A practical guide to marketing your book without losing your mind or your integrity
Nobody tells you about the marketing before you get the book deal. Or rather, people do tell you, but it doesn’t quite land until you’re holding a published book and realising that having written it was, in some ways, the easy part.
Marketing a children’s book in the UK is a specific challenge. Your reader is a child. Your buyer is an adult. Your reviewer is probably a librarian, a teacher, or a parent blogger. And your publisher, unless you are very lucky or very famous, is expecting you to do a significant amount of the work yourself. Here’s an overview of what to expect, what generally works and what doesn’t, and where to focus your (probably limited) time and energy.
Setting expectations
Most traditionally published children’s authors receive modest marketing support from their publisher. What that looks like in practice: your book will be in the catalogue, the sales team will pitch it to buyers, and you may receive some social media support around publication. What it rarely looks like is a significant advertising budget, a PR campaign, or a publicist working on your behalf unless you are on the lead title list.
Self-published authors carry the entire marketing burden themselves from day one, with no infrastructure to lean on. The principles below apply equally to both, but self-published authors will need to invest more time and energy in building the infrastructure that traditionally published authors get by default.
School visits
If you write for children, school visits are one of the most effective marketing tool available to you. They put your book directly in front of its actual audience. They generate word of mouth among children, parents, and teachers simultaneously. They build relationships with schools that might result in bulk orders, reading scheme adoptions, and ongoing recommendations. And they can generate income alongside the marketing benefit.
Start by building a school visit offer. What will you do? How long will it last? What age groups do you work best with? Write it up clearly on your website – what the session involves, how to book, what you charge, and what you need the school to provide. Include testimonials once you have them. Your publisher may arrange initial school visits as part of your publication support – take these, treat them as a learning opportunity, and use the testimonials they generate to build your independent offering.
For schools you don’t yet have a relationship with, cold outreach works better than most authors expect. A short, friendly email to the school librarian or English lead, with your book details and school visit offer attached, is a good starting point.
Your website
Your website is your professional home. It needs to exist, it needs to be easy to navigate, and it needs to contain the following: your books with links to buy, your contact details, a short biography, and your school visit offer, if you have one.
For SEO purposes (being findable on Google), it’s valuable for each book has its own page with the title, age range, publisher, a short description, and clear links to buy from multiple retailers including Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookshops and is worth prioritising.
Don’t forget to keep your website updated. A website with a news section that hasn’t been touched since your last book launch does more harm than good. If you can’t maintain it, keep what’s there clean and current and remove anything that dates badly.
Opinion: Should We Be Marketing Our Own Books?
Social media: what actually works
For children’s authors in the UK, Instagram is your most useful platform. It’s where the children’s book community lives – authors, illustrators, librarians, teachers, parent bloggers, and booksellers all use it actively.
What works on Instagram for children’s authors:
- Behind-the-scenes content: process shots, manuscript pages, notes on your research, the moment you see your cover for the first time. This kind of content builds the sense of a real person behind the book, which is what social media actually does well.
- Joining conversations already happening in your community is more effective than broadcasting. Comment thoughtfully on other authors’ and illustrators’ posts. Respond to librarians and teachers who post about books. Be a participant, not just a publisher.
- Consistent, modest posting is better than sporadic bursts. A few posts a week that you can sustain is worth more than a launch-week flurry that goes quiet for two months.
What doesn’t work: posting only when you have something to sell. Audiences disengage from accounts that only appear when there’s something to promote. The marketing happens in the relationship, not the announcement.
X has diminished significantly as a useful platform for children’s authors, though some use it for industry conversation. LinkedIn is increasingly used by authors with school and educational connections. Neither is worth prioritising over Instagram if you have limited time. It’s better to cover one platform well than to spread yourself too thin and get very little return on your efforts.
Bookshops and libraries
Independent bookshops are your allies. Unlike the major chains, indie bookshops champion individual titles, host author events, and hand-sell books to customers. A relationship with your local indie bookshop, and ideally with a few others beyond your immediate area, is genuinely worth building. Introduce yourself. Offer to sign stock. Offer to do an in-store event. Ask to be included in their recommendations. Don’t expect them to do all the work – come with ideas, come with energy, and make it easy for them to say yes.
And don’t forget your local library. Libraries are where many children encounter books for the first time. A book adopted by a library service reaches readers in a way that a bookshop sale often doesn’t. Contact your local library service and offer to do a reading or event, as many run author visit programmes and welcome approaches.
Reviews and coverage
Reviews in the UK children’s book press carry genuine weight with the buyers and librarians who stock books. Your publisher’s publicist or marketing team should be targeting these, but it’s worth knowing who they are and whether your book has been submitted.
Parent bloggers and bookstagrammers who specialise in children’s books have significant reach with buying parents. A genuine, enthusiastic review from a trusted bookstagrammer often moves more copies than a review in a trade journal, for picture books especially. Identifying five to ten bookstagrammers whose taste aligns with your book and sending them a copy (via your publisher or directly, with a personal note) is a low-cost, high-return activity.
Avoid paying for reviews or coverage. Undisclosed paid promotion erodes trust and is against ASA guidelines. Gifted copies in exchange for honest reviews is standard and acceptable.
Publication week
Publication week is the moment the industry pays most attention, and it’s worth making the most of it, though with realistic expectations. Ask your publisher exactly what they are planning and when, so you’re coordinating rather than doubling up. Confirm that your book has been submitted to key review outlets. Ask about any retailer promotions or catalogue features.
Organise a launch event if you can. A bookshop launch is the classic format, but a school reading, a library event, or a well-produced online event can work. The goal is to give people a reason to engage with the book at the moment it’s most visible.
Marketing your children’s book: dos and don’ts
Do
- Build a clear, up-to-date author website with school visit information and book pages
- Prioritise school visits as your most direct route to readers
- Reach out to your local indie bookshop early; sign stock, offer events, build the relationship
- Contact local libraries and offer to do readings or events
- Focus your social media energy on Instagram, where the children’s book community is most active
- Post consistently and modestly rather than in bursts around publication
- Identify bookstagrammers and parent bloggers whose taste fits your book and gift them copies
- Keep writing, as the next book is always the best marketing for the last one
Don’t
- Expect your publisher to do all the marketing, especially on a debut
- Post on social media only when you have something to sell
- Pay for reviews or undisclosed coverage
- Neglect libraries in favour of bookshops; they serve different and equally important audiences
- Mistake social media activity for marketing effectiveness; posting on social media every day feels like marketing, but if it isn’t selling books, it might be a waste of time
- Put all your energy into publication week and go quiet afterwards, as marketing is a long game
- Forget that your reader is a child and your buyer is an adult, and keep both in mind in everything you do
Good luck, and may the marketing forces be with you!