S1 08 Unlocking Success: Navigating the Journey of Your Chapter Book

Welcome back everyone! Today, I'll be delving into the reasons why not all chapter books find the success their authors hope for. Stick around as I share insights that can significantly boost your book's chances of making an impact.

Market Trends and Research

• Dive into current market demands and trends during your research stages.
• Identify oversaturated genres and themes to avoid and find unique angles or unexplored themes.

Target Audience Alignment

• Conduct thorough research on the specific age group you're targeting.
• Engage with the intended audience through workshops, readings, and surveys to understand their interests and needs.
• Ensure characters and settings reflect experiences relevant to the target age group.

Marketing and Visibility

• Inadequate marketing efforts and lack of visibility can hinder even excellent books.
• Overcome the fear of self-promotion and embrace marketing to give your book the attention it deserves.

Quality and Execution

• The quality of writing, editing, and cover design matters.
• Every detail of the book, from crafting the story to formatting, needs professional attention.

Book Reviews and Influence

• Great reviews are crucial for long-term success.
• Continuously ask for reviews to build credibility and tap into your cold market.

Empowerment and External Factors

• Acknowledge the power you have in your book's success.
• Despite external factors, taking action based on the discussed points gives your book the best chance.

Remember, your book's future success is in your hands. Stay empowered and take charge of its journey!

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Chapters

• 0:00 Market trends and research for successful chapter books.
• 2:45 Writing for children's target audience.
• 5:10 Book marketing and author confidence.
• 7:24 Book quality and publishing process.
• 9:16 Book marketing and reviews.

Transcript

Abigail Horne: 0:50

Welcome back everyone. Today, I thought it would be really useful for me to share with you some of the reasons why not all chapter books make it. And by not making it, I mean that they don't get the traction that the author is hoping for. We can't look at this as one single thing that could go wrong. I mean, it could be that, it's more likely going to be a combination of factors, most of which are in your hands. So that's the good news. So stick around today, if you would like to increase your chances of success with your book, because by taking these pointers on board, you are going to be in a far better position than those that are going it alone without any guidance. First thing I want to talk to you about is market trends, it will be hugely helpful for you to dive into the current market demands and trends in the research stages of your project. So those of you that know me and know me, well know that I don't think anybody should just be jumping into writing a book without doing some research, it's a huge part of the things that we teach. Sometimes certain genres or themes might be oversaturated. And that's going to make it much harder for a new chapter book like yours to stand out. So I want you to do some research on these current trends and sort of stay updated with what's popular in children's literature, follow book releases, bestseller lists and sort of discussions that are happening in the industry to understand what themes genres and styles are gaining traction right now. So start to identify gaps and opportunities. Because while certain genres might be oversaturated, there could be gaps within those popular genres as well. So take a look for unique angles are on explored themes, or by giving a fresh perspective that hasn't yet had much attention. What I would say is that all of that said, you do need to stay authentic. So I only want you to write what genuinely interest you and excites you because authenticity is needed to resonate with your readers. So it's really important that your passion in your writing continues to shine through, which won't happen if you're just writing something for the sake of it. But the next thing I want you to be aware of is the target audience misalignment that can happen. Sometimes your book might not resonate with the intended age group. So it fails to address your readers interests and needs adequately. There are a few ways that you can minimise your chances of this happening. And one of those ways is to conduct thorough research to understand the specific age group that you are targeting. So consider their reading abilities, their interests, and the themes that interest and resonate with them, engage with kids of that age group through workshops or readings and surveys, because they will tell you what they love, they will tell you what they want, take some time to familiarise yourself with successful books within the same target age group. Because understanding the storytelling styles, the themes and the language used in those books, is really going to help give you more confidence that you are doing the right thing and that you are on the right tracks. I've actually had a really good chat with my son about this as well, because he tends to read two or three books per week. And he feels like one of the most important things that you need to remember is to make sure that your characters and the settings should reflect the experiences and challenges that are relevant to them. So to that intended age group. And that made me just feel such a proud mom listening to him explain this because that he put a real importance on him being able to identify with a relatable character. So please take that on board as well, because that is coming from sort of a young reader who was saying I need to resonate with the characters in your stories, they need to feel age appropriate for me. Now this next one is a biggie, it's it's probably such a biggie that it would need a whole sort of podcast episode or training session or workshop in itself. But that is the marketing and visibility of your book. So many excellent books struggle due to the inadequate marketing efforts and lack of visibility among the target audience. In other words, you're not putting necessarily the same effort into marketing your book as you put into writing it and I totally understand why writing it might be this absolute passion of yours marketing, it might just fill you with dread. So you can see how this makes absolutely no sense though. Like you pour all of that talent and love into crafting the book that you want. So, so proud of, and then you decided to keep it the world's best secret. Why are you Why would you do that? I could talk to you about all the ways that you should be marketing books, so you get that traction you want. But actually, I don't think the why is the not knowing. I don't think it is, I don't think it is 99% of the time, it's usually a total lack of confidence in putting yourself out there, and a fear of promoting your work. So it's more likely that you are under confident and over scared, then you just don't know how to market is I don't believe there's a just don't know, I believe you could Google lots of ways to market it. I think it's it's rather this sort of wonder confidence in sort of fear. So my advice to you is to remind yourself, of why you wrote or are writing this book in the first place, I want you to just dig up all of that passion and belief in yourself again, because the more you remind yourself about your excitement in your project, you're going to start to speak a little bit more confidently about it. And sort of the more conversations you have, the more confident you are going to get. And let's face it, if you are following the advice that we're giving you, this is a masterpiece that you have written like it deserves to be talked about. But maybe you want to start with some small steps. So sharing your work, maybe with close family and friends first, and then gradually expanding out your reach and starting to talk to more people as you gain more of that confidence. But in all of this as awkward as it might make you feel, I do want you to try and embrace a little bit of discomfort because that is a sign of your growth. Your future readers need to know about your work, you deserve that they deserve that you both deserve that I know this next one is going to sting you if you've really tried your best, but we need to talk about quality and execution, the quality of your writing, the editing, and the cover design, really blooming matter. Sometimes a boot might just fall short because of the issues and storytelling or character development or presentation. And I don't want this to be you. So investing in your project should make sure that this particular issue never happens. In fact, investing in your project should mean that your book is every bit the quality of the best sellers it's sitting next to in its category, I could break down every single area of the book writing and publishing process. But in truth, every last detail needs this professional attention. So this isn't just one thing or another. It's not just needing an editor or just needing a book cover designer or just needing the great formatting. Literally every last thing about the book needs professional attention, from crafting the story through to the editing, to paying attention to every single detail in the formatting of your manuscript. All of these things will make for that sort of enjoyable and seamless reading experience. And let's be honest here, covers really do help the selling of a book, a professional cover designer is looking at far more than what you might think. So they aren't just looking at what you might like they are looking at trends and target audience and what is selling right now in your space. Gosh, even beyond these things we need to consider well written blurbs. taglines marketing materials accurately represent your books quality and content. So professional support really is worth it. If you don't want your book to fall short. Another factor that will play a huge part of your books long term success is the review it influence. Your book needs reviews, facts, great reviews. In fact, it's that simple. So if you've got the other pointers, right that I have mentioned, so the marketing trends, the target audience alignment, marketing, the quality of your book, great reviews should be a given bots, you need to continuously ask for them. I don't mind telling you, it's a tough crowd out there. The amount of people who create the time to leave you a review in their already hectic schedule is far lower than those that quickly click to buy it. So we need to keep asking and reminding and sharing with them why it's so important for them to leave you their thoughts. book reviews can help you tap into something so much more important long term than your warm market. And that is to help you reach your cold market. So the readers that don't know about you yet that haven't seen your book advertised yet. But they have found your book online and they feel confident to buy it because others have left a review and told them there. It's great. If you don't want to make a song and dance about getting reviews For a book, this is going to feel such a slow ride for you. Because your organic market needs those reviews, the future of success of your book needs reviews. So I want you to feel empowered, that a lot of your book success is in your hands. And of course, I appreciate that there are always external factors as well, such as timing or maybe what's going on in the world around you. In fact, let me share with you just a very quick story about those kinds of situations that arise at the very beginning. If the war on Ukraine, I start with my daughter on my knee, watching children cross that border into Poland with nothing but sort of a little rucksack and a teddy bear. And it broke my heart thinking of what would my children grab in the middle of the night if we needed to flee our homes like which would be their bearer of choice and I could instantly see my daughter with her favourite little bonbon. So to process all of these emotions that I was going through, I started to write and I wrote this poem from the perspective of their bear. And it was called War Teddy's. So it was written to the child from their favourite cuddly toy, talking to them about this adventure that they were going on to give them some comfort during just the absolute horror, of fleeing the comfort of their home. That poem not only went viral, but it made onto BBC News, and started an entire movement around the world. So my poem was translated 1000s of times into Ukrainian and attached to these donated bears that were all sort of given to the border that were shipped over to the border. So every child could be given a best friend if they hadn't had time to grab their teddy. When they reach Poland, and it had this story of comforts attached to it, this poem that I had written, all of that happened, because I wrote the right thing, in the right tone, at the right moment in time. So those things do happen. Those external things can have a massive impact, but even when they don't happen, by actioning the points we have discussed today, you are going to give the future of your book, the very best chance