let’s narrow it down even more! Do you write small-town romance, regency era romance, or romance that’s based within the nuances of a war-torn futuristic world? See how much more specific we’re getting?
Once you narrow down your niche you want to figure out the buzzwords that you can use as hashtags and content. This may take some trial and error, but don’t give up! Try introducing a few at a time and see what response you get. Just like the enemies to lovers trope, there will be some bumps in the road. But with enough time, you will be able to narrow your niche and find the exact audience that wants to read your work.
