I’m reading a series of books about marketing my novels. They each prioritize a central marketing principle: Know Your Target Audience.
I realize, being relatively new to the epic fantasy scene that I don’t know who these people are. I have never frequented conventions or even chat groups online. When I go to social occasions, I often ask people what are you reading right now, because sports and politics can only go so far – and real men don’t discuss work or family (as a new immigrant to the US that’s what I was told).
But when I ask the question, people rarely say epic fantasy. During the days of Harry Potter, the Inheritance series, and now The Hunger Games, a man could come out of the library closet because his children were reading them and he was showing himself to be an in-touch father.
So here is my request. If you read epic fantasy, please answer as many of the following questions as you have patience for.
1. How old are you?
2. Are you male or female?
3. Where do you live?
4. Did you finish High School / Bachelors Degree / Masters Degree?
5. What is your profession?
6. Are you active on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, read and comment on blogs?
7. What do you look for in an epic fantasy book?
8. Do you read books on an eReader or as a hardcover/paperback? (if both, please assign a ratio).
9. How many books do you read a month?
10. Who is your favorite epic fantasy author? Why?
One last favor if I may. Please pass this on to friends and family who you think might read epic fantasy and ask them to mention your name as referral. I would like to offer the first 20 people who refer 3 responders to the survey an eBook of either:
Thank you for your help. I will publish the results if I can get 50 responses.
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Alon Shalev is the author of The Accidental Activist and A Gardener’s Tale. He has written two fantasy novels and the first reached the Quarter Finals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award as of March 2012. More on Alon Shalev at http://www.alonshalev.com/and on Twitter (@elfwriter).
Elfwriter 