Getting Publicity for Children’s Books
Using other people’s opt-in email lists to try to sell a children’s book won’t make you any friends. Marketing and publicizing this way has not proven to be very effective.
On the other hand, you can create a children’s book news release and send it to the right media.
I can tell you from experience that we do see media respond well to quality children’s books.
I work with dozens of children’s book authors and publishers every year, and create custom targeted media lists that cover family parenting, children’s books, and the online media who cover these areas, and the news releases tend to produce dozens of media requests and articles and interviews.
I study the lists of family parenting and children’s book reviewers carefully every month. There are about 800 media who cover family and parenting, and about 500 who cover children and youth topics. I just searched and as of a few minutes ago there are 79 identified media who cover children’s books as a defined outlet topic (a journalism beat)..
About 30 percent of them are bloggers. The rest work at newspapers, magazines, radio and tv, or are freelance writers.
I wrote a dedicated post a few weeks ago all about the mommy bloggers, a new and special class of media who can be reached. Here’s the link:
http://blog.directcontactpr.com/public/category/mommy-bloggers
Children’s book news releases are a special breed, which I cover in my new book, Trash Proof News Releases. Here’s some of the special guidance in the book.
The most important question you must answer in a children’s book news release is:
Why will kids and parents like this book?
Tell the media quickly:
Ø What’s it all about?
Ø Who wrote it and why is the author qualified?
Ø Who is it for?
Ø What makes it unique and special?
Ø What happens to the characters?
Ø What’s funny, dramatic, or distinctive?
Additional tips to factor in:
Ø Use illustrations or the book cover effectively.
Ø Offer the media review copies as an incentive
Ø Provide the key book publication details.
Ø Provide the very best reviewer comments
Ø Author bio and credentials are helpful and any personal story that is related to the creation of the book.
Ø Author advice on the special topic related to the books purpose
Ø Interview questions and answers
Ø Local news angles
Do not talk about the book marketing. Marketing facts and author difficulties will not be persuasive with editors or helpful to getting publicity.
So once you create a news release and prove that it’s effective, you can use and tailor the same proven message in all sorts of other communication mediums and technologies.
Just remember that the message is the most crucial element. Depending on the message it’s either GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) or MIMO (Magic In Magic Out). It’s up to you to figure out what you can say that will turn people on and produce the action you need.
Here’s a link to some sample children’s book news releases.
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