Want to write a book? Think about developing your audience — it’s vital

Want to write a book and get it published?

You can, but you’ll need to develop your audience.

How, you ask?

Consider this article, From Anne Frank to Stephenie Meyer: The Slush Pile – WSJ.com which reports:

“Scott Belsky, a 29-year-old Web entrepreneur whose sites include ‘The 99 Percent,’ wanted to write a book on how to succeed in the creative industries. To secure representation, he approached agents with data on his Web traffic, samples of reader comments posted on the site, and the number of times various posts had been blogged about, tweeted and retweeted on social-networking site Twitter. This data convinced Jim Levine at Levine Greenberg Literary Agency to take on Mr. Belsky as a client. Mr. Levine used the information to land him a book deal. ‘Making Ideas Happen’ will be published in April by Portfolio, a division of Penguin Group.”

Anyone can write a book. But can you deliver an audience? If you can, you might just have a sale.