Notes from a Recovering Marketing Director
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In October 2025, I sat down with Julie Hedlund of the 12×12 Challenge to share my marketing expertise in a webinar titled “Marketing Tactics That Don’t Make You Feel Icky.” At the end of the presentation, I promised attendees a marketing blog and newsletter.
Eight months later, here is the kickoff.
The truth is, it took me this long because a part of me wasn’t sure I wanted to step back into that world. Before I became a children’s book author-illustrator, marketing was my entire career. From my first sales job as the receptionist at Supercuts to launching social media programs for brands like ModCloth and Fabletics, I spent nearly two decades thinking about audiences, positioning, campaigns, and conversion funnels. Marketing took me from hourly wages to six-figure salaries. It shaped how I viewed the world.
Then, in 2020, I walked away. The pandemic hit, and the world would never be the same. Neither would I. It’s hard to believe I haven’t stepped into a corporate office in six years. When I was building the slides for my 12×12 presentation, creating Venn diagrams, branding guides, and graphs, I felt so much adrenaline. The same adrenaline I used to feel in conference rooms and product launches. I remembered that I was good at this and that I could still speak this language. But I also remembered why I left.
From Corporate Marketing to Children’s Books
One of the golden rules of good marketing is that you have to believe in the product. Though I had a meaningful stint in nonprofit marketing, the majority of my career was in fashion/ecommerce. In my twenties and thirties, a new fashion collection, a new campaign, or a new product launch gave me the dopamine hit I needed to keep climbing. But somewhere along the way, I stopped believing that the next dress, subscription box, or trend cycle would change anyone’s life. What I wanted instead was to create something of my own. Something that brought a more lasting kind of joy.
For me, that became stories and art. So I took the same (slightly toxic) energy that helped me climb the corporate ladder, and I redirected it toward learning an entirely new craft: writing and illustrating for children. What followed was one of the hardest and most rewarding chapters of my life. I learned patience in a way corporate marketing never taught me. I learned to believe in my work and not need external approval. I learned how to fail (a lot). Most importantly, I found a creative community that values generosity over competition and encouragement over ego. The kidlit world changed me.
Maybe that’s why it took me eight months to kick off this platform. A part of me was reluctant to step back into my old stilettos. (For the record, those stilettos are currently gathering dust in the back of my closet, happily replaced by an ever-growing collection of white sneakers.)
Why Marketing Matters for Authors and Illustrators
But lately I’ve realized that marketing and storytelling aren’t as separate as I once thought. The reality is that marketing is the mountain every creator eventually has to climb. Not because we want to become influencers, or we’d rather spend our time promoting books than creating them. But because readers can’t fall in love with books they never discover. Marketing is how librarians find books for their collections. It’s how teachers discover resources for their classrooms. It’s how booksellers decide what to display. It’s how publishers communicate who a book is for and why it matters. And good marketing isn’t about manipulation. It’s about connection.
Marketing Resources for Children’s Book Creators
I want to explore the marketing concepts that actually matter to children’s book creators: author brand-building, positioning, audience, discoverability, school and library outreach, websites, newsletters, and sustainable ways to connect readers with our work. Because I believe now more than ever that marketing is a mountain storytellers need to climb so that we can spend more time doing what we really want to do: Creating art.
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For the love of stories,
Natasha