Marketing Mondays #9: Re-Purposing
Question: How can you turn one book into multiple sources of income, and continue to promote the original book at the same time?
Answer: Re-purpose it!
Re-purposing means converting the content from your book(s) into as many other formats as you can. Could your book make an audio book? An E-book? A web game? Is there [...]
Marketing Mondays, #6: Submissions 101
So, you’ve written a children’s book and you’re ready to submit it to an agent and/or a publisher. The following are the industry standards for manuscript submission, regardless of whether the manuscript is for a picture book, a chapter book or a novel:
Standard white paper – Don’t even think of using colored paper!
Black ink [...]
Penning Picture Books #8: Show, Don’t Tell – or, a Tribute to Mo Willems
Some picture books are narrative all the way through with no dialogue, and some are only dialogue with no other narrative, as in Mo Willems’ wonderful “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” series. Most often, they are a blend of both.
Generally speaking, dialogue should make up at least one-third of a picture book, and [...]
Marketing Mondays #5: Gotta Getta Website!
You knew this was coming (and hopefully most of you have already done this): You must have your own website.
Even better is to have a website for yourself as an author, and one for each of your book projects. The URL (web address) for your own site should ideally be your name with “.com” after [...]
Penning Picture Books #7: The Building Blocks of Plot, or “Dramatic Arc”
Basic plot structure for a picture book is the same as for any other kind of dramatic structure, be it a novel, a play or a film: 3 acts – or, beginning, middle, and end. Each one takes up roughly one third of the book, and each is divided by a transition or [...]
Marketing Mondays #4: Products and Promotional Materials
Last week we talked about identifying and reaching out to your niche, or your target audience, and not relying on your publisher to do so for you. Another thing you should not rely on your publisher to do is create promotional materials.
Over the years, we have designed and/or made our own bookmarks, postcards, posters, [...]
Marketing Mondays #3: What’s Your Niche?
OK, it’s not Monday, but the holidays have intervened. That said, let’s talk about niches.
Having a niche means being known as “The Person Who Writes X,” as in “Oh, that’s the person who writes those talking truck books” or “That’s the person who writes those steamy vampire novels.” When you have a niche, you can [...]
Marketing Mondays #2: Put Your Best Foot Forward
Most publishing houses make acquisitions decisions by committee. Having been a fly on the wall at a lot of those meetings, as well as having made acquisitions decisions myself, I know that agents, editors and publishers often won’t read past the third page if a manuscript feels overwritten, under-developed, overly derivative or out of touch [...]
Penning Picture Books #6 – They’re Called PICTURE Books…
Like many children’s book authors who are also parents, I get a lot of ideas from my own kids. Several years ago, something sort of magical happened to my son that seemed worthy of a picture book. We were dining on our back deck, and he – at the age of three – essentially willed [...]
“But I’m a Writer, Not a Salesperson!” or, Intro to Marketing for Authors
The role of a children’s book author in the marketplace is dramatically different today from what it was even ten years ago. Books are now acquired based as much on an author’s perceived “platform” as on the merits of the book itself. In other words, authors are now expected to take equal responsibility for the [...]
