by Merrill Rainey
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my career as an Author, Illustrator, and Paper Engineer, it is that not one project ever runs the same path. Some projects need more time, while others zip right through, and sometimes they need a little more hand holding. Each book I’ve created has had its own individual journey and that includes how I approached marketing them. When marketing a book, I always look for new avenues to attract people to my work. Some ways help me find work, and some ways don’t. When they don’t work, I learn from these experiences and improve how I approach my process the next time around. Like most things in publishing, there is not one set way to do something, and that includes how to market your book. So whether you are traditionally published, or independently published, I’ve compiled some suggestions that I have found success with over the last decade to help get my work out into the world. Marketing is the business of building an audience. So for our books and our careers to succeed, we need to build that following. And sometimes it takes a little time to do so. Hopefully the strategies below will help to dispel some of the mystery around how to market your book!
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Make a marketing plan
Marketing plans are so important! They help you define how you are going to approach getting your book out into the world and how you are going to afford doing so. When creating your plan you need to think through various things:
1. How do you plan to get the word out about your book? Will it be through social media, local advertisements, video media, etc...?
2. Decide what events you might want to attend to help you promote. Will there be a cost associated with doing so?
3. Make a list of what type of giveaways you might want to create to go along with your book. How much will they cost?
4. Will you need to pay someone to help design your marketing materials?
5. Most importantly, create a budget. Know how much you want to spend on your marketing plan. It’s easy to get excited about finding creative ways to market your project, but make sure it’s affordable, and make sure those ideas are worth your investment.
Know what your publisher’s plan is
If you are going to be traditionally published, know what your publisher plans to do to get the word out about your book before you start to market on your own. If you don’t know the details, ask what their plan is.
You should know:
⁃ Where they plan to advertise your book
⁃ What their social media strategy is
⁃ If they are sending your work out to reviewers
⁃ If there are ways that you can help support them by supplying materials that they can send to booksellers
⁃ Are they willing to help with booking school presentations, bookstore appearances, and library events
The World Wide Web
The number one thing you must have when marketing your book is a website. You need a place that you can send people to that showcases you and your books. Your site must include images of your book covers and what your books are about, links to where you can buy them, as well as a bio about yourself. You can also include any downloadable activities related to your books, and information on if you offer speaking engagements, library presentations, school visits, etc. It is also good practice to link your site to your publishers.
Once you are set up, you will want to link your site to different social media accounts. You’ll have to decide which social media platforms work the best for you. I know social media is a mess right now, but it’s still the place where publishers share about events, book releases, and other announcements. It is where a huge part of your audience engagement occurs, so it is still a viable place to get the word out about you and your work. I’m not a social media guru, but from my experiences, you’ll want to post something at least once a week to keep your audience engaged.
If you have the means to create a book trailer, I suggest doing so. Book trailers don’t have to be anything fancy. They just have to give your audience a taste of what your book is all about and where to find it. You can easily create a slide presentation in PowerPoint or Apple’s Keynote, then export it out as a movie. Or if you have kids, or grandkids that are tech savvy… let them create the trailers for you. Then you can post what was created for all to see on the world wide web, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc.!
Note: When possible, I like to link the sales of my book to bookshop.org. This site allows readers to buy your books from your local independent bookstore, or if you don’t have one, they can choose another store to buy it from.
Mass Media
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that any positive press is good press! That includes small town local papers to national news. Once you know when your new book will be released, start reaching out to local media sources; news station, newspapers, parents magazines, radio shows, podcast, blogs, book reviewers etc. See if they will run an interview or a special section about you and the book or if they will write a review. From my experiences, news sources are usually more than willing to help you promote and celebrate your book and yourself. The best things about these types of resources is that most of them are free, and you can normally find who to contact listed on their websites.
Also, if you attended college, trade school, etc., reach out to your alma mater. Most places of higher education have a magazine that will highlight the successes of their current and past students.
In person events
No one knows you or your work unless you are telling them. One of the most common questions I get from parents is; “My son or daughter is graduating from art school soon. Do you have any advice for them?” and my response is always “They need to learn how to sell themselves and their work, and if they don’t know how to do that, they need to learn how.” Many people in this field are introverts, but you have to break out of that comfort zone to succeed! No one else knows how to sell your work better than you!
So, with that said...
⁃ Participate in as many local events; book festivals, parking lot parties, street fairs, etc. that you can and have energy for. You definitely want to grow your audience, but you don’t want to burn out doing so.
⁃ Submit to larger national book festivals, you never know whether you’ll be accepted if you don’t try!
⁃ Connect with your indie bookstores. These bookstores are so important to the book biz! Ask to see if they would be willing to partner together to host a book launch event.
⁃ Attend writing and illustrating workshops, classes, and conferences. Networking is key!
⁃ If you have a book that has a niche topic… are there events in that same topic that you can attend? The great thing about attending an event like this is that it already has a built in audience, which you can then use to build upon and grow yours.
⁃ If you are presenting at libraries, schools, or events about your book, know your audience and find ways to make your presentation engaging for them. Engage being the key word here… you have to use a little bit of showmanship to keep the attention of your audience members big and small… Are you using puppets? Are you doing interactive read alouds? Or maybe some kind of craft activity that relates to your book? Also, be willing to adjust on the fly based on the reactions of your audience or any event issues that might arise. Being flexible and engaging will always help grow your following and lead to more presentation opportunities!
⁃ Going back to your marketing plan, know what your travel budget is. Also, know what your time is worth. Sometimes you can find, or are invited to free events, but those FREE events will come with travel costs to get there. Sometime those FREE events are great for networking and building your audience, sometimes they are not. After awhile you’ll know which events will benefit you and your books the most. A few years back I attended NERD Camp Ohio. It was a free event, I didn’t get paid to be there, I had to pay for my own travel expenses, but this event ended up being one of my favorite events of the year! I presented multiple times to teachers, librarians, book fans, etc., and from that event, I was able to acquire a few paid school visits the following year.
*Side note: Something to keep in mind while you attend in-person events; whether you sell 100 books or just 1… every in-person event is an opportunity to help build your audience!
Giveaways
I’m a big fan of creating new giveaways for my books. When Roar I’m a Dinosaur launched, I created a mask bookmark that mimicked the concept of this novelty board book. It showcased what the gimmick of the book was, acted as a toy, and functioned as a bookmark. When GIANTS ARE VERY BRAVE PEOPLE released I created a GIANT sized bookmarks which were just oversized bookmarks, but again it riffed off of the concept of the book. One other give away/tradition that I started is creating a new t-shirt design based on my new book. I would then send these shirts to a more focused audience which usually included my publishing team, bookstore owners, librarians, and other event hosts.
The trick to creating effective giveaways is to know who your audience is that will be receiving them. You must make the giveaway something that they’ll keep and not just throw away. Again, it doesn’t have to be something overly creative, just keep it simple, fun, and effective (ie. making a normal size bookmark two inches bigger and calling it giant sized).
Some giveaways are created for crowds of people and others are created for more focused audiences as noted above. Looking back at your marketing plan, when coming up with giveaways directed towards large amounts of people, you want to find something where you can get more for your money. When creating something for a more focused audience, you might want to spend a little more money for a more substantial takeaway. Remember to not stretch yourself to thin here; do what is within your means!
Here are a few ideas for book giveaways;
⁃ Bookmarks. Probably the most common giveaway, but the most effective. Make sure the bookmark relates to your book and gives some kind of snippet of what the book is about. Showcase any industry reviews, and of course include your website link so they know where to go to order your book. There are a lot of places to order bulk bookmarks from. I’ve had good luck with GotPrint in the past.
⁃ Pins and buttons. Same as with the bookmarks, make sure they relate to your book and if possible directs your audience to your website. There are a lot of venders you can choose from to order or create these, but I’ve always used Sticker Mule and have enjoyed their products so far.
⁃ Activity sheets. Activity sheets that can be downloaded from your website, or given away at events are a great way for places like schools and libraries to highlight your books and to engage with customers or students. When creating these, consider things such as: Is there a fun activity you can create that relates to your book? Mazes, word searches, and such are pretty common, but is there something you can create that would be more memorable? When Color, Cut, Create came out, I created an oversized postcard that had one of the dinosaur paper toys on it. It also included where you could order the book from. My hope with this particular activity sheet was that the dinosaur would get built, the builders would enjoy their time doing so, and then they would end up ordering the book so they could do it all over again. For GIANTS ARE VERY BRAVE PEOPLE, I did a compare and contrast activity using the art on the end pages where the kids would circle what was different in the art. The end pages at the beginning of the book showed how Bigelow saw his world and all of the things he was afraid of. Then at the end of the book, the end pages changed to show that Bigelow had gained his courage and was not afraid anymore. Then, to tie into the message of the book, I left space for them to write down what they are afraid of and what they could do to gain courage to overcome those fears.
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To find out more about my work check out -> Littlerainey.com
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Looking for someone to design your book or marketing materials? Email me at merrillr@littlerainey.com for rates.
Looking for an illustrator for you project check out HIA.com (Hire and Illustrator) or check out SCBWI.org (Society of Children’s Book Writes and Illustrators).
