MARKETING MATTERS: Beyond the Book

(NEW DATES COMING SOON)

Personal Branding + Strategic Marketing for Children's Book Creators A 5-Week Live Online Workshop with Mary Anastasiou

You've written the book. Now it's time to build the career.
Most children's book creators spend their energy marketing one book at a time. A flurry of posts at launch, then silence. One book in, they're already wondering why it feels so hard.

Here's what nobody tells you: the problem isn't your book. It's that you're selling a product when you should be building a brand.

Marketing Matters: Beyond the Book is a 5-week live online workshop that takes you from confused and reactive to clear, confident, and completely in control of your creative career. Not just your next launch. 

You'll walk away knowing exactly who you are as a creator, who your audience really is, and what to do before, during, and after every book you release.

If any of this sounds familiar, you're in the right place:
You post on socials but nothing seems to stick. You show up at launch then go quiet and feel guilty about it. You're not sure what makes you different from every other children's book creator out there. You've got a book (or several) but no clear sense of your brand or your audience. You're exhausted by marketing and you haven't even started yet.

The creators who build lasting careers in children's publishing aren't the ones with the biggest budgets or the most followers. They're the ones who know who they are, who they're for, and how to show up consistently, with or without a new book to sell.

That's exactly what this workshop teaches you.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

Week 1: Discover Your 'Why' and Define Your Creator Story Uncover the deeper purpose behind your work and build the emotional foundation of a brand that feels genuinely yours.

Week 2: Your Audience, Tribe vs Fanbase Learn who actually sustains your career (hint: it's not your friends), and how to build the kind of audience that does.

Week 3: Your Brand Kit and Content Foundations Turn your identity into a professional, consistent brand system complete with voice, visuals, content pillars, and a Media Kit ready to share.

Week 4: Your 12-Month Marketing Roadmap Build a clear, phased plan from manuscript to post-launch so you're never starting from scratch or running out of time.

Week 5: Channels, Campaigns and Career Longevity Bring it all together into a complete marketing ecosystem that supports not just one book, but your entire career.

WHAT YOU GET
5 x 90-minute live weekly sessions via Zoom. Full Workshop Companion Workbook (PDF). Complete Presentation Deck (PDF). Media Kit Templates and Brand Tools. Replay access for every session. Access to the Publishing Matters Facebook Group for ongoing support and community.

WHO THIS IS FOR
This workshop is for picture book authors, illustrators, and author-illustrators at any stage of their career. Whether you're pre-published and building your platform, or already published and ready to think bigger than your next launch, this workshop will give you the clarity, the structure, and the strategy you've been missing.

ABOUT MARY
I'm Mary Anastasiou, children's book author, creative director, and publishing mentor with over 30 years of experience in branding, design, and publishing. I've worked as Creative Director at Larrikin House and Managing Editor and Marketing Manager at Five Mile Press, helping develop and launch more than 400 children's titles. I'm a regular assessor for KidLit Vic and CYA, and my own titles have found their way into schools, homes, and hearts across the country.

I built this workshop because I wanted to give children's book creators something I wish I'd had: a clear, honest, practical system that makes marketing feel like an extension of who you are, not a performance you have to put on.

This is an intimate, live experience. Small cohort. Personalised feedback. Direct access. Real results.

Let's build your career properly, this time.

Minimum time commitment: 5 weeks, 90 minutes per session.