Words that sell Books, Pt. 2

With all things self-publishing, remember that you can take on what you're comfortable with. Everything I'm sharing is just helpful hints, not hard-fast requirements to make your book sell. You can do as little, or as much as you want when it comes to self-publishing.

So I had started talking in my last post about metadata and what goes into making your children's picture book something you can find on the internet. Let's continue where I left off on this, because there's still a lot more to discover.

Long Summary/Synopsis. So you've got your hook, and it's a succinct, powerful, attention grabbing short description of your picture book. But you don't want to miss out on telling people the depth of your book, and what is going on inside the story and the background of your book. This is why there is also a Synopsis. this is where you include a ton of your keywords, hot topics. You can dive into the audience you're marketing to, tell them about what the book is intended to do for them, and what tools or lessons your picture book will offer them. Where did your inspiration come from to write this story? What's your hope that people will get from this? Is there a non-profit or school that benefits from your book sales? You can include all of these details in this long description about your book as well as the book story and what to expect inside your picture book.

Subject/Subject Codes. The Book Industry Study Group created an expansive list of book subjects to help organize and filter book titles into a manageable list. From their website:

"Want to find a code to categorize a book? The BISAC Subject Codes List* (or BISAC Subject Headings) is the US standard topical categorization used by companies throughout the supply chain. The Subject Heading applied to a book can determine where the work is shelved in a brick and mortar store or the genre(s) under which it can be searched for in an internal database."

https://www.bisg.org/BISAC-Subject-Codes-main 

(teaching lessons, morals, goal of the storytelling). Juvenile Fiction is generally the base subject we choose for children's books. But the secondary subject within Juvenile fiction is also important, so that your book shows up under the right categories on places like Amazon, or Barnes and Noble. You don't want your children's picture book about cats showing up under "horses and zebras" when people are searching for books.

Audience. This is SO important, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH. I left it for last so you might see it as you skim through this post and skip to the end (It's hard to read more than 144 characters anymore, I get it.). Don't miss out on making your book succeed because you didn't take time to address the right audience. So, who is the right audience?

Traditional age groups follow their development and therefore are critical to narrow down based on your book's reading level, word count, picture styles, book size, and language used in the book.

Board books (0-3 years): simple, high-contrast books printed with non-hazardous materials that are safe for babies and toddlers to look at and drool over, with short sentences and very few words per page. Generally less than 150 words.

Picture books (3-8 years): still heavily focused on pictures and simple stories, a few more words but not chapter level. The main character empathizes with young children pre-school or early elementary level. It's generally about aimed at parents reading bedtime stories, helping encourage language to young children. The vocabulary is easy, but contains a few sentences per page, and should able to be read in one sitting. These can incorporate basic lessons, character dialog and morals in the story, no more than 700 words in length.

Early Reader books (7-10 years): Less pictures, more focused on the writing and vocabulary development, can be chapter books, but should stay around 2,000 words or less.

My hope in sharing these tidbits of information is that your book can grow over time as it lives on the internet, and that people will continue to find your book organically as well as the marketing you're doing to engage your children's picture book audience. these are all areas in the backside of book listing online that can help your book find the people looking for it online, but it also can create a guide and backbone to your book and the direction you want to market it.