As you may suspect, I am going to suggest that you start with a Google search.  Now, that may lead you into sites that you have to subscribe to for access, but there are tons of different websites that provide statistics.  Statistica is one such site, and you can access some data for free there. For instance, I just went to the page and searched “Book readers” and got a LOT of data that will help me. However, searching to learn about what the book reading market is doing and how they are spending their money is one thing — What you want to know is where other books like yours are selling best.  For example, if you have a business book, you’ll want to look into where people are buying business books. 

Not only do you want to find out what platforms they are selling best within, but what countries are the buyers coming from.  Believe it or not, when our clients are part of a BookBub promotion for a business book, most of the sales come from India.  Also, while most of the sales come in from Amazon, many of the purchases come from iBooks.  It’s crucial that you find out about your direct market, and then you go from there.

You don’t want to be too general when it comes to this.  You can’t just say, “Where do audiobooks sell?”  That’s not specific enough.  You can get a set of stats, but they may not be stats that apply specifically to your book.  The stats for fiction and nonfiction audiobooks will be different, for instance, and stats for memoir and business audiobooks will also vary.  You really have to get your market dialed in.  Remember, if you don’t have a target, you can’t hit it.  You have to aim for something specific to get the best results possible.

If you are a fiction or memoir author, don’t forget the gold you can unearth at GoodReads.

Here are ten simple steps that can help you “dial in” your marketing plans:

1. Find 12 authors who share your desired market (You think their readers would like your books) You can find these on Amazon, B&N.com, or the USA Today Bestseller lists.
2. Go to Goodreads and look up those authors and books
3. Click on the “Community Reviews” of that book
4. Go through the fans of the book and start identifying the gender, age, reading capacity of the reviewers. (You will quickly discover a demographic….)
5. Check out the reviewers’ profiles and look at their favorite authors
6. Investigate THOSE authors and add them to your list of comp authors
7. Look up every title you have now identified as a comp title and every author you have identified as a comp author. (Hopefully you have 40-50 by now)
8. Follow them on social media, sign up for their newsletters, send them a fan letter (IF AND ONLY IF you are a fan…)
9. Get to know their readers online
10. And ONCE YOU ARE A VALUED MEMBER of that community, start asking questions. (Where do you buy books? Do you mainly buy audio, ebooks, paperback? Do you like online author events? Do you actually READ author newsletters? )