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

What To Do When Your Book Is Not On The "Best of" List

As the end of 2024 approaches, it is the start of the season for "best of" children's book lists. I just saw one a few days ago that listed over 100 "best" children's books, and not one of my three 2024 releases was included. 

I was pretty disappointed, but processing my thoughts and emotions about it helped. In case you also don't find your book on a "best of" X, Y, Z list when you put your heart and soul into making it amazing, here's some things to consider:

1)
It's not YOU that didn't make the list. Your BOOK didn't make the list. This is not a judgment about you as a creator. If you can, try to take your ego out of this.

2)
Lists and awards are inherently subjective. In this case, other books rose to the list-maker's attention or delight. That doesn't mean they didn't enjoy your book, or that your book doesn't warrant praise too. It's completely possible given how many books are published each year that they haven't even seen your book yet, but they had to finalize their choices.

3)
It is okay to wish your book had been included, or won the award, or gotten the accolade. But note there is a difference between being jealous (kind of wishing it was your book and not someone else's book getting all the attention - like you would take it away from them if you could) and wistfulness (thinking it would have been great if your book had gotten attention as well.) We don't need to tear others down to feel good about ourselves.

4)
Your book probably has gotten some kind attention: A nice review, a reader who reached out with thanks, a great blurb from a colleague, and/or some other distinction. Enjoy that. Put it in your email signature. And recognize that there are probably folks whose book didn't get what your book did. In yoga, there's an expression about keeping your eye on your own mat, which means not comparing how you're doing with everyone else. You'll enjoy this KidLit journey more if you can avoid comparing your journey to other creators' journeys.

5)
Be kind to yourself. Not having your book included is disappointing, but your book out in the world can still touch hearts and minds and make an impact for the good. Not being on that list doesn't take anything away from the value of your book.

6)
There are probably some really good books on the list. Read one or two, just because it's great to know about other good books.

7)
Cheer your fellow KidLit creators on - whether their book is on the list or not. We're all in this together!

I hope that helps.

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On,
Lee

My Signing Strategy: Ask a Question. What's Your Signing Strategy?

I'm just back from a wonderful four days at the American Library Association conference in San Diego #alaac24 and I had the amazing opportunity of signing all three of my 2024 titles, my YA novel A Different Kind of Brave (Duet Books/Interlude/Chicago Review Press), my nonfiction for grades 6-12 The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie (Zest/Lerner), and my picture book Love of the Half-Eaten Peach (Reycraft).

It was a thrill to meet and personalize/sign about 200 books for the librarians attending across the three signings, knowing they would help get my books into the hands of the very readers I wrote them for, but I had a challenge: It's pretty hard for me to talk thoughtfully and at the same time:
1) spell the person's name correctly even when I'm copying it from a post-it note or their name badge
2) write my message, and
3) sign my name!

Me (Lee Wind) signing copies of A Different Kind of Brave at the IPG booth but as you can see I'm so into my conversation with this librarian and their teen I'm not actually writing/signing in their copy of the book... I'm talking with them!

The strategy I've come up with (from paying attention when I've waited in line to get a signed copy of a book from more established children's book creators at events like SCBWI conferences, festivals, and bookstores) is asking the person I'm signing for a question. 

Turns out I can listen carefully and simultaneously focus enough on my signing to actually get the job done accurately. It's embarrassing to inscribe the message "The light in me celebrates the light in me" because I'm so focused on sharing from my heart in response to what they just said. Yes, this actually happened during this signing. Sigh. So because I didn't want to cross out the mistake, I wrote after it:

oops! I mean the light in YOU!

and I showed the librarian my flub and said that perhaps we could think about it like the postage stamp where the plane was printed upside-down, and that it might be worth something someday--we both had a good laugh about it!

The person I'm signing a book for thinking about and answering my question gives me time to sign their book the way I want to, with care and heart. Because what I want to say is The light in me celebrates the light in you!

With librarians I generally ask: "Where are you a librarian?"

If the answer is too brief (and I need more time) I follow up with: "What do you like most about being a librarian there?"

When it's a signing after I've spoken, I generally ask if there's something that surprised them about what I shared, or if there's something still resonating for them from the talk/session.

The bonus of asking a question is that I get to learn about them, and the whole experience of my signing their book becomes even more personalized, and hopefully, special.

What signing strategies do you use? (See how I asked a question there? Let me know in comments!)

Illustrate, Translate, and Write On!
Lee

PS - You can learn more about my 2024 books here. Thanks!