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.

I want to show you another simple book tool that every author should create and use for their book: bookmarks. I love creating this tool and use it with my books and at conferences. People may not purchase my book but will take a bookmark and maybe buy the book at a later point in time.

As you create this tool, I encourage you to pour some thought and creativity into it. For example, I wrote a biography on Billy Graham. While the book has been out a few years, I continue actively telling others about it. I have bookmarks in my briefcase and use them often. I’m adding an image of this bookmark do you can see the thought I poured into the creation?

The front includes ten facts about Billy Graham and at the bottom, I have my book website. The reverse is also full color with the book cover, an endorsement from biographer and bestselling author Jerry B. Jenkins and the words “Available at bookstores everywhere.” Finally I include the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) to help the reader or bookseller easily locate this book.

If you are going to invest in printing a bookmark, spend the creative energy to make it effective. I collect these bookmarks from others and I'm always surprised at the missing information. One of the hardest things to proofread or see is something that not there.

 

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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