Knowing My Audience

How can I use my past experiences as well as new resources to know my target audience?

When I think of my target audience, I think of children all the way from preschool age up until about fifth grade. But one of the drawbacks of having an audience this young is the disconnection of author and reader. For YA novels, the author is writing for an audience close to their own age. When it comes to children's books, however, there is a certain amount of disconnect between the audience and the author. For many children's book authors, it's been over 20 years since they were a child. For me, it's only been 10, but that's still a big age gap. In order for me to connect with my audience, I need to go back into what it felt like for me to be a child, and to do so, I must dive into my past experiences.

Past Experiences

One of the experiences I had as a child that is the most relevant to my career as a children's book author is the hatred of being talked down to. I hated being babied even at a young age, and books that treated me like a three year old annoyed me a ton. With this is mind, I can write for kids that want to be treated as equals. This is not just an experience specific to me, but to most kids. My little brother and all the kids I babysit hate being talked down to. The only way I can get through to them is by treating them like an equal- which is what they are.

Children Are Equal

The concept of children being equals to adults has been what I've built my whole career on so far. Children are able to digest large concepts just as adults are. Many books on the shelves these days make children out to be mindless consumers, but that's just not true. Children want to be seen as people, and they want their opinions to be taken seriously. This is one thing that lots of authors these days forget. With this essential piece of knowledge in my toolbelt, I can confidently write knowing that my books will be accepted with open arms.