How to Market Children’s Books

Did you read Monday’s blog on children’s books? If not, catch up now.

You’ll remember that earlier this week on the blog, we discussed how to write a children’s book. From the initial idea inception until the moment it lands in tiny, eager hands, children’s books are a promise to the next generation. They can teach lessons, inspire, and lead. Self-publishing a children’s book can be an incredible journey, and, like any self-published book, it doesn’t end with publication. You’ll be involved in every step of the way, and this includes the marketing of the book. Marketing self-published children’s books is an interesting task, different from the marketing of a regular book for one sole reason: the people buying the book are not the intended audience.

How to sell your children’s book

As previously mentioned, marketing children’s books can be difficult. When marketing other books, you take into account what your readers will be drawn to. They are your focus. Selling a children’s book, however, is different. You aren’t selling to the child; you aren’t selling to the one who will be interested in your content. You’re selling to their parent or guardian. Therefore, it must appeal to both groups. It must be interesting enough to entice the child, and it must be educational or worthwhile in order to get the parent to spend the money on it. Therefore, your marketing should be twofold.

Another way to sell your children’s book is to focus on selling to schools. Lots of schools will buy books in order to give them to students or to fill the classrooms of their teachers.

Selling children’s books to parents

Unless the child is old enough to have an allowance to buy the book, you must market to the parent. Obviously a great way to market any self-published book is via social media, so get used to using various platforms. When running social media ads, target parents. Join parent groups on sites and promote it there. Play up the moral and educational value of the book. All parents want is to know their child is being molded by positive influences. If your book is shown in this light, parents will be more inclined to buy it.

Selling children’s books to schools

Another avenue to sell children’s books is to schools. Elementary schools buy tons of books—to disseminate to kids to read on their own or for storytime circles. To market to schools, the educational factor of the book must be the focus. Or, it could be sold to English programs, for students to do book reports on. It’s as simple as calling the school and pitching your book. You’ll likely be directed to the head librarian. This will come down to personality and your ability to convince them: why do they need this book in particular? What does your book offer that others don’t? What makes it so special? Unfortunately, we can’t answer these questions for you. Good marketing comes down to author integrity and belief. You must believe that your book is deserving of attention.

When all’s said and done, you’ll be glad you wrote your children’s books, and you’ll be proud of how hard you’ve worked. Self-publishing isn’t easy; it takes constant hard work, dedication, and vigilance, but it’s worth it. It will test the author in many different ways. Marketing children’s books is one of those tests: can you market to not only one, but two, audience groups? If you can, that means you have a book worth marketing. Once again, self-publishing comes down to you. Who better to take care of your children’s book?

Got any more tips for how to promote children’s books? Leave a comment below!