7 Books in 21 Years: Lee's Tips on Your KidLit Career and Book Promotion

Hello Kid Lit community!

After 14.5 years of blogging for SCBWI, it's my final month as your official blogger. I'm so excited to be passing the baton on July 1, 2025 to Justin Campbell... and that's going to be to focus of my final post, on June 24.

Today (Jun 3, 2025) is also the publication day for my seventh book, the picture book: Like THAT Eleanor: The Amazing Power of Being an Ally, illustrated by Kelly Mangan and published by Cardinal Rule Press.

I started my 'wanting-to-be-published-in-kidlit-and-joining-SCBWI' journey 21 years ago!

All this has put me in a contemplative place. I've had a lot of hard work, downs, and ups on the journey, and thought it might be helpful to share 21 things I've learned so far.

Starting today and for the next two weeks, I'll be sharing 7 tips each week. This week's tips are on your Kid Lit Career and Book Promotion – things I wish I'd known back when I was starting out, and that I'm happy to pass along to you now.

With no further ado, 

1) Get/keep a day job.

This one's really hard to admit. For YEARS I imagined getting an agent would lead instantly to an enormously lucrative book deal which would lead instantly to having a huge best-seller and I wouldn't need a day job... Even typing that sentence made sigh out loud.

It's a hard reality, because the people who get up on the stages at the big KidLit events have sort of won the lottery already with their books. They've had the big movies made, they've won the huge awards, and maybe they don't need day jobs.

But the truth of most KidLit creators is that they have a second stream of income beyond their books. Maybe they teach. Maybe they do school visits. Maybe they married someone who's willing and able to support them. Or maybe, like me, they work at a day job. That's okay. There's no shame in it.

As Elizabeth Gilbert says in "Big Magic," demanding your creativity pay the bills is not a very kind thing to do to your creativity.

So what I say to my husband now, every time I have a new book published, is: "Hey, honey! We have another lottery ticket."

2) Be able to elevator pitch your book.

It's going to happen again and again. Someone (usually well-meaning) is going to ask, what's your work-in-progress about? What's your book that's going to be published about? You have a book out -- what's it about?

There's lots of good advice on pitching, much of it published here and on the SCBWI conference blog, but as Eddie Gamarra advises, it should include the when, where, your main character, their goal, and the obstacle to their goal... tone and genre help, too.

As I mentioned above, my new picture book releases today. What's "Like THAT Eleanor" about?

Named by her two dads after Eleanor Roosevelt, Eleanor sees unfair things happen at her school but doesn't know how to help. The real stories her dads share about Eleanor Roosevelt being an ally inspire child Eleanor to stand up for a nonbinary classmate, making their class—and the world—a bit more fair.

3) Bookstores are hard places to sell books.

This one's kind of counter-intuitive, but as much as I love independent bookstores, it's a hard thing for your book to do well in a brick-and-mortar bookstore. Consider that bookstores want to know that a) someone's going to walk in off the street and ask for your book by name; b) someone on their staff is going to be so excited about your book that they're going to hand-sell it to the next person who walks into the store; c) something about your cover, title, subject is so compelling they're going to shelve the book face-out and it's going to sell itself. 

The more of those three things you have, the better chance the store's going to risk bringing in your book to their store. Every inch of shelf space has to help them pay rent. And if they bring in your book and it doesn't sell, that's bad for everyone – the store, who then returns the copy to the distributor, the publisher, who loses the sale and has to pay the shipping charges, and you the creator, who doesn't get that royalty after all. 

Bookstores are super-important, because they're taste-makers, but most indie publishers do not sell more than 10% of their books in physical bookstores. That's helpful to know.

The best way to pursue bookstore sales is to build a relationship with your local independent bookstore. Buy your books there, and they'll hopefully be excited to carry your books. Maybe you can arrange with them to offer signed copies of your books, as a special promotion to drive customers to them.

It's what I've done with Pages: A Bookstore in Manhattan Beach, California. (You can order a signed copy of Like THAT Eleanor from them here. Just add your request for personalization and a signed copy in the order notes.)

4) Events are for you. They're not about book sales.

Try not to obsess about how many people were there (if you can avoid this, please teach me how). Try not to obsess over how many books you've sold, or you haven't sold (Ditto.)

Even if you have a wildly successful in-person event and you sold 100 copies, that would be amazing, but 100 copies isn't moving the needle unless you can replicate it time after time after time. Maybe once you have a best-seller and are a household name, you can do this, but after your debut book release? Well, I've found it hard to motivate folks to cross town for book 5 or 6 or 7... 

Having said that, if an event is for YOU, and done in a way that makes you feel special and excited, by all means, go for it! 

The publisher and I are working with the Eleanor Roosevelt Center to do an event on July 27 at Val-Kill, and I'm going to fly to New York to do that. I'm flying and doing the event for ME, because doing an event with that audience, and getting a tour of where Eleanor Roosevelt lived, sounds incredibly fun.

Will it sell 100 books? I have no idea, but it will create a lot of good will with the folks at the Center (and maybe they'll hand-sell the book in the future), I'll talk about the event online (on my blog, social media, and newsletter), and it will be a celebration, for sure!

5) Keep your eyes on your own mat.

This one's from yoga. There are always going to be accolades your book doesn't get. Lists your book doesn't land on. Awards that someone else's book wins instead of yours.

That's okay.

Someone else's sales, marketing plan, deal... it doesn't really impact you and your creative journey.

All you need are some bragging rights for your book. Happily, Like THAT Eleanor already has three strong trade book reviews:

“This warm picture book provides a primer on allyship.” —Foreword Reviews

"Accessible…heartfelt…empowering.” —Publishers Weekly

”With a critically important social justice message, ‘Like That Eleanor’… is timely, entertaining, and thoroughly 'kid friendly'. Especially and unreservedly recommended…” —Midwest Book Review

Would it be great to get more? Sure. Win a big award? Yeah. But it's okay if other books get other spotlights. I have what I need for this book, in that it's be vetted beyond me and the publisher.

And something I keep in mind is that my book isn't in direct competition with other books. When someone finishes a great book, they want to know: what's the next great thing I'm going to read? Maybe it can be my book.

6) Social media can be a powerful tool, but an email list is gold.

The challenge with social media platforms is that you can spend a lot of time and energy building a following and then overnight the platform can change their rules and suddenly you can't reach the people who follow you unless you pay.

This happened to me with Facebook. After years of building a following of over 2,000 people they changed the rules, and suddenly only 12 people were seeing my posts... unless I paid Facebook to show it to more people who already had said they were interested in what I was posting!

That's when I started seriously building my email list. I send out a newsletter about once a month, and it's a list I control. I've built it, and the 2,300+ people on it all want to hear my updates. 

Social media can be a way to find new people, and deepen connections with existing folks in my universe, but getting someone on my email list is a way for me to know I can reach them. (Sure, folks can and do unsubscribe, and that's fine. The list is there when they're interested in it. Oh, and you can sign up for the Lee Wind author newsletter, too - just click here.)

7) Community is key.

KidLit Publishing is a challenging craft, business, and career. It's made so much easier by having a cohort of folks who are on the journey with you.

I've been fortunate to have found multiple overlapping communities in KidLit -- friends from the Westside Los Angeles mingle (formerly schmooze); friends from SCBWI Los Angeles; friends from SCBWI conferences; friends from a Highlights Writing the Rainbow course who became my picture book critique group; friends from my day-job with the Independent Book Publishers Association; friends from the Queer KidLit Creators group I host once a month, and friends from being the SCBWI official blogger and leader of SCBWI team Blog...

Find your peeps. Support them. Cheer them on. And hopefully, you'll be fortunate enough for them to support and cheer you on, too.

**

Those are our first seven tips!

Tune in next week for our next seven, all about Creating and Revising.

Until then,

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Ben Wolf over at BookBub explains the "selling" and "connecting" duality of in-person events

 

I was impressed by this breakdown in How I Sell More Books at Live Events about how Ben approaches the author-potential customer interaction at live events:

What’s the best way for authors to maximize sales without coming across as a jerk?

When you’re selling books, you have to simultaneously hold two principles in your head:

1. I’m here to sell books.

2. I’m here to connect with readers.

They may seem contradictory at first, but if you do them both correctly, they harmonize nicely with each other.

My approach is a straightforward, repeatable process that I endeavor to control from the beginning to the end. When I see someone has taken notice of my books or my display, I greet them and ask, “What kind of books do you like to read?” This question serves as an invitation to 1. connect with me and 2. take a closer look at the books I’m selling.

Once they reply, I hand them a book (connecting) that is closest to their stated interests or genre preferences, and I begin to tell them (selling) about the books.

Ben goes into more detail in the article over at BookBub Partners -- it's well-worth reading.

Illustrate, Translate, Write, Connect and Sell on!
Lee

Pro Tip: Bring a Copy of Your Book With You When You Do an Author Appearance/Speaking Event

Generally, it's very helpful to bring along a copy of your book if you're going to be on a panel, or speaking about your author journey. Why?

#1 It's helpful to be able to hold up the book when you introduce yourself, and then set it by you (standing up) so the audience sees it the whole time you're presenting. If you have a paperback, consider bringing a simple stand so it doesn't slump over.

#2 When you meet other industry folks and introduce yourself, it's nice to have a copy of your book (kind of like show and tell). A good backup is to have a copy of your book cover image on your phone.

#3 You never know when it will be helpful. This past weekend at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, when I was asked to have my photo taken by their staff photographer (the amazing Myung Chun) I had my books with me. And then, the photo of me with my books was one of ten photos shared on the LA Times Entertainment Instagram account!

My photo from the LA Times Instagram Post, holding my nonfiction for readers age 11 and up No Way, They Were Gay? and my new YA novel, A Different Kind of Brave.

As a backup, if you forget to bring a copy of your book, you can always approach the bookseller working your event and ask to borrow a copy just for the time of your presentation.

I hope that's helpful!

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

Jamar J. Perry's Honesty About a Disappointing Book Event Leads to a Huge Win

Many of us have been there -- showing up all excited for an in-person event at a bookstore or library, and...

crickets. 

The audience you imagined, that you reached out to, that the venue promoted to, just doesn't show up.

It's embarrassing, and the last thing you want to do -- okay, I'll take it out of second person and be honest myself: the last thing I wanted to do --was let the whole world know that the turnout was super disappointing.

But get this: Iyana Jones reported in Publishers Weekly last week about Jamar J. Perry having this really hard, embarrassing experience. Jamal went on Twitter and focused on the good:

Kinda embarrassing to admit, but not one person came to my Atlanta tour event. Instead of being bummed about it I’ve decided to focus on being grateful that I get to do this work.

Let’s thank the bookstore & order all 50 copies they have of my books! https://t.co/sx5iz5tNh3 pic.twitter.com/7VtvN0xjqY

— Dr. Jamar J. Perry (@jamarperry) March 2, 2023

 

That tweet got more than 2.5 million views, and as the PW article explains,

“To date, Little Shop of Stories has sold more than 500 copies of Perry’s Cameron Battle and the Escape Trials, which Perry will sign for readers.”

Happy ending!

I've always looked for ways to turn lemons into lemon meringue pie -- I've made videos (recording on my cell) to help get the content of a live presentation out to more than the handful of folks in the room; I've told myself that connecting with the bookstore staff and having them hear my story makes them my proxies in the future, and I think all that is good and true.

And still, I applaud the honest vulnerability Jamal showed, and how he leveraged this to try to help the bookstore out to sell the copies of his book they brought in for the event... and that honesty resonated with so many folks (including some best-selling authors) and paid off in a really tangible way with Jamal selling so many more books! 

Our community of folks who create works for kids and teens is the best.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

"What To Do When No One Shows Up To Your Reading" - A Funny and Poignant Piece by Matthew Norman

Posted over at literary hub, this article cracked me up, and made me so sympathetic for Matthew and everyone else who has been in this situation...

I like how Matthew focused on cherishing the reader he had, rather than bewailing the ones he hadn't reached yet. There are a lot of additional lessons in here, not the least of which are these three:

• Don't expect a crowd to materialize for your events. You have to participate - and even take the lead - in getting the word out!

• Do be professional and do your best job, even if there's an audience of one... or none. Consider that every bookseller at the store can become your proxy, talking up your book and hand-selling it to potential readers for months and months to come... if you wow them, your visit will reap rewards long after you've gone home.

And maybe my favorite lesson is from author Sara Zarr, who while she was speaking of something else in her podcast with Gayle Forman, gave some great advice:

• "If your validation comes from an exterior source you are f***ed. You're in real trouble because that is so fickle."

Applying Sara's advice to this situation, the size (or lack of size) of the crowd shouldn't be your yardstick for your self-worth.



Any further advice to share with the community? Add yours in comments, or tag @SCBWI and/or @leewind on social media.

Book Event Order: Reading, Signing, Then the Q&A?

Kenny Brechner's February 25, 2016 piece in PW's ShelfTalker, Death to the Q&A, was really interesting, how they flipped the traditional order of their book event to avoid what Kenny had observed, that "The customers’ energy and goodwill evaporates during the Q&A so that at its end, instead of staying to wait in line, chat, and buy a book, they run for it."

What's your take on the "best" order for book events? What yields, as Kenny puts the dual goals for both stores and book creators, "a happy and engaging experience for our customers, and to sell books..."?

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee

Rethinking the Book Tour

There's an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about how authors today need to reconceptualize their whole approach to a book tour.  To rethink standing there and reading three chapters, and doing a Q&A.  That maybe, in the current climate, that's no longer enough.

The article includes some anecdotal reports from bookstores all over the country, and quotes from authors, including:

• Rainy Day Books, an independent bookstore in Kansas City, Kansas will only sponsor author events that feature a conversation or mini-lecture, a PowerPoint or slide show and maybe reading one or two paragraphs at the most from the book to illustrate a point. The owner Vivien Jennings says,

"I tell publicists 'it's no longer a reading,'"

• In lieu of readings, Roxanne Coady, the owner of R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, Conn., will sometimes conduct an interview with an author. "Audiences feel they're getting something unusual and intimate, and sales of the book go up," she said.

 • Brad Meltzer, the best-selling author of thrillers like "The Book of Fate" and "The Book of Lies," stopped doing readings two books ago. "Jim Dale," he said, referring to the voice of the "Harry Potter" audio books, "and all the audio-book stars made most of us authors look like a bunch of misfits. We can't compete."

I asked Bruce Coville, the award-winning and best-selling author of over 100 books for children, and a master storyteller, if it's enough to just read from your book and do a Q&A.  Here's his response:

"Being a writer in these times requires a certain degree of professional schizophrenia. In order to write, you need to be able to work in isolation. Yet as soon as you're at all successful at it, people want you to come out and talk about it. So a writer needs to be able to deal with extended periods of solitude, and also with being asked to stand in front of crowds and speak. But in the end, it's all about communication, and that is, at heart, what we need to be: communicators. I think writers can reap great benefits from learning storytelling, from taking acting lessons, from getting voice training - all things that give you tools that will help you be effective in presenting your work to a live audience."        

What's your take?  When have a book event, how do you approach it?

Illustrate and Write On,
Lee