Children's Book Marketing Made Easy

Sell Your First 100 Children’s Books WITHOUT Ads (Podcast Episode)
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Welcome to the Children's Book, marketing Made Easy podcast. I'm your host, Harley Mansky. After publishing my first three children's books on Amazon, KDPI have turned this into my full-time job. So yes, I'm a full-time self-published children's book, author, illustrator, author, coach, and creative entrepreneur.

If that sounds like something you wanna do too, then this. Podcast is the right podcast for you. 'cause in this podcast I take my original YouTube videos and I've turned this into a podcast form so you can take it with you on the go in your daily life, so that way you don't have to sacrifice your time or your energy, but you're still learning.

If you wanna watch the original YouTube video, that's gonna be linked in the show notes down below, as well as a bunch of other free author resources. Free marketing guide, Instagram content planner and book launch team checklist with email templates. But without further ado, let's get right into the podcast episode.

I sold my first 100 children's books without [00:01:00] using ads. If anything, when I did use Amazon ads or Facebook ads, I think I tried Pinterest ads at 1.2. Yeah, that didn't really work out, but you live and you learn. When I stopped using ads and actually started implementing organic. Marketing strategies that really work and actually make the flywheel spin.

That's when I started actually selling my books. But when I was paying for ads, I was actually losing money and I wasn't selling any books at all. So I highly recommend that you go for simple, sustainable, and organic. Marketing strategies to sell your first 100 children's books. And in today's video I'm gonna talk about three different ways on how I sold my first 100 children's books without the use of ads and how you can too.

So the first way that I sold my children's books without using ads was actually selling in person. So there are a couple different ways that I'm gonna teach you about, about how to sell in person. And this first one is [00:02:00] actually in person events. Like farmer's markets, festivals, craft shows, et cetera. So that means you set up a booth, you are a vendor.

You do have to have your business registration in place, you do have to have insurance, all that good stuff. But you can set up where all of this traffic, like actual people walking past your booth and you are able to sell in person to them immediately. I started by doing, uh, small little craft shows in my local area because they were cheaper.

They were only one day. And since I was starting out, I didn't really know what to expect and I wanted to make sure I had enough inventory and I was just prepared for what was gonna happen because it is kind of intimidating being set up in person and talking to real people and being rejected in real time. so I started with small craft shows that way, but then I worked up to doing a whole like three day fall festival in a really busy town, and this has been a fall festival that's been [00:03:00] around for, I think they celebrated their 60th years. So they had tons of built-in traffic, I think they said.

30,000 to 60,000 people go to that event within those three days. So that's how many people walk by. My booth sold so many books that weekend. It was bonkers, it was totally crazy, and it absolutely blew my mind. so since then I have decided to keep investing into vending at festivals. And if this is something that you can afford, like you can afford the upfront inventory, you can afford buying the tables, you can afford buying the chairs.

Tablecloths, banner, signage, all that. And like this is something you wanna do and you wanna talk to people. Highly recommend you start selling in person at festivals, fairs and events.

And aside from like craft shows and festivals, I also do farmer's markets. I sell my books at. Farmer's markets every single week in the spring, summer and fall. You are probably thinking farmer's market like you're not selling vegetables like that doesn't make any sense. [00:04:00] Like how would they accept me?

Fun fact, they actually want to support local authors. They want local authors At farmer's markets, you're just gonna be more of like a seasonal vendor, like you're not gonna be there every single week. And of course this really depends on the farmer's market because every single one is different. I'm at a farmer's market every single Tuesday from nine to two, and I'm there every single week, and I'm not a farmer.

So it really just depends on the market as to how many Saturdays or weekends that you can do in a season. But farmer's markets are actually more cost-effective than doing festivals and fairs and craft shows. Because I think it costs me what, $14 to set up for my Tuesday farmer's market every single time I go, so only $14 to sell my books.

When you think about the ROI and you think about the traffic and you know, yeah, your time is important too, but even just think about it in the sense of like advertising. So to get in front of like thousands of people or hundreds of [00:05:00] people, you have to pay a certain amount of money online. It's kind of the same thing with these in-person events and markets and all that.

So go ahead and deliberate, like if this will be worth it for you, if you have the time for it. I know that everybody's job schedule is different, but if you wanna make it work and you can make it work and you wanna do it in the community, like if you wanna be more of like a staple locally, highly recommend you do that.

And the second way of how I got to selling my first a hundred children's books without using ads is by selling to friends, family, and coworkers. And I know this one sounds like. Underwhelming, like really, you're gonna tell me to sell to my friend's, family, and coworkers. I'm not telling you to sell to them.

I'm telling you to always casually mention the fact that you have children's books or that you published a new children's book, or you illustrated a new children's book, or you did this event for your children's book. Always just like talk about it at family holidays or events or get togethers or with [00:06:00] your friends and coworkers.

Because what I noticed with me is that the more I talk about my children's books, the more people give me reasons why they should buy my children's books. Over time it adds up and I know what you're probably thinking. Like, oh, well I can't make like actual revenue month over month, over month. No, but this is to sell your first 100 children's books.

Like you gotta start small and then scale from there. So start with your friends, family, coworkers. Start doing that because when you get your books out there and you actually get your books in other people's hands, other people will see your books and then they will talk about. Your books to their friends and be like, oh, well my friend or my sister, or you know, my aunt is a children's book author.

Like, if you need a baby shower gift, you should go check out her books. It becomes word of mouth. So I've actually sold like a really. Decent chunk of books just from this one little stream alone. Don't knock it till you try it. This could end up working for you and you [00:07:00] never know. You could have that one coworker or one friend that buys 10 books from you at a time.

There's so many people that wanna support you, so let them support you. And the third and final way that I sold my first 100 children's books is by email marketing. And I know you're probably gonna wanna click away after I tell you this, but email marketing has become like such a huge pivotal factor in my children's book.

Selling and marketing like this whole process, like it is so important. And this is how I'm able to actually sell on Amazon without using ads. email marketing is kind of a beast if you don't know how to set it up. Basically, this is how the funnel works with email marketing. So in order to get people on your email list, you need to provide them something of value for free,

which is called a lead magnet. you start with your lead magnet, and my lead magnets are free printable activities for kids. They're coloring pages dot the dots, mazes. You know, all busy book pages, all that. So then when you [00:08:00] organically post about your lead magnet, share the link to your lead magnet and your lead magnet is delivered to them via email.

So the person who wants to download the lead magnet has to put in their email address in order to get the lead magnet. So they put in their email address, and then after they put in their email address, they get subscribed to your email list. And then from there you can go ahead and market your books.

Subtly, but also market to them in a really valuable fashion, like. Give them more ideas for their children, like give them ideas for activities, give them ideas for resources. Give them tips and tricks or anything that you might know and that you can talk about to them and provide them value. Or even just like updates about your new book or, you know, updates about an event that you did or an award that you won.

You would be surprised at how many people will connect with you that way. I know in the beginning when I was starting doing this, I was like, nobody's gonna want my coloring page. Nobody's gonna want this. Like they don't know [00:09:00] my character. They don't care. But as it turns out, once you convert them from this little lead magnet funnel to your email list, and you continue to nurture them week over week over week.

They start to know, like, and trust you, and then you always have a link to your books in your emails, so you'll stay top of mind with your books if they need to buy your book for a baby shower gift, a birthday gift, a teacher gift, or it's a teacher buying it. You never know. So email marketing has been huge for my online sales.

Okay. That is it. Those are the three different methods that I use to sell my first 100 children's books without using ads of any kind.

Thank you so much for listening to this podcast episode. I hope you found it helpful and you learn something new. And if you did find it help. Well make sure to subscribe or follow wherever you listen to your podcast so that way you don't miss a new episode. And if you want more personalized one-on-one support to help publish, launch, or [00:10:00] grow your children's book marketing business, you can always book a one-on-one coaching call with me.

I take these calls all the time, and it's a great way for me to really see what you're working with and how I can help you grow your social media platforms, grow your book sales, do. Anything involved with Children's Book marketing or publishing, the link to book a call is gonna be in the show notes down below.

I offer many sessions as well as full sessions to be as accessible to you as possible. And if you're looking for a more step-by-step DIY approach, you can join my signature membership program, author Growth Roadmap in Author Growth Roadmap. I give you. Step-by-step curriculum on how you can publish Launch Market and Scale your children's book publishing business to help you turn this into a long-term sustainable business.

That will also be linked the show notes down below for you. Thank you so much for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode.