Expressing the purpose behind your book will help you focus on your reader and your niche book market – and can help you connect with your intended audience.

One helpful exercise you can engage in at the beginning of the writing process is to ask yourself specific questions to help discover the purpose behind your book. Answering these questions will help you uncover your intentions for yourself and your readers, and help define your niche book market.

Who will read your book? Which demographic(s) do you want your book to appeal to.

You may want your book to be read by people of certain groups, defined by gender, age, ethnicity, or a specific social or economic standing. While categorizing people by these groups might seem simplistic, certain groupings will soon complicate your expectations of who you think will want to read your book.

Writing with specific categories in mind might help inform your writing style, but be careful not to limit your expectations to only these readers – you might find your book inspires an unexpected audience. Consider that who you want to read the book might be different to who actually reads the book.

A good example of this is a children’s book. Depending on the age group you’re targeting, it might actually be the parent or caregiver who reads the book and makes the buying decision, rather than the child for whom your story is intended. For an older youth demographic, it might be the child who makes the decision, though the guardian generally has to approve the choice, since he or she is the actual buyer of the book. This information will change how the book is discovered, and including parent reading notes might help the success of the book.

Alternatively, you might be focused on having your book read by different kinds of groups altogether: people focused on meditation and mind body connections, business professionals, physicians, hipsters, politicians, parents, actors, teachers, teenagers, art students, journalists, engineers, travelers, television fanatics… the list is endless.

You might feel your book will be more applicable to people who have a particular career, live a certain lifestyle, or who are more focused on personal relationships. Your intended reader will help focus your subject matter, writing style, and delivery of your book’s message. The more narrowly you can define the niche of your reader, the better chance of success you will have with your book in a very competitive market.

Take the “spiritual” genre for example. Your potential reader might be seeking basic introductory information on spirituality or might be an advanced spiritual seeker familiar with the concepts of quantum physics and various consciousness levels. Knowing this will determine the language you use when you write and describe your book.

This post was excerpted from All You Need To Know About Publishing Your Book by Amy O’Hara. Click here to register for the InspireABook® newsletter and get the eBook for free.