Ellen Feld – Niche Marketing Your Children’s Book

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.

Ellen Feld with Annie

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.”