On January 19th, 2012 Susan Violante and Victor R. Volkman spoke with award-winning children’s author, marketing expert, and entrepreneur Ellen Feld about how to target-market your children”s books. Her first book, Blackjack: Dreaming of a Morgan Horse,
went on to win a coveted “Children’s Choices” award, co-sponsored by
The International Reading Association and The Children’s Book Council.
The book was then picked up by an international toy company and packaged
with a toy horse made to resemble Blackjack, the star of the series.
Blackjack continues to sell well and to date has sold over 30,000
copies. Ellen shared her lessons learned and hard won experience with
us on a variety of topics including:
- on-line advertising: where/when it works/doesn’t work
- Selling at regional events, shows, and other public venues outside the bookstore
- Why you need to think in terms of a series
- Importance of author selling/marketing, the personal touch
- Book signings – what works, what to have at your booth
- Finding and keeping an illustrator
- Cultivating your reputation as an expert
- The importance of professional help with your project.
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Ellen Feld with Annie
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Award-winning author Ellen Feld began
writing about horses more than twenty years ago. Her first writing jobs
were for horse magazines. At first, she wrote for small, regional
publications, but within a few short years her work began to appear
regularly in large, national publications. Her articles have appeared in
publications such as The Morgan Horse, Stable Management, Equestrian,
Young Rider, Just About Horses, Horsemen’s Yankee Pedlar, Tri-State
Horse, and The Appaloosa Journal.One day, back in 2001, while waiting
for her next assignment to come in, Ellen wrote a short story about a
Morgan Horse. Several of her friends encouraged her to expand on the
story and try writing a book. That short story became the first chapter
of “Blackjack: Dreaming of a Morgan Horse.” |
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