Book promotional goodies & where to get them

Before I get started today talking about book promotional goodies, I have a question: Are these blog posts helpful to you? I know there are a lot of you out there, but since ya'll aren't into commenting all that much, I don't have any way of knowing if this series of blogs is helpful or not. So if you like what you're reading, respond to this blog or email me, and let me know. Feedback is great. ; )

Today, I'm talking about promo stuff: postcards, magnets, bookmarks, nifty novelities, etc. Though first, I have to bow down to my "author mentor/mom" SciFi Romance author extraordinaire Linnea Sinclair. She taught me all about where to get good, cheap, and sometimes free book promo stuff. I don't know what I'd have done without her. : )

Tops on my list is VistaPrint. I adore this place! Not only is it unbelievably cheap, a lot of the time it's free! (Unbelieveable, but true.) I get my bookmarks, postcards, and magnets there. Some of you may be gifted with design software and can do the design end of things, but I'm not. Fortunately, I have a friend who's a graphic designer. Linnea does her own designs (she's both a fabulous author and design savvy).

My bookmarks are actually postcards. You can get two bookmarks out of one regular-sized postcard, and four bookmarks out of an oversized postcard. Below are my A&M bookmarks done on an oversized postcard. You can do all kinds of designs, but I went with my cover, book info, and website address on the front, with author/review quotes on the back. After the last quote, I left a little space at the bottom so I could sign them. And for the volume of bookmarks that I have printed, I bought a paper cutter. Believe me, you don't want to cut out hundreds of bookmarks with scissors.


Next are my postcards (the front side with the cover can be made into magnets) . Most times I get the magnets for free with my order. Again, I know it sounds too good to be true, but once you get into VistaPrint, you'll understand how it works. I have no clue how this company manages to turn a profit. Probably on sheer volume.

On the front side of my postcard is the cover, and on the back is the book info. I left the right side of the card blank, this way I can use them as actual postcards for mailings, or to give out to announce a booksigning (I write all the info on the blank side), I also use them as business/calling cards to leave for a bookseller or reviewer with my contact information, or I just sign them and hand them out at booksignings. These things are incredibly multi-purpose.

For non-personalized novelty/toy promo giveaways, La Linnea recommends DollarDays and Oriental Trading.Also recommended is Virginia Toy & Novelty. Items like these are great to take to conferences and conventions to put out on the "goodie tables" or to hand out in seminars or panels that you're speaking on.

Tomorrow I'll talk about tax write-offs for authors. BTW -- Book promo stuff is tax deductible. Then for the rest of the week, I'll continue the "what I didn't know until I got published" series with the dangers of burnout, Amazon rankings (ignore them), gifts for your publishing "team", and advertising.

Lisa