Writing about cars: it's all about the audience

Every now and again, I do a Google search on my name, just to see what's there. (C'mon, admit it, you do it too.) It seems I'm frequently a topic of discussion: I have a fairly sizeable fan club which, as the saying goes, wouldn't walk across the street to spit on me if I were on fire.

They're enthusiasts, and their basic complaint is that I don't write what they want to read. It's one of the major quandries of the profession: what audience are you trying to reach?

When it comes to automotive work, I find there are generally two types of readers. The first are people who aren't all that familiar with automobiles, and they're using reviews as a tool to help them make a buying decision. The second group consists of very knowledgeable drivers, who usually aren't buyers, and who read the reviews mostly for entertainment. My anti-fan club comes from this latter group; their main complaints are that I'm not technical enough, and that I talk too much about aspects of the car that don't interest them, such as wasting word count on cargo space and interior appointments.

Long ago, I decided that I wanted to focus on the first type of reader. I like helping people; I like explaining things to readers. I think the tone of my writing is suited to those who want to be walked through a car from bumper to bumper. The bulk of these readers will never take a car on a track, or feel the way it handles when tossed around a switchback. I respect the enthusiasts who do, but I'm not writing for them.

When I first started reviewing, the newspaper put me strictly on economy cars. I took a ribbing from some of my colleagues, who asked when I was going to start writing about "real vehicles". It bothered me, until one very wise writer said to me, "Someone who's spending $75,000 on a sports car doesn't give a damn what you think. But someone who's only got $16,000 to spend does, because she's depending on you for guidance."

That advice is as fresh today as when I first heard it. Decide who your audience will be, and then write for it. There's a large market for the entertainment articles, and I very seriously admire the brilliant work in publications like Auto Week and Car and Driver. But there's an equally large demand for bread-and-butter stories, and that's the direction I chose. First and foremost, it pays the bills, and secondly, it gives me satisfaction to know that my articles can be helpful to people. And third, it gives my anti-fan club something to talk about each week.