It’s an odd beast, self-promotion. I wasn’t on any social media until 2021, when I started writing in earnest again. I dipped my toe into Twitter: This is where the writers are!
Several months on, I tried writing for children, and loved it. But my adult work had occasional swear words and older themes: it didn’t feel right to promote children’s poetry alongside it. I used an anagram generator, and my alter ego, Attie Lime, was born. People ask, ‘Where did that name come from?’, but as it is one-of-a-kind, web-searches return pages of results which are actually me. The email address, URL and social media handles were all available, and the lime theme has become a joy in itself. At first it felt odd, but it has paid dividends in terms of self-promotion.
A ‘desirable’ condition of the contract for my first children’s poetry collection, was ‘your own website’. The press closed before the collection made it to publication, but I launched my children’s poetry website in 2022. It helps to put a professional spin on things, is somewhere to gather work, advertise, share contact details, and is home to my blog.
I became friendly with a group of established children’s poets, which was a major confidence boost, but they also keep my feet on the ground. There is a balance to strike: no one likes, ‘I’ve written an amazing poem, you’ll love it!’, yet we cringe at ‘I’m so humbled that my little poem was chosen!’. I believe online self-promotion is best when done as you might offline. Nobody wants to buy a book from the author standing on the table, yelling, ‘Buy this one! All the others are rubbish!’. Support others, watch how well-established writers do it, and never send links to MY NEW BOOK! via personal message…
Promoting children’s poetry offline has been trickier. A contact offered to deliver flyers for my children’s poetry club to 600+ houses. What an opportunity! Turns out that printing 600 flyers gets a home printer quite hot-and-bothered, and I got no new business from it. But we have to try.
I was advised to produce a book of my own while waiting for that first bite of the publishing cherry. What is often a long wait from signing a contract to a book in the shops, is the ideal self-promotional opportunity. What better than building up an audience-in-waiting by whetting their appetites? Schools ready to book you for visits? Bloggers scheduling slots to talk about it?
Children’s poets rarely have an agent to help, but promotional opportunities are there for us, if we look: every communication with a teacher or parent means a contact who may buy your book, behind every ‘like’ is someone saying, ‘I enjoyed your poem’, every school with a copy of my home-produced book, Cornflakes and Gravy, is a potential customer for online poetry sessions. Every child at my performances may also be interested in my poetry clubs (likewise their parents and adult writing groups). Opportunities to network and advertise are everywhere. It may sound cold and businesslike, but this is about spreading the joy of poetry. And we do need to make a living.
Poetry can be a hard sell, especially to children whose parents and teachers may have been taught via rather dry, formal methods. We know the wonders that are out there – we need to share, to shout, to celebrate, and we can’t afford to be shy about promoting our own poems and ourselves, if we want to spread the joy-of-poetry message as far and wide as we can.
Attie Lime
Attie Lime writes and performs poetry for children. Her poems have been widely published online and in print, most recently in Gods and Monsters by Pan Macmillan. Attie’s debut children’s poetry collection will be published by Otter-Barry Books in 2025. ‘A bright new star in the sky of children’s poetry’ – The Poetry Zone. Website: www.attielime.co.uk
Children's Poetry Summit 
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