[maverickJ]

>"You need to create for an audience of one that you understand well.

An audience of one is specific. Whether it’s you or someone you know well, there are clear preferences that you can cater to. They have a manageable number of needs and pieces of feedback. Which means that creating for an audience of one is specific and attainable. You have a goal post that can tell you whether you scored or didn’t, so failure and success are both explicitly defined. Now, you know what to make, but more importantly, you know exactly when you’ve failed making it."

Interesting quote. What was not mentioned is how to find the audience for what you create; whether it's a new thing with a new market to be created or an improvement on an existing thing with an existing market.

An interesting blog on why it's important to find the right audience for your work is https://leveragethoughts.substack.com/p/cracking-the-who-you...

[rikroots]

> What was not mentioned is how to find the audience for what you create; whether it's a new thing with a new market to be created or an improvement on an existing thing with an existing market.

This. 100%

I have an imaginary audience that I've curated over the years. I use them to critique my draft poems. These voices are people I've met, both online and in real life, in various poetry forums and workshops. They are people who have given me valuable advice about draft poems - advice that I've internalised over time to the point where I can self-critique my new work as I redraft without needing to constantly badger the real 'them' for feedback. They are the people I want to write poems for - even if they don't know it.

OTOH when I listen to an audience of one - me - for feedback on some non-poetry work[1] then I do it knowing that the work is going to end up as Outsider Art[2]. This state of affairs doesn't particularly bother me, but sometimes I do get sad that I've taken paths that real people are unlikely to be interested in. Maybe in fifty years the Posterians will notice, like they noticed Wilfred Owen back in the 60s.

[1] - I posted links to some of my less mainstream works a couple of days ago in another comment, so no need to repeat myself here.

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_art

[berkes]

I'm a fan of Ash Maurya's Running Lean (ISBN-10: 9781449305178) and the Lean Canvas methodology it describes.

The entire premiss of that book is to avoid "faceless audiences" but to talk actual people that you think should or could be your customers.

Once you know it is important to find the right audience, the next step is to actually find them and engage. Which is what this "lean canvas" thing is about.