With everyone gearing back up for the start of conference season, I thought I'd bring up an old post, which has relevant info: SWAG
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I've been talking about wanting to blog about swag. As we get deeper and deeper into Emerald City Writers' Conference planning, we're getting a lot of questions about our goodie bags (or swag bags) and what we accept, why we accept some things and not others.
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I've been talking about wanting to blog about swag. As we get deeper and deeper into Emerald City Writers' Conference planning, we're getting a lot of questions about our goodie bags (or swag bags) and what we accept, why we accept some things and not others.
A friend sent me swag from the Lori Foster Reader & Author Get Together. Full disclosure, I did not attend this year. I do not know if the items I'm about to show were all in a bag for attendees, if they were picked up from various authors over the weekend, maybe a little of both. For the sake of this blog, I'm going to speak as though they were all presented to attendees in a swag bag.
First off, WOW! What a haul!
I dumped unloaded the box onto my coffee table to go through everything in an order of what catches my eye and why. No real sorting for this presentation.
As I sit down I start to organize so my little Type A heart doesn't go into overload before we even begin. The first thing that catches my eye: the books.
I haven't read any of these. AND, I see a sampler, which I love. That means there are several authors who have bound excerpts of their books, or short stories, so I can test out new authors without having to try a whole book.
Not an actual print book, but FREE EBOOK catches my eye. I'm going to be checking this out as well.
Next are some unique items that I haven't seen before in bags:
A small compact. I NEED one of these in my purse, I've been thinking about this for the past couple of weeks, so this is perfect. I love it.
As the mom of elementary age children, this ruler will be well hidden. I don't want my first grader taking it to school with him, or asking his teach what "Hot Doms" means. (Could you just imagine the phone call home that would lead to?) But, I love this. I haven't seen anything like it before and I'm keeping it in my office.
These items are sure to be stolen by my children (well, the blue ones anyway), but I'm okay with that. Very fun.
More fun items:
A calendar from The Killion Group that features some covers they've done. It goes May 2013 to March 2014. So pretty.
A CD featuring Chapters, trailers and more. I'm intrigued.
This is a very small, inexpensive notebook and the author put her sticker on the cover. Very clever and makes her stand out from the crowd.
A few temporary tattoos and pins.
Now, we're into the paper products. The bookmarks, trading cards, business cards, postcards...all those things that everyone seems to have a ton of.
At ECWC we don't accept paper products in the goodie bags because we get inundated with them. A few years ago attendees were piling up all the paper products they didn't want to keep on the tables. It looked like PR bombs had gone off all over the hotel.
I almost don't know where to start just because of the sheer volume. Keeping with what I've been doing so far, I grab what catches my eye:
These items were packaged in baggies, so I went for them first.
Pawing through the pile a bit more a couple other items catch my eye. The Ellora's Cave stuff is in a baggie, and the trading card turned bookmark caught my eye because of the ribbon added (presumably by the author).
More pawing through to see what I can find:
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| adding a sticker got my attention |
There are some fun items that I missed on my first and second (and third) glance because they were buried in everything else.
Newspaper articles and pamphlets. I'm not going to read any of this, really.
I missed this really fun, different bookmark because it's small and got buried in everything else. I really like this idea, but think it needs a way to stand out a little bit more.
Okay, I can't take it anymore. I have to organize what's left into piles of postcards, bookmarks, trading cards. While doing this, I realize some of the trading cards are actual magnets. Huh. Missed that completely.
Book flats
Postcards.
bookmarks
trading cards-can you tell which are magnets and which aren't? I can't and I even had them in my hands.
It's a struggle for authors to find items that work. Things that catch a reader's eye, things that readers will keep rather than just toss in the recycle bin. I hope seeing some swag in this manner, which is how readers/attendees see it, will help!
Next, I'm going to take a look at the items that were found at RWA Nationals last month.
Let me know what you think. Have you found some swag that works well for you? Any sites that have great prices on swag that authors should check out?
Thanks for sharing Carmen. I know I am always looking for a way to stand out in the crowd...and having stuffed ECWC goodie bags in the past (and unpacked plenty at various conferences) this is a good reminder to us all to make sure our precious promo dollars are effective.
ReplyDeleteI hope it's helpful. I tried to be unbiased and really highlight what caught my eye and what got lost in the shuffle. I want everyone to get the most bang for their buck!
DeleteNo pens, eh? That's unusual. I've seen Chapstick with the author's info wrapped around it. But I think I really love the small booklets with a teaser of the story. Nice article, Carmen!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that there weren't any pens too. That's one of the items that I always find in the bags and I typically keep all that I get (unless they don't work, then they get tossed). I have mixed feelings on the chapsticks only because most of them aren't sealed. Maybe I'm an oddball about that, but I want to know that no one has tampered with anything I'm putting on my skin/mouth.
DeleteI love the teaser books too. I think those are really effective.
Thanks for dropping by Mons!
Carmen, this was really interesting to read/watch as you went through everything. I'm always so conflicted about what to do with/for swag. I've done the paper stuff because it was what everyone else was doing, and in fact just sent the last of my rack cards and business cards down to Jimmy Thomas's convention for his swag bags next week, LOL, but I've never been a fan of it and have never purchased a book because of any of it. When I get home from conferences almost all of the bookmarks, etc., get tossed, unless it's something from a friend, and I feel bad about it because I know the authors have spent a fortune on it. I do save the business cards, but I rarely look at them again, and again, I don't buy books based on them.
ReplyDeleteYour point about certain items not being family-environment-friendly is a good one. I never really thought about that, but it is important to consider not just who we intend the items to be for, but where and how they'll be used/displayed once they're at home.
My favorite items from swag bags, ones that actually may prompt me to buy an author's book, are the excerpt booklets and actual books. I might use the pens, the chapsticks (if they're sealed--I agree with you!), the nail files and rulers and compacts, the mini notebooks, etc., but none of those items send me to Amazon or wherever looking for books.
Watching you go through this process for the blog reinforces what I have deduced personally and solidifies my personal decision on how to spend my advertising dollars in the future: no more bookmarks, rack cards, trading cards, etc. I'll still have business cards, because, hey, they're great for dropping in those little free-meal drawing bowls at favorite restaurants, but excerpt booklets, paperback books once I have them (I'm all ebook right now), a creative way to give away free ebooks that won't get lost in all the other paper stuff in the bags, and select online ads are now top of my list. That's it.
I do have CDs with a complete short story and a couple of excerpts on them (sending those to ECWC!!), but I don't plan to do them again only because they were SO freaking expensive and a lot of work to put together myself.
Thanks for blogging this, Carmen, it was *really* helpful to see it all laid out! :) Chantilly
So glad you found it helpful Chantilly.
DeleteI've been thinking about those bookmarks and trading cards all day. I think there IS a place for them, but not necessarily in a promo bag. Maybe at book fairs where readers can take one, especially if you're ebook only, so they can have something to take away with them. Tucking them inside a book as a book mark could work too. But, for the most part, they're all the same. Same size, same shape, similar colors and concepts. It's a tough thing to realize the thing that the majority of authors are spending money on aren't working. IMO they work better for cover designers, etc because they show off their work.
And for family friendly; one thing that will have me hanging onto book marks? If they're family friendly so I can offer them to my kids when they need a bookmark. I may not be the norm there, but it's what I do. I have a small pile of them on my desk that the boys grab when they need one.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!
I went to Lori Foster's Get Together in 2012. In addition to the things you mentioned I also had lip balm (and they were all sealed), ink pens, coasters (to sit drinks on), a t-shirt with all of the sponsors of the event on the back and even a Band Aid holder like this but has an author's name & website http://www.imprintitems.com/blog/6900/eco-friendly-band-aid-holder/
ReplyDeleteThere was also some different bookmarks. Like metal ones, a magnetic one. And I loved the bag that all my goodies came in. It's a nice, heavy canvas tote. It had the wrong date on it (2011 instead of 2012) and I'm not sure what happened there. I never heard anyone say how that happened.
One thing that I think would be nice is a chap stick holder. I got one years ago and I have used it ever since I got it. They are made of neoprene so the chap stick fits tight without coming out. It has a little clip on it and I clip it to the zipper on the inside pocket of my purse. You can also clip them on a key chain or wherever you want. I am never without chap stick so it's perfect for me. It would probably work with most lipsticks too. I don't know how expensive they are but here's the link where you can buy them and they personalize them. http://www.leashables.com/
Key chains are another thing I like. I have a Black Dagger Brotherhood one that I've used for years. It did not come from an event. I bought it from Cafepress but I think people would use a key chain that has their favorite author/book/series on it.
A few months ago I came across a discussion about swag and car window decals were mentioned. A lot of people said that they would like to have one with their favorite book, series, character, etc. I have a Rock Chick one from Kristen Ashley's Rock Chick series.
I have a friend that lives in Australia. She mentioned once that b/c of where she lives she doesn't get any of the swag that authors give away. So, I save stuff for her and send it to her every so often. Anyway, one of my other friends went to Lori Foster's event this year and she sent me some swag to send to my friend in Australia. Included in the swag was a little flash drive that has an author's name on it. On the flash drive is an ebook. A novella, I guess. It's around 150 pages. I thought that was a great idea but I don't know how expensive they are.
And I just want to add that I get rid of anything that isn't family friendly. Any bookmarks, magnets, trading cards, etc that have menages, BDSM, etc on them. I tend to stay away from the more erotic books like that so I'm not familiar with the books anyway. I take anything I don't want to the used book stores here. They have a basket at the check out counter with bookmarks, pens, etc that customers can choose from.
OK, that's all I can think of right now.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts!I agree, there are a lot of options out there. We just need to start thinking outside the box a little bit.
DeleteAnd some of the things you mentioned, the window decals for instance, wouldn't necessarily be cost effective in a bag for a huge event where some people won't have read you or be huge fans, but maybe at book signings, or street team swag.