How to Find Your Readers & Keep Them: The Basics of Audience Development OnDemand Webinar

Whether you're working with a traditional publisher or going the independent route, knowing how to find and keep your readers is critical to the long-term success of your career.

Audience development is what people in business call it, but it boils down to one thing: building meaningful relationships with people who are interested in what you do. It's a skill that's more valuable than ever for you to understand and practice, as authors are increasingly called upon to market and promote themselves. This session will discuss both online and offline strategies for identifying and engaging readership, as well as tools such as websites and blogs, social media, e-mail newsletters, and content marketing.

Even if you're unpublished, you can stand to benefit from this session. Why? Because you're probably already engaging in audience development right now if you're using social media or talking about your creative work. Audience development activities are becoming integrated into daily life. Fortunately, we live in an age when the tools to reach your audience are free, easy to use, and come with a short learning curve.

Educate yourself in advance, build your audience over time, and you'll see your investment of time and energy pay off over the span of your career.

• What 2 questions to always ask as part of the audience development process.
• Why your website (or online hub) is critical to your success, and what it should be able to do.
• The Cheese Cube Method and how it supports audience growth.
• The purpose and function of an e-mail newsletter.
• Best practices for using social media in a way that attracts more readers, rather than annoying them.
• Specific best practices for Facebook and Twitter.
• 2 important types of relationships to cultivate and focus on.
• How to use analytics to determine your reach, analyze it, and improve it.

Jane Friedman is a former publishing and media exec who now teaches full-time at the University of Cincinnati. She has spoken on writing, publishing, and the future of media at more than 200 events since 2001, including SXSW, BookExpo America, and the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Her expertise has been featured by sources such as NPR's Morning Edition, Publishers Weekly, and PBS. She blogs about new media and publishing for an audience of 20,000 at JaneFriedman.com.

Writer's Digest does not offer any refunds for the webinar. All sales are final.