Indie authors often source reviews on sites like Hidden Gems or Book Funnel. You pay for access to the site, list your book along with others (free download), and promote the download page to your list in the hope that freebie-loving readers will write an Amazon review.
This doesn't work so well for kids' books. In reality, it only seems to work for Sexy teen vampire romances. I did manage to get friends (who have kids) to review it, and Caterina secured quite a lot of reviews, but that didn't really help sales.
Anyway, one of my best mates sent me a video of his little girl reading it, and that made all the effort worthwhile.
In general, Children's publishing is much more centralized than genre fiction (for adults). Publishers have ties to reading lists, school library networks, supermarkets and book shops, parent networks etc.
That and the cost of illustration and book production makes it VERY tough to succeed as a self-pub author for kids.
If you can put the time in and do the work (school visits, book fairs, readings at libraries etc), you can sell copies. However, the time invested will not match the monetary return. As with a lot of writing projects, it's a passion project.
I'm sure there are examples of successful indie authors for kids, but they must be smarter marketers than me!
Indie authors often source reviews on sites like Hidden Gems or Book Funnel.
You pay for access to the site, list your book along with others (free download), and promote the download page to your list in the hope that freebie-loving readers will write an Amazon review.
This doesn't work so well for kids' books. In reality, it only seems to work for Sexy teen vampire romances. I did manage to get friends (who have kids) to review it, and Caterina secured quite a lot of reviews, but that didn't really help sales.
Anyway, one of my best mates sent me a video of his little girl reading it, and that made all the effort worthwhile.
In general, Children's publishing is much more centralized than genre fiction (for adults).
Publishers have ties to reading lists, school library networks, supermarkets and book shops, parent networks etc.
That and the cost of illustration and book production makes it VERY tough to succeed as a self-pub author for kids.
If you can put the time in and do the work (school visits, book fairs, readings at libraries etc), you can sell copies. However, the time invested will not match the monetary return. As with a lot of writing projects, it's a passion project.
I'm sure there are examples of successful indie authors for kids, but they must be smarter marketers than me!