KindleOkay, logically I knew when I decided to go to Romantic Times ’08 convention, I was going to have to plan on some promo.
I needed to think up some cool idea for a give-aways, and I needed to think of some clever ideas to give the booksellers.
Problem.
I suck at thinking of these things. I don’t want to do bookmarks or notepads or stuff that doesn’t last. But…well, I can’t call me frugal, I’m not, but I hate plunking out huge sums of money for promo items. I’d rather buy books. Or buy a GC for a contest. Or a couple of nifty PC programs that I just know will come in handy for something. I just don’t know what yet.
So why didn’t I think about how much I hate messing with promo before now?
Spent the weekend going blind on the internet trying to think of the perfect thing. I never thought of the perfect little gift, but I did finally find a cute couple of somethings for the two separate parties I’m hosting, along with several other authors.
Me. Hosting something. Whodathunkit?
I’m glad you found something that works, Shiloh.
Though I was thinking [danger, Will Robinson!], those character cards? if they turn out to be well printed, those could work. I would definitely collect those for favorite authors’ books–more so in series *grin*
I found this on another blog where they were asking for promo ideas. I’m not sure on the cost, but it sounded like a neat idea so I thought I would share with you.
“I have this neat idea that if you could get a small magnet type picture frame with a hot guy on it, from your book of course, where you slip a picture of you in beside him, that would be cool.” -indnjc7 from the Nice n’ Naughty blog.
Pens. I love pens, and bookmarks. I love bookmarks. I’m going to RT this year too. I can’t wait to meet everybody (of course when i get there I probably won’t be able to think of a single thing to say- crowds, don’t ya know).
I agree with Ann on pens. If you have to go the widget route, good quality clickable ballpoints are about the only con promo object I’ve ever kept longer than the two minutes it took me to empty my pockets into a trash bin.
I really think the character card thing could be tweaked to become a low-cost handout item. I’d feature that gorgeous chick from your first Hunters cover (because we all know she looks exactly like you) and put a brief bio, your backlist titles, blog, web site and e-mail addies in the card description are. Would be the ultimate Shiloh Walker info resource, and it would definitely be different from what everyone else is tossing out there. You could do a professional-contact version to exchange with other pros, too, versus the usual business card.
are=area. Sigh.
Oh, absolutely…snort.
:OP
*G* I have a wonderful resource. My mom is a graphic artist and she’s laying out a couple of character cards that’s roughly the size of a postcard. One of each of the two main characters in Through the Veil.
I hadn’t much thought about what to put on the back, but the bio, booklist, all sounds good.
And it is different.
One more homemade promo trick — if you just want to do a small number of one-sided cards, then try printing them out on the inside of an 8-1/2X11″ piece you cut from one side of a decorative-print file folder. They’re usually lightly laminated on the decorated side but plain paper on the inside. The decorated side creates an instant card back, and the folder weight is equal to card stock. Also good for one-sided bookmarks.