Ah, writer swag. Do you have business cards and/or book marks? What about tee-shirts, coffee mugs, pot holders, buttons, lanyards, fancy hair accessories related to your novels, key chains, pens … The list seems endless, limited by creativity and marketing budget. But does it work?
It depends on who you are, what you write, what sort of readers you meet, and how you brand your work. If you are a brand, then oh heck, yes, reader stuff is important – just look at all the book swag aimed at teens and kids at places like Barnes and Noble™. I don’t know how well it sells (I should have some observations later this month), but obviously someone thought it was important, and adds to the books, making readers feel like they are part of the story, and helping them identify other fans of that series.
I found the fancy hair jewelry when I was looking for something else. The maker is a wild fan of some of Sarah J. Maas’ Court of Thorns and Roses series, and obtained permission to make hair jewelry based on the series. They are certainly not swag, and not branded merchandise per se, but the author agreed to allow the fan-made work. Is it merchandise? No idea. Will it generate sales of the books? I suspect it will, because people will ask about the hair combs and clips, and then check out the novels.
What’s the difference between swag and merchandise? One you give away at cons, or at signings, or is available for people to pick up and look at, like business cards, pens, and book marks on the table at LibertyCon and other places. That’s swag. Merchandize is what you sell, in addition to books. The sky is the limit here – patches, bags, tee-shirts, jewelry, erasers, stationary, prints of cover art, the original painting of the cover art*, water bottles, mugs, beer steins with something about your books on them …
I don’t swag, aside from having (at last) up-to-date business cards. I’ve done cover cards in the past, with three book covers on one side, and information about the series on the other. Postcards with a QR code linking to your book’s sales info is something similar, but I was doing this myself, and didn’t have the skill set for the QR part. I know some people have had the first audiobook in a series, and the first e-book, on jump drives that they gave away, following Jim Baen’s philosophy that if readers like the free book, they will pay for the rest.
If you write for kids or young adults, or do romantasy, or mil-sci-fi, swag and merchandise might be something to look into more closely. With the rise of print-on-demand for shirts and all sorts of other things, you no longer have to do so much yourself, which makes merchandise something to consider. Swag? If you go to Cons, or even occasionally talk about your books, at least have business cards.
*If you own the work, and all the derivative rights, that is. If you don’t, think again, and talk to your artist about licensing, and purchasing more of the rights. The seller-of-prints says that recouping the upfront cost happens pretty quickly (within 6-12 months, sometimes sooner), but he does military alt-history and mil-sci-fi, and has a very strong fan base. And buys the rights to the cover art, all the rights.
Mad Genius Club 
10 responses to “Do you Swag?”
I’m still early in my career (my second writing career that is), so I only do business cards. I try to make it as easy as possible by putting the QR Codes on the business card, but as Maxwell Drake said at Son of SilverCon, for every 20 buyers, you get one fan. Publicity is like that, only worse. You have to prime the pump an awful lot before you begin to see any returns. Once you reach a certain number of sales, the momentum takes care of itself, and all the rest is gratuitous.
We’ll see how well that works.
Bookmarks for some of my Arcadia Press / History Press books is about it as far as swag goes.
I have business cards, but save those for professional contacts. (Oh. You are looking for a speaker? Here is my card. Get in touch. That sort of thing.)
This is where an eye catching cover earns it’s keep! I do business card sized adaptations and spread them around–there’s always a “free stuff” table at cons and something that catches a browser’s eye will get picked up.
Not that I’ve gone to a con in a few years . . . but when I did I did get a bump in sales the following month.
We don’t recommend business cards because they’re too easy to drop onto the venue floor. I’ve stepped on many a business card at an event.
2 by 6 (or somewhat larger) cardstock bookmarks work much better. You’ve got two sides of real estate to work with (don’t leave the back side blank!) and people tend to hold on to and use bookmarks. They’re still cheap. IIRC, GotPrint is MUCH better priced than VistaPrint.
Spend time on your design. Examine your collection of bookmarks and see which ones appeal and which ones repel and which ones just don’t work before you design your own bookmark. In my collection, I’ve got a bookmark showing a generic hill with a generic shield plus a QR code. The back is blank. No info on author, book, book series, website, etc. If you want info, you MUST scan the QR code but not everyone will do that.
Your bookmark should be eyecatching.
Your bookmark MUST include author name, website, book or series title, and — assuming you use the same name for ALL your social media which we do — the little symbols for your social media choices. If you’ve got room, spell out the names. Don’t make it hard for someone to find you.
It took us many failed designs before we worked out decent bookmarks to give away as swag.
As Premium Swag, I sew satin and lace bookmarks (which I sell for $3 each if you only want them). Buy the book, get your choice of cloth bookmarks. They have our logo on them and on the back, I affix an address label with our websites and Instagram addresses.
Don’t sew bookmarks if you don’t have a big stash AND you like to sew. They’re relatively quick to sew and high value. I’ve NEVER seen one on the ground. Even when people discard our catalog, they keep the cloth bookmark.
If you want to do more, I ALSO sew cloth tote bags. I had a huge stash of heavy material to use up and I like to sew. They’re $10 if you buy one. They’re ONLY for book buyers, whereas I often hand out the cloth bookmarks with our catalog while out and about. I do NOT recommend sewing cloth bags unless you really like to sew and you’ve got a big stash of upholstery and canvas. I’m phasing this out as I use up the stash. When it’s gone, no more bags.
I’ll keep doing the bookmarks because they’re little pieces of abstract art, all shiny and lacy. Internet instructions abound on how to sew bookmarks. If you want my instructions, ask!
Echoing the point on bookmarks, I discovered a bookmark I got at least 8 years ago, and tucked away because 1) pretty, 2) useful.
I’ve also got a promotional postcard from a really lovely dragon-art lady about a year after that, which is on my fridge, and we’ve got some of Cedar’s Ink dragon magnets, too.
Exactly! Make that bookmark or postcard (even more real estate!) really attractive and it will be kept.
Thanks TX Red for the links!
Let me reaffirm, vehemently, as said “seller of prints” that you definitely want to get the artist’s approval.
I will amplify that said agreement should EXPRESSLY say “I, [artist], acknowledge that this yahoo is about to potentially sell the living *bleep* out of my art. Indeed, he is about to use it in ways that may make nuns douse him in holy water, madams avert their eyes in disdain, and may actually pay for the commission he’s giving me.”
Because you only have to go through the “Wait, I thought we had a deal. Here’s the email where you said this was okay…”-drill once to never want to do it again. Also, understand some artists are 100% not going to make that deal with you. That’s okay, you can agree to disagree as professionals and move along.
As far as selling prints, at some point (when I’m done catching emergency root canals and broken air conditioning units) I’ll have a Shopify up on the website for art.
My birthday’s coming up, though I’d rather go for a frame(d or able) print than the book.
Let’s set that bookmark…
Well, drop a line to james@jamesyoungauthor.com and I’ll see what I can do. Plenty of art to choose from, as I now have nautical, aviation, and ground.
I don’t do cons, but if a certain lemur and kit fox had plushies in their images*, such would find a home at Casa RC in a heartbeat. Expect it to happen? Nah. But…
(*) or a print of a wombow, preferably the front half of one. (The cover of Shikhari II as a print, perhaps?)