Self-published children’s book marketing  — part 2 is a doozy

January 9, 2024 — First, I want to wish my readers a happy, healthy and beautiful new year 2024! How futuristic this year sounds … 

I’ve worked in public relations and communications since I graduated from Michigan State with my bachelor’s in journalism and my master’s degree in advertising and public relations. I’ve been writing about and promoting others’ works for my entire career of over 30 years. So, marketing myself and my own book feels odd and takes some getting used to. It certainly helps to have the background and experience. And since my goal is to get my book noticed so that more people, especially children, can experience, and hopefully have fun and learn from my picture book, I have to forge ahead through any discomfort. 

As an author, it seems that having a website is a standard marketing practice. Author websites can be great marketing tools and they lend credibility (if they’re well done). As you add more books to your portfolio, you can add them. Your website becomes your own author central. While I have previous job experience working on websites, I’ve never created a professional website by myself from the ground up. There are a number of skills involved, including copywriting, photography and design. And, of course, technical skills, which run the gamut from purchasing your domain name to keeping the site running and updated, and meeting compliance standards for people with vision impairment, to name just a few. There are services that host a website for you and provide the interface for you to build your site from. You create your own site using a relatively easy template and tools. WordPress is one such service, but “easy” is a relative term based on your experience and skills. 

I checked in with one of our former IT guys who now works at a website design company in Ann Arbor. He told me about Squarespace and Wix, which he thinks are easier to use than WordPress. So, if you want to build your own site, these are a couple of possible options. I did some further research and found another local web design firm named Jottful. Their price is reasonable, especially compared to the thousands of dollars many businesses pay to have their website created and maintained. The topic of websites can be a blog post of its own, but to get an idea of the kinds of information you might want to include, you can check my homepage out in more detail.

If you publish your book through Amazon, I highly recommend the 5-Day Amazon Ad Challenge, which I completed late last year. It was a lot of work, but so worth it. They offer these free online classes several times a year in real time (and recorded for later viewing, depending on your schedule) with extensive interaction through a Facebook page where you submit assignments (I don’t miss homework!), ask questions, and more. Before I took the course, I created a couple of ads, winging my way through, and after learning what I learned during the challenge, I realize how far off on certain aspects I was and why I ended up spending WAY more than I made from book sales for a couple of months. Chalk it up to a learning experience. I’ve subsequently paid to join Bryan Cohen’s Author Ad School on an ongoing basis but I haven’t had time to dive any deeper into it yet. Their videos are there for you as your schedule allows. 

Through the Amazon Ad Challenge, I learned how to create far better keywords on my Amazon book page to enhance my book’s visibility. In short, pretend you’re someone looking for YOUR book (but not knowing anything about your book). What phrase or words do you think they’d have to type to bring your book up in their search? Then, keep going with many variations. Try it and see what books come up. We also learned about different types of ads (keyword ads, category ads, basic sponsored product ads, and targeting).

I’m still in early days of learning, but from what I’ve seen, my most successful ads so far in terms of impressions (how many people see your ad), clicks (how many people click on your ad) and sales (number of books sold), have been Category Ads using the Animal category under Picture Books. Further, they teach how to improve your Amazon author page to help your book’s visibility. There’s a great deal of research that authors can do to figure out the best categories to list your book under, effective keywords, and computer add-ons to help gather relevant information (one is Data Scraper in Chrome, I’m going to try this one when I get to this research). A quick example is to choose best-selling books that you think are similar to your own (Amazon has a best seller list under children’s books). You can research which categories their books are being marketed in (the ad gurus elaborate on this) and get ideas of keywords from their book summaries, reviews and more. It’s smart and tricky stuff! I was thoroughly impressed with this team led by Bryan Cohen (with his Best Page Forward team) who have helped many, many authors to improve their sales, some into the stratosphere!

Some other strategies I’ve used (although it’s difficult to know the effectiveness of each, but I figure they are worth a try and help with exposure) are to create flyers and post them on community billboards in local shops and cafes. I always request permission. I’ve approached local shops that have seemed a good fit about carrying my book. I’ve had success with three out of three, including a new one just this week, Adventure, Ink in Milan, Mich. I saw on Facebook that a local author I know recently had his books accepted there. Some shops love to feature local artists and authors — seek them out. They’re generally very welcoming. And one of my mottos is that it doesn’t hurt to ask. They might say “no” but if you don’t ask, you have no chance to get a “yes.” 

I printed some labels that say where my book can be purchased to put inside the front covers. Now and then, I put books in Little Free Libraries. I was happy to see that they had all disappeared within a couple of weeks from several around our neighborhood (and adjoining neighborhoods). Speaking of stickers, I’ve ordered some “Local Author” stickers with the state of Michigan outline on them and some winner stickers from a recent contest. Book bling. 

Social media is often extremely helpful with book marketing. Keep your eyes open for opportunities. Join reputable author groups on social media. You’ll get a good idea of what a group is like by watching some interactions for a while before diving in. You may find that some aren’t worthwhile. Now, when I’m on my phone, maybe a little too long, I can honestly (sometimes) say, “I’m marketing.” It’s become a little joke at home. I am trying to reduce my phone time this year. You too? 

How Happy Is a Lark? has also landed in an international bookstore, Scribbles and Quills, in Trinidad, where we have a lot of family on my mother’s side. My son referred me there. He knew about it because he had placed my Mom/his grandmother’s book (that he edited and self-published) there. Her story, Olas Grandes, a mystery/sweet romance/supernatural short novel, is set on the island of Trinidad, where she was born and grew up. I’m so pleased to be featured on Scribbles and Quills homepage (at the time of this writing). The first time I saw my book on their homepage was a wonderful surprise! Because of the currency exchange, my book costs about 120 Trinidad dollars! (Which is roughly equivalent to its $12 price tag in the U.S.)

If you join the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), you can take advantage of their many opportunities to help get the word out about your book(s), especially through their state chapters. I’m just starting to look more into what the Michigan chapter’s offerings are. I’m considering attending the society’s national meeting in New York City in February. If I do, I will post on social and blog about it. I imagine there will be some great networking opportunities there. I am an introvert (like so many writers are) so this will be a case of pushing myself out of my comfort zone — if I go (see what I did there?).

Finally, don’t forget about book and author events. I believe that some art fairs are interested in having books featured. I recently saw that same local author with his books at the Ypsilanti Holiday Marketplace. Research events in your local area (or as far away as you’re willing to drive), follow the events and/or the sponsoring organizations (like libraries) on social media (or subscribe to their email lists and/or newsletters) and put application and event dates into your calendar so you don’t miss deadlines to apply. I was sorry to miss the Ann Arbor District Library book fair this year. I was traveling a lot and preoccupied during spring 2023 (especially with my Dad’s failing health) during their application time. I’ve already put it in my calendar for next year.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments using the contact page (in the menu above). 

NON-NEWS FLASH: I have all of ZERO entries to the contest. Will someone please call the WAAAAmbulance? That’s okay, if no one enters, I’ll have more really cute prizes to keep to myself. But seriously, entrants have a better chance of winning and being featured on social media and I will be so happy to hear from you! :D 

Entrants of all ages can enter. Prize winners will be notified via email and will receive a surprise prize in the mail. Depending on number of entries, there will be multiple prizes.

Image credit: 1. Screenshot of Scribbles and Quills website hompage. 2. David and Gail Kuhnlein at a book event in Troy, Mich. 3. Bookshelf at This, That, and the Odder Things.