In podcast episode #2 of Kidlit Marketing Made Easy(er), we looked at the concept of your target audience who, for a children’s or young adult author, is made up of both an ideal customer and an ideal reader. We also spoke about how important it is to know who they are so that you know where to find them and how to talk to them.
Identifying your target audience as a kidlit author is a slightly different process to authors who write for adults because your ideal customer and your ideal reader are not the same person, and your ideal reader isn’t the one buying your books. But also remember in episode #1 of this podcast, we saw that marketing isn’t about selling; marketing is the process of connecting with people who like the same things you do and then sharing those things with them, so you can build a loyal and sustainable group of readers who will want to read everything you write for years to come. So, when you’re marketing, you’ll be connecting with and selling to your ideal customer who is the adult attached to your ideal readers, but you still need to connect with your ideal reader who are the children or young adults you’re writing for.
This is how marketing as a children’s or young adult author is different and the importance of this difference is what we’ll be focusing on in today’s episode. If you haven’t listened to episodes #1 and #2, go back and listen to them because they’ll help you to make more sense of today’s episode.
Why connect with readers if they’re not buyers?
Now, you might be wondering, “Lou, why connect with the readers when they aren’t the ones buying my books? Why not just connect with their parents, teachers or librarians and be done with it?”
Well, aside from connecting with children or young adults so you can build an authentic and lasting relationship with them because you care about your readers, there’s a second very important reason for connecting with these young people you write for: and that’s for feedback which is essential for your marketing because when you know what your readers like, you can give them more of it. And conversely, when you know what they don’t like, you can adjust. And, I’m sure that, as an author, you’re interested in knowing what your readers think of your work and you’re interested in giving them what they want, aren’t you?
But depending on who you are and what type of a personality you have, connecting with children and teens can either be a lot of fun or… it can be really daunting. Because I believe it to be true, I’m going to put a positive spin on it and I’m going to say that the more fun you have with your marketing, the more successful it’ll be, so instead of thinking, “Ugh, I have to do a school visit and I really don’t want to!”, I want you to shift your mindset and say, “What better way to spend a morning than on a school visit in a classroom with a group of 6-year-olds, reading my book, organizing activities around it and seeing if they enjoy themselves?”
Seriously, this is fun! You get to see first-hand in real-time how your readers react to your books and not all authors have the opportunity for that type of feedback. I’m willing to bet that authors for adult literature would kill for interactions like these with their readers. As a children’s and young adult author, you have more tools at your disposal than other authors, and this means that you also have more opportunities to connect authentically. And that’s pretty cool!
Children aren’t superficial, nor are they judgemental. Sure, they can be tough in an unfiltered and brutally honest way but at least the feedback you get from them will be valuable and useful to you as an author.
Where can you connect with children and teens?
When you write for a younger audience, the chances are slim that you’ll be connecting with them on social media, although there are ways to do that too, and we’ll have a look at one person who does it really well at the end of this episode, so stick around for that.
There are three main places:
- School visits: I’ll be doing an episode on school visits later on in the year, so look out for that if you’re ready to add that marketing strategy to your tool kit.
- At the library or bookshop readings.
- Anywhere local: like fairs where you can book a stand and organize activities around your book which you can also sell at the same time.
Remember that your goal in marketing your work is to connect with your readers and you can make a lasting impact on children when you meet them as an author, either at a school visit, library, bookshop or somewhere local. Meeting someone who wrote a book you enjoy is inspirational. It’s magical. Even though in my job as an editor, I work with some very talented authors every day who I admire and I’m an author myself, I still get really star-struck when I meet an author I love, either face-to-face or online. You probably do too, so you know what I mean.
In the same way, isn’t it great to know that you, as an author, can encourage reading and improve literacy with your books just by meeting your readers who think you’re the knees of a bee?
What’s ‘know, like and trust’ in marketing?
Now, this is linked to an important principle of marketing which is the know, like, trust factor. People like to connect with other people and enjoy getting to know them. If that process is positive, an element of trust becomes part of that relationship. And when we trust someone, we’re more likely to want to know more about them and eventually buy something from them if what they’re selling is something we’re interested in.
When children meet and like you and your book, they’ll tell other children, who then tell their parents who then ask the librarian if they have the book or mention it to the local bookshop to see if it’s in stock. So, this is why you want to connect in person with as many children as you can. And you want them to get to know, like and trust you. You also want to listen very carefully to what they think about your work. Because they’re the ones you’re writing for!
Can I still market if I haven’t been published?
Now, you might be thinking, “Well, that’s great but I don’t have a book yet. I’m still writing one, so how do I connect with children?”
There’s a great solution to this! Being a children’s author doesn’t mean you have to have a book, you can also be a poet with poems in anthologies, or write articles and short stories for children’s and teen magazines. These magazines accept submissions on a regular basis and you can make a name for yourself as a children’s author by writing for them. I have a great resource for you which is a list called 44 Children’s and Teen Magazines Looking for Writers that you can download and start submitting to magazines right away.
But what if you try really hard and don’t get anything published in anthologies or magazines? Well, if you’re writing, you’re still an author! There’s no such thing as an aspiring author. This is something I feel really strongly about. Authors write and if you write, you’re an author whether you have a published piece of work in your hands or not, so you can still organise writing activities, workshops, games and contests, around the theme of the book you’re working on or want to write, and you can host these events at the library, bookshop or local fair and still connect with your future readers.
A practical marketing strategy you can use
For today’s marketing take-away, I’d like you to visit children’s author and poet, Amy Ludwig VanderWater on her blog, The Poem Farm. Amy’s blog is an example of how you can connect to your readers on social media even when they are children or teens.
Basically, Amy teaches literacy and writing workshop instruction from her blog. She does this by providing poetry and lessons for children in the classroom or for those being homeschooled, so while the connection is still made through an adult, the end goal is to connect with her young readers so they’ll get to know her.
Amy is one of my favourite children’s poets because her work is fresh and creative and there just doesn’t seem to be an end to her talent and capacity to create. She really blows me away. Now, Amy also does school visits and she uses her writing skills to create opportunities to connect with her target audience online, and if she can do this, why not you?
Links
- 44 Children’s and Teen Magazines Looking for Writers
- Kidlit Marketing Made Easy(er)
- The Poem Farm: Amy Ludwig VanderWater
