Kid Lit vs. Adult Lit Marketing (February Theme) by Bob Krech
I got together with three of my old friends from college this past weekend. We met our freshman year and we are having our 35th reunion this May. (Please don't do the math!) We had dinner Saturday night, then went to a basketball game and watched our alma mater lose badly, shooting only 10% in the first half from the field.
All night we reminisced about all the crazy things that went on during those four years and one of my friends asked me, "So when are you going to write the book about that?" I had to confess to him that I've been working on that book for a couple of years now and I hope to finish it this year. It's my first fiction book written for adults.
As I've been working on it and talking to my old buddies about it, I've been getting excited about spreading the word about it. I have all kinds of ideas on how to market it. I think it's going to be great. I can't wait to do it.
To be honest, I have yet to feel that way about marketing the books I've written for kids. Even though I love the books I've written for kids, I have this hesitancy to recommend them to kids. I love telling adults about great books I like and think they will enjoy. I also don't hesitate to recommend other books I've written for adults (non-fiction teaching books) to adults. I don't even mind recommending other author's books to kids. But with my own books, I've never felt very comfortable doing it in a wholesale way. There are individual kids I just knew would really benefit from reading one of my books, and I've done it then, but generally, it's not something I look forward to.
I still do a lot of the marketing things that should be done, but not as much as I know I should. Partly because of this hesitancy, partly because of prioritizing (ie; family first, day job, etc), and partly because of laziness. But I still always find time to write and like I said, I can't wait to market the adult book. Does anyone else feel this same hesitancy about marketing to kids?
All night we reminisced about all the crazy things that went on during those four years and one of my friends asked me, "So when are you going to write the book about that?" I had to confess to him that I've been working on that book for a couple of years now and I hope to finish it this year. It's my first fiction book written for adults.
As I've been working on it and talking to my old buddies about it, I've been getting excited about spreading the word about it. I have all kinds of ideas on how to market it. I think it's going to be great. I can't wait to do it.
To be honest, I have yet to feel that way about marketing the books I've written for kids. Even though I love the books I've written for kids, I have this hesitancy to recommend them to kids. I love telling adults about great books I like and think they will enjoy. I also don't hesitate to recommend other books I've written for adults (non-fiction teaching books) to adults. I don't even mind recommending other author's books to kids. But with my own books, I've never felt very comfortable doing it in a wholesale way. There are individual kids I just knew would really benefit from reading one of my books, and I've done it then, but generally, it's not something I look forward to.
I still do a lot of the marketing things that should be done, but not as much as I know I should. Partly because of this hesitancy, partly because of prioritizing (ie; family first, day job, etc), and partly because of laziness. But I still always find time to write and like I said, I can't wait to market the adult book. Does anyone else feel this same hesitancy about marketing to kids?
My two previous books were YA--I think it's probably a lot like marketing an adult book because you can talk directly to your readership. I have a feeling marketing my MG will be an ENTIRELY new experience!
ReplyDelete