Novel, Dollar Bill, Appears in Newsweek

Now doesn't that sound awesome? Believe me, a few years ago when I opened up the Ronald Regan (RIP) issue of Newsweek Magazine and saw the cover of my novel, "Dollar Bill," I was beside myself. At the time, the magazine was doing a write up on my then publisher, Triple Crown Publications. My book being included in the spread wasn't nothing short of favor from God. Delighted wasn't the word to describe my emotions. For some reason I envisioned several of the hundreds of thousands of readers clutching that magazine running out to buy a copy of my book. That might have happened had the magazine been Essence or Ebony. Not that Newsweek isn't a spectacular magazine; the authority of its kind. It simply wasn't my target audience.

You must-you must-you must know who your readers are. Keep in mind, the people you write for are not necessarily your readers. For example, I now write Christian Fiction. When I sit down to pen a tale, I don't just write for Christians. I write for the entire Kingdom. I write for the sinner and the saint, the saved and the unsaved, the churched and the unchurched, etc... In essence, I write for everybody who wants to experience a moving tale. Now, that's me talking as a writer.

Pay close attention, because now I'm putting my marketing and promotions hat on. As a writer promoting her work, I can't start off promoting to everybody. I may have written the book for everybody, but everybody isn't going to want to read my book (Ouch, that hurt to say). But it's the truth. No matter how perfect of a tale an author believes they have weaved, not everybody in the world is going to want to read it...even if they do appear on Oprah. Trust me; I can count on one hand how many Oprah picks I ran out and bought. So what I have to do is know who my readers are and market to them.

Needless to say, my target audience for my personal, self-proclaimed hood classic, "Dollar Bill," was not reading Newsweek (at least not that week anyway;-). So with that being said, this time around, I'll be sure to keep in mind that even though I may haven written my books for everybody, 'everybody' is not my target audience.