The Audience Unveiled

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The Audience Unveiled

The value of a book depends on the audience. The audience values in a book what is useful. But what is useful to a writer may be junk to those who don’t care to write. I am a writer. I can use a book that gives lessons in writing, a book that helps me write better. I don’t find a book on dry-wall installation useful; it may be entertaining, but entertaining is not useful. A useful book is important where an entertaining book is insignificant. However, one book may have both qualities; especially if that book is trying to reach a broad audience. But a book trying to reach the narrow audience runs the risk of being completely useless and utterly insignificant to a lot of people.

Books that target broad audiences differ from books that target narrow audiences. From appearance to content, the books differ. The differences in two books can say a lot about the audience that the author had in mind. Authors understand that the world’s collective group of readers is huge, so huge that one book can’t be useful to everyone. The author picks an audience if she wants to reach anyone. The targeted audience will respond to a specific style.

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