Whenever I’m delivering training for authors, I always have to add caveats along the lines of ‘of course, that doesn’t work when you’re a kidlit author…’ That’s because marketing children’s books isn’t the same as marketing adult literature. For children’s literature, you have two markets you need to reach. For adult books – the buyers are usually the readers, but parents, librarians, and teachers buy children’s books – so you need to sell to them and appeal to the child.
I’m working on a longer guide to help kidlit authors market themselves and their books, but in the meantime, here are three quick tips for marketing your children’s books:
1. Build Your Brand Before You Start
I might talk about author brand a lot, but if it’s possible, I believe that your brand is even more important when you are writing for children. If parents search for you online, hoping to find more books by you and end up on your personal Facebook page where your profile photo is of you doing a keg stand in college…well you get the picture. You need to establish a warm, child-friendly persona that resonates with parents and caregivers. You can go kooky like Mathew Gray Gubler, or warm and cosy like Julia Donaldson, whatever works for you and your books – but child-friendly is key.
If you write books for adults and children, you could even use a pen name for your children’s books to help maintain your image. Once you have your brand in place, on to step two…
2. Prepare to Meet Your Readers
Connecting with your readers is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a children’s author. It’s also a powerful way to generate word-of-mouth recommendations (aka children-to-parent recommendations!), which are crucial for promoting children’s books.
Do your research and make a plan for when your book is ready. Look at where you can attend local events, visit schools and libraries, and participate in author signings to engage directly with children who are of the right age to love your books. Consider including a flyer or bookmark asking for reviews in your books to encourage feedback which will be vital when we get to step three…
3. Start Local and Expand Online
As you start enacting your plan to meet your readers, tie it in with creating a buzz in local news. Imagine those little readers pointing at your picture in the paper ‘Mum/Dad that’s the author that came to my school!’
Building a local presence is a great way to establish credibility and generate initial buzz. Reach out to local newspapers, community organisations, and schools to share news about your book launches, events, and accomplishments.
Once you have a solid local foundation, you can expand your reach online by connecting with children’s book bloggers, reviewers, and social media communities. Sharing those initial reviews you got in step two will greatly help with this. If possible, have a strong place to point all these people towards – whether it’s a website or a social media channel – so that you can start selling those books!
The next stage is creating an email newsletter and that social media or web presence, which again, is a different process for children’s authors and is a whole other blog, so stay tuned for part two!