How to Gain an Audience as a Writer

Will do! I am enjoying your articles.

Thank you. I like all of this advice as well as the way you write it. I love how you add funny yet encouraging one-liners about what you're suggesting! It really pulls it together, and allows your personality to come out. Great work!

This is really helpful for me. I think that interacting with my "audience" is difficult. I have no problem commenting and responding to all comments here. One on one it's easy. I have been trying to make my posts a little more personal, but not too personal. It's just a tough thing for me. Maybe if I concentrated on one specialty, I'd have more followers.

Thanks for the information about getting a following. I am working on starting a blog on wordpress but I have never done anything like this before. There's a bit of a learning curve. Great read!

Another great hub Billy full of great advice and I vote up, across and share. here's to wishing you and Bev a wonderful day.

Eddy.

Hey Deb, count me in for your next birding tour.

P.S.

Sorry, Bill, for digressing from the topic of your article ;-)

Everyone that stops to chat at the lake or shows an interest in birds gives shy little me the chance to shine. I know a good amount about birds and behavior, so I share my joys with others. My enthusiasm is infectious. I have seen more people than EVER at the lake, ad I say hello to them. Most of them reply, as long as they don't have wires in their ears. And you know what? They love nature, so the Pied Piper leads them in the Sunday paper. I gave my first birding tour on Thursday!

All four steps are indeed what is needed to make it as a writer. Thank you for the valuable information.

Great hub and great points. Knowing whom we are writing for will help a great deal. Thank you for sharing valuable points.

Wow, really great advice! Especially for a newbie like me. Thank you for this. Up voted and shared

Another great article that I missed reading earlier! I like the advice. For myself, I know that I have a small dedicated following via facebook. I guess due to my unusual interests in nature conservation, adventure hiking (of course with my dog), travelling off the beaten path, and a combination thereof. I will have to settle for this.

One thing I have to improve with my presence on other sites is to be consistent with it. Due to my full time demanding job, I fall into the trap of showing lot of interest during a span of time and then disappear.

Bill, the eagle has landed!! I thought I'd just read a few pages, but I could not put it down, 'Resurrecting Tobias' promises to be a hell of a read. Well done, I believe you've written a winner and I can't wait to get into it.

Hi Bill, I just received my copy of "Resurrecting Tobias" in the mail today. Can't wait to start reading. My wife commented that it is a very impressive looking book. She loves the cover. My only regret is that I didn't get a copy direct from you and get it signed...oh well.

Thanks billybuc for the tips. I am trying to put together tools from successful hubbers so that I can become one of the greats. I am certainly working on gaining those die-hard fans :)Voted Up!!

Bill, like always it seems, you publish another great hub. I rated myself as following two of the items. Hopefully I can get more consistent.

Thanks for these excellent pointers, Bill!

All good tips here, BB. I hope your novel sells like crazy!

I'm so proud to know you. I'm so proud that you're dedicated to your craft. :)

I'll follow you forevah. Because you're cool like that.

And when I get some time, yes, I'd like to read. Alas, I know my limits right now, and I can barely make it through 100 Years of Solitude for everything else I have going on.

Keep on keepin' on.

Bill,

You forgot that you are the Pied Piper of HubPages with charisma, and a gentleman. Also, use Google+ by making friends and sharing hubs like the ones about your chickens.

You still have followers who will buy like me---when I can get to town and get an Amazon Card since they do not take PayPal.

I gave the information on Facebook about where one can purchase an Amazon card to purchase books on Amazon.

Do you have your book on eBay too?

I wish you great success and you will get it; because you have to wake the sleeping lion to feed him and he needs to be fed on a schedule.

Your friend,

Bobbi Purvis

Thanks for the tips Billy and a good reminder at what has to be done. I have let my own blog slip of late and the thing I'm really bad at is sending requests for reviews.

There are a lot of great new books being published every week and it really is a job of work to make yours stand out from an excellent field and persuade readers to buy yours rather than another author's work

Your suggestions for gaining an audience are very helpful, Bill. Thanks for sharing them!

Bill, I am blessed to call you friend, because I know you are. I read your stuff on HP as much as I can.

With my other life it is hard to have the time to read books but I would buy any book that interest me and your is on my list, but that will take time.

This hub is so full of information that I need and as with so many of your hubs it will be book-marked to return for something that I may remember when I need the information, and I appreciate your gift of giving us, your readers that information.

Thank you and have a blessed weekend.

You are so good with follow through and a reliable friend in the online world and to me, that counts for a lot!

"It will be interesting to see how many of those followers who say they are interested will actually buy it. I've found those numbers shrink very quickly when it comes time to spend the cash."

Yup. I had many followers tell me that if I published an e-book compilation of my short stories, that they would eagerly buy it (I had enough stories to publish two e-books!).

Very few actually did.

Thanks for providing tried and true tips for success. It's good to learn from successful writers like yourself, Bill.

Social media is a great tool, but finding quality connections is an arduous process. A year into it I am still learning this fickle game, but you are absolutely right that one must humanize oneself to one's audience. Great hub and very useful.

Very good hub, I don't know why but your hubs always lift my mood a bid.

A very helpful hub for all writers.

I have downloaded, but I haven't had the chance to look at your book yet. I will though and I look forward to it. :)

As usual billy you give wonderful advice. You remain an inspiration for all of us.

More priceless and very useful advice Bill, I'm saving them all in the hope that I may one day put them to good use. Good luck with the book, waiting for the delivery of my copy, you can sign it when you come over to do your book signing in London. Until then enjoy your weekend and my very best to you.

everything here is useful... and easy for anyone to follow vote up and useful plus shared :)

Wow, this is full of advice for me my friend. You always have some sort of advise or something new for me to learn in every hub of yours. I have missed a lot here. Will catch up as best as I can. Have a good day Bill and thank you for sharing this with us :-)

Great hub! I am yet to experience the agony of marketing my book, but I feel more prepared now after reading these steps. Thank you William

Your advice is helpful to any writer, whether writing a book or short stories. Having a faithful base of hubbers who read your poetry or anything makes for a happy camper. Thank's for all you do...

Some more great advice for your readers which I agree with. You know your audience and you are consistent. We know we will have a great novel in our hands if it is written by you. You never disappoint!

Bill,

I think you have all the right ingredients in order to make a book recipe everybody will want to have in their favorite recipe books. You do not only provide consistency, you also provide support for your fellow hubbers, and I for one am very grateful for what you do and the example you provide for me. So excited for you. I have always thought if someone went the distance and is able to actually write a novel from beginning to end, that in itself is a major accomplishment.

V+ Blessings,

Kim

Yes, yes, yes, yes to the 4 steps! Interestingly, I've been working on a book marketing hub myself. So stay tuned for that. Hope all is good in billybuc world. Have a great weekend!

I thank you, Bill, for giving me the vision to keep going. I have started a blog, and am contacting publishers about my books. Because of you and the time you took to give me personal attention, I am inspired. Thanks!

Must do items, but, yes... tough. Especially writing in family saga with a small audience to start... do appreciate these specific reminders. Very valuable. ;-)

Very sound advice from a very practical man. Thank you Bill I hope all is well. Jamie

Yes, it is so important to respect your readers (as it is anyone you come across in daily life).

You've set out everything here and made it sound so easy! I know it's not and you point this out many times. However, if it was easy it wouldn't be so rewarding, would it?

Everyone is so friendly and kind on hubpages but the big bad world is much more critical so all of your sound advice must be followed if we're to be successful outside this lovely, cosy environment.

Hope you have a great evening, in fact great weekend (I've only just realised it's Friday - where has this week gone?).

I'm off back to watching Wimbledon, the highlight of my television year!

Ann

Your book arrived and I stayed up until 3:00 AM. You had me hooked

after the first few lines. I'm a very slow reader. I absorb a book like it

was written to change my life. Fortunate me, most every book has broadened my horizons, made me think outside the box, and taught me

values that I might otherwise have missed.

You have served up another portion of great advice in this hub.

Thanks, Bill. Have a great Weekend!

DJ.

Seth Godin talks a lot about the folly of using outdated mass-marketing strategies to sell your product. It's like the old saying goes--some might call it cliché :) --people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. Rachael, one of the commenters, said something about promotion when you can't physically get out to promote. There are several YouTubers I follow who are also avid eBayers or Amazon sellers. They use Google Hangouts to schedule time to spend with followers and discuss trends or ideas. Webinars are another great way to get to know your audience and attract the right people to your writing.

Naturally, these are expert tips, Billybuc. Connecting with the right audience is definitely going to be a big part of it. I'll admit, my facebook site is not necessarily the place to carry on an advertising campaign. They're mostly family members.

Very useful tips. To be a successful writer, one should be consistent with his subject even though he can be descriptive and narrative. He should identify his audience and keep their tastes in mind.

Very good points Billy. I knew from the start that my reading audience would be a very selective. Most readers who are interested in my topic read non-fiction. Visionary fiction is not even a genre in many bookstores. My novels were ending up into the Body,Mind & Spirit book shelf for non- fiction and even Amazon did not have a visionary fiction section at that stage. They do now. Today my sales are getting better and better. My publisher often still says that in 2003 I was 10 years ahead with my topic, but today more and more novel readers look for truth by reading fiction. They know that fiction is often truer than fact. Great hub.

Very valuable counsel. I'm trying at each of them. Thanks for underscoring that we're dealing with people who have lives and feelings. Have an enjoyable weekend.

Very good points. I've been using Social Media for the past four years and you're so right. You can have thousands of followers, but it's the relationships that matter. Those are the people who will show support and while at first they be "customers" most of them actually become friends!

Another great hub! I used to think that having a lot of followers was the only way to get an audience, but I've learned that's not the case. I think if you can put the right focus on your audience, then you will be perceived better by viewers.

Very good information once again Bill. Have a great weekend.