My Experiment

Why do you write?  Why are people reading you?  Ever ask yourself those questions?  When marketing your book the only way to know your intended market is to ask questions. 

Years ago at an online poetry community I posted some of my works.  Nobody really noticed and my work wasn't reviewed.  The whole point of joining that community was to get a handle on exactly who my audience would be for what I was writing.  The problem was you need an audience before you can answer those questions.



So I went to another community that allowed pics and placed a picture of a young Rudolph Valentino as my avatar.  Immediately I had an audience of females from 16 to 45.  They loved my work and demanded more of it.  They bought my book and even promoted me to there friends in the real world.

Along came an English woman who had a lovely pic of herself as an avatar and burst my bubble.  She said it wasn't my work what-so-ever, it was the idea that I was handsome and wrote poetry.  It didn't have to be good just appealing to their loneliness.  I immediately took the pic down and replaced it with a pic of an elderly man.  The audience left.  Almost a complete exodus.  With ego collapsed I admitted to learning something.  Maybe my work was bad but this wasn't a definitive answer.  However, with the modern medium, even in poetry, sex sells. 

I recently revisited that whole pic thingy with a longtime current account.  I replaced my simple scenic pic with that of a young James Dean.  The two month result was no increase in traffic or book sales.  In fact things went better before I changed the pic.  The new pic offended the fan base. 

People grew to appreciate my work based on steak not the sizzle.  They had connected to the rawness of me.  My face mattered not.  Slow and steady wins the race.  The fan base was earned over time and was truly a strong group of people who enjoyed my poetry for personal reasons.  The other account gathered a fan base quickly based on nothing.  No appreciation or connection to the actual work.

In conclusion; whether you are a male or a female, if you are trying to build a name in the literary world then do so with your work.  If you want some sales and tons of adoring fans then do so on sex appeal.  Enduring work needs time and a commitment to your art.  Especially with poetry.

Make your choice based on what you desire of your work.  Then go for it.  Either way write and write and write!!