8 Steps to Launch Your Children's Book

Promoting ebooks is easy, one quick click and the potential customer is at Amazon, but how do you sell your paperback?

Have a launch!

My invitation design

Launches are a whole heap of fun. If you're not sure how to go about organising one, here's a list of things that I tried for My Zombie Dog:

Give clear instructions

1. Choose your location. Ideally see if you can get a bookstore (that has a great children's section) to host your launch. Independent bookstores are sometimes happy to set you up for your book launch, especially if they have a cafe or plenty of space. If you can't find a good bookstore, try a family-friendly cafe or restaurant or even your local park (get council permission first).
2. Plan the launch. Launches aimed at adults can include talks on the topic of the book or how you came to write the book. Kids are not interested in your speech. Keep it short. Introduce the book, have a little (preferably interactive) talk about it and then include some activities. Include some stories and jokes. Read part of your book (you could read the whole thing if it's a short picture book). 
3. Have giveaways. I've had magnets made up with zombie dogs on them, they cost me very little from Vistaprint. You can also get bookmarks (kids love bookmarks) or postcards.
4. Include a few quick games or competitions. I'm asking kids to come dressed as zombies for an undead fashion parade, I'll be giving away book vouchers from the store as prizes. Emily (my teen girl) will be offering zombie face painting to create a whole little army of undead.
5. Promote your event. Facebook is awesome for this, but you might need to get out and about in your community. Offer to speak/read at local schools and libraries. Have invitations to the event printed up (again, Vistaprint are awesome for this) and hand them out. Try to get a buzz going.
6. Advertise - Do a letterbox drop in the area near the bookstore and put up flyers at local shopping centres. You could even put an announcement in the local paper. Get a banner made up to put outside the store on the day of the launch.
7. You can also promote through mums and word of mouth. Get to know the school mums or visit some Mummy blogs and see if they'll review your book for a free copy.
8. Order your books way ahead of time. No point booking a launch only to find your books haven't arrived yet!

My magnet give-aways

That's it! Most of all, make sure you have a LOT of fun, don't let it get stressful!

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Phooey to the End of Books

I don't think so!

Many conversations about the future of books, publishing and reading seem to be gloomy these days. I read blogs, hear radio conversations and even meet authors that think authors will suffer great income loss over:

A. the introduction of ebooks

B. cheap ebooks (99c)

C. competing with tv, movies, internet and gaming for children's attention.

I say phooey to all that. I think the future of books is brighter than it's ever been. Here's how I validate my excitement for this industry:

1. The introduction of ebooks has enabled MORE people to access fiction in a variety of mediums.


2. By having a novel available online, you have opened your readership up globally. You don't have to rely on only reaching a national market. If an Australian publisher prints one of my novels, I will still have to try to secure an agent/publisher for each other international market such as the UK or US.


3. Cheap ebooks have excited readers and tweaked an interest in otherwise cautious customers. This in turn develops a fad of reading, the more you read the more you want to read. 99c will gain initial interest, but readers will evolve to be more aware of their own taste and more discerning towards the quality of fiction they read. I now scrutinize my purchases and do not base my choice on price. I trust other readers to do the same.


4. Hooray for technological distractions. The iPads, laptops and iPhones might be popular with teens for the games they supply but the wonderful phenomenon I'm noticing is kids that wouldn't usually want to buy books now want to, all because they can download them onto their iPod etc. I had a yr7 media class (12-13yr olds) and introduced them to online books via Amazon. I showed them how you can get Kindle for your iPod. They were all so excited about this and most downloaded the app. A lot of these kids would have scrunched their noses up at me suggesting they borrow a book from a library.


5. Ebooks are making reading a very popular trend. This in turn makes people want to own books and buy books for their shelves as well as their iPads. It has almost become a fashion statement for our living rooms. Don't believe books are trendy? Department store catalogues are expensive to produce and distribute, this makes space on them prime real estate. As you can imagine, front page is pretty special. In the past. I've only noticed books get a small corner of a page in the middle somewhere. Yesterday I was so surprised and pleased to see a Big W catalogue feature the first TEN pages all for books and that they now sell the Amazon Kindle here in Australia!

So, aren't you excited?!

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Books without Borders

If a shop like this can't sell books, who can?

I rarely watch the news, but it was hard to avoid this week. Two big chain bookstores here in Australia are in deep financial trouble. Borders have been facing financial problems for some time and have now taken Angus & Robertson down with them. One of the excuses for this demise has been to blame e-book popularity.

Kind of hard to believe. Since buying my Kindle I've consumed more books than ever before. Not just e-books, I've bought more paper books and a huge number of audiobooks. Book buying is addictive, the more you get, the more you want. I've also shopped in Borders several times and always find it crowded.

Perhaps e-books are starting to have an effect on booksales, but I think it has more to do with the ease of buying books much cheaper overseas. I often buy from Amazon because I can get a lot of new novels under $10 whereas in an Australian bookstore I might have to pay $20-$30. 

There has been a theory that the closing of chain stores will help smaller bookstores flourish. Unfortunately, our little local bookstore 'Little Dog' is also closing down. What do you think the problem is? Are e-books taking over and bookstores need to adjust, or is there a slack in book interest?

If you want more on this news here are some links:

The Book Show - also available on iTunes, you can download the radio show.

Sydney Morning Herald - Borders, Angus & Robertson go bust. Includes video.

Canberra Times - Discusses Borders' announcement that gift cards purchased will not be accepted unless the user spends at least twice as much as the voucher.

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