Marketing Consultant Ben St. James has worked with hundreds of authors since joining Tellwell just over two years ago. While he can’t read every manuscript in its entirety, he enjoys engaging with the stories and previewing numerous books.
His debut picture book, Guinea Pig Power, has received multiple accolades, including Bronze in the Early Readers (6–8) category of the Reader Views Literary Award, Silver for Juvenile Bedtime Stories, and Bronze for Cover Illustration at the L.A. BookFest, and an Honourable Mention (4th place) in the Readers’ Favorite Book Awards for General Picture Books, among others.
Our book-marketing team is made up of skilled professionals who are passionate about helping authors showcase their projects through a variety of personalized services, ranging from bespoke marketing strategies and attention-grabbing press releases to engaging social media content and graphic-design assistance. We chatted with Ben St. James to learn more about how he serves his authors and what he enjoys most about the work he produces.
What inspired you to join the Tellwell team as a book marketer?
It seemed like a great fit. I had been working with indie artists and authors and wanted to do more of that! The timing was incredible, as I had just returned to Canada and finished up a contract that required similar competencies.
What do you enjoy the most about your work with Tellwell?
I enjoy the variety of activities I get to be involved in. It’s rewarding working with such a great group of people and collaborating on projects for the blog and newsletter, certain marketing activities that require a team effort, and one-on-one work with our talented authors. Because we work with so many unique authors, no duties are ever quite the same—it’s always new.
So you made the decision to create an author website – FANTASTIC! A website functions as a modern online business card, and not having one can impact credibility. You will use your website to share information and news about your book, let people know where they can buy it, and offer other ways of connecting with you by including your social media links. Ultimately, your website is the foundational building blocks of your brand! But, what should you be doing with it and how can you help get traffic (views) to the site?
Unless you are creating regular content in the form of a blog, uploading new resources, or doing something unique on your site, it can be hard to drive people to visit your author website frequently or at all. So what should you be doing?
Here are 4 key elements to follow to get the most out of your author website:
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!
Colleen Hay Tellwell Publishing Book Marketing Consultant
Colleen Hay shares her book marketing advice for authors
At the end of the day, book marketing is really all about connecting with people and enjoying the process.
Colleen Hay, Tellwell Book Marketing Consultant
What does a typical week look like for you as a marketing consultant?
A typical work week as a book marketing consultant is never very typical! What I love most about the role is how varied it is day-to-day. Some days, I’m busy consulting with authors on various marketing activities they can do to help promote their books, and other days I’m designing websites, promotional materials, and social media campaigns to help get them started on their marketing journey.
What do you enjoy most about working with authors?
I am inspired daily by each author I work with. I’m amazed by their bravery in making that first move to get their words and thoughts down on paper. It’s such a pleasure to be able to meet authors of all ages, every walk of life, and from so many different countries! I love to hear why they wrote their book and to watch their level of enthusiasm surge once they’ve received some guidance on when and where to start marketing their book.
What do you tell authors who aren’t interested in marketing their book?
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.
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
Author Don Levers pictured in Edmonton on Dec 9, 2017. Photo by Jason Franson.
I have told people since publishing my book in August of 2017 that finishing and publishing it is only the beginning for an indie author. Arranging book signings, retailer consignments and getting as much free publicity as possible can become a full-time job.
PUBLICITY Using a media list supplied by Tellwell Publishing, I contacted media outlets prior to launching the book. The big newspapers no longer have space to do book reviews. I arranged interviews with small community papers in areas where I would be doing book signings. You can see copies of all the articles and interviews I have done on my website. The thing is you need a hook. What makes your book different than the tens of thousands of books on the bookshelves of any major bookstore?
My persistence in contacting various media outlets paid off. I managed to get short interviews with major radio stations including the CBC. I have had a number of articles in local newspapers talking about the book and the story that inspired it. I was even able to get a live television interview prior to doing a signing in Kamloops.
My goal was to try to get an on-air or newspaper interview to coincide with a book signing. One thing I learned is that radio stations are not usually interested in doing interviews on fiction books.
