What Are You Writing About: Why & For Whom?
By A P von K’Ory

In today’s world, writers have it a lot easier to get their books printed, once they’ve written and polished it. Through POD and self-publishing, using outlets like CreateSpace, Smashwords or Lulu, to be a published author is no longer a writer’s main obstacle that they have to overcome.

As a result, it means there are millions and millions of books and writers churning out books daily. All sorts of books. Good ones, average ones, terrible ones. The gates are wide open and there’s no gatekeeper to check a writer’s ID and her/his destination anymore. This also means the writing/publishing compound is not just overcrowded, there’s a stampede, and those not strong enough, or those unable to command massive marketing and publicity assistance, will get trampled on to death, however good their writing may be.

It would seem that, today a writer, of necessity, has to be an even better marketer and salesperson. Most writers, like me, are introverts and couldn’t sell their own voice as theirs while they speak. Neither can they Trump-style twitter 24/7. So they would have to hire publicists, or make do with their Facebook and other social media networks such as Blogs. All of which take a huge chunk of time away from writing, but without any guarantee that the followers or fans will actually pick up the writer’s book amid those hundreds of millions to buy.

Book launches come to the same hardships although they are the most important in marketing – the writer has to reach out to readers and convince them to want the writer’s coming book. To convince readers that your book is good for them and why it is worthwhile for them to buy and read it, is hard work. To do this, the writer has to also believe that their book is good and worthwhile for them to write in the first place. So the writer must ask themselves why they wrote the book, and honestly answer the questions:

Did they write it in order to be rich and live on an island in the Caribbean? Was it to help others in a particular sphere, or merely to entertain them? What message did the writer wish to share with the readers, and how does the writer convey this message better than all other millions of people with the same message?

What inspires a writer to write a particular book often tells them who they wrote it for and why they want those readers to read their book. I tend to write romance, or socio-political nonfiction books. The political nonfiction are universal, but concentrate on the international wickerwork of trade, governance, economy, finances and the relationships among the so-called international community, where no doubt equality and/or inequality plays an important role. In romance I’m firmly on the inter- and multi-cultural relationships because most of it is heavily my own experiences, which makes the works practically autobiographies. One will notice, too, that such relationships are imbued with socio-political hues and the element of equality of the genders.

Of course I do include sex in my romances, but without losing the classy literariness of the works. I don’t include sex for titillation’s sake, but as part and parcel of an intercultural or multicultural relationship that could in itself bring in huge conflicts. My ideal readers are romance readers who can take in bedroom scenes that have nothing to do with Stupid Shades of Groans. I do not write for women who seek psychological and/or physical humiliation and pain. Neither do I write for men who prefer to read about other men inflicting such practices on women.

So in this, I as a writer know why I create the sort of books I write and for what sort of readers, and why. Knowing these facts and concentrating on them helps the writer in both writing and marketing the works to the right audience.

- By A P von K’Ory

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