As an author, marketing has become a large portion of my day-to-day routine. That used to mean blogging, online interviews, social media networking, with a few road trips to the brick and mortar stores nearby. With my latest release, The Wishing Ring, I’ve had to do a little regrouping. Rethink the traditional marketing realm and get creative. Still working on that part. Gives me a headache at least once a week. (Or once a day, depending on the day).
One would think marketing is marketing. Get your name out there, brand yourself, grab those followers…That’s all well and good, but with a tween novella, like The Wishing Ring, the audience begins to alter the landscape a bit. Here, let me show you. Up until now, I’ve written young adult (Driven) or contributed the young adult pieces to contemporary stories (A Summer in Oakville, co-written with Lisa Lickel). Blog interviews and social networks are key avenues to marketing both of those. With teens avidly participating on social sites and adults perusing the blogosphere such tactics makes sense.
However, The Wishing Ring is a tween novella. In other words it’s storyline is geared for readers ages 8 – 14. Facebook limits its users to those 13 and older. Makes hitting my readership tough. I could go for their parents, but unless it’s Christmas or their lovelies’ birthdays, parents are generally not as eager to thumb through tween fiction titles or reviews. (I know I don’t…speaking as the mother of tweens:). Twitter is just now capturing the teen market (according to USAToday.com). Until that audience ratchets down from the 12 – 16 to the 8 – 14, I’m still sunk.
So where do tweens hear about their favorite reads? Here’s what I’ve discovered (oh, and the results are in no special order)…
- Word of mouth–always the best advertisement. If one tween (make that one popular tween and you’ve got it m
2 Comments on Where Did all the Tweens Go?, last added: 2/15/2012Display Comments Add a Comment
I see them wandering the streets after school lets out for the day. Stand at the front of the school and hand out bookmarks? Of course, you might get arrested, but the writer’s life is a hard one.
I’d market my fantasies as YA, but the kids aren’t having palpitations over each other, not swearing, not having sex, and don’t have access to cell phones. Okay, one SatPhone in the cupboard in the Witches’ Council Room.
Kids must have twitter accounts otherwise, how do they do all that cyber bullying? Try to find tweets with lots of OMGs and LOLs and you might home in on the demographic.
I’ll be interested in hearing answers from tween writers who know something about it.
LOL, Marva. Yeah, I’m thinking I’ll hold off on the arresting part:). Although that would be a great way to reach the kids. Wonder if the schools would be willing to send bookmarks home in their weekly folders, hmm….
You know, when I researched the twitter thing, everything I found said teens had twitter accounts, but weren’t using them. Until recently. It is slowly gaining speed with them. (Something about it being taken over by the older generations:D). Guess we’ll be watching. It’s big with the 20-somethings, tho:)