Glossary of Literary Theory by Greig E. Henderson and Christopher Brown

Implied reader:

A term used by Wolfgang Iser to describe a hypothetical reader of a text. The implied reader "embodies all those predispositions necessary for a literary work to exercise its effect -- predispositions laid down, not by an empirical outside reality, but by the text itself. Consequently, the implied reader as a concept has his roots firmly planted in the structure of the text; he is a construct and in no way to be identified with any real reader." (See also Constance School of Reception Aesthetics, Reader-response criticism, Reception theory.)