How to Describe Your Target Readership So It’s Meaningful to Agents and Publishers | Jane Friedman

Of all the areas I try to help nonfiction authors better understand, this one can be the most confounding, as I've discussed before. It's common for writers to describe a readership that's too broad to be meaningful, in the hopes of demonstrating the wide appeal or potential. For example:

"This book is for Baby Boomers." That's about 75 million people; not all of them are really your audience.

"This book is for people seeking greater happiness in their lives." But who isn't seeking greater happiness?

"Women make up more than 60 percent of all book purchasers and will be the main audience for this book." It's always a mistake to describe the US book buying audience as your audience.