When I was younger, I didn’t like very much to read. I liked books and I liked to collect them, but because of the nature of my studies and later my work, I was already so much time “wrapped” in books (researching specialized information) that I didn’t find any interest in spending my free time reading, again. 🙂 So, poetry and prose were not much on my reading menu. But while reading, what I liked the most is that I can search for targeted information whenever I need it and access it any time.
Now, with time my needs and wants changed. I do enjoy reading more poetry and prose. I find it relaxing and comforting. It enhances my writing, my creativity, my way of thinking and self-confidence, my knowledge of languages…the benefits are numerous. I still do search for certain information, relating to skills and knowledge I’m interest in, but the existence of Internet in last 20 years has changed that for us in many ways.
So, one of the reasons to see a decline in your reading stats might be:
1.You don’t know who are you writing for.
You need to know your audience; what are their needs and wants, because it changes with time and evolves. As a writer you need to be able to sense their reading pulse and offer types of information that will attract and intrigue them. Writing also means fostering a community, sharing mutual insights and experiences. This is the first thing that needs to be cleared up, and it will undoubtedly improve your writing too.
2. You don’t recognize the purpose of your writing.
Here, I mean you do need to have clearly defined what kind of information you are offering; As I said, people do like targeted information, especially if you are a non-fiction writer. As a fiction writer do you have recognizable style, writing voice that your readers can relate to.
3. Your writing is more like ‘a stale pond’ instead of a ‘running river’.
What I mean is that do you offer fresh content on regular basis? Is your content related to contemporary topics and events that people are genuinely interested in?
Do you blindly follow one literary style or do you like to experiment? The point is even in the actual action of writing we do need to be somehow innovative and creative. You like haikus? Great! Next time try to write a longer story. Maybe you could share how actually you like writing short forms. Why? What is there that excites you? Believe it or not, your readers want to read that stuff as well. How do you create, what invigorates you. Share small pieces of you in new, affirmative ways and watch your audience grow.
Do you have any tips and tricks on attracting more readers? Please share in the comments below 🙂
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Business in Rhyme 
good article. When I was in college and university (I was in my 50s and 60s) I spent so much time reading text books and research materials that I did not have time (nor inclination) to read fiction. I was always reading psychology or history or english course materials, and when not reading I was writing papers. When there was a course featuring fiction in my field (Latin American Studies) I felt almost like it was cheating to sit down with a novel from the reading list.
The topic of “who am I writing for” is a good one. I think I’ll address that (again) shortly. I do enjoy your site! 🙂
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Thanks for lovely comment. I also, once I retreated from being that much in science, my love for reading fiction came back. We always have to make space for something new to enter 🙂
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I was really into it when I finally got into college…I wanted to learn everything! 🙂 I still have a long way to go… 🙂
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I know what you mean 🙂
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That was quite informative. Thanks for this !
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You are welcome and I’m glad you liked the post 🙂
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Thanks for posting this, its interesting and has some great tips. I like to write and read from a place of honesty. Im not sure how big my readership will be as Im sure it ebbs and flows, but thats okay too.
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I do believe that the relationship between reader and writer is a two-way street. In all of my posts I accentuate how important is for us to be true to ourselves (honest) and that’s the surest way we are attracting right audience. But I also believe that we need to have a sort of a strategy that where we are open in our writing, while meeting the readers’ needs. It’s not an easy task and as you said, it fluctuates and requires calibration from our part 🙂
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Well said…or rather well written! 😉
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🙂
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Thanks for sharing these simple yet effective tips. BTW, I do share the same reading pattern as urs…as a child and now 🙂
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Thank you for lovely comment 🙂
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A concrete piece of advice for writers on a wide spectrum. Keep up the good work.
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Thank you for your kind words and encouragement 🙂
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True to great extent ,if we are writing for money
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Yes, this is mainly attributed to aspiring and professional writers who want to reach wider audience.
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I keep coming back to this post in my head. Self-censorship pretty much kills poetry stone dead – without authenticity it may as well not exist, and I’m not sure you can really write poetry while bearing the reader’s needs in mind as then the authenticity is undermined. The irony is that ignoring them may be the only way to meet them? Then again, no-one writing for money would conceivably choose to be a poet to start with 🙂 You kind of are or you aren’t.
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Hi Shimmy, thanks for the comment. In my previous comment on this post I tried to clarify a bit things: I do believe that there has to be some middle ground where you are true to yourself (authentic), but you do have a strategy to make your writing more approachable or recognizable. There are many options here to do this:maybe writing a guest post or inviting other bloggers to your blog, doing book reviews that you find interesting..you get the picture. Readers like variety and from here we are now getting into promotion of writing: the more we put out there our work and share our passion in different ways, greater chance is that you will attract more readers. I don’t see that by expanding our writing we are undermining authenticity. For me, that is being creative and innovative. Many established poets write essays, critiques, reviews, perform writing workshops, ext. All that contributes to their writing and is expanding their readership. Poetry is a form of art, subjective, no doubt about that, but as an aspiring authors we need to apply all tools we have if we want to stay in business 🙂
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I think you can sum that up as that poetry itself has to be fairly independent of external concerns, but you can do other things which help (rather than alter the poetry itself) to that end. As you know, I tend to waffle on about other poets and books from time to time, as well as the odd philosophical discussion, and I perform at live poetry nights.
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I never suggested to alter writing poetry. Blog I wrote is applicable to different forms of writing, raging from blogging to non-fiction writing. I do believe introducing an element of surprise can steer up things positively and you make reader’s mind curios. What you can do in writing poetry is to flirt with different styles and forms and still be authentic. That is what I meant. As you said, you already do different things so I don’t think you are losing your readership 🙂
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Yes. Different forms of writing have different demands, and fundamentally you need to understand what those demands are 🙂
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Well yes and no 🙂 The point is to have fun and try different things. When you do have fun, it is reflected in your writing, no matter the rules or writing demands. I write everything and about everything (now, I can’t stop laughing 🙂 ) I’m not an expert but I do have opinion and some experience. That’s the basis of my writing. No matter what form. Enjoyment is the key – that also attracts readers.
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