Children’s Book Marketing: 7 Great Strategies

Children’s Book Marketing: 7 Great Strategies

The children’s book marketplace can be crowded, making it easy for your book to get lost in the shuffle without solid children’s book marketing strategies in place to get it noticed. And since your children’s book marketing strategy needs to aim at the buyer, rather than the reader, creating children’s book marketing strategies to capture the attention of the buyer while appealing to the reader can be challenging for even the most seasoned author. Focusing on tactics that help you get your book, title and name in front of the right audience are key, and these 7 children’s book marketing strategies will do just that.

1. Children’s Book Marketing — Create a Winning Press Kit

Before setting out to talk about your book, you need to put together a strong press kit to use to present your book to potential readers, interested audiences, and booksellers or promoters.

• The kit should include a press release detailing the book’s publication, an overview of the book and why it is unique, a beautiful cover image, and a compelling author bio. Remember that the press kit is intended to create excitement around your book. If it is relevant to current events or includes a topic or theme that is trending, be sure to include that in your press kit.
• A digital press kit can be created as a shareable PDF, a link to a customized website for the book, a presentation deck, or even a link to a social media platform dedicated to the book.
• A physical press kit is great to have, so you can leave it with organizations or people who want something tangible. It is great to have on hand, too, for spontaneous conversations about your book, so you can leave something to remind people of your book’s title and contents.

2. Children’s Book Marketing — Use Giveaways

Building excitement over the idea of a book can be hard when it is just a concept, so authors and publishers often distribute books through giveaways to help create excitement about their title. People love getting things for free, so giveaways can be an excellent children’s book marketing strategy.

• Partner with a book influencer to create a fun giveaway that draws from both of your audiences.
• Pair your book giveaway with a contest or as part of an event.
• Offer your book as a giveaway for a few lucky attendees of a book signing or other author event you have scheduled and promote them together.

3. Children’s Book Marketing — Connect with Child-Centric Organizations

Since your marketing push needs to be toward the buyer and not the reader, market directly to parenting and child-centered groups, publications, and media outlets. Focusing your children’s book marketing strategies on the locations where parents, teachers, families, and librarians are already looking will help you maximize the benefits of putting time and energy in these places, upping the odds that interested buyers or readers will notice your book.

Parenting magazines regularly highlight children’s books to their readers, and newspapers and parenting newsletters are typically open to submissions of new, relevant literature to present to their readers. Local media outlets are also a great resource to tap into, especially when they can highlight a local angle or a compelling perspective to their audience.

4. Children’s Book Marketing — Go to Schools and Libraries

Other spots that you can focus your children’s book marketing strategies on to help increase the visibility of your children’s book are schools and libraries.

• Contact area schools and libraries by sending out your digital press kit and offer to set up a quick meeting with literary specialists and librarians to see if you could introduce your book to students at a school event, family night, or library time.
• Libraries often host author events, so stop by with a copy of your book and your physical press kit to see if you can participate.
• Offer to host a book reading for the children’s program participants or at a library event.
• Ask schools and libraries if they would let you host a mini workshop on your book or the writing process, so you can get your book’s name out and possibly meet some of your potential readers and families.

5. Children’s Book Marketing — Create Excitement on Social Media

Social media is pervasive in many people’s lives, including parents, teachers, and librarians. Creating a social media presence is a smart children’s book marketing strategy because it allows you to connect with the intended audience where they are already spending time, on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms.

• Start by setting up a bio and username for your book or as an author, if you don’t have one already. Secure the same name if possible across all platforms and link them up in your main platform’s bio.
• Create posts that have the same feel and vibe as your book to promote, discuss, and hype your book to other users.
• Get started by following other users on each platform. Following other authors and popular kids’ book titles can help you find your audience and potential followers more quickly.
• Remember that everything you post should support and reflect your book and your brand as an author. Responses to others, snide remarks, or off-color jokes delivered online never go away and can tarnish your new and growing reputation, so have fun interacting, but never forget the purpose behind your children’s book marketing strategies.

Facebook: Join local groups on Facebook to interact with potentially interested readers and buyers and to learn about local events and activities where your book might find an audience. Interact with other users, but be mindful of spamming them with unwanted book content. Instead, become the local expert whom they can trust about issues that are relevant to your expertise in writing. Be sure to read the group rules about posting products before linking your book, hosting a book giveaway, or providing a link to your author’s website.

Instagram: Use this highly visual platform to show your book in a variety of ways, from highlighting the cover to focusing on a main character or scene to give sneak peeks of the book to excite potential readers. Offer followers a countdown to your book’s launch, behind-the-scenes pictures of your first book signing, or photos of you hosting a book reading to build interest in your title and your audience.

Bookstagram, where book lovers congregate on this platform, is a good place to connect with others who are looking for books in specific genres or for specific audiences. While your audience may be too young to participate on Instagram, connecting with their parents, teachers, and librarians on this wildly popular platform can help you grow awareness about your book quickly. In addition, you can create a Reel by cross-posting your videos from TikTok to reach more users.

TikTok: Join the BookTok community by posting snippets of your book through short videos of you reading your book or talking about your main character while focusing on the artwork featured in your book. Host a live event on TikTok to interact with followers and to discuss your book or the writing process or to bring followers along on a book reading, an author event, or as you “unbox” the first shipment of your new book from the printer.

6. Children’s Book Marketing — Garner Attention Through Reviews and Awards

Book reviews are the gold standard in free advertising, so racking up stacks of authentic book reviews is every author’s dream come true. Asking friends, family, and acquaintances to provide you with authentic book reviews can help you get started getting noticed by those outside of your immediate social circle. Ask for reviews on social media platforms from readers and followers when you interact with them.

Make it easy for them by providing links to sites like Goodreads, where they can give their honest feedback on your book, helping to bolster your book’s visibility and giving potential readers a good idea of what they can expect from your children’s book content. If you are fulfilling your book sales, you can even include a pre-printed note with a QR code to facilitate reader reviews along with a thank-you note from the author, personalizing the buyer’s experience while bolstering your potential for real reviews.

Nothing grabs the attention of a journalist, reporter, or reader like the words “award-winning.” Whether the accolade is a national award or a smaller, local recognition, award-winning books catch the attention of most book seekers. Be sure to note if your book has won an award or even been nominated or was a finalist for an award to demonstrate your book’s value and your ability as a writer to capture the reader’s attention.

7. Children’s Book Marketing — Talk About Your Book

Getting in front of as many people as possible to talk about your book will help it get noticed, so reach out to local media outlets and podcasters to see if you can join them for a segment. Offer to send an early copy of your book and your press kit to prepare them for a discussion and use the opportunity to delve into how the book concept came about, what you have planned for the future as well as details about your writing process as an author.

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