Marketing Children's Books:
The Long Tail

Self-publishing: Marketing Children's Books

If you're giving any thought to self-publishing, and your hope is to actually make money, then you had better give a lot of thought to marketing children's books.

The children's book publishers certainly do. You need to, too.

I used to think rather poorly of the whole notion of self-publishing children's books, but that was before I came to appreciate the fact that we're living in a new age. All of a sudden, I saw a glimmer of hope for people who publish their own books.

Let me tell you about the book that showed me that glimmer.

What is the "long tail"? It's actually a statistical term. Say there are a thousand books in the world. The number one bestseller might sell a hundred copies. Number two might sell fifty. Numbers 90-100 might each sell two.

Numbers 101-1000 each sell one. That's the long tail. (The flat part of the graph.)

Now here's the thing. In the "old" world, a bookstore with limited shelf space could only afford - and only had enough space - to stock the most popular books. (See the blue space under the line in the second graph.) If something wasn't flying off the shelves, you didn't offer it!

But in the new, internet, Amazon world, where shelf space is unlimited, all that white space under the line in the second graph can be and is made available.

Sure, books 101-1000 don't sell nearly as many copies as books 1-10, but they don't have to. I don't imagine that the average Joe or Josephine marketing children's books expects to show up on the New York Times Bestseller List.

Money can still be made.

In The Long Tail, Chris Anderson goes on to explain how online ordering means not only that each book can be listed and made available, but also that it can be marketed and advertised for minimal cost.

(For instance, you could build a website that attracts traffic and serves to build excitement and word of mouth for your book.)

Of course, Anderson is talking about more than just marketing children's books, he's speaking to a world where all forms of entertainment and information are findable and buyable. He speaks as well about cost-free electronic forms of distribution.

(Think Ebooks.)

I would discourage anyone from even thinking about self-publishing before reading The Long Tail. I would also suggest that you read the marketing children's books experiences of others, so as to learn from their trials and errors.

The self-publishing section.

Best Children's Books home.