| What do publishers and authors do to promote books that appeal both to children and adults? |
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Q: I’ve written a children’s book that appeals to adults as well as kids. How do pulishers usually handle this type of book? Is there something I can do to help get it promoted in both markets? Some books are cross-promoted by the publisher as being for both adults and children. The Hyperion books, William Wegman’s Mother Goose. Anastasia’s Album and Sees Behind Trees by Michael Dorris, are good examples. But, most of the time, a book is slotted pre-publication by the publisher as part of the adult or children’s list. This is reflected in when and how the book is presented at the company’s sales conference, where the book is positioned in the season’s catalog, which reviewers are sent galleys for review (ie. children’s books to School Library Journal, or adult books to Library Journal), or whether the book is sent to the adult book reviewer or children’s book reviewer at a given publication. For this reason, your book is likely to be classified as a children’s book. To balance this, you can talk with your editor about how you would like the book positioned in the copy that is written for the catalog, the press materials, and for any advertising they do. You can also ask what plans the publisher has for special sales and for publicity to special interest publications because books can crossover more easily in niche markets. You can try on your own to get blurbs for the book from authors who write adult books, if you have time to get these quotes far enough in advance to be useful to the publisher. You can also ask your publisher if they, or you, can do a postcard mailing to bookstores describing the book as a crossover title and asking that booksellers consider putting the book in both the adult and children’s sections. Look for other ways to encourage handselling by booksellers, to get your book into specialty stores, and to market the book directly, which is what you need to do to sell this type of book effectively. 2:3/97 |