children's PRESENTERS SERVICES

Exposure & Sales

In most cases we own a website for 2 reasons, exposure and sales, sales of books and appearances. If you are a traditionally published author, sales of books do not usually factor in, as the publisher handles sales. But for a self-published author, they may sell books, and both might sell merchandise as well.

But the truth is most authors struggle with sales. It takes foot traffic for any retail store to stay in business, and a website is no different. No traffic, no sales.

Author's spend thousands and thousands of dollars monthly to drive traffic their way, so people will see their books. But in a lot of cases very little money goes into marketing appearances. (I will cover marketing in a separate section.)

With this post, I am going to assume that you have found a way to drive event coordinators to your website.

First Stop! Last Stop!

If you are marketing correctly the first thing an event coordinator is going to do, is research you. In most cases that means a trip to your website. Your website is the face of your business; it will be the first box they check off in the booking process.

Your site needs to be specific and clearly define its purpose. So, what are you trying to accomplish?

selling books
merchandise
appearances

It may be all the above, but clutter is the enemy. So, define your space.

First Stop! Last Stop!

Like I said previously, most authors and/or illustrators aren't selling a lot of anything on their websites. But when you log on, you see that their books, and possibly their status is the main focus of the home page. Why?

I pose this question for one simple reason. Nearly everyone that goes to your website knows that you're an author. That is why they are there, or they would be somewhere else. This is where defining your home page and knowing what you want that home page to do for you is important.

If you are in the author visit business, you need to make it known. Shout it from the roof tops, and your home page is where to do that. You can direct them to subpages for more explanation, but on the homepage clearly define what you are trying to accomplish.

Status in the author business.

Do traditionally published authors get more school visits than other authors? Some do, but most don't. A traditionally published author has really only one advantage and that would be library exposure. But even though they may be in many school libraries, it really doesn't give them the edge. Remember the survey I talked about earlier, most authors do 6 to 16 visits a year on average, and that included traditionally published authors.

Of course there are exceptions to everything, and if you reach the status of someone like Mo Willems or Dan Gutman, then having status might be in your favor. Plus, you would command a higher fee.

The effective use of photos!

Photos with kid's hands in the air.

Hands in the air is the go-to photo for most authors. It's intended to show active involvement. But does it?

How many of you have a cat?
Do you have a blue shirt?
Does anyone like pizza?
Who likes to read?

Questions will get the kids to raise their hands all day long, but that doesn't make it interactive or interesting. But the most important question is this, will it get the viewer to call you.

This photo shows one student actively involved in the program.

This is a great photo and one I use often, or one like it, but it is usually used in conjunction with a video clip of the same segment of the show.

Used a lone it works well, but does it sway a buyer to call me. Maybe, maybe not, but at least whatever we are doing in the photo, there is a child actively involved, and it looks intriguing. And it might catch the interest of the coordinator.

Use photos that show the best of what you bring to the program.

Here is the same moment live!

Photos vs. Video

and the winner is?

When first starting out, photos are hard to get, and maybe hands raising is all you've got. Use them, those photos are better than nothing.

You can always swap them out.