Great Middle Grade Reads discussion

Since the question was raised in the "hello" thread, where it will soon be lost, I thought I'd start a thread to see what answers, if any, we've come up with to the question:
How do you reach the parents of tweens/tweens themselves to promote your book, your giveaway, etc.?

One answer we all know, is we post here!

For me, I get some visibility through school visits, but those can be hard to arrange--you pretty much need to know someone if you are an unknown writer. Nor do those connections help for Giveaways here.

I havent look at the new member's thread yet, but I suspect the questioner was mentioning her new giveaway ... which she has posted in a small number of focused groups (good) but failed to mention the title or add the book link in every one of them!!

Authors: you have to help readers find the book!

I would say that is increasingly through social media. I think that approaching those that are most familiar with these platforms and who have established followings as BookBloggers, Bookstagrammers, BookTubers etc, (who are usually teens themselves) is likely the most effective means. Which means approaching these people - easier said than done in many cases as I suspect they are often inundated with requests, on top of what they buy themselves (e.g. through OwlCrate).

Rebecca: thank you for moving it
Ash: You speak in a dialect I've never heard, but I'm googling BookTubers
Jemima: will look at that because I though I had added the link to the ones where it is permissible to do so.

I'm glad this question popped up. I'm doing one myself in the third book in a series about Duffy Barkley. It was middle grade in the first book when he's nine, but he's thirteen by this book. Still, I only know to talk at schools and local libraries, and as a substitute teacher, I do get to do some of that and manage to get invited to some others. But even though I've had a few teens and tweets really love my books and ask about them, I'm not sure where they heard about them originally. I need to ask that more.

One thing I've found that helps is to write a teacher's guide to go along with your books and promote it on TeachersPayTeachers. I've reached lots of teachers that way, and, therefore, kids.
Striker Jones: Elementary Economics for Elementary Detectives

Maggie, I've heard that before about the teachers' guides. But that seems, well, unlikely for the sort of books I write. I mean, there's no history to add, nor much serious intent. Though I'm starting to see some serious themes in the Ninja Librarian books (they've gotten a bit more serious in book 3, which I'm working on now--a tricky balance given the books are basically humor).

Rebecca wrote: "Maggie, I've heard that before about the teachers' guides. But that seems, well, unlikely for the sort of books I write. I mean, there's no history to add, nor much serious intent. Though I'm start..."
Maybe you're too close to them. Just as my best tag lines come from people who've reviewed them, I reckon other authors could probably pick out themes and issues that you haven't noticed. I can think of a dozen things about NL1 (and 2), but I don't think I'd be able to do a teacher guide... it's a long time since I've had anything to do with teachers!

Maybe a simple set of discussion questions? You don't have to so much tease lessons out of it as ask readers what they think about certain parts of the story. Might be worth a shot. Or it might not. :)

Wish there were easy answers for this one!

I agree with visiting schools. It definitely helps to know someone but also helps to look for reasons to approach the schools. I've been fortunate to be a repeat presenter at a school for Nevada Reading Week for several years. It also helps to work a message and writing tips into your presentation so it's not just "here's my book, please buy it." That way, when you contact schools with requests, you can reference what the students will learn from you.

Two other things that help is, of course, reviews (which we'd all love more of) from parents that say how much their middle grade reader loved the book and expos/festivals. For the reviews, when someone tells you their child likes your book, ask them to tell that on Amazon and Goodreads. If it's in an email, include the link where they can leave reviews in your reply.

For expos/festivals, I look for festivals that target middle grade readers or their parents. Our county does a kite festival where kids earn a free kite for completing a reading chart. That was my first expo and one of my most successful return of investment for the time/money spent. I've also had success at What Women Want expos because many mothers want good books for their children.

The more I thought about it, I felt my strong opinion about what works at expos was a little off topic. I've decided to start a new thread with that decision. Please come to that thread to share your views on what does and doesn't work at expos. Thanks!

Definitely reach out to independent bookstores. I know I appreciate when publishers or self-published authors offer good payment terms. Offering a flexible payment option like consignment is the best way to get me to stock your books and promote the heck out of it on social media.

I'll second what JS says about school visits. I have been fortunate to be able to attend some workshops in our district on the writing program (a perk of being a school board member--I'm invited to all PD), which allows me to talk about things the kids are working on as well. Hauling in my many marked-up drafts is always a hit, too.

My usual procedure for lower grades is to talk for 5 min. or so about the writing process, read a 5-10 minute passage, and then take questions. I've learned to be polite but to keep them on topic, or they'll be telling about their pet goldfish just to be able to say something. K and 1st grade, 20-30 minutes tops. 2nd grade up, they can either get really engaged or not at all, so I try to be flexible (usually the teacher has a hard and fast end to the time available, though).

Well, of course I could use the pet goldfish to steer them back to writing about their pets ;)

My problem is not having easy access to schools. I've just done a flying exhibition where my dad's memoirs of early aviation flew off the table... Maybe I should give up trying to write for MG.

I could write a flying adventure - oh, hang on, that was book 6 in the series lol

Wouldn't even know where to start to develop what I would need to go into schools. I like one on one - so setting up a booth at a horse show is perfect for me... except it's a money losing proposition.
Love chatting with the girls about their horses and their moms about what the best horse books are. Everyone - everyone has read The Black Stallion.

Figuring out what to do and say on class visits isn't hard. Getting the invites is hard, and I have an in like few other authors--I'm president of the school board!

When contacting schools:
I've gotten responses that schools won't allow guest speakers because their schedule is so tight with conforming to the curriculum and that authors have abused this before and tried to 'sell' their book and not much else. has anyone else had this response?

Anderson wrote: "When contacting schools:
I've gotten responses that schools won't allow guest speakers because their schedule is so tight with conforming to the curriculum and that authors have abused this before..."

A little slow seeing and responding...I haven't gotten that response. I've just gotten zero response from efforts to reach out beyond my own district (and, really, even beyond the schools where they know me personally).

I'm an expat living in a third world country where many of the locals don't read. I have approached an expat school here which is fee paying and expensive. They seem very open to me holding my launch party there next year. What I would really like to do between now and the release of my book is build my following on social media and on my blog, but I'm a novice when it comes to social media. Any advice on that area would be gratefully received. A have also added my book to goodreads and have tried to claim my author page but have had no response from goodreads yet. Does anyone know how long they take as I would like to update the page to make it more presentable and start pointing people towards it. Many thanks, best regards, Carl

Carl wrote: "I'm an expat living in a third world country where many of the locals don't read. I have approached an expat school here which is fee paying and expensive. They seem very open to me holding my laun..."

That sounds good for the launch party.

Re Goodreads - I don't remember 'claiming' my author page, I just joined GR and set it up. I can see that you have your personal page and that your book is listed with an anonymous Carl... have you seen the line at the bottom where it says 'is this you?" Did clicking that help? Things have obviously changed since I started.

Jemima wrote: "Carl wrote: "I'm an expat living in a third world country where many of the locals don't read. I have approached an expat school here which is fee paying and expensive. They seem very open to me ho..."

Hi, yes I did see that and claimed it but no response as yet, don't know how long they take.

Carl, like Jemima, I joined long enough ago that apparently the system was different! Good luck with that.

As for building a social media following...the little I know is mostly this: be part of a community. Share and be useful. With the blog, join blog hops, and visit as many other blogs as you can, leaving relevant comments (most people visit back when you comment, and if your blog is interesting, they'll follow it).

Rebecca wrote: "Carl, like Jemima, I joined long enough ago that apparently the system was different! Good luck with that.

As for building a social media following...the little I know is mostly this: be part of a..."

Thanks Rebecca :)

Rebecca, how much time would you say you spend on these activities weekly/daily?

Justine wrote: "Rebecca, how much time would you say you spend on these activities weekly/daily?"

Probably more than I should. My blog takes 2-3 hours a week, counting writing the posts and managing the site but not counting the time spent reading the books I review there (since I'm reading regardless). But to keep up with the hops probably adds a couple hours in a week when I participate in a hop. Then there's Goodreads, which varies from avoidance to an hour or more each day. FB is mostly personal, with a little time spent on my writer page.

I've utterly failed Twitter 101, so these are my main writing-oriented social media things. I also moderate a forum for backpackers (US style--wilderness travel), which takes as much time as I'm willing to let it.

I keep trying to convince myself not to go near the social media in the morning until after I've done my writing, but it doesn't work. So I give myself until about 9 a.m., which is roughly an hour after I've chased the kid off to school and finished breakfast/cleaned up. Then I come back in the evenings when my brain is pretty much tapped out and I can't write anyway.

Wow, you get a lot done in those precious hours!

Justine wrote: "Wow, you get a lot done in those precious hours!"

Too many precious hours spent on social media, probably--with FB being largely a waste. I'd quit that one, except that I have some friends I keep up with that way.

My Goodreads author page is now active. I've linked my blog and also updated my social media pages etc. Now I've go to figure out how to leverage all this without being spammy. My publisher will be promoting the novel, but I have to figure out the best way to use it all to try and build a following.

Carl wrote: "My Goodreads author page is now active. I've linked my blog and also updated my social media pages etc. Now I've go to figure out how to leverage all this without being spammy. My publisher will be..."

Just keep being an active member of the community. Discuss the books you are reading, and have a good time.

Glad you got the author page working.

one of the shortcomings of self-publishing is not being able to do book signings at major book stores. The store wants to order 100 books and return whatever doesn't sell. If they can't return it, they won't order to begin with. So it has been difficult reaching real people through signings or promotions. I may try holding readings at public libraries. Anyone had any luck with that turning into actual sales though? or just people checking the book out from the library?

http://www.whitetigerlegend.com

Thanks Rebecca :)

Hu wrote: "one of the shortcomings of self-publishing is not being able to do book signings at major book stores. The store wants to order 100 books and return whatever doesn't sell. If they can't return it, ..."
You'll discover that is the same whether you're trad published or self-published. The difference of course, is whether the trad publisher will take them back - but mostly they get pulped if they don't fly off the shelves (which is one reason I started with ebooks because I hate the idea of all those trees being pulped via my books!)

One of the benefits of self-publishing is that you can do all your marketing by internet. Yes, it's nice to do books signings, and you'll see various pros and cons in this thread. Rebecca has had some success with these. But the main thing seems to be making yourself interesting to people so that they want to invite you!

You sound like you've got good ideas. If people want to host you, jump at the chance. You'll probably get good feedback whether they buy the books or not.

Thank you Jemima! The ebooks are doing great, and I'm hoping to inspire more people and new avenues. Good to know that it isn't any easier with a trad publisher. Goodreads is great, but the young adult market may not be on here or amazon and I'm stlll trying to find that right avenue! I'm not even sure they like books unless those books are on the news!

Hu, I do my signings at the local library, which not coincidentally is where I work. I don't sell a lot there, but I sell some, and since the event doesn't cost me, it's worth it.

It doesn't hurt that I get the thrill of seeing how many people are checking my books out from the library (or get to be crushed when they don't go out). BTW, in all honesty, the only way I was able to get them in the library is because I'm a local author, personally known to the people who manage the collection. And I give the library a very good price on my books, just above cost (because I'm the author-publisher, I can do that).

Just had a quick look through this thread, which is one of considerable interest to me, since I've just published my third MG book. But most of what's written above doesn't seem to relate to the difficulties of publishing ebooks....and promoting them. It's tricky trying to take an ebook into a classroom! The public libraries will take them because they seem to have a big ebook readership, but schools? If anyone has any ideas about how to approach schools with ebook titles, I'd be interested to know. I'm in New Zealand, by the way, but I don't think things will be greatly different here to the US or UK etc.

Ah, well, there you have it, Mike. Unless you've set your ebook up with a distributor to the library providers, you've no chance. Smashwords distribute to library providers and you can set special pricing levels for them.

As far as I know, most of us indies produce paperbacks purely for book signings, giveaways, and to take into shops and libraries. I don't think I've sold any of my fiction books in physical form without some immediate contact with the buyer (although we did sell some hard copies of our BookElves Anthologies).

I suspect that some people like to see there is a paperback listed when they buy ebooks, though. Some sort of security blanket. :)

Yes, I do have all the books with Smashwords, though I can't say I've seen any results much in terms of them selling to libraries, either public or school. Here in New Zealand, we have a specialist distributor to libraries both in NZ and Australia. They've probably sold more copies of my books than anyone else....

Hi all-- I am really enjoying this thread. Thank you. I just wondered: have any of you had much success with e-books for middle grade? It seems to me that they only want paperbacks. If so, do you market to the readers or to their parents?
Thanks for any advice--

I do find that middle grade readers are still more reading paper, though that is changing. I sell a steady trickle of my Ninja Librarian books at Amazon (I assume these are no longer family and friends sales, as the books have been out a while). I also sell copies directly to kids when I do readings at schools.

I have established a relationship with a middle school through my sister in law who is a teacher. I brought actors in and we did a staged reading of one of my plays (that I have now turned into a book). I have sent out many books to teachers and asked if they could recommend the book for the Accelerated Reader program quizzes: http://www1.renaissance.com/customer-...

Paul wrote: "Hi all.
I have just self published my fantasy adventure for 7-12 years. Entitled: Marco and the Pharaoh's Curse. The link is below.
I am donating all proceeds, if any, to two charities. I have pric..."

Hi Paul. This isn't really the place for your post as it's in a thread about how to reach our audience. You need to copy your post into a new thread in the 'Read4Review' section.
The bit about handling charity books is best in a new thread in the Author's Corner. I expect people with experience of this will be glad to share experiences and what worked for them.

Members wanting to reply - please wait till Paul's put his message(s) in the right sections!

I paid some money to get my indie published middle grade series into hard back as I'm hoping it will be appealing to more teachers and librarians as they have told me that paperbacks just don't last. Then, I made a flyer announcing them in hardback and in the fall I'll send them to all the elementary school libraries where I live and to the state they take place in. Here's hoping!

I'd like to hear how the hardback versions go for you.

There are *excellent* ideas in here, everyone. (Especially the TeachersPayTeachers site. Brilliant!) Thanks for all the tips!

I've been busy sending ARCs to every librarian and indie bookstore I know. I'm also making foxtail bookmarks and contacting all of the popular fox-based Instragram, YouTube, and Reddit accounts.

In fact, that's one thing I haven't seen posted here. Reddit has more visitors than any other social media site, so you may want to check it out :)

I was surprised that Reddit featured in the top ten websites visited by UK webusers, right up there with Amazon and the BBC! I think it even beat Twitter, but I can't remember now.

I was surprised too! I heard a filmmaker discuss using it as a platform to raise money, and he said it was hands down the best resource. Who'da thunk?

If anyone's still reading this topic:
An earlier question was ebooks and middle grade readers. I think middle grade readers are still just getting their own devices. I teach in schools--although mostly alternative ed, so I don't have a clear picture of the general population. Most 5th graders don't have their own. Most 9th graders do. I'm going to bet that most kids, finally getting their own phone, are not first thinking about how to get books on them. They want to get all the things they couldn't get when they didn't have one.

Eugene wrote: "If anyone's still reading this topic:
An earlier question was ebooks and middle grade readers. I think middle grade readers are still just getting their own devices. I teach in schools--although mo..."
That's an interesting thought, Eugene. I always thought it more likely that the parents read the ebooks, anyway, but I think there's growth in ebooks on school tablets these days. It's a while since I did a school reading, but I was impressed at selling 6 ebooks (I do the codes as physical gift cards so they have something to take away for their money) as well as about twenty paperbacks (I ran out of paperbacks :O )

Eugene wrote: "If anyone's still reading this topic:
An earlier question was ebooks and middle grade readers. I think middle grade readers are still just getting their own devices. I teach in schools--although mo..."

I think you hit the nail on the head with this situation with MG readers. I listened to a marketing class once that said the audience reading MG books on ereaders isn't the targeted younger readers, but like Jemima said. It is the 30+ age group.

For me as I've only recently published my debut middle grade book I've had the majority of my success through bloggers and reviewers and built up a nice little following on Instagram. I did also build an email list with an awful lot of parents through giving away a kids activity pack related to my book. On the back of this I got a lot of book sales. I'm definitely not an expert and massively appreciate any help people can give me to attract a bigger audience. There are some amazing posts on here that are so helpful!