Book Signings and Book Swag

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When an author has a book baby launching into the world, one of the items on her ‘to-do’ list is purchasing book swag. I’ve always though that was an odd word to describe ‘giveaway items’ relating to an author’s latest publication.

​Sometimes the publishing house designs and provides them, and other times, the author chooses to do it. Since I have an art background, I love to play around with the options, although pixel measurements are NOT my friends right now.

So, what are the possibilities? In the image above, you see a few. Most authors have business cards and bookmarks. I have both. But I added a few more: a mug, t-shirt, magnets, a poster and car decal. The nerve of me. I’m actually going to attach the banner above to my car! Ha. For a few dollars more, it was worth it. Vistaprint is my go to company for this sort of thing. I highly recommend them, and their customer service is stellar!

If you haven’t seen my live video about my book swag on Facebook, click on the link here: Facebook Live.

Another sort of marketing tool are memes, or images of the book cover surrounded by coziness. You can find these all over Instagram with the hashtag #bookstagram or #historicalfiction or #middlegradefiction. The above is my attempt.

​In the Middle East, tea is served in glasses similar to the one above (although this one is from Russia). Since my book doesn’t release until April 26th, I had to bring up my cover image on my iPad. Where there’s a will, there’s. . . Never mind. I’m not supposed to be using clichés, but unfortunately, I do all the time.

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The Heart Changer Book Signing April 28th!

If you are in the Park Ridge suburb of Chicago, I’ll have plenty of books available for purchase. And I’ll sign them for you, of course. There will be a book trailer, giveaways every half hour, and I’ll answer your questions about my book or my author’s journey. And maybe I’ll read a page or two!

The signing is Sunday afternoon from 2pm to 4pm at TeaLula — it’s a gorgeous shop in our very own downtown area! I’m honored to host my book event there. Many times an author will host an event in a venue relating to their book — a library, bookstore, historic home (if the setting is in such a place), a cafe’ (maybe the place where your two MCs met and began a romance), etc. You get the idea. Although there is no tea in my story, it’s a beverage served often in the Middle East, so in a way, it relates.

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Which of the book swag items would YOU like to win? Can you think of some others? Let me know below!