Cultivating an audience for your book is such a crucial step of publishing, and it often is the most overlooked. If you’ve published a book and seen a low number of sales, perhaps you haven’t invested as much time and effort into growing your audience as you should have.

And new authors, don’t wait until your book is about to be released before you begin narrowing down your audience! You should have who you’re targeting in mind throughout most of your book’s writing and publishing process.

The critical first step you must take, and something you must figure out on your own: figuring out who your audience is. Who do you feel would find your book to be the most useful? Who do you think will be tempted enough by the summary to buy? What is the niche market that will be most affected by your book? Once you have the “who” in mind, you can begin to go about the “how do I best reach them?” part.

Make sure you have a website. You need some kind of focal point on the internet that is focused solely on you. It helps people find you better if they’re searching for you through Google, and you can use it as a hub for people to find the latest information about you and where you are on social media. Keep a section for your book—even if it isn’t released yet!—for people to look at its details and where they can buy it. Make sure your website is updated with the most current information about you; you don’t want to miss out on potential connections because you’ve put the wrong email or phone number! Don’t forget to make it mobile-friendly as many people access the internet through their smart phones now.

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