Building an online audience for a niche interest such as audio fiction can be daunting, but being realistic and not watching the water boil are both good places to start.
Heavy Typing is a platform for moving my passion, which is writing, into the minds of an external audience, but how do I reach these people. Even in today’s age of 15 second loops and memes, there are people who enjoy fiction, poetry, and other forms of writing. There is the holdover from a slower time, and an influx of younger people who long for depth, discovery, and knowledge. They want to experience transformative art which resonates on a deep level and they have the comprehension skills to concentrate beyond a single moment and reflect upon such art. They not only permit art to have an impact on their lives, but they invite it and seek it out.
But these same people also live in the same digitally driven, fast paced world as the rest of us.
That is why I chose to read my works in audio format, but, again, how to bring my works to these people is always the question and the challenge.
If you’re an artist, you also likely face the same questions and challenges.
We value our creativity highly and we would appreciate others doing so as well. Sharing is what so much of this is about.
I have experimented with various obvious tools, such as using hashtags, broadcasting to as many online platforms as possible, staying current on social media, SEO, asking for positive reviews, and even advertizing, but niche interests tend to stay niche.
I oppose automation, but I am willing to try it. I prefer to engage with an audience on a personal level, but there is probably room for compromise here. The way algorithms work, often your target audience will simply miss or not be presented with your content.
I think in this day and age, we are looking for lightning to strike, but more than likely, if success will manifest in the form of a larger audience, a snowball is a more realistic analogy.
We want to form a solid core of content always, and let this grow organically into something bigger if that is our fate, but without good content this can never happen, so my suggestion to myself and to you as well is be earnest in our marketing, but allow things to grow and mature over time without judgement and with patience.
If your audience doesn’t show up, it doesn’t mean you and your creative works aren’t worth it. It has less to do with your content than it does with the nature of online life. Take heart and keep going because this effort is about your soul and cultivating your person. Navigate by internal winds and everything else that might come is simply a bonus.
