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By Carolyn Howard-Johnson,
\nAuthor of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers<\/b><\/p>\n
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In a discussion I had with one of the longtime subscribers to my SharingwithWriters newsletter, Wanda Luthmam<\/a>, author of The Lilac Princess<\/i>, she said, \u201cOf course the thing that is different for children’s authors is that the product is for children yet the purchaser is an adult.\u201d<\/p>\n Because Wanda is absolutely right, one of the best kinds of promotion is one where children\u2019s authors cross promote. That means partnering with other others, sharing lists. Forming groups where you cross-tweet one another\u2019s tweets that point out benefits of each children\u2019s book to the parents cause kids won\u2019t be on Twitter, not yet at least. <\/p>\n One of my favorite promotions\u2014the one that lasted longer and was more \u201ckeepable\u201d than any other I\u2019ve done\u2014utilized cross promotion. Here is a case study of that promotion straight from my multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter<\/a><\/i>. I have adapted it slightly to be more meaningful for children\u2019s authors.<\/p>\n The anatomy of a free e-book<\/b> might be just what you need to make one work for you. The free e-book I published as a cross promotion with other authors was one of best, most long-lasting promotions I\u2019ve done. Let\u2019s call it the new math for free publicity. It is: E-book + E-gift = Promotion. Oops. Error. Make the answer FREE promotion. However, it would be better if we slotted in another element: + Cross Promotion.<\/p>\n I met Kathleen Walls in an online group. She asked more than two dozen authors from several countries to contribute to an e-book that would be given away. Her idea, Cooking by the Book<\/i> could be used as a gift of appreciation to the support teams it takes to edit and market a book and to the legions of readers who cook but had never read any of our other books. Children\u2019s authors could use exactly the same idea (or adapt the basic steps to another theme). Here\u2019s why. <\/p>\n Authors who had at least one kitchen scene in their books (children\u2019s authors might have a household cooking scene or just something foody going on in the plot like lollipops, ice cream cones\u2014even apple trees!) were invited to contribute to Cooking<\/i>. Each author\u2019s segment begins with an excerpt from that scene. The recipe comes next, and then a short blurb about the author with links so the reader can learn more about the authors and their books. When children\u2019s authors adapt the them, they might adapt the recipe segment to something else that would appeal to parents like the psychological benefit their child will get from reading the book. <\/p>\n This e-tool was a cross-pollinator. Contributing authors publicized it any way they chose as long as they gave it away. Here are some of the ways we used to distribute Cooking by the Book<\/i>: <\/p>\n Contributors to our Cooking by the Book benefited from their efforts and from contacts with other authors. It turned out that we had some superior promoters among us:<\/p>\n Our most startling successes came from sources we had no connection to at all. The idea for using a promotional e-book like this was featured in Joan Stewart\u2019s The Publicity Hound<\/i>, in Writer\u2019s Weekly<\/i>, in the iUniverse newsletter and more. They probably found it especially newsworthy because it worked so well for writers of fiction. Your book themed for the parents of children might appeal to popular psychology Web sites or others\u2014depending on the theme.<\/p>\n When I queried radio stations for interviews with angles related to this cookbook, I had the highest rate of response I\u2019d ever had, and that was in competition with a pitch for my novel This Is the Place<\/a><\/i> just before the Salt Lake City 2002 games and an intolerance angle on the same novel right after 9\/11.<\/p>\n Each year Mother\u2019s Day beckons us to repeat our publicity blitzes, because, if you haven\u2019t noticed, mothers tend to do lots of cooking. Almost any e-book that appeals to mothers of young children could also benefit from Mother\u2019s Day promotions.<\/p>\n Hint:<\/b> I love services like Createspace.com and Bookbaby.com for publishing both e-books and paperbacks, whether or not they are to be used as promotions. You can probably do everything yourself and absolutely free except for the copies you buy and the extra services, if you prefer to have that help. I also like that you can put your own publishing company\u2019s name on the book\u2014in other words, develop your own imprint. There are even templates for covers there. If this feels kind of publishing feels scary at first, I can coach you through the first one and you\u2019ll be set forever more. Contact me through the contact page on my Web site<\/a>.<\/p>\n Special E-Book Offer:<\/b> I offer a free e-book for subscribing to my Sharing with Writers newsletter. Find the offer on most pages of my HowToDoItFrugally Web site<\/a>, upper right corner. Everyone is your cross-promotion pool could do the same thing.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another idea from Wanda. She says \u201cAt my events, I invite children to my table to make a free craft that is book-theme related. While they are working, I talk to the parent about the benefits of the book and reading.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
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