What can I do to sell more children's books?

Well here is your problem. You have put all the responsibility of marketing your books on yourself. Reality is you have limited time and resources to market these on your own.

Solution - Get yourself some Affiliates. Place your books on sites such as jvzoo, clickbank, amazon. Spend some time creating marketing material such as banner ads, email swipes and create a kick butt landing page.

Let affiliates handle some of the load. They have lists, websites, traffic and are sure to attempt to market your products.

Do all of your books have links to each other in them? Are your titles optimized for search within Amazon (look at he best sellers and copy)? Are your covers killer? Do you have an authors page? FB page? Blog? YouTube videos?

During your next free promo, send the offer out to parent, mommy, daddy, education websites, etc. Ask for reviews. Make sure your books are linked.

BTW, do you ask for a review in your book at the end? Amazon does that auto for you, but you should ask. Every book should have a strong call to action and a link to your site where they can get extra stuff (use that I build a list).

Twitter, too!

I would also get the kindling course from Geoff Shaw.

You need a fan page and a blog.

Link to them in the back of the books.

The blog doesn't have to be anything fancy and you don't have to worry about making tons of posts. You just want the blog to have all the books featured on the homepage with links to where they can buy them and also an email opt-in form (be careful with an opt-in if you are collecting email addresses from children- lots of scary rules about that)

On the fan page make sure you engage with your fans … post every day if you can. Put in teasers for the new book you are working on and, of course, announce your new books as you publish them.

Then just write more books.

Capturing your fans via a fan page or on you blog is critical because then you will have a way of contacting them with your new releases. The influx of sales from your fans will help get your new books into also-bought lists and ranking higher and generate more sales from strangers who will now become your fans.

It will be a trickle at first, but book publishing is a marathon not a sprint (I know you get this, I can tell from your posts you are in it for the long haul). After a few months, I think you will be surprised at the traction your books are getting.

Oh and did I mention write more books? This is the most important part.

Also, IMHO reviews aren't the be all and end all that most people say they are. I've studied this quite a bit both with my own books and others and I've seem many books with 0 reviews shoot up in the ranks and sell hundreds a day. I've also seen books with bad reviews and an average of 3 stars sell pretty good (about 10- copies a day) so don't obsess over reviews - just ask for them like you do and let them come naturally.

P.S. I don't know who Gerald Hawksley is but I'm willing to be that his secret is that he built a fan base. I did a quick search on him and he has a lot of books (cute covers!) and looks like he's been at it a while - one book was published in 2011 so he's had two years to build his fan base. Keep at it and you will be just as successful, since it seems like you are putting out quality books too.

When you are new you have to do extra work to get those fans (the tweeting, fan page, promotion etc..) but once you GET them all you have to do is keep putting out good books.

my buddy writes and illustrates children books for a living on kindle... he writes 1 or 2 A WEEK in order to get enough orders to live on, and promotes the heck out of himself on blogs and social media... he's an amazing artist/writer too. If you're not doing your own art and writing you're going to have an uphill battle.

Yes, they say that but it's not true. I have an ebook on Amazon that has a few extra strategic keywords in the title that are not on the cover

But here's your issue, right on the nail....


You just identified your own problem, better than anyone else here.

I've worked with hundreds of ebook owners over the years as a copywriter... and the one main thing they all had in common was that they all said they had a great ebook.

Yet, they came to see me because their sales were zero.

And like I always say... the money is in the marketing. Once you create the ebook, the work has actually just begun.

Amazon will NOT do any initial marketing for you, zero, zilch, none.

Sure you can get a boost up the ranks by enrolling in the KDP fund 5 day
giveaway... but even that will pitter out after the initial burst.

Heck, I had 500 downloads of my ebook just last week... but to me, the work
has just begun.

Your mindset now must be all about the marketing... because if you do it
right... THEN Amazon will jump in and start promoting you.

But ONLY after it's starting to move on it's own.

Amazon will push the movers and shakers... but not the stagnant
ebooks.

So, you can use Facebook, Twitter, this forum, and any other methods
of marketing you can to get an initial boost... and then yes, Amazon
may start to promote you more.

I started seeing my ebook being recommended by Amazon, but only
after it reached a certain # in the rankings.

By the way, I'm not sure if it's still avail for free... but I would RUN
and get Brad Callens' free ebook he was giving away here last week,
AK elite or something like that.

It was free and the best ebook I've read on marketing ebooks on kindle.

My advice: get on b2b or odesk or fiverr or email some bloggers or website owners who may be interested in 1. reading/reviewing/promoting your book 2. selling it on their site or lists or linking it on their site to the sell page 3. Getting someone or a group/blog carnival to promote an event that promotes your book or books or spotlights you as an author on social media, blogs, videos and offline.

Get someone with a blog or youtube channel to do an interview with you.

Lastly, since I have a family/parenting/child related website and blog and facebook pages and I'm a writer and I've reviewed lots of books, feel free to send me a pm if you want to hook up on any of these offers, or if you need someone to help manage your social media marketing plan for your book. I'd be way cheaper than the bigger websites and more reliable than those on freelance websites.

@Lance - They are available both in print and digitally.

@cashcow - I can see the logic behind what you're saying about writing more books, but it's really hard to keep the motivation to continue when your sales just aren't what you would expect them to be. I mean it really seems like after four of them things should have improved beyond what I was seeing with the first and that hasn't been the case. Things have stayed about even.

If you don't mind my asking, do you publish children's books or do you focus on another genre?

@RickCopy - How in the world does your friend publish 1-2 books a week if he's writing and illustrating them? I've written some of them and had a co-author who wrote some of the others. In all cases, however, I was the illustrator. Creating all of those drawings takes time. There is no way that I could publish 1-2 a week. I think the quickest I could manage would be 1 book in 2 or 3 weeks.

--

Okay, here is what I want to know about this whole Twitter, Facebook, blog thing as far as getting people to even pay attention to any of them. It all seems a bit like the chicken and the egg. You guys are saying that my sales are low because I don't have an online presence or a following, but without name recognition, how can I get a following? How in the world do I get people to even come to my blog or follow me when they don't even know who I am nor have they purchased my books?

Wow... This is the exact reason so many people are failing.

Are you selling a digital copy of the book? Then it can be sold through JVzoo, and your affiliates that are already selling to Parents will be able to reach people that you cannot.

Digital copies can also be sold through Amazon's Kindle section.

If they are Physical Books, why not visit your local library and book stores. Once you see the power of Local advertising, I'm sure you will spread to neighboring areas for new book stores and libraries.

Hi RenFromPenn,

Indeed, as what the previous posters have mentioned, having a facebook and twitter fanpage can be very helpful in getting your work out there. Youtube and Pinterest are pretty useful platforms too.

Perhaps you could also work your way into forums or sites that are frequented by parents, especially mothers.

All the best to you.
-Hum

you can sell your books on amazon, clickbank or jvzoo. you can also promote them in different forums or blogs that target the children or mothers market

Is there a Kindle Inner Circle for childrens authors? I read that you need to be part of some inside club to sell lots of books , like Bryan Kumar's book club - is it any good for childrens authors?

Either that or have lots of money to invest.

Thanks for the thread, this was a good read.

Enroll in KDP select and make each of your books free for five days, one at a time. Once you have 17 different books, at any given time you will always have one for free (you can repeat every 90 days). The great thing about Amazon's ranking system is that it doesn't differentiate between a free giveaway and a paid order, they both count as orders, so the more people download your free book during that five days, the more popular it looks when that five day period is over and people who never knew it was free are browsing the category. Plus, you'll get paid some amount of money for the free downloads too - usually 16 cents per download or so. On average I'll make $100 whenever I do a free book promo just in the sum of the free downloads, then the sales will be higher for the next few days following the giveaway. If you had 17 books, one would always be free, so you're perpetually keeping yourself popular.

Hi, My expertise is in marketing / internet marketing and I noticed your thread for a reason. I was interested in your thread because my mother is a published author and is planning to get back into writing. Previous book was for adolescent girls, this time she is planning to write children's books.

Bottom line is that you have to do some marketing to get any significant sales. Good news is that everything you do on the internet (for marketing) will build momentum over time - thus increasing sales over time. Blog post numbers will increase, facebook exposure, and friends, will build and increase over time, etc.

There is a lot of good marketing techniques listed in response to your inquiry on this thread. The internet marketing SECRET is to build momentum over time. Unless you have money for paid marketing, it will take time to build a following -but you can build it.

Start out with one method until you are comfortable with how it works for marketing your children's books to your target audience. I suggest starting a facebook fan page, or a blog. When you feel comfortable using that tool and see your followers increasing in numbers it will be easier to build momentum with another method such as twitter, or adding the facebook or blog - which ever one you didn't begin with because the number of people/fans in your first effort will help with initial momentum of the next effort.

Find other authors, parent related forums and blogs, and begin interacting with the people there. The more time you spend creating posts with links back to your site over time will gain momentum. It is important to not sound like your making a sale - Just interact with people and get involved in conversations; just like all the people did in this thread.

Notice the links at the bottom of many of the replies here - how many people will read your thread and then click a link to one of the sites and possibly become a customer.

If you have any questions with "how to" do anything suggested in any of the posts you can google it, or create another post with a specific question. As you can see people are wiling to help. Typically, look back at all of the replies for common answers - these will be your best options for getting started because its typically what is working for the people offering advice.

Just remember that in the beginning of your marketing efforts it will feel like nothing is happening. BUT - after a few months you should see some increase in traffic and sales, and after 1-2 years of effort I believe you will be the person/author that others entering the market will be posting about in the forums trying to imitate.

One more piece of advice; research some of the popular sellers and find their facebook, twitter, blogs, and forum postings. This will give you some idea of what they're doing to drive their success.

Good Luck!

PS. Come back later and update your results after a few months. It will be inspiring for others coming after you to see how your sales increased after several months of marketing effort. Because just as I said above about internet marketing effort - just like your new blog or facebook - your posts here and all of the replies, will remain forever to help other people with the same burning question, "What can I do to sell more children's books?."

When someone purchases one of your books hit them with a one click upsell for two or three more books. Make the one time offer for two books at a discounted rate so the buyer cannot resist. You know the buyer is already in the market for the books and you have the exact product they want. Hitting them with a good deal when they are already in the buying mood will convert.

If the customer declines then you can hit them with a second one time offer for one of the previous book at a lesser price.

If you use a one click upsell capability the buyer does not even have to put in their credit card into again. They just press the button once and the new offer is automatically added on.

As some said, as a writer it's a really good idea to have a writer's circle/group/workshop, etc. that you are a part of. I know that in the genre's I write(I have written but have not yet published a children's book, partly due to just putting it on the back burner) other writers are a writer's best friend. Other writers are often editors, publishers, or have websites and networks and help to promote and buy from each other.

A local business group is a good idea too. A group where different business owners get together to network and promote/refer each other could also be very helpful for you.

Any chance we can see your books on Amazon? We're flying blind here.

Have you published them on Amazon? If so, you would really benefit from following the link in my signature file.

You can skip a few steps though since you've already monetized your knowledge

If you haven't published on Amazon I would recommend doing so because it's the biggest buyer search engine on the planet and the quickest way to get traffic to an ebook. I recommend searching "AK Elite Review" on google because you will most likely be interested in it if you want to get more traffic to your Amazon books.

Hello,

I am not experience in children's books or anything like that, but I have an idea that might possibly help you out. You could make some flyers, postcards, business cards, etc promoting your page where you sell your children's books. After you have those made maybe hang some up in a local library near the childrens book section or put them up anywhere where people are going to read.

I would use social media like twitter and facebook and have the people share your post that includes and picture and description of the book. one of the shares or retweets will be the lucky winner of a free book.

If you sign up for an affiliate program I would then contact people who run work-at-home blogs or websites and have them write a blog that says a work at home job that they recommend is selling your books.

If it is really a high quality book, then you should try and get a proper old school publisher to take over the marketing for you, if you can get them interested, they will try and get it in the book stores, libraries, schools, and grocery stores for you. Trying to do things on your own, without being an experienced marketer with all the resources some of the 100+ year old publishers have at their fingertips is not so easy.

Some real world marketing you might consider, wear shirts with an interesting book related image and easily read title on it, maybe give them to a marathon runner or a local soccer team, decorate your car in your URL images, and book name, buy some advertising on a bus or subway, etc etc, you have to get the name out there, give away a free copy to elementary school librarians maybe? How about printing some school backpacks?

Thanks for bringing this up, because I'm seriously considering writing children books myself! I think you need to associate with somebody that did this before and was successful. Don't give up and believe in yourself!

Can give me a book links, I want to see, and want to buy one for my children.

I generally am not sure why my sales fluctuate so much. I know that when I initially published Dogs, dogs, Dogs I was more active in a writing/publishing group. I think a few people commented on the book being very short and cute and my free download day brought me quite a few downloads and reviews. The book seemed to ride that wave of popularity for a while. I get the impression that Amazon's feature of saying "People who bought this book also bought" favors recent purchases and so for some period of time it did quite well, but then it tapered off.

IMHO and from everything I have read and researched into Kindle, Amazon and self publishing (I thought about it for a very looooong time and read a lot, believe me)... it is actually one of the toughest and most competitive businesses you can get into. Sorry to say but the WSO promoters and others telling you Kindle will save your life are... well I better not go there, you get the picture.

There are some people out there killing it, but if you do your research these people are a dime a dozen. Most are only making enough to keep their heads above water in the self publishing world, that is the reality from what I have read.


The good news however is, with an outstanding product or products and some phenomenal marketing you can kill it. If your passionate about what you are doing then keep chipping away but don't let your passion blind you from reality, find the balance.

Good luck.

in my opinion You must first create a sale page be interesting and very simple for the visitor In this page you must write interesting information about the book to persuade visiting and make him order the book

Secondly, you should make an easy way to buy the book and simple for the visitor i suggest to you PayPal

Third, you should get traffic to your site
There are two ways to get traffic
Paid and free


Paid way save a lot of time which isadvertising in Google Adword or Facebook ads and a lot of others advertising companies

The free way is to commenting on blogs that have the same your content

Through this coment you get traffic to your site and also building back Links to increase your site's ranking in google .

And you must also write topics in other forums to known them your product but you must Warns with these sites so as not be under-spam and be removed from the forum

And you should doing accounts on social networks as facebook,twitter and myspace to get traffic from them

perhaps you could turn them into kindle type books and sell them that way or even audio CD's where you read the book and record them. I would also suggest taking a course in marketing your book most books that are best sellers are not the best books written but simply because the author knew how to market his book.

I would recommend publishing your children books as IOS and Android Applications. Even if you have no experience on that, you can use a drag and drop builder. There are several services out there. Check this one as an example Moglue but be ready to pay these services and check their licences as they are not cheap, but definitely worth it.