Bookmark with a Warning

Last week for a couple of days, I was jostling with others on the crowded streets of New York City.  If you keep your eyes open, you are likely to see almost anything in this huge city.   On numerous corners, individuals are handing out fliers and bits of information.  Often I’ve avoided picking up the information because they are fliers for some bar or another establishment that I have no interest in visiting.

As you can imagine, the New York City crowd is a tough one and it takes some effort to catch their attention with your flier. Outside of Grand Central Station last Friday, I noticed five or six people and each were dressed completely in black with a red baseball cap.  Several of them had red mesh over their faces to hide their faces and on their backs was a working television screen playing a clip from a forthcoming TV program (actually it launches today). Curious about what they were handing out, I took one.  I scanned it so you could see what I receive. Here’s the front:

 

Now whatever you think of the graphic, it was pretty dramatic. The knife includes a diecut so the knife is removable. It’s a bookmark designed for you to hold your place in the book you are currently reading.  You have to admit the front of the flier caught my attention. 

 

 

 

I wasn’t sure what they were advertising until I turned it over.  I’ve also scanned the back so you can see it. It’s an advertisement for a new program on Court TV which starts tonight where America’s top crime fiction writers reveal their favorite true crime stories. If you follow this link, you will see that they’ve gathered some interesting writers for this series. James Ellroy will begin the first episode tonight.  The website also includesthe transcript of a chat with the author.  I’ve checked my local listings and not located the program yet—hopefully I’ll be able to catch part of it tonight.

Whatever you think about the flier, it’s definitely catchy.  Here’s a bookmark which comes with a warning. It’s pretty small in the above graphic and I’m including the warning in a larger fomat for you to see:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why have I written about this bookmark? It shows the busy world that we live in today as we rush from one meeting to the next or one online group to another.  This little bit of paper caught my attention enough to look up the website and possibly watch the program tonight—but just look at the marketing energy and effort poured into this effort to generate some buzz for a cable program.

What effort are you putting into your writing today? Are you learning how to craft a query letter or a book proposal? I know I’ve written numrous times about book proposals but are you learning from each one that you put together or simply doing it the same way you’ve been doing it for years? I learn something with each proposal that I write and hopefully improve these proposals for the next one. It is not easy but it’s part of our life in publishing. Continue to grow and continue to reach for the next level in your personal growth.

And keep your eyes open for bookmarks with warnings on them.