Get Noticed, Get Read: Marketing Strategies for Children’s Authors

Discover practical marketing tips and strategies to help your book stand out in a crowded market and reach more young readers.

Marketing Children’s Books

Marketing Your Children’s Book: Strategies for Success

Marketing a children’s book can be challenging, especially in today’s world of online everything. Unlike marketing books for adults, children do not have the purchasing power, and their buying decisions are made by adults such as parents, teachers, or librarians. To successfully market a children’s book, you need to use strategies that appeal to both children and adults. In this post, I share with you what I have learned along the way as a publishing and writing coach for successful authors.

Getting Started Writing Children’s Books

Before we dive into marketing strategies, let me share with you what I learned from my friend Karen Inglis, an international bestselling author who has successfully self-published and marketed her children’s books. Karen has sold over half a million copies of her time travel adventure book, The Secret Lake, in English and ten other languages. Karen shared her journey to becoming a successful indie children’s author at a recent writer conference.

Karen started writing books for children when her own children were young. She was inspired to write The Secret Lake after visiting a friend who had just moved into an apartment in Notting Hill. She saw children playing in the communal gardens and thought it would be magical if they could meet the children who lived and played there a hundred years ago. After many rejections from traditional publishers, Karen put the manuscript in a box, where it sat for ten years. In 2010, she discovered self-publishing and decided to give it a try.

Karen’s experience shows that it’s never too late to start writing for children. If you have a story to tell, don’t give up on it. With the rise of self-publishing, it’s easier than ever to get your book into the hands of readers.

Marketing Strategies for Children’s Books

1. Start Locally: Establishing your brand locally is an effective way to market your children’s book. You can attend events at your local library, speak to schools, and visit bookshops. By advertising locally, you’re supporting your community, and you can gain word-of-mouth momentum. Parents and teachers will tell each other about your book if their children enjoy it. It is a slow burn, but it can lead to long-term success.
2. Traditional Media: Traditional media is still a very effective marketing tool for children’s authors. You can contact local newspapers, magazines, and radio stations to let them know about your book. If your book has a local connection, be sure to mention it. The local press is often interested in promoting local authors. You can also consider contacting children’s book bloggers, who can help spread the word about your book.
3. Social Media: Social media is a great way to reach a wider audience. You can use platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to promote your book. However, keep in mind that children are not usually the ones using social media, so your target audience will be parents, teachers, and librarians. You can also use social media to connect with other authors and book bloggers.
4. School Visits: Visiting schools is a great way to promote your book and engage with your readers. Children love meeting authors, and it can be a fun and interactive experience for both the author and the children. You can read your book to the children, answer their questions, and even run writing workshops. Teachers and librarians are often happy to have authors visit their schools, so don’t be afraid to reach out.
5. Reviews: Reviews are important for any book, but they’re especially important for children’s books. Parents and teachers often rely on reviews to make buying decisions. You can ask friends, family, and readers to leave reviews on Amazon or Goodreads. Be sure to thank them for their review and engage with your readers.

Marketing a children’s book can be challenging.

To build your confidence as a beginning author, Karen advises that you offer free speaking events. Once you are established, you should charge for your events. To gain experience and market your book, you can offer to speak for free in exchange for sending home order slips to parents or children. Even if you are not allowed to sell your books, speaking to different groups of children helps you learn what works and what doesn’t work when presenting to them.

What I have learned is that giving the same talk multiple times helps to hone your message and deliver a speech that connects with your audience. When you become in demand and start getting tired because of your free events, you can start charging.

However, when doing free events, you have to be careful not to make it awkward for people who are charging. You should speak for free only when starting and not make a big habit of it. When reaching out to schools, you need to know what they want, and you need to convince them that you can make their job of educating children easier and that you will be easy to work with.

When contacting schools, Karen recommends calling to get the name of the literacy coordinator and tailoring your emails to include thumbnail book cover images and some interesting information. You should follow up with a phone call. Although there is a lot of disappointment involved in the process, it’s important to understand that teachers and school staff are incredibly busy.

Let’s take a minute and discuss the direct-selling model versus the traditional publishing model. For most authors, offset printing is a mistake because they end up with a garage full of books. However, if you are selling hundreds of books every month, it may be worth looking at offset printing to reduce your per-unit cost. It’s also essential to contact schools before they finalize their budgets for the following year, so they can plan for the expense of paying you as a speaker.

How to Sell More Books: A Comprehensive Guide to Boosting Your Sales

Attracting a wide audience to your book can be a challenging task, but it is not impossible. With the right strategies in place, you can sell more books and increase your profits significantly. In this guide, we will explore various techniques that can help you boost your book sales and improve your visibility.

Advertising vs. Marketing Before we dive into the specifics of selling more books, it is crucial to understand the difference between advertising and marketing. While advertising refers to spending money to promote your book, marketing involves all the activities that can help build your brand and increase your sales. A good marketing strategy involves a mix of both paid and free promotions.

How to Sell More Books:

1. Invest in Professional Book Cover Design Your book cover is the first impression that readers have of your book. It is the face of your book and can determine whether readers will take the time to read your book or not. A professional book cover design can help your book stand out from the crowd and attract more readers.
2. Leverage Social Media to Promote Your Book Social media platforms are a great way to connect with your target audience and promote your book. Create social media accounts for your book and regularly post updates about your book, upcoming events, and author news. Engage with your followers by responding to comments and messages promptly.
3. Host a Virtual Book Launch A virtual book launch is an excellent way to reach a broader audience without the costs associated with a physical book launch. You can host a virtual launch on various platforms, such as Zoom, Facebook Live, or Instagram Live. Share the link to your virtual launch on your website and social media channels to attract more attendees.
4. Partner with Influencers and Book Reviewers Partnering with influencers and book reviewers can help increase your book’s visibility and attract more readers. Reach out to book bloggers, book reviewers, and social media influencers in your genre and offer them a free copy of your book in exchange for an honest review.
5. Leverage Amazon Ads Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world and an excellent platform to promote your book. You can leverage Amazon ads to reach a broader audience and increase your sales. Amazon ads work on a pay-per-click model, which means you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
6. Utilize Book Promotional Sites Book promotional sites are websites that promote books to their email lists and social media channels. Submit your book to various book promotional sites, such as Bookbub, Ereader News Today, and Bargain Booksy, to reach a wider audience.
7. Host a Book Giveaway Hosting a book giveaway is an excellent way to attract new readers and generate buzz around your book. You can host a giveaway on your social media channels, website, or using a platform like Goodreads.
8. Attend Book Festivals, and Conferences Book festivals and conferences are excellent opportunities to meet with readers and promote your book. Attend book festivals and conferences in your area and set up a booth to showcase your book.
9. Offer Discounts and Bundles Offering discounts and book bundles can help attract price-conscious readers and increase your sales. Offer a discount code to your email subscribers or bundle your book with other books in your genre to attract more readers.

I understand the challenges that come with writing a children’s book. But it all starts with having a good story is key to engaging children and selling your book.

Before you can start marketing, you have to be able to write a great children's book. But what makes a great children's book?

How to write a successful children’s book.

1. Determine your target age group. Before you start writing, you need to determine your target age group. The age group you choose will inform the length, theme, plot complexity, and character ages of your book. You can discover your target age group by reading lots of children’s books from your library.

2. Develop your story. Once you have determined your target age group, you can start developing your story. A good story should be original, engaging, and memorable. Start by creating an outline of your story, then fill in the details as you go along. It’s a good idea to put your story away for a couple of weeks and come back to it with fresh eyes. This will help you identify what’s not working and make changes.

3. Test your story After you have written your story, it’s time to test it. You can do this by getting feedback from children or teachers. Give them a simple questionnaire after they have read it, asking which parts they enjoyed, how many stars they would give it out of 10, if there were any bits they didn’t enjoy, what parts they didn’t understand, and when they got bored. This feedback can help you make profitable changes without having to pay a professional editor right away.

4. Map out your story. Before you hire an illustrator or pay for any illustrations to be done, make sure you have your story mapped out so that you know where the pages are going to turn and what illustrations would go there. If you read a lot, you’ll know when you want the page to turn, and that will inform where the images go. Even if you only have stickman drawings, you can ask a parent to try and read it to their child. Ask them to let you know what they think of the picture placement so you get a sense of whether the kids will be engaged with the story.

5. Add vocal drama. When reading to kids, it’s important to sense when they’re losing interest. You might have to add voices or a bit of vocal drama to help get through the boring bits. But when testing the story on children, you need to know if the story stands on its own. If you start to lose the kids at a certain page, make a note to fix it and make it much more interesting.

6. Hire a professional editor. After you have tested your story and made any necessary changes, it’s time to hire a professional editor. Look for an editor who is familiar with editing children’s books specifically. They can help you with copy editing and ensure your book is ready for publication.

Remember, the key to success isn’t just writing a good story but finding a unique angle that set you apart from the rest.

And here’s the biggest tip: Don’t focus solely on children. Parents are the ones buying the books, so make sure your story resonates with them too. Incorporate themes that parents care about, such as diversity, empathy, and self-esteem. And above all, be persistent. Rejection was part of the process, but don’t give up. Keep honing your craft, and who knows? You just might have been the next J.K. Rowling.

Eric G. Reid

Book & Brand Strategist

Founder/Editor/Publisher at Skinny Brown Dog Media

Email: Eric@EricGReid.com

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