As authors, particularly of niche topics, we sometimes struggle to find a way to connect with our audience. That is especially true of someone like me who writes nonfiction science books for kids. That’s a lot of qualifiers. And yet, I feel like I put out a great product.

I am the award-winning author of over 35 nonfiction STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) books. I write for more than 15 different publishers, including Charlesbridge Publishing, National Geographic Kids, Bloomsbury Publishing, and Scholastic/American Girl, just to name a few. You would think that I would have it made with selling my books.

The thing is all publishers expect you to do a lot of work marketing your own books. Trying to find a way to reach your customers is still a challenge. What is a writer to do?

Let’s get back to the STEM thing. STEM is hot right now. Everyone is talking about using STEM in the classroom and setting up maker-spaces, etc. I asked myself how I could use that to my benefit— without overselling my book? That is the key. You don’t want to only sell your own book too hard or people will get turned off.

So, I thought I would just market STEM books overall to schools. While the idea was successful, it wasn’t successful enough. Teachers have very little time in their day to add to an overloaded curriculum. While they thought it was a great idea to use STEM books in their lessons they just didn’t have time to do the planning.

Enter STEM Tuesday. A blog that I created to provide teachers/homeschoolers/librarians with specific ways to use STEM books in the classroom. My first step was to team up with a bunch of other STEM authors. After all, this blog happens every week so I would need help!

I mapped out the weeks of the blog so that each one offered something different. Each month was given a theme which would be repeated in each weekly post.

Week 1 – List of STEM books that followed the theme
Week 2 – Classroom activities using some of the books from Week 1
Week 3 – Crossover activities that focused on writing techniques or STEM thinking about the books
Week 4 –  Author interview and book giveaway

I am proud to say that the STEM Tuesday blog has been a success. I have continued to promote my product so that we now have a STEM Tuesday Spin Off blog on a larger platform to reach both fiction and nonfiction middle grade audiences. And STEM Tuesday is also a podcast! It can be found on the Reading With Your Kids podcast, the #1 Children’s and Family podcast on iTunes.

The moral? By providing a product that is useful to my main audience, I was able to bring attention not just to my books, but to many others who write STEM books as well. We ALL benefit because more kids are being exposed to STEM and literacy.

Can you do this with your own books/products? Sure. Why not?
Here are a few simple steps to get you started thinking about it

Ask yourself:

• How can I feel a need in the community or organization by using my book?
• Is there a way that I can team up with other authors to promote a bigger cause? (ie. STEM)
• What is the best – and most useful—method to deliver this information to your audience
• What kind of message do I want to send to my audience?
• Is there a platform already out there that would help you get the word out?

(For example, I tapped into the highly successful podcast with the huge following. I didn’t start my own podcast where I needed to get my own audience from scratch.)

If you take a look around, you might just find something that will help you create a project/fill a hole bigger and more important than you ever thought… oh and sell a few books along the way, too.

Good luck!