Why Watching Your Competition Keeps You Small: Focus on Your Readers Instead
Article 5 of The World Famous Author Series
You check the Amazon rankings. You scroll through successful authors' Instagram accounts. You analyze their book covers, their posting schedules, their newsletter strategies.
You tell yourself you're "doing market research."
But really, you're trapped in the comparison spiral that keeps most authors small.
In his book “World Famous: How to Create a Kick-Ass Brand,” David Tyreman shares something counterintuitive about building world-famous brands: The companies that obsess over their competition stay stuck playing catch-up.
The companies that become world famous? They focus on understanding their customers so deeply that competition becomes irrelevant.
The same principle separates authors who build devoted followings from authors who stay invisible.
The Competition Obsession Trap
It seems logical to study successful authors in your genre. After all, they're doing something right, aren't they?
But here's what happens when you make competition your focus.
You start making decisions based on what competitors are doing instead of what your readers actually need.
You see a successful author posting daily writing tips, so you start posting daily writing tips—even though your readers never asked for them.
You notice bestselling books in your genre all have dark, moody covers, so you redesign yours to match—even though it no longer reflects your unique DNA.
You watch other authors building huge social followings through viral trends, so you chase those same trends—even though they don't align with your authentic voice.
Every decision becomes reactive instead of strategic.
Tyreman calls this "competitor myopia"—when businesses become so fixated on what competitors do that they lose sight of what customers want.
For authors, competitor myopia looks like constantly asking "What are successful authors doing?" instead of asking "What do my readers need from me?"
The first question makes you a follower. The second question makes you a leader.
Why Competition Focus Creates Copycat Brands
When you study your competition obsessively, something insidious happens. You start unconsciously mimicking them.
Your book descriptions start sounding like theirs. Your social media voice echoes theirs. Your visual branding resembles theirs.
You've accidentally turned yourself into a discount version of someone else.
This is exactly what Tyreman warned against in his work with Nike, Disney, and Polo Ralph Lauren. These brands didn't become world famous by watching their competitors—they became world famous by understanding their customers better than anyone else.
Nike didn't study what Adidas was doing and try to do it better. They asked what athletes actually needed and wanted to feel.
Disney didn't copy other entertainment companies. They asked what families craved from their entertainment experiences.
The brands that lead entire industries are the ones that stop following their competition.
The World Famous Author approach requires shifting your focus from competitors to readers—from external validation to internal clarity.
What Happens When You Study Readers Instead
Imagine spending the time you currently spend analyzing competitors on understanding your readers instead.
What if you deeply studied what makes your ideal readers tick? What they fear, what they dream about, what keeps them up at night?
When you understand your readers better than your competitors understand theirs, you win by default.
This doesn't mean you ignore your genre entirely. But there's a massive difference between understanding reader expectations and copying competitor strategies.
Reader expectations: Mystery readers want clues, resolution, and justice. Romance readers want emotional connection and satisfying endings. Fantasy readers want immersive worlds and epic stakes.
Competitor strategies: How other authors design covers, structure social media, price books, write blurbs.
You should honor reader expectations. You should ignore competitor strategies.
When you focus on readers, you make different decisions. You ask better questions.
Instead of "What cover style is trending in my genre?" you ask "What visual elements would resonate with readers who share my DNA?"
Instead of "How often do successful authors post on social media?" you ask "What content would genuinely serve my readers between book releases?"
Instead of "What marketing tactics are working for others?" you ask "How can I connect authentically with people who need what I offer?"
Reader-focused questions lead to differentiation. Competition-focused questions lead to duplication.
The Psychology of Competition vs. Customer Focus
Tyreman studied why some companies naturally focus on customers while others obsess over competition. He discovered it comes down to scarcity mindset vs. abundance mindset.
Scarcity mindset says: "There are limited readers, so I need to steal market share from competitors."
This mindset creates anxiety, comparison, and copycat behavior. You see every successful author as a threat to your success.
Abundance mindset says: "There are readers everywhere searching for exactly what I uniquely offer."
This mindset creates confidence, differentiation, and authentic strategy. You see successful authors as proof that readers exist and buy books, not as competitors stealing "your" readers.
The truth is that readers don't choose between you and other authors like they're choosing between identical products. They choose based on connection, resonance, and what speaks to their specific needs in that moment.
When you understand this, competition becomes irrelevant.
A reader who loves Colleen Hoover doesn't stop buying her books because you exist. But there are readers who would love your books who haven't discovered you yet—not because Colleen Hoover exists, but because you're not making yourself visible in a distinctive way.
Your competition isn't other authors. Your competition is reader ignorance that you exist.
Real Examples of Reader-Focused vs. Competition-Focused Authors
Let's look at authors through this lens to see the difference it makes.
Brandon Sanderson could have studied what other fantasy authors were doing and tried to replicate their success. Instead, he became obsessed with understanding what fantasy readers wanted that they weren't getting.
His readers wanted detailed magic systems that made sense. They wanted epic world-building with internal consistency. They wanted complex plotting that paid off meticulously.
He gave them exactly that—not because he copied competitors, but because he understood his readers.
His reader focus made him one of the bestselling fantasy authors alive, not his competition analysis.
Toni Morrison didn't write to compete with other literary fiction authors. She wrote to give Black readers literature that centered their experiences with the complexity and beauty they deserved.
She understood what her readers needed in a way that competition analysis never could have revealed.
Her reader focus made her Nobel Prize-winning, not her market positioning against competitors.
James Clear didn't write "Atomic Habits" by studying other productivity books and trying to one-up them. He studied his readers' struggles with building habits and created something that addressed their specific pain points.
His reader focus created one of the bestselling nonfiction books of the decade.
The pattern is clear: reader focus creates world-famous authors; competition focus creates forgettable ones.
How to Shift From Competition to Reader Focus
Making this shift requires intentional changes to how you spend your time and energy.
Step 1: Audit your current focus.
Look at the last month. How much time did you spend studying competitors vs. understanding readers?
If you spent hours analyzing other authors' strategies but zero hours in genuine conversation with your readers, you're stuck in competition mode.
Step 2: Stop following authors in your exact genre on social media.
This sounds counterintuitive, but it's crucial. When you constantly see what competitors post, you unconsciously start mimicking them.
Follow authors in different genres. Follow artists, entrepreneurs, and thinkers outside publishing. Follow your actual readers.
Your feed should inspire unique thinking, not copycat behavior.
Step 3: Create regular reader research habits.
Set up monthly reader interviews. Join reader groups for your genre (as a listener, not a promoter). Read your reviews looking for patterns in what resonates.
Ask your newsletter subscribers what they're struggling with. Create surveys about their reading preferences and values.
The goal isn't market research—it's genuine understanding.
Step 4: Make decisions based on reader needs, not competitor moves.
When you're tempted to copy a competitor's strategy, pause. Ask: "Is this what my readers actually need, or am I just copying because someone else succeeded with it?"
If you can't articulate how it serves your specific readers, don't do it.
Reader-focused decisions feel authentic; competition-focused decisions feel performative.
The Questions That Reveal Reader Focus
Tyreman developed diagnostic questions to determine if a brand was customer-focused or competitor-focused. Let's adapt them for authors.
Can you describe your ideal reader's deepest desires and fears without looking anything up? If you can't immediately articulate what keeps your readers up at night and what they're hoping for, you don't know them well enough.
World famous authors can describe their readers' psychology in vivid detail.
Do you make decisions based on data about your readers or assumptions about what's working for competitors? There's a huge difference between "My readers told me they want X" and "I saw a successful author doing X."
When you consider a new strategy or project, do you think "Will this impress my competitors?" or "Will this serve my readers?"
Your answer reveals whether you're playing a competitive game or building a devoted readership.
Can you name three things your readers need that they're not getting from other authors in your genre? If you can't, you're not paying attention to gaps—you're just copying what already exists.
Why Reader Focus Doesn't Mean Ignoring Genre
Some authors worry that ignoring competition means abandoning their genre entirely. That's not what Tyreman's methodology suggests.
Genre understanding is about reader expectations. Competition obsession is about author imitation.
You should deeply understand your genre because genres exist to help readers find what they're looking for. Mystery readers have expectations. Romance readers have expectations.
But understanding reader expectations is completely different from copying competitor strategies.
Honor the genre contract with readers. Ignore what your competition is doing within that genre.
You can write a mystery that delivers on genre promises while having a completely unique voice, visual brand, and reader relationship.
You can write romance that gives readers the emotional journey they crave while standing out dramatically from every other romance author.
Genre is a reader service. Competition mimicry is a strategic mistake.
The Confidence That Comes From Reader Focus
Here's what changes when you shift from competition focus to reader focus.
You stop second-guessing every decision based on what others are doing. When you know your readers deeply, you trust your choices.
Decision-making becomes simpler because you have a clear North Star: serving your specific readers.
You stop feeling anxious about other authors' success. When someone in your genre has a huge launch, you feel genuinely happy for them instead of threatened.
Their success proves readers are buying books. It doesn't diminish your potential success.
Abundance mindset replaces scarcity mindset.
You start enjoying your author journey more. Creating content for readers you understand feels meaningful. Competing for market share feels exhausting.
Your work improves because you're solving real problems for real people instead of trying to out-market competitors.
Reader focus creates both better business and better art.
Moving Beyond the Comparison Spiral
The comparison spiral keeps talented authors small. You check rankings, analyze competitors, and feel inadequate.
But world-famous authors play a different game entirely.
They're so focused on serving their readers that they barely notice what competitors are doing.
This doesn't happen overnight. It requires intentionally redirecting your attention from outward comparison to inward clarity and reader understanding.
Every time you're tempted to analyze a competitor, redirect that energy to understanding your readers instead.
Every time you feel insecure about another author's success, remind yourself that their readers are different from yours.
You're not competing for the same readers—you're each calling to different people.
The authors who become world famous are the ones who understand this truth deeply. They stop worrying about competition and start obsessing over reader service.
You've learned to stop copying trends, discovered your DNA, and understood how to inspire rather than sell. You've shifted from competition focus to reader focus.
Now there's one final principle that separates world-famous authors from everyone else.
Continue to Article 6: “Adding Uncommon Value: What World Famous Authors Do That Others Don't” (Coming Soon!)
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