The crazy coloring book craze is the perfect opportunity to piggyback onto this trend and drum up a little publicity for you and your business.
You can do this two ways.
You can pitch journalists and bloggers with a story idea that ties into coloring books and your area of expertise. I’ve given you lots of ideas below.
Or, you can create your own coloring book using the Color to Profits book design kit (affiliate link). It’s a package of 50 beautiful designs that allows you to create your books using Microsoft Word or Open Office. The images are delivered as 300 dpi print-quality PNGs and JPGs, 8 by 11 inches, with full republishing rights.
If you want to brand the coloring book for your business, go over to Fiverr.com and hire a graphic artist to create a few coloring book pages that tie into your topic. Most adult coloring books are 15 to 20 pages. You can use some of the designs in the Color to Profits package for the remainder of the book.
Coloring Books for Grown Ups: Big Business
If you’re thinking: “What do coloring books have to do with business?” Plenty!
In November last year, Time magazine wrote about how Crayola Now Has Coloring Books for Adults. In its March 3 issue this year, Time devoted the entire book section to adult coloring books.
Forbes magazine wrote an article under the headline “The Adult Coloring Craze Continues and There Is No End in Sight. Crains Cleveland Business wrote about them when David Bowie’s ex-wife created a poetic coloring book and offered to donate some of the sales to a local nonprofit.
There’s even a blog called Coloring Book Addict that reviews coloring books.
Here are my ideas on how Publicity Hounds in almost any industry can piggyback onto this topic for free publicity.
Artists
Are adult coloring books a satisfying way for adults to create their own artwork if they’re creative but they can’t draw? If they really love this form of relaxation, might they try their hand at something more free form?
Do you color from these books when you just don’t want to create your own works? Or would no artist be caught dead doing anything like this?
Attorneys and Accountants
If I worked as a reporter and heard that a local law firm or accounting firm had supplied its snack area with coloring books and colored pencils so busy professionals could try their hand at artwork, and de-stress, I’d cover the story in a second.
This idea works well for almost any business. But I’m suggesting it for attorneys and accountants because they usually find it so difficult to come up with ideas for publicity. This can also be an usual recruitment and retention tool.
Here’s another idea for intellectual property attorneys. If someone buys a coloring cook, colors the picture, and uses it as the cover to a product they’re selling—like a T-shirt or a CD—what copyright laws must they be aware of?
Hospitals, Clinics & Doctor’s Offices
Don’t let family members sit around your waiting room worried and bored. Let them color.
This could be a fun activity for patients and the friends and family members who come to visit. There isn’t much else to do except listen to the patients talk about lousy they feel.
Pitch this to reporters who cover the hospital beat, and to your local TV stations.
Yoga Teachers and Mindfulness Experts
Do you tell your students and clients about this creative way to relax and have fun?
It seems like a logical activity to pursue when I come home from yoga class and don’t feel like working or watching depressing news on TV and ruining the serenity I experienced in class.
What do you think of the large selection of coloring books centered on obscenities? Can The Swear Words Coloring Book, complete with the one-finger salute on the cover, really make people feel better?
This story is perfect for National Public Radio.
Garden Centers, Flower Shops & Any Type of Gift Shop
Are you stocking a variety of adult coloring books on flowers? I found dozens of them at my local craft stores!
How are they selling?
Are people asking for coloring books on specific types of flowers? Is there any demand for books on vegetables?
Fun Idea: Sponsor a quarterly coloring contest for your customers. Ask the public to vote on the entries. Award gift certificates to the winners.
Encourage customers to share their works of art on social media and spread the word about the contest.
Social Media Experts & Photographers
What’s the best way to share your finished artwork on sites like Pinterest, Facebook or Twitter? Do you scan it and then upload it? Or just shoot it with your phone camera? Any special photo techniques that will improve the quality of the photos? Any tips for lighting?
Therapists & Marriage Counselors
Explain the therapeutic benefits of coloring for harried, stressed, busy adults. Is it an ideal hobby for a couple that needs to improve communication and spend more time with each other? Or for parents who want to spend time more time with their teenage kids?
I can’t envision teens coloring. But if yours do, and media attention wouldn’t embarrass them, you’ve got a story to pitch.
Nursing Homes & Adult Day Care Providers
Do you offer coloring books for your patients and clients? If so, consider having an art show and open house. Invite local media.
Does coloring have any benefit for people with dementia or Alzheimer’s?
Craft Stores & Frame Shops
Give free classes at your store or in the community showing people how to frame their works of art inexpensively. Would the local adult ed program let you teach a class on adult coloring books? Hands-on, of course!
Professional Organizers
All those crayons, colored pencils and markers can turn into an ugly mess if they aren’t returned to their proper containers. But that can take too long.
Do you recommend specific products for keeping craft supplies organized quickly?
What about folders or other products for keeping finished artwork stored neatly?
Dating Services
Have people started mentioning in their profiles that coloring is one of their favorite forms of relaxation? It’s such a big craze that I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.
Churches & Synagogues
Pitch a story about how your parishioners are using coloring books to learn about their religion. You’ll find coloring books on uplifting Bible quotes, Jewish quotes and customs and Islamic names, phrases and patterns.
Do you have a coloring activity for adults at your church?
Pet Stores, Veterinarians & Zoos
Do you stock adult coloring books? Which ones are the most popular?
I found a wide variety of books on dogs, cats, reptiles and zoo animals.
Authors: Publish Your Own Coloring Book
Coloring books are the perfect spin-off product for fiction and nonfiction authors.
Publicity Hound Flora Brown wrote a guest post for the Where Writers Win blog on how authors are creating coloring books that tie into topics in their print books and ebooks.
If you’re too close to your topic, just hop on over to Amazon and do a search for “adult coloring books” + [your topic]. For example:
- Art Nouveau Fashions (my favorite type of coloring book) could tie into a book about anything related to Art Nouveau. Or it could be published by a fashion expert.
- Classic Cars of the Fifties and even The History of Trucks would be a nice spin-off product for an author whose fiction includes a car or truck that’s a prominent part of the story.
Have my ideas sparked any of your own? What publicity ideas do you have for other businesses or nonprofits? We’d love to hear them.
Do you color? If so, from what kinds of adult coloring books?
Joan,
Thanks for the mention of my WhereWritersWin article for authors in this post.
I often worked in my local Starbucks as I created the designs for my coloring book, Color Your Life Happy Coloring Book for Adults. The manager noticed and invited me to do a book signing when my book was published. Now that my book is available on Amazon I set the date with her for my coloring book signing. Now she has invited me to offer a monthly coloring event at their store. Yay!
As you pointed out in your article, the coloring book trend offers many publicity opportunities. We just have to look for them and grab them when they show up.
A monthly coloring event at your local Starbucks? How cool is that? I’ll make a note to share this with my readers on Saturday. Thanks for tying a neat bow on this package, Flora.
I have never tried coloring though as a child I loved it. I spend years working as a graphic artist and have done many of my own drawings and paintings, but I like your idea of producing a coloring book to go along with books when I publish them. I will have to give this further thought. I do photography as a hobby, so I could use my photos as a starting point to create pictures to color. Thanks for the article.
Diane, I love the idea of creating a coloring book based on your photos because it focuses so much attention on the photos. If you run with this idea, keep us posted on how it worked out. Thanks for joining the conversation.
I’m not sure when I will get this project started. I think I need some special motivation, and maybe more inspiration too. I have a novel in final stages of editing, but need a little technical help to finalize the formatting and setting it up on a template to publish on CreateSpace. I have used a special place as a small part of the location of the story, and have lots of photos taken in the area.
As I type this, I’m also thinking of another book that needs editing changes made on the manuscript. This book has many colored photos. I just had the “bright” idea that maybe I could replace the photos with pictures to color. I’m not sure if it would work or not in this combination for the subject of the book, but may be worth considering.
Diane, do you belong to any of the authors groups on LinkedIn? I recommend you join Author U at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/2603729. It’s a lively community of more than 13,000 authors. Throw the idea out there and see what comes back.
I do belong to several writer’s groups on LI, but most have changed over time and I don’t get a lot out of them any more. I have considered joining others, but didn’t know which would be the best. Thanks for your suggestion. I will do that.
I just gave my aunt an inspirational coloring book for her birthday. Everyone at the table went “Ooh, a coloring book!” when she opened the package. The local library hosts an all-ages coloring book evening every third Thursday of the month. The first event so many people showed up they had to make an emergency run for more supplies. I’ve taken pages of coloring books to a friend who had a stroke. Filling in the spaces helps her re-learn fine motor control in her hands. And I get tremendous ideas when I sit down to color, just letting my mind relax.
Suzanne, the coloring book evening sounds like a blast. What a clever way to get more people to visit the library. Also, your comment about your friend’s stroke reminds me that coloring books are a timely topic for doctors and physical therapists to comment on. Thanks for sharing these ideas with my Publicity Hounds.
As a home stager, I am always on the lookout for art to hang on the wall. Sometimes I can’t find artwork in the colors I need that isn’t too expensive. These coloring books have wonderful designs that you can color in, add a simple frame and give the room some instant color!
What a great idea, Kasia! And the price is right, too. Thanks for joining the conversation.
Great ideas! We recently published our first adult coloring book and are working on several more.
I was already writing a blog post about how to use adult coloring books as a marketing tool when I saw this. I hadn’t thought about the PR angle, so I added it and linked to this blog so that my post has even more value. Thanks, Joan!
Here’s my post: http://createteachinspire.com/adult-coloring-books-marketing-customer-service-tool/
Thanks for the share, Jacquelyn. Keep me posted on the benefits of coloring books. I continue to be fascinated by this topic though I haven’t put pencil to paper yet!
This is a great idea. Always looking for unusual, non-coupon ways to advertise locally. We do garage doors. We could hand out adult coloring pages of a house with a prominent garage door or offer a download on our website. They could post pics on our social media of their completed work- which may get them to actually leave feedback.
Then I could pitch it to a reporter in the local section on the garage sale or open house page. Do you have any suggestions for what to say in the pitch for a story? Would I need to wait until after we see if anyone posts? Do we need to offer a prize or just pass them out as a unique touch?
I love this idea, Chad. You never know what’s going to work and what isn’t. The only way to know is to first try it. There’s a slight glitch, however.
Try handouts as well as letting them print it from a PDF at your website. In order to be able to upload the finished product to your Facebook page, they would either need a scanner, or they could take a photo of the colored garaged door with their mobile phone and upload that. I’m not sure how well it would reproduce.
Get at least a dozen in hand, the more clever the better, before you approach the media. I’d offer a prize for the most creative one. Be sure to read Facebook’s contest rules first. And get people’s permission to share their work online.
As for the pitch, hold off on this until you see what comes back in the way of creative coloring.
Thanks so much for the feedback! We can try anything a few times right?! Will report back if we get this implemented!
You have some great ideas for coloring books in this article. Love the idea of putting them in waiting rooms.
Thanks for your comments, Richard. Just thing of all the waiting rooms: doctor’s offices, clinics, the local tire store, even corporate lobbies.
Thanks for pointing out that coloring books are a great way for even adults to relax and have fun. I feel like a yoga-themed coloring book could be a great way to introduce your children to the world of yoga as well and help them familiarize themselves with the poses and concepts. Parents could color with their kids and take them to yoga class after.
What a fun idea, Bradford. I’ll bet there’s already a yoga for kids coloring book somewhere. If not a yoga expert who teaches kids could create one. Thanks for dropping by to comment. By the way, isn’t this week National Yoga for Kids Week or something like that?
Joan, good article. I just created my first coloring book I am an artist from Chicago. I would appreciate any feedback and your opinion on getting it out there. This is my book https://amzn.to/2CTLkiC. There are some free illustrations from the book here https://bit.ly/2NcLqH5.
Before you try to promote this, beef up your Amazon page. Add more description for better search ranking and to let potential customers know what the coloring book is about. Does it tell the story of the robot and the puppy? Are they friends or enemies? You also need reviews. Do a quick Google search for “coloring book reviewers” and you’ll find a few reviewers who might be interested in taking a look at your book. Once you start to promote, start by targeting narrow niches: people who are interested in robots or puppies. They don’t necessarily have to be interested in coloring books. You can find many of these people in Facebook groups.
Thanks Joan. Your reply gave me a ton of ideas.