Marketing Children’s Books Without Social Media: What Laura Wifler Wants You to Know
This post was adapted from Writing Off Social: The Podcast, Episode 86. You can listen in here!
We’ve talked a lot on this podcast about marketing adult nonfiction and memoir without social media — but children’s books? That’s new territory for us. So when we had the chance to sit down with Laura Wifler, bestselling and award-winning poet, author, educator, and founder of the Kidlit Lab, we knew episode 86 was going to be something special. Laura brings a rare combination of real publishing experience and genuine love for the craft, and she did not disappoint.
Whether you’ve been quietly nurturing a picture book idea for years or you’re actively querying agents right now, there is something in this conversation for you.
What Publishers Actually Look at First (It’s Not Your Instagram)
Here’s something that surprised us—and will probably surprise you too. When we asked Laura what the biggest misconception is about getting traditionally published today, she didn’t talk about follower counts. She talked about websites.
“Almost every agent I’ve spoken with, the number one thing they do before they even read the query letter,” Laura explains, “is scroll down to check that you have a website.” It doesn’t have to be elaborate. A clean, simple, professional page that tells them who you are, what you write, and how to reach you is enough. What it communicates is that you’re serious—that you’re a writer who intends to keep writing, not someone chasing a one-book dream.
We hear this constantly in the nonfiction trade world too, and it’s encouraging every single time: a website is not a vanity project. It’s the foundation of your professional presence, and it matters far more to publishers than any social platform.
Writing for Kids, Marketing to Adults
Children’s books present a quirky marketing challenge: your reader and your buyer are two completely different people. The child is your audience. The parent, teacher, or grandparent is your customer. Laura doesn’t think this complicates things—in fact, she finds it clarifying.
“Parents are typically purchasing a book because they’re seeking a solution to a problem,” she points out, “even if that problem is just ‘I want a sweet bedtime book to read to my kids.'” That framing—problem and solution—should shape everything from your title to your pitch.
Laura gave us a peek into her own process here, and it was genuinely illuminating. She’d been working on a manuscript about children and doubt—a topic close to her heart—when she read it back the next day and realized something wasn’t working. Not the writing itself, but the positioning. “A parent is not going to want to buy a book about doubt,” she admits, “because they’re not going to want to instill something in their child that may not already be there.” So she reframed it. Same core message. Same heart. But now it’s about kids asking God questions and feeling safe doing so. One shift in angle opened the book up to an entirely wider audience.
This is the kind of strategic thinking that applies whether you’re traditionally publishing or self-publishing — and Laura is emphatic that the skill sets required are nearly identical.
Does Social Media Give You an Edge?
We had to ask. And Laura’s answer, refreshingly, was no—not in the way most people assume.
Laura is on Instagram and Substack, and she’s thoughtful about both. But she’s quick to point out that the landscape has changed dramatically. “It’s really become interest media more than social media,” she says, noting that what you see in your feed now is driven by algorithm and topic, not by who you actually follow. That’s created real uncertainty even for experienced creators.
More importantly for our community: the majority of Laura’s clients at the Kidlet Lab have little to no social media presence. And they get published.
What does matter? Public writing. Somewhere online—a newsletter, a blog, a Substack—agents and editors need to see that you love the craft of writing and that you show up for it consistently. “They have to be able to go somewhere and see: this person is a writer,” Laura says. That’s very different from needing 10,000 followers.
Getting Your Book in Front of the Right People
When it comes to actually selling children’s books, Laura points to a few strategies that have nothing to do with social media:
- School visits. Kids dress up as characters. Parents hear about it. Books sell. “It’s so much fun,” she says, laughing, “and it can sell a lot of books.”
- Word of mouth. Read your manuscript aloud to real kids early and often. “You want that kid to say, can we read it again?” Because the books that get read again are the books that parents recommend.
- Strategic positioning. Know what problem your book solves, and make sure that’s visible in your title, your subtitle, and your Amazon metadata.
Laura also shared something that stuck with us: she once had a book featured on Good Morning America—the kind of press most authors dream about—and it didn’t outsell a children’s book she’d promoted with just two podcast interviews. “It’s the Lord who makes those decisions,” she reflects quietly. “We just have to trust him with that.”
What Writers Who Actually Get Published Have in Common
We asked Laura what she notices in the clients who push through to publication. The answer wasn’t platform size, credentials, or connections.
It was resilience with a short memory for rejection.
“You have to remember that agents and editors have taste,” she explains. “They may love something but say it might cannibalize their backlist. Or their list is full. There are so many reasons for a no that have nothing to do with you or your book.” The writers who make it are the ones who take that information, adjust what they can, and keep going.
She also encourages writers to hold the door open on self-publishing, which she sees as genuinely undervalued—especially for children’s books on niche topics, or books that serve a smaller but dedicated audience. “You can actually make significantly more money,” she says plainly. In many cases, a thousand copies self-published puts more in your pocket than a traditional deal on the same project.
A Word for the Discouraged
If you’re feeling stuck—querying into silence, second-guessing whether opting out of social media is costing you something—we want to leave you with the same encouragement Laura left us with.
“Focus on the depth,” she says, “and let God focus on the breadth.” Your job is to be faithful to the call. To write well. To do the work of querying or self-publishing or honing the manuscript—the parts that are actually in your hands. The results, the opportunities, the open doors? Those belong to Him.
“Keep writing, keep being faithful with the message God has called you to,” she says. “And don’t forget that He can surprise you.”
We couldn’t have said it better.
To connect with Laura Wifler and learn more about the Kidlit Lab, visit the show notes at writingoffsocial.com/86. Laura’s book Social Sanity in an Insta World is also on our Recommended Resources page.
This post was reformatted from our original transcript by Claude and edited for accuracy by Mary K.
