Discoverability

The Big Green finally arrived in UK shops in January 2026. It launches in US shops in March. The story about this book has just begun.

We have been careful and attentive to how the book is portrayed, and hopefully, this will make it more discoverable. There are so many new titles released each year that the biggest challenge to their success is whether or not readers know they exist.

This post is about ‘discoverability’. If you’re a creator, what can you do to help your book be discovered? It turns out you can do a lot. Most publishers will have a standard marketing plan they will share with an author and illustrator. Sometimes the marketing budget is large (we’d all love a big budget), so the plan is fuller, but mostly the budgets are modest and contain a list of basic activities to draw attention to the new book. Discoverability is not marketing. It’s the stuff that leads to marketing. All the thinking about what the book is, why it exists, and who the chosen audience is can help inform a marketing and sales plan, and the creators are the best people to feed into this conversation. For The Big Green, I thought long and hard about what the book should do, what it can’t possibly do, and why I made it in the first place and realized that there was a part of the audience I could reach more effectively than the publisher.

I also practiced my words about how the book was made until they sounded short, sharp, and conversational, whether on social media or in conversation. Some of it is outside my comfort zone, but that’s an opportunity to do something new, like a podcast interview with Bex on the Fun Kids Radio. Being prepared meant that I said pretty much all I wanted to, and it felt great.

Resilience, Refuge & Wild Horses: Overcoming Life's Biggest Hurdles! 🐴🌍 – Fun Kids Book Quest

In this episode of BookQuest, we’re exploring deeply moving stories of survival, quiet courage, and what it truly takes to heal and find your place in the world. Whether it’s rebuilding your confidence alongside a troubled horse or making a perilous journey across continents to build a new life from scratch, we’re honoring the power of hope when facing immense odds. On the Shelf This Week: Lauren St John joins the show to discuss Wild Horse Summer. Recovering from a traumatic accident, teenager Morgan finds healing and comfort working with horses, taking on the life-changing challenge of bonding with and rehabilitating a troubled horse named Night Dancer. Hamed Amiri brings us The Other Boy, his deeply moving, real-life memoir about fleeing Afghanistan with his family. Follow his incredible journey across Europe as he overcomes unimaginable fear to eventually find home, belonging, friendship, and purpose in the UK. Join Fun Kids Podcasts+: https://funkidslive.com/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

1. Resilience, Refuge & Wild Horses: Overcoming Life's Biggest Hurdles! 🐴🌍 19:56
2. Poisoned Dragons & Talking Toast: Chaos in Magical Worlds! 🐉🍞 23:04
3. Secret Agents & Taylor Swift Superfans: Unlocking Your Superpower! 🕵️‍♂️🎤 21:15
4. Bex sits down with new Children's Laureate, Patrice Lawrence!✒️👑 11:59
5. Pet Survival Quests & Ancient Egypt Secrets: Surviving the Unknown! 🐾 20:33

You can listen to Bex on Fun Kids (weekdays from 4pm) on DAB Digital Radio across the UK, on the free Fun Kids app, and online at funkidslive.com

Assume that discoverability will take time and start your flag waving early, like up to six months before publication. Be available and discoverable yourself so that the book can have a better chance of succeeding. Talk to your publishing marketers, or try to understand book marketing more if you’re self publishing, because you are the stage when your lovely idea has become a product that now needs to perform. Your knowledge about it is valuable.

If you’re in the UK The Big Green is available from online stores.