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October 8, 2025 50 mins

Many authors make the mistake of writing a book first and then trying to find readers. This is backwards and rarely works. However, if you follow these three steps, your book will be set up for success.

  • Step #1: Identify your target reader.
  • Step #2: Start growing an audience of readers like that person.
  • Step #3: Launch your book.

But how do you find your Timothy? How do you grow your audience? And how do you write the kind of book they'll love?

In this week's episode, you'll hear from Josiah DeGraaf, a fantasy author and program director of the Young Writers Workshop, who did exactly that. He found his Timothy, added thousands of subscribers to his mailing list before publishing his first novel, and wrote the book his readers wanted. That strategy set him up for a wildly successful Kickstarter launch and a strong Amazon release.

In this interview, you'll discover

  • How to determine who your target reader is
  • Strategies to get you from 0 subscribers to 1,000+
  • How to write a book that your readers feel was written just for them.

If you want to launch your book to an eager audience instead of crickets, listen in or read the blog version.


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