It’s not about the number of friends or fans you have.
It’s not about yelling the loudest.
It’s not about biting your lip and engaging in self-promotion.
Audience development is about finding meaningful ways to find and connect with your readers, over the span of your career.
In my lunch talk at the 2013 Midwest Writers Workshop (20 minutes), I discuss my personal story of growing my readership, then share principles I follow to make it an enjoyable and sustainable process.
A fun place to start is about 4:20, where I show how much traffic my website received after I first launched it. To get straight to some practical tips, start at 13:00.