Welcome to the Writing with Coach McCoach Podcast. I'm your host, Katie McCoach, book coach, confidant, and cheerleader. Since 2012, I've helped hundreds of writers become authors, gain confidence, and grow their best stories yet. Together, we'll untangle the vines of chaos and uncertainty surrounding how to be a writer so you can grow into the author you are meant to be. Let's dig in, writer.
Hello and welcome to another episode of Writing with Coach McCoach. Today I wanted to talk to you about ideal client avatars, but related to writing. In this case, we're basically going to take something that is talked about in the business world, which is called the ICA, an ideal client avatar. We're going to apply that concept to your writing because I think there is a lot that we can gain from looking at this in almost a business perspective sometimes because this will help you write to your ideal reader. That is going to give you so many wins.
Before I dive in too much, I'm going to go over why it matters why we want to write to an ideal reader because you might be thinking, oh, well, I want my book to everyone to like it. The thing is, we're going to want to get clear on who your ideal reader is. First, we're going to dive into why you want to write to an ideal audience. And then we're going to talk about different ways that you can find your ideal reader, or in this case, the ICA, right? That we're using this idea from the business world.
Okay, so let's dig in, writers. Let me start with a little going back and giving you a little clarity on this ICA concept. Ideal customer avatar. This is something that you might hear a lot in the business world, especially from businesses that are helping other businesses and entrepreneurs. You'll hear this a lot. You want to figure out who your ICA is, your ideal client, your ideal client avatar. That's typically how you'll hear it talked about in the business world. And this is so you can get clarity on who your ideal audience is.
Who is your ideal client that you want to work with? This has been something I've heard a lot through different mentorships, especially when it comes to because I have a service-based business, right? That means I am helping other people. It's not product-based, it's service-based. It's through coaching and support. With that in mind, then, who's my ideal client? Knowing that makes a huge difference in how I market, how I show up, the copy I write, the services I provide. And getting clarity on that has been really helpful.
So this is something you will literally hear anytime for anyone who starts a business that especially service-based, but also product-based. You want to get clarity on your ideal client, your ICA, your main audience, right? Who's the perfect person that you want to work with or to sell this product to? The reason that we actually really want to have an ICA is that when you get clarity and really clear and you really niche down and get super clear on who you're serving or selling to or writing for, you actually do something that seems the opposite of what you would think. What happens is when you get really clear, you allow people to self-eliminate. They are able to say, oh, I see that that copy is really for someone who is in need of certain things. I'm not. I am going to no longer look at that, or that's not for me. I might look at something else, but this service or this product, it's not for me because it's not speaking to me.
And you might think, oh my God, that sounds terrible. Why would we want people to self-eliminate? Here's the thing. When you allow people to decide, oh, that's not for me, then that means you've gotten really clear on who it is for. The person who sees it and they say, that, that's me. You are literally, did you get inside my brain? That's when you know you've hit gold is when someone says, are you listening in my brain? Have you been inside my brain? That's exactly how I feel, or that's exactly what I think and would say. That's when you know you've hit your ideal audience. We want people to self-eliminate because we want to be providing a product or service that is going to give the ideal client a transformation or a win or something that they feel like, I needed this so bad, or I am so glad I found this. That was so much fun. You know, when you're thinking about your, I say, you're thinking about your perfect customer or reader. And when you get super clear on your ideal audience, customer, client, reader, it's much easier to convince them because you barely have to convince them to buy your book or product or service. And it's like, it's less even buying because they're just like, wait, I needed this yesterday. When you are able to get really clear on these folks, and although you have some of our self-eliminating, what happens is it can sometimes create more audience coming, even if they're like, you know what, I am not that ideal. Maybe I'm part of that ideal audience, right? Maybe I am one of the three elements that this person's speaking to, but you know, I really, there's a reason like some of that speaking to me, I might not be the perfect audience for this, but there's something I'm going to gain from this.
So in the case of service or a course or membership or book, anything, anything that you're learning from, right? Someone might say, Ooh, I don't need to know about how to set up a business. And I don't need to know about invoicing systems, but you know what I do need to know about? I really need to know about email marketing. And so if there's a course that has a few of these elements in it, maybe they'll say, you know what, although I don't need this piece, this other piece is super important for me and I see how, because I'm this part of this ideal audience, this is going to serve me really well. You don't want people to pick up your book or your service or your product who wishes they didn't, right? And that's part of what we're doing ahead of time is when we get really clear ahead of time, we're avoiding the wrong, like we're trying to eliminate the wrong crowd. How many times have you gone to read book reviews where you've been like, Oh my God, that person should have never picked up this book. Like they're doing this horrible book review. They hate everything about it. And then you're like, dude, did you read the description? It had everything you said you always hate. Why did you read the book? Of course you hated it. You were going to hate it no matter what.
That's why it's so important that we want to have this ideal audience in mind because we can prevent some of that. Or when someone does come in and we're like, yeah, this wasn't for you. And then they're like, yeah, this wasn't for me. We can all say, yeah, duh. We knew that. And you chose to still read it. I'm not going to take your review on how you hated my book to heart because you were going to hate it no matter what. I said, Hey, it has divorce and these two other things in it that I know like anyone in this position probably won't enjoy. And then they read it and they're like, I didn't enjoy it. So that is part of how we can relate it back to writing.
So hopefully you understand a little bit about like the ICA, why you want it, how it can help. And if you have questions on that, just literally look up ICA or ideal customer avatar, ideal client avatar. But let's, let's direct this a little more to writing. Right?
So now you understand why we're doing this and why self eliminate someone self eliminating is a good thing because you want your best audience, right? You want the readers who are just going to be obsessed. So how do you get to them? And how do you create this reader in mind? I want to also talk about why it's so good to have this in mind. It can really help you while you're writing a story to be like, Oh, who is this? Who is the story for? Whether you're in need of trying to figure out who you're writing for. And I talk about this as one of the methods of figuring out your why that I talk about in I forget which episode it is, but it's episode on how to unearth your why it's earlier in the podcast series. And one of the tips that I go into is who are you writing for? Getting clarity on who you're writing for, whether it's a specific person, it's the version of you, you wish had this book, it's your kid, it's a family member, it's a future version of you. There are sometimes you know, you're you're writing for someone. And that can be really good at getting clarity on what, why this story is the one that is for this person. So to kind of spin that a little on a more the other side that I'm talking about today is like, instead of just thinking about who you're writing for, but who is, who's this book for? Right?
So it might not be exactly why you're writing, it might, one of the reasons why people write is for someone. But I do think it's important if you're struggling, especially to get your to market your book, to figure out comps, to find a genre your book fits in. If you're really struggling and you just keep saying, well, it's for everyone, then this episode is what I need you to listen to. Because the clearer you can get on who this book is for, the easier it will be to sell. And people will immediately say that is for me, I'm picking it up now. And this will translate into everything you do. It'll translate into your pitch. It'll translate into the book description on Amazon, the keywords that you use, the anything related to algorithm, you'll be able to have a clear idea of who's this for, who's searching for it, because you're kind of doing like a backwards, like, what's the data, right? So once you get clear on who your ideal reader is, then you can start building additional pieces to this, which I'll dig into in a bit. And this also helps as you create any marketing materials or copy, so you can say, oh, you immediately know how to sell this book to one person. If you can sell to one person, you'll be able to sell to many people, because you need that one person who's like, that is for me, I need that book right now. If you can nail that, then you're going to be fine, because you're going to be able to do it again and again, and more people are going to fit the bill.
Having one in mind is also going to feel a little less overwhelming, right? You're like, I got one person in mind, I got my ideal person, and these are the elements about them. You'll feel a little more comfortable as you're talking about your book, because you know you're not trying to reach everyone, and you don't want to.
Okay, let's say that you are writing a book that explores gender identity, or, yeah, gender identity and sexual orientation and race, and we're talking about these things, and then it also is discussing it in the matter of religion and how that relates. But then your ideal reader is likely not going to be a conservative Christian white woman, right? That might not be something she could read, or hear, or be willing. So you would want someone who's not going to be open to reading something to not read it, right? If they're going to say, I'm going to hate this, then don't read it. So you want to make it clear ahead of time, hey, this book is for this type of person, like this is who I'm marketing to, and it's not that you always are going to call it out that way, but sometimes you can. But it's just that your copy, the words you use, the vocab, it's all going to speak to a certain person, and you don't want it to speak to the wrong people. You don't want your book that could offend, and I'm doing air quotes, this conservative woman when, because you mark it in a way that she thought that was for her, and then she
opens it and she's like, well, what am I reading?
So that's one of the reasons that you want to really get good at self-eliminating some people, because you want the right readers. You want those folks on TikTok who are going to be obsessed. You want book bloggers who are going to be like, holy shit, this book was for me. And anyone who likes XYZ is going to love this. And then the more that you connect to your ideal reader, the more your ideal readers are going to be immediately able to sell this book to others, because they're going to be like, oh my God, this book was for me. I loved it so much. You'll love it because XYZ. And if it's for them, probably their friends and other people they know, and so they'll be sharing it.
So it seems like you're narrowing your focus and you're making it, how am I going to reach anyone if I'm only going to one person, but it's almost you're doing it a backwards way, right? You go to one person and that just creates this beautiful expansion of, oh, this is how it could be for more people. But we recognize that it was made for this person. Here's an example. If you think about some of the books that have been, have done really well, and sometimes we're like, why? Right? If you go back to even like 50 Shades of Grey, this is a book that obviously did very well. A lot of people will still now even say like, you know, the writing isn't the best writing ever, but it still had a really big impact and influence on people because there were people who were able to say, oh my God, this book was for me. Like I love this. And there were also people able to say, oh, I don't know if that book is for me, but let me try it out. And so there was that element to like someone going into it being like, oh, I know this is not my normal thing, but because they knew that they were able to go into it and be like, let me go into it with a curiosity or with an open mind and say, hey, all right, let's see what this is. Instead of then there are the folks who were like, I will never read that. And you're like, okay, good. You don't need to.
So in my last podcast episode, I talked about comp titles. These are the comparable books to your book that you want to have comps when you're pitching your book. And it's also useful in marketing. This is another way of thinking about when you're marketing your book and when you're writing your book and who your ideal audience is. If you are struggling with getting clear on your genre of your book or your audience, then keep listening.
So it's really important that you know the genre of your book. This will come up a lot where writers will say, well, it's kind of a mix of everything. Well, when, if you are trying to sell your book, pitch it to agents or publish it and get readers, the clearer you are on the genre and who this book is for, the better it'll sell because when you try to appeal to everyone at once, no one feels connected. It just lands flat because you can't please everyone. So getting really specific is going to help. In my last episode, I mentioned if you're trying to look for titles to go into Amazon and go look through the categories and then subcategories and keep niching down and being like, what category, how small do these categories get? The reason this can be really interesting is there are so many books that you're like, what people read that? Yes. There are so many niches. And if you can be one of the top books in that niche, you're going to rise to the top of the ranks. And then you're starting to, you're going to start showing up in the bigger categories and then in the main categories. So it's kind of that big fish, small pond situation. That's why it can be really great to know, oh, who is this for? Is this book for someone who loves mermaids or is it for someone who loves dragons? And then when that you have that down, okay, well, what's another element? And my ideal reader loves dragons and magic and then maybe some trope involved. My ideal reader loves love triangles. And those who don't like love triangles should definitely not read this book. And it's very clear, even if you don't say that from your description that, hey, this can be a love triangle. So that anyone who really hates love triangles will self eliminate and won't crap on your book. You want the people who love love triangles to be like, oh, this was the best love triangle I've read.
So one of the things that happens a lot of times in the business world, when you're talking about your ideal client, your ICA is some folks will say, get really clear on like every detail about them. Are they male, female? What do they look like? Are they single, married, divorced? Do they have children? If so, how many? What social status are they? What type of education do they have? What is their job? What do they do in their free time? What books do they read? And this is a great way to figure out, oh, if someone who reads this book might like my book versus absolutely not. Where do they hang out online? How connected are they to pop culture? What inspires them? So you can get really clear like, okay, yeah, my ideal reader is a divorced mom with a teen kid. And because your book touches on that element in some way, and you're like, that is who I have in mind when I'm writing this book. And I'm talking about this book and I'm thinking about it. I'm like, this is for every divorced mom with teen children. And so even if a person is like, well, I'm a mom with teen children, they might say, you know what? I don't fit the bill totally, but there's enough that I respond to here. I'm interested and I'm going to go into it knowing it's more ideal for someone else, but I might benefit from it. I hope that makes sense.
So that can happen where you can say, well, I don't fit everything, but there might be something that really connects to me here, or I connect to parts of this. So at least I know this might not be my solution or the book that provides me the best transformation or win or entertainment, but I'm likely going to respond to it more than maybe something else that I'll pick up on the bookstore. Another thing that could happen is say you write a book and you're like, this is for a teen girl who, you know, or even get more clear, this is for a 14 year old girl who has been bullied. So then it's going to speak to your audience when you're talking about your book and the description and stuff. Not only will it speak to that, maybe that girl, but also there might be like a mom of a teen girl who's being bullied and she might be like, oh, well, I want to read this book. This sounds exactly up my alley. Because even though she is not the ideal audience, she is super connected to someone who is an ideal audience. And that's why she will be a great reader for it. So it can allow someone to say, hey, I might not be exactly the ideal reader, but I will gain something from this, or I'm excited to read this so I can see what it's like almost to be the ideal reader. And this is great if you also have stories that are trying to show different perspectives and stuff. Yes, say, you know, your book is for this type of person, but anyone who reads it who is not that type of person can go into it and say, I know it's for this person. That's why I want to read it. I want to see this perspective. I want to open my eyes to something. When you are thinking about these elements at a very basic level, when you're thinking about your ideal reader, I really want you to focus on audience and genre at the bare minimum. And so this looks like when you're thinking about your genre, if you're really struggling, then who's picking up this book? What books are they also picking up in the store? When they walk into a bookstore, what shelf do they go to? And how will they find yours? What shelf will they pull it from? Is it mystery, thriller? Is it fantasy, sci-fi? Is it romance?
When it comes to audience, I really want you to get honest with yourself and say, who's reading this book and recognize who you're writing for. And that's who the audience is. So this is important. I mean, really in the book world, it's like children, it's picture books, children's, middle grade, YA, and adult. You have to make sure that if you're trying to write for a certain audience, say you're writing for teens, that your book reflects that. And just writing teen characters doesn't necessarily make it a YA book. It doesn't necessarily mean this is a book for young adults. It is what are elements in the book and making sure that fits that audience. So if you are writing a book with teen characters, but you're picturing a 50-year-old man reading this thing, this is actually for him, then your book is likely not a YA novel. It's likely something else. It might be adult literary fiction or something where you're exploring that part of life, but you're not doing it for teen readers, you're doing it for an adult reader. It is tricky sometimes when you write certain age characters to really be like, well, who is the book for? I will say though, if you're going to write young adult, for the most part, you're not writing adult characters. These characters are teens and there's kind of younger YA and older YA. So younger YA is going to be, typically what I've heard is that kids read up a little. So they're going to read about kids who are a little older than them. So your 12-year-old reader is probably going to read about someone who's 14. Someone who's 16 is going to read about someone who's 18. So that's something else to keep in mind when you're thinking, well, who is this book for?
If you're picturing a 12-year-old girl, you might actually be writing a 14-year-old girl. You do want to think, well, what does she want to read? When you think about your ideal reader, what is she trying to read? What does she want to read about? What is she trying to explore and learn in her life? Reading is entertainment, but we're also doing it to learn new things about ourselves. We write to learn about ourselves. We read to learn about ourselves. And that's my round way of saying that's why it can be really helpful to get clear on who your main audience is, who your ideal reader is, because they're going to need this book.
The last thing I'll say about this topic is when you're thinking about your ideal reader, another great way that this will help you when you're pitching your book or selling it is when you can get clear on them, you know how to talk to them and use words that they use. This is important because this allows someone to feel like, oh my God, they're speaking my language. That is magic in all facets of business and writing is if you're like that person speaking my language. So when you get clear on your ideal reader, then you're able to say, use vocab that they use and words that speak to them and phrases and stuff that they use regularly. So it calls to them. This can be really big game changer in marketing your book. And this all comes back to copy. Yes, you might say, well, once they read my book, then they're really going to be invested, but you need to convince them to read it. And so that's where your copy, your book description comes in. And even when you're on social media and you're talking about your book at events, the words you use are going to pull someone in or not. So how do you find those words? How do you know what words they're using? In business, you'll hear people say, do your market research. This is essentially a tip to interview folks who are your ideal client. You get really clear on your ideal client. And in this case, you're on your reader. And then you say, Hey, can I pick your brain? Like, oh, you know, buy you coffee or, you know, something nice to for their time and ask them a bunch of questions and take note of the what they say, the vocab they use, the way they talk about certain things.
This is something that I've done many times in talking to writers. And I do it every time I have a call with a new writer, every time we have a discovery call and we're talking about their book, it's I listened to what their current struggle is. And they'll say things like, I'm just so tired of this book living in my head for so long. This one means a lot to me. I just really want to get it out there. This is the book of my heart. I'm tired of X, Y, Z. So when I can hear that, then I can use that sort of language and say, okay, well, this is what's going to help you, or this is going to be the transformation that will help. This is how we're going to eliminate that feeling from your future. Whatever the solution is, your book is the solution. So think about that. Your book is a solution, helping someone feel better on entertaining them, on giving them a connection, something that they need from reading your book. So when you think about your ideal reader, think about what they need, think about what your book is going to provide and use their words, their language to speak to them.
That's really all I'm going to leave you with today. So why you want to use the business idea of an ICA and ideal client in terms of your ideal reader, get clear on who that person is and write to them and use all your copy to that person. And you will know that your book is going to be the best book for this specific person. And in turn, it will likely bring a wider audience than you would have expected versus you trying to target everyone at once. Because that just is really freaking hard to do. It is hard to speak to everyone at once, speak to one person, and you will feel so much more clarity to as you are pitching your book or writing it or getting it out in the world.
I hope this helps. I hope this gives you something to think about. If you haven't listened to the past episode, the last one on comp titles, that might be also a really good episode, especially as you think about marketing your book or pitching it and how do you just make that an easier sell, an easier convince to get someone to read your book or pick it up or represent you. Sometimes I think writers like to think that, well, I don't want to think so much about the business aspect, but to be honest, it is important to see it from that side, that point of view of a business perspective, of a selling perspective, because that's what you're doing. You are selling your book. You are asking someone to put in their money to read your book or put in their time to read it. So you're selling. So the more that you feel like, I know exactly who I'm selling this book to, it'll feel less like I'm selling and more like I am giving this book to the person who has been desperate for it. And that'll feel so much better.
If you especially get a little weird and achy with selling, say, well, this person, this ideal reader has been desperate for this. They've been waiting for it and I have it and here they go and they're going to be so happy that they have it. That's what we all want. And so this is part of the strategy on getting that free to you.
All right, that's all I'll leave you with today, writer. So until next time, keep growing.
