Are you a new author wanting to place your book at a local library, school or bookstore? If yes, learning how to write a compelling email can do wonders for promoting your book.
This blog post will cover what to include in your email and give you an example you can use as a template to write your own pitch.
What to Include
- Book’s details
- Wordcount
- Format
- Genre
- Target audience
- One-sentence hook
- Your book’s impact on its potential audience
- How your book compares to others on the market
- Book Cover
You will also want to provide an attachment with your book’s statistics, as these are an objective way to prove its value. Providing these metrics is especially important if you’re reaching out to request shelf space in bookstores:
- Sales Numbers
- Bestsellers rank
- Reviews (More details here)
- Number of social media followers
- Number of website visitors and views
Email Example
Hi _______,
I am writing to request shelf space for my 25-page illustrated picture book, How to Show Love, a sweet story that shows the youngest children simple everyday acts of love and affection. It is geared toward children ages zero to three.
Young children understand kindness through everyday interactions with the world around them, giving way to compassion and empathy as they get older. My beautifully illustrated new picture book, How to Show Love, is a poignant story that unveils the many simple ways children have opportunities to be kind every day to people, animals, the earth…even their teddy!
Can a child learn kindness, and how does an educator or parent go about instilling this in a child? Talking about ways to show affection, love, and appreciation is a great start by acknowledging its importance and the way that it makes a child feel in return. In my story, a variety of diverse characters of different ages, ethnicities, and physical abilities perform acts of kindness in simple but caring ways, such as touching a flower gently, sharing generously with a friend, or holding a bunny carefully.
Through a soothing text and deceptively simple illustrations reminiscent of Kevin Henkes, children will learn to model gentle and effortless ways to show love and kindness to the world around them. The back of the book contains a fun colouring page that reiterates the story’s lesson. My book will be a valuable resource for parents and educators of very young children on what it means to be kind and loving by sharing tangible examples.
I have attached the book cover and some stats for your review. Thank you for taking the time to consider my children’s picture book, How to Show Love.
Sincerely,
Tasneem
While this example is for my children’s book, How to Show Love, it can be used as a good setting point even if you write in a different genre. These guidelines can also be used to reach out to reviewers, facilitate reading circles and pitch to bloggers.
I will be doing a public launch of my new book, The Little Fairy Finds Her Glow, on April 15th. As I go through its launch period, I will continue to share what’s working for me and what’s not. Stay tuned by subscribing to my monthly newsletter!
Tasneem Dairywala 