With my own business outside of writing (selling software in the oil & gas field), I found business cards are of zero value. In addition to cards, I had some pens drawn up (get it?… drawn up), fluttered leaflets, haunted conventions with this fancy presentation, fired off bulk emails, cold-called mostly sober, fell asleep at professional conferences, networked, on and on and on. I even bought a few cases of Grey Goose vodka and handed those out during cold calls, and they went WILD and bought not one dang thing from me.
Nothing worked. I mean 0.0% success. The only success I’ve had was online with people browsing for my services. So I focused on website search engines, and if you search “directional drilling software” you’ll see TL Longbow right up top. It’s not hard to optimize. I’m not sure what the fuss is, just add keywords throughout the site and in the meta data.
Anyway, with authoring, my focus is also online with the footprint. I’ve paid for three blog tours and networked with other bloggers by reviewing books and participating in other tours. It generates a good deal of traffic, but more importantly, it leaves a ~footprint~. When someone searches for “Eric Trant Author,” they receive more than just an Amazon page. They have lots of stuff to piddle through, and it gives the impression of someone with experience, a bone fide author-author.
And if you review another novel, you generate FREE traffic from the tours. It’s a win-win.
I don’t have business cards for an author. Those are faux pas and outdated. Text them your info (there’s your card!), make contact that way and start a dialogue. Heck, sign your book with your info and pass it on to them. Cards are an abject waste of paper in all venues these days, completely, 100% worthless.
And if you do get their number, follow up. Don’t go full-on stalker, but be cool and create a relationship.
I’m on the fence about bookmarks. I don’t have them, but I’m not against them. I honestly think the book is the best marketing tool, not the bookmark. Tell them to read it and pass it around.
But I did design some car magnets and have them printed up at Kinko’s. They were big ones, like 24″x18″, and I created one for each book, in duplicate so my wife could stick them on her car as well.
Great idea, right, but they warp in the sun and eventually blow off or you lose them in the car wash. But I did notice people staring, reading it, and it was unusual enough to be genuinely memorable. I plan to continue doing this for each novel until the magnets wear out. And it wasn’t that expensive, all things considered.
Anyway, I totally disagree on the business cards. Get their number, text, email and create a dialogue.
I never saw much good come of conferences, either, other than some feel-good vibes, a little bit of chatter, and then radio silence. Usually, the folks at the conferences are not stakeholders and decision-makers. They’re fodder-ducks who wanted to goof off for the day. In other words, you don’t meet the right people in conferences, because the right people are usually busy ~working~.
Usually.
But for some they might work. It’s a lot of time and expense, though, to take a swag at maybe perhaps almost but probably not meeting someone at your $2,500 table. Like, they are a ~lot~ of work and wicked expensive, just to move a few prints and lose your fun-stuff to a flock of conference scavengers.
Web footprint. Collect a small group of fiercely loyal readers on social media. Write some fabulous books. Remain personable and approachable and relevant and active. No guarantees with anything, but this is the basket where I’m tossing my eggs. Not bookmarks and business cards.
Eric Trant is the author of several short stories, and the novels Wink, Steps and Risen, all published by WiDo. He lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife, two teenagers, a toddler, and an angel baby watching over them all.