Do Book Gimmicks work?
By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin
Throughout my week, I often receive packages from authors and publishers with books. I read these books outside of my work and write reviews to support other authors and publishers. Occasionally a package will stand out as different. Some people call this an attention-getting gimmick. Do they work? In this article, I want to give you some ideas and cautions.
Once I received a book to possibly review. This author added confetti into the package which caught my attention but also made a mess in my office. Confetti was on the floor, on my keyboard and anything sitting on my desk. It was a nuisance and took some extra energy to clean up. The confetti caught my attention but it wasn’t what the author was expecting because it was negative attention and not the right impression. Whatever you do in the book gimmick area, you want to think about the person who will receive the package and make sure you are making a positive impact.
Several weeks ago, I received a package with a book which was in a pink package. When I opened it and looked closely at the book, I was interested in reading it and writing a review about it. The pink package received positive attention and increased my interest. The book gimmick worked in a positive way to encourage my reading and writing about the book.
More recently, I received this package:
I opened it right away and it had a signed copy of a new book from Jacquelyn Lynn called Christian Business Almanac. She emailed recently and showed me a page in the book where she quoted something from these entries in my blog. I reviewed the book on Amazon and Goodreads plus promoted it to my various social media connections (an example). It’s a simple way we can help each other as writers and authors. Her package got my attention. You can use this same envelope (follow this link).
I recommend you be selective about where you use it. Ask yourself, who will help me tell others about my book and where can I get the biggest impact for using this tool? From my experience, just a little forethought about this question will help you use the envelope for the greatest impact on your book.
Do you use any book gimmicks? How did they preform and what am I missing? Let me know in the comments below. I look forward to your comments.
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Labels: Do Book Gimmicks work?, marketing, promotion, publishing, readers, reviews, Terry Whalin, The Writing L:ife
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2 Comment:
I always have bookmarks ready to go at book events. Besides the International Standard Book Number (ISBN), I include the QR code that takes them to the book page on my website and a second QR code for my YouTube channel for my book series.
I love the idea of using decorative padded envelopes and that's next on my list! (By the way, when sending books, authors need to include a sell sheet with full contact information. I get books to review, and many times the author or publicist doesn't send any supporting material!)
Nancy,
Thank you for these terrific marketing ideas. The details matter and you have to create these details on the front end of sending your book. Like you, I will often get a possible book for review without any of the sales details from a sell sheet--like the release date and cost. Grateful for your comment. Terry
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