Once an Audience, Not Always a Priority

Once upon a time, before the iPhone, and before there were new iPod models every six months, the Macworld Expo was a Don’t-Miss destination for graphic designers and various related creatives. The floor was full of booths big and small to enhance our visually-oriented, graphically-driven, font-laden Mac experience.

Over the last several years, Apple’s shift to consumer-level audience focus, specifically with the iPhone and iPod and the like, has eclipsed the working creatives. But it wasn’t until last year that I finally felt shut out at Macworld. Last year, I realized I was at the Macworld Expo as a life user vs. work user. And believe you me, I use my Mac to work.

Don’t get me wrong, I do not begrudge Apple its success. To the contrary, when any company (or individual) can expand a brand and gain hold of new markets you can depend upon a swinging high five from me. I love the Apple brand. But there are ways to grow without abandoning your existing base audience, even if they have become a smaller slice of your pie.

So, to make the leap from electronics to novels, but staying with the keep-your-audience in general — if you used to write historical fiction and now you have moved into vampire romance also, be sure to leave some apparent cueing on your site for those who seek you out for the historical stuff, even if the vampire stuff has become your main, but not only, focus. Abandoning dedicated audience borders on irresponsibility, especially when it takes such little home page real estate to help this marginalized but devoted sector.

A loose example of this: Julia Quinn‘s beloved Bridgerton Series. She finished the eight book set and with the exception of her second epilogues, has moved on. But what about the thousands of die-hard fans, or those just discovering the series (or Julia through the series), even though it is living in the backlist? Notice the small button at the top of her pages leading the Bridgerton seekers to a destination page where they are greeted with the granular information that makes them happy. Easy solution.

This year Macworld is apparently revamping a bit and devoting some energy to graphic designers. My guess is that they received a lot of specific feedback from the graphics community. I remain skeptical. I am still planning to go, but if I miss it I miss it. The timing is hard, and it is no longer necessary… just interesting on a personal level. The graphic designer in me has accepted being marginalized. It helps with the disappointment/frustration.

Nevertheless, there is no way I would ever switch to Windows.