Back-to-School Season is Coming

Are your children's book ready to meet the demand?

Here’s what we do: we write stories and nonfiction for kids and then turn them into books!

Everything comes back to the writing.

That’s why I’m excited to be teaching the basics of picture book writing again for Boyds Mills (formerly Highlights Foundation). Leslie Helakoski and I have taught together for over ten years, specializing in how to write a children’s picture book.

If you’re a beginner or even if you’ve been writing for a while, this class will reinforce all the important considerations in writing a picture book. Will your story fit into a 32-page format? Do you have an exciting opening? Does the middle tell the story well? Does the conclusion work? Does the story actually work as a story? Would a parent come back to this one and read it over and over at bedtime? Beyond that—how does the book sound when read aloud? And—so much more! This online webinar is only $59, so it’s affordable. Two nights in August, one hour each night. Join us!

Getting Ready for Back-to-School

One of the biggest seasons for children’s books is about to hit: back to school!

If you live in the northern US, and school just got out a couple weeks ago, your season is pushed to mid-August-late September. Here in the south, where the school year ended before Memorial Day in late May, our season will heat up in early August-September.

Let’s talk about some things to do before that season hits.

1. Metadata Check and/or Refresh: Make sure all your metadata is correct on the platforms that matter for your books: Amazon, Overdrive, Barnes & Noble, EPIC!, Classwallet, or anywhere else your books are sold. If people can’t find your book, or if the listing is outdated, you will not get sales. July is a great time to recheck everything! Refresh anything outdated and tie into any upcoming cultural events of interest.

2. Lesson Plans. If you have a strong school market, you may want to create lesson plans. Or if you have them, perhaps create a dedicated download page for lesson plans. Make sure you’ve added links to the book’s product pages on your website.

3. Think about bundles. Are there creative or interesting ways to create bundles of your books? Because I’m marketing to the homeschool audience through ClassWallet, I’ve created bundles that I hope appeal to parents and kids. It’s always better to sell one bundle than one single book! Creating a bundle is a simple process through my software, so I do this often.
   
   If you write novels, use Vellum or Atticus to create an omnibus edition, which means you put several novels together into one ebook. (Formal definition from Wikipedia: An omnibus edition or omnibus is a book containing multiple creative works by the same or, more rarely, different authors.) Remember that Amazon limits ebooks to $9.99, but you can price high on Kobo, Google Play, D2D, and others.

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4. Set up school visits. This is also a great time to plan school visits. Teachers and librarians aren’t in school to contact yet, but this is the time to plan programs, set up procedures to order books, create graphics for social media, create flyers to send, and so on. Some authors earn a significant income from school visits! It doesn’t happen without planning. Next month, August, is a great time to start contacting teachers and librarians to set up dates.

5. Check inventories. If you offset print or use POD to fulfill orders, this is a great time to check your inventories. What’s your most popular book? Do you have enough on hand to fulfill orders. What books do you have leftover from last year? Could you offer a discount on those books at a school visit? Or can you emphasize that book for presentations this year?

Your circumstances will determine the mid-summer tasks that need to be done. It’s the calm before the storm! Do what you can now to prepare before the back-to-school season hits!

What is your biggest task for the month?