How to market and sell your children’s book – book marketing advice for children’s authors

May 21,2021 / By Katie Hennessey / No Comment

Whether you are published, in the process, or only just thinking about it – here are some tips & tricks for all children’s authors.

1 . YOUR AUTHOR BRAND

Your author brand gives your readers insight into who you are! Creating something that showcases your personality is key. As a children’s author, you may also want to show off a bit more of your goofy side!

Here are a few things to keep in mind when creating your author brand:

Make it eye-catching and fun!
GET PLAYFUL
Use a fun background or bright colors
Don’t be afraid to make a silly face
Let your personality shine through – both in your photo and bio

2 . YOUR COMMUNITY

The average buyer’s age of children’s books is between 30 and 44.

Females make up more than 70% of these buyers. They are also more likely to discuss and recommend a book they and their kids enjoyed. In fact, buyers of children’s books are more easily influenced by the recommendations of family and friends than any other book category. For this reason, it is really important to build a loyal community of parents and teachers that enjoy and support your book.

Consider building an ambassador program or launch team! Also, get involved in your local community and make time to meet your readers.

Meet your readers!

Pursue classroom visits
Join children’s book festivals
Participate in library events such as a read-along!

Book Marketing Tips & Tricks

TIPS & TRICKS: Author resources that exclusively promote POC authors

Feb 19,2021 / By Tellwell Publishing / No Comment

#imatter: Unicorns Sleep Here by Irony James

When meeting with author Irony James about her upcoming inspirational novel #imatter: Unicorns Live Here, she posed the question of not only what resources were available to her as an author, but also what resources were available to her as an author of colour. Irony is passionate about being a black, female author, and wanted to connect with fellow POC creatives within the industry to share her story.

This conversation prompted a deep dive into festivals, organizations, and platforms that pride themselves on giving black authors a voice, and allowing them to make connections with other POC creatives.

We wanted to share some of our awesome findings with you!

APPLICATIONS

The StoryGraph
The StoryGraph is an up and coming virtual library platform! Created by Nadia Odunayo in late 2019, The StoryGraph prides itself on being ethnically diverse with it’s authors and content, instead of focusing on only mainstream books. Similar to Goodreads, The StoryGraph provides readers with a place to find great new reads, and review their favourite books.

When signing up for the website, readers are prompted to fill out a survey discussing their reading preferences including favourite genres, favourite book characteristics, genres that they would be uninterested in, and what they don’t like about certain books. The StoryGraph uses these preference tags to recommend different books to users across the platform, so readers can request to see books that only feature POC Characters, LGTBQ Characters, books written by POC authors, etc.! Readers are also prompted to rate books based on criteria like themes, moods, pace, and the characters themselves (such as character development, how diverse the characters are, whether or not the characters are loveable, or if their flaws are on display, etc.), so the ratings can’t be skewed or biased.

Similar to Goodreads, The StoryGraph provides users with the option to create reading challenges that are accessible to the whole community. They have a a whole section of these challenges dedicated to reading #OwnVoices, with challenges such as 100 Black Novelist You Should Read, Inclusivity Reading Challenge, and Reading Writers of Colour 2021, among others.

The StoryGraph is definitely a platform to keep an eye on, as it’s going to be one of the most important virtual libraries around!

Book Marketing

How Tellwell authors are marketing their books during the coronavirus pandemic

May 28,2020 / By Monica Martinez / No Comment

Jennifer Chapin

The Poet & The Angel

1. Describe your book in one sentence.

It is an elegy of love and redemption and tells the story of a little girl who sees the wounded spirit of a slain poet huddled near a fountain in Granada, Spain. She befriends him to give him his voice back.

2. How were you planning to promote and market your book before the COVID-19 crisis?

I had been approved by Indigo for a signing on April 18th in Victoria and had Tellwell create my promotional materials for that event. I also had a reading set up at the Vancouver Public Library on April 19th and an event set up with the Victoria Public Library in May, as part of the emerging local author program. All of these events have been cancelled. Fortunately, I had an interview with Citizen’s Forum on YouTube before we were all told to self-isolate so I gained some traction there. After many months of building online interest, the book was finally starting to take off; however, all of the events mentioned above are still available to me, when life resumes once more.

3. What are you doing now?

I’m still in the thinking stages of what to do next, but plan to set up my own YouTube channel to do readings and talks to post online, through my website and Facebook author page. I am also planning to set up a series of podcasts. Finally, I am building a community of authors around me whereby we read and review each other’s books and post them on Amazon by way of support.

4. Do you have any advice for authors?

My advice is to never give up. If there is an obstacle in the river, float around it as there are always creative solutions available. Also, form communities with like-minded artists to exchange ideas. View this time as an opportunity for growth. We are all in this together, globally. If this crisis has taught us anything, it is that we need each other.

Read how Charlene Doak-Gebauer, Markus Matthews and Monique Gliozzi are adapting their book marketing strategies in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

Book Marketing Tips & Tricks

How to choose a good domain name for your author website – 3 tips

Apr 29,2020 / By Monica Martinez / No Comment

By Cassie Smith

Having an author website is a bit like a business card – it establishes credibility, a point of contact, and an opportunity to showcase your work.

It can be well-agreed that in 2020, having an online presence as an author is essential, and an author website no exception.

As an author, you might have even envisioned what you want to put on your website – maybe a blog; an annotated gallery; links to events etc. What you might not have considered, however, is your domain name.

What is a Domain Name?
A domain name is the address of your website that people type in the browser URL bar to visit your website.

In simple terms, if your website was a house, then your domain name will be its address.

An example of a domain name is: www.google.com

Now that we have an understanding of what a domain name is, let’s move on to determining what the right one is for you!

Book Marketing

How Tellwell authors are marketing their book during covid

Apr 29,2020 / By Monica Martinez / No Comment

Stargazer

By David Scott

1. Describe your book in one sentence.

My story is an honest account of having lived every moment to the fullest and never letting negatives stop my drive to be happy.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

2. How were you planning to promote and market your book before the COVID crisis?⠀

In much the same way, except I had presentations arranged at book stores, libraries, historical societies, and organizations like Apex and Rotary.

Maintaining contact with all the sources that were postponed (not cancelled), making sure they retain all the posters and flyers for when I return immediately after the virus is contained.⠀⠀⠀

3. What are you doing now?

My greatest wish is that I die writing, as a day without having written something creative is time wasted. I am currently writing a fantasy trilogy set 69 million years ago. At the same time I am writing an article, a novela, about my road-trip south and my Paul Revere-like race home to avoid the Queensland border shut down because of the virus.

That journey started at 8.30 p.m. at the Victorian border, a 2,000 kilometre journey through the night, dodging kangaroos and wallabies. Only when the greyness of trees edging the road became like canyon walls in my mind did I realize fatigue was setting in. I pulled over for a nap, Raven curled up in the passenger seat and me in a slightly reclined driver’s seat: the car was too packed to sleep in the back. It ended up being only a 20 minute sleep as my dog had a dream and kicked me in the backside as she slept. It was enough, however, to revive me for the rest of the journey. I would not recommend it to anyone else to try. Upon reaching the Queensland border town of Goodniwindi at 9.30 a.m., I sighed with relief, even though I still had over four hours driving ahead of me to arrive home.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

4. Do you have any advice for authors or is there anything else on your mind?

My advice to authors is not to be complacent. Writing is what they may be used to but, like all things in the world, you have to get out there and sell. Use every contact and source available, often one leads to another. Almost 40 years in the film industry, with the big companies like Village as my opposition, taught me to be clever with promotions – it was the only way to survive against the national theatre chains.

As for the road-trip, I’ll do it again, just as soon as the blasted virus is kicked to the curb. And my faithful dobermann will be by my side.

Book Marketing Tips & Tricks

The secrets to forum marketing for authors – how to promote your book online

Jun 26,2019 / By Monica Martinez / No Comment

Tips on how to successfully promote your book in online forums

Online forums offer a huge opportunity for writers and poets to share their work, expertise, and advice with others as well as engage with readers and authors. Many online communities are dedicated to specific subjects where people go to seek information, share their experiences, opinions, and offer advice. These forums allow people to build community, engage and learn from each other on issues that are important to them.

By being active in a forum, you are positioning yourself as an expert and are allowing for your content and book to be discovered by people who are actively seeking information (or even books) on the topics related to your book.

Here are our tips on how to use forum marketing to generate awareness and buzz for your book:

1. FIND THE RIGHT FORUM. The key to forum marketing is finding the right community in your niche. You want to narrow your list to a handful of forums and then commit to being active on a few. Here are some tips on how to narrow your search:

· Look for forums that have at least 1,000 members and 10,000 posts

· Make sure the forum gets at least ten to fifteen new posts on a daily basis

· Ignore forums that are overrun by spam
· Avoid forums hosted by your direct competitors

Here are a few suggestions for you to check out:

· Writing Forums

· Published Authors Forum

· Canadian Forums and Canadian Content: for news and politics

. Maple Leaf Web: For all things Canadian
. Reddit: Find a subreddit for your genre or subject related to your book

Book Marketing Tips & Tricks

How to market your book while on vacation – Tellwell’s book marketing tips

Jun 26,2018 / By Tellwell Publishing / No Comment

School’s out and many are packing up the car en route to their next summer vacation. Meanwhile, the book you’ve spent the winter editing, revising and finalizing was just released this spring and your marketing plan is set and ready to be executed. As you glance at the calendar you realize the 3-week overseas holiday you booked a year ago is fast approaching. Your first thought is: Well I guess my marketing is just going to have to wait until the fall…

As an author, you’re not immune to taking a well-deserved holiday, but that doesn’t mean you have to put your book marketing on hold. So, before you jet set off on your next summer adventure, check out Tellwell’s top 5 marketing tips to keep the momentum going from wherever your travels may take you.

Category : Book Marketing

1 . YOUR AUTHOR BRAND

2 . YOUR COMMUNITY

Jennifer Chapin

By David Scott

Tips on how to successfully promote your book in online forums