While working on a publishing strategy for a new project recently, I was reminded how important it is to distinguish between who selects your book and who actually reads it. That distinction has implications for almost every downstream editorial, design, and distribution decision.

‘Who chooses your book, and who reads it?’ is an essay about this.

As writers and publishers, it’s crucial that we know who will select our books and who will read them, and whether or not that’s the same person. It will inform many of our decisions about the book, from writing and style through editing and design, to formats, marketing, and distribution.

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selectors and readers are motivated differently. They are looking for different things when they pay their costs. That’s easier to cater for when they are the same human, but if they are not, and especially if they are very different, we have to prioritise one or the other. In parts of our work selectors will matter most, and in other parts readers will. We have a difficult balance to strike, and we have to be very deliberate about where we spend time and money.

Read the full post on the EBW website or on LinkedIn.