March 27, 2007
tell me…
. . . so totally off topic of writing specifically but this does relate . . .
I am trying to think of what promo items I want to spend my hard earned royalties on. For all you RWA folks, Nationals is just around the bend and I am thinking of the goodie room. Last year my pens went fast but NO ONE took any of the bookmarks I left–at least not noticeably, I didn’t count them–no really, swear.
What kind of promo items grab your attention, what do you snag first and really truly pay attention to–do you look what they say and check out the author’s website, blog. . .books? My friend SandyJ said to attach chocolate and I can give anything away–LOL. There were some truly inovative swag items from cans of TAB energy drinks to bags of tea to condoms (they went the quickest) and all the usual suspects or bookmarks, pens and notepads.
I like quirky, that’s just me, but for some reason the thought of pencils with the little bobble heads doesn’t seem like it would be an appropriate grab. And don’t get me started about Moonlight Madness and all the different things you can sell. . .
But again, what do you like? Let me know (and if you have links even better!) and if I pick your choice I’ll send you a few to have and to share.



I can say that I never pick up bookmarks. Book THONGS, yes. I love those, but having them made can be expensive and doing it yourself is time consuming. Especially since you need hundreds of the little suckers.
Pens, always. Good ones. I never pick up cover-flats. I’ve flipped through a couple of excerpt books. Memo pads are good. I love memo pads. Use them for everything. Joanna Maitland got her name stuck all over my house when I moved from all the sticky notes I left everywhere.
Candy’s fine, but I never remember the author. I do remember Kresley Cole’s water bottles in Reno. Those were genius. Key chains, because my kids like them.
You know what would be cute? Those personalized M&MS.
There. My store of imagination is used up for the day. Now I have nothing to write with.
Yankee candles will do custom candles but they’re not cheap!!!!!!!!!
SELA! Thanks… in it’s basic form it is still shopping so I love everything, but I am soooo very tired of seeing the leftovers of my 500 ordered bookmarks–I think I still have half and that was two books ago …. Kresley had the water in Dallas ‘04 too–loved that!
Amie–they look nice, but the price…. (ooh that rhythms)
I guess as writers we have about 2309823048 bookmarks. I love pens, though. Because you can always use them! In fact, my favorite purple pen I got from our conference a couple of years ago.
They gave away CONDOMS??!
Mik–pens I have… tons of pens…
Raine–YEP…I was…shocked, then thought it was a neat idea (I’d never do, it–but it was attention grabbing!)
*Eyes Dennie with a smirk on her face*