The very first thing I ALWAYS ask my clients during our 1-on-1 session is this question right here:
What is it that you’re trying to achieve with your children’s book?
If you do not have an answer to this question, and if you’ve never asked yourself this question, it will make it so much harder to promote and market your book, no matter how much love and effort you pour into your beautiful story.
So today, we’re going to take a look at the following:
- What exactly is a purpose of a Children’s Book?
- Real-world examples of Children’s Books with a purpose
- Why it may be beneficial to have a purpose for your Children’s Book?
- Do we always need a purpose for our Children’s Book?
So what is your message you’re trying to share with little readers? What is your book’s purpose?
The Purpose of Your Children’s Book – What Is It?
Before we jump in, I want to quickly explain what I mean when I say ‘purpose’ in this particular context. A purpose here means your ultimate end-goal you’re trying to accomplish with your story.
The most common answers shared with me are these right here:
- “I always wanted to write a children’s book.”
- “I always wanted to share this story.”
- “I want to make some extra money with my monthly book sales.”
These given reasons are NOT what I’m referring to when I say ‘purpose.’ The type of ‘purpose’ I’m referring to is bigger than ourselves. It’s greater than what we want to get out of writing a children’s book. That is, a purpose is something that has the power to truly impact our readers’ lives, not just our own.
Here are a number of wonderful examples of some of my readers and Children’s Book University™ students:
PURPOSE: Didi Dragon’s book doesn’t just have an incredibly important purpose. It is also extraordinarily timely! Children need to learn proper hand hygiene – especially right now; and the way we teach them will make all the difference.
This quirky little book sticks with kids, so it’s the perfect way to teach it in school settings.
SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE:
- Parents who are trying to teach their kids the importance of wishing their hands
- Teachers who could make this book part of their curriculum
PURPOSE: This fun and creative children’s book by Cai Shaoyang Brandon is meant to help kids who struggle with math, especially those little ones that get easily discouraged and are quite anxious when it comes to math.
Because of its very specific purpose, we instantly have a built-in audience.
SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE:
- Parents with kids that struggle with math
- Math teachers / tutors / instructors who want to teach in a fun and creative way
PURPOSE: Chrys McDuffy’s book was written amidst the devastating bushfires that raged through many parts of Australia in 2019/2020. The author’s goal was to bring Australians together during such hard times, as well as donate all proceeds raised through her book to local firies and to aid the wildlife impacted by these fires.
SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE:
- Australians wanting to support fellow Australians
- Firies throughout Australia
- Those invested in Australia’s wildlife
PURPOSE: The main purpose of this award-winning chapter book is to share the different perspectives that are present during most bullying cases: Tina Levine’s book deals with the bullies as well as bystanders.
Given that this book shines the light on multiple different perspectives, we instantly have a number of very specific audiences we can approach:
SPECIFIC TARGET AUDIENCE:
- Kids, parents, and educators that are impacted by the behavior of bullies
- Anti-bullying groups and awareness groups
- Educational services that educate about this topic
Why It May Be Beneficial to Have a Purpose for Your Children’s Book
Given each of these books’ purpose, we instantly have a ‘built-in’ audience we can approach, that we already know would be interested in our book. And that’s why having a specific purpose in mind can be so very powerful.
Having an actual purpose will be helpful in so many ways:
1. YOUR READERS: It will be much easier to ‘define’ your target audience. Who is it that is going to benefit from reading your beautiful children’s story?
2. MARKETING: Because it’s much easier to define those that should know about your story, it is easier to locate them and market to them.
3. COMMONALITY: The purpose of your book provides your readers with a commonality. And oftentimes, people with something in common like to group together, like within Facebook groups or any other type of groups. And again, that helps greatly with locating those that would be interested in your children’s book.
Do We Always Need a Purpose for Our Children’s Book?
Now you may be asking:
“I’m not sure, Eevi. Do we always need a purpose for our childrens’ book?”
And the answer is: of course not! There is of course still plenty of room for books that don’t seem to serve a specific purpose, other than to entertain. Some very popular and well-known examples are these right here, where the authors didn’t set any specific intentions other than to create a fun story and to entertain little readers:
We love these books in our house. But if you’re reading this, you are no longer ‘just’ a reader or consumer of children’s books. You are also an author. And looking at this from the perspective of an author, it will ALWAYS be infinitely easier to market and promote your book when it serves a specific purpose. Because with a specific purpose always comes a ‘built-in’ audience.
~ Eevi
If you have not identified the purpose of your beautiful story, don’t forget about my Story Idea Masterclass. It’s an oldie, but still an absolute goodie! You can get free access right here:
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