Starting out as a brand-new author or illustrator is one of the most exciting and nerve wracking times. You’ve created (your story, your art), you’ve secured (or are looking to secure) representation and a publishing deal, but now comes the work that is often outside the realms of what you’ve been experiencing before – the public facing challenge of promoting yourself and your work through to publication and well beyond into building this new career and profile.

In this course, we’re going to look at how best to work with publishers, what will make your life easier – including some background to the teams within a publishing house, and how they work together – and who you’re most likely to work with and hear from most often. We’re looking at what a publicist does, and how best to work with them – creating the best team for your book and launch.

We’ll then move on to an introduction to finding your story for self-promotion; looking at angles and some insight into the media A mini ‘how-to' pitch guide; including identifying targets, ideas to prompt thinking about content, and some simple guidelines A discussion on social media; looking at the options available to you across platforms, how these fit with your potential audiences and what kind of content will work for you and your

With challenges throughout, and lots of ideas to explore and take away this course will provide a solid foundation to build your profile, self-promotion and first book launches/ campaigns with authenticity, intent and boundaries all carefully considered from the outset.