Thick card stock, metallic finish. I intend to place them all over the city on community boards with little acrylic stands. It's not very cost effective. 20 cards plus pin up = $4. 40 cards and the acrylic stand = $12. I display the back which says read for free at Taylorkole.com, support a local artist. I place 12 around town. The three I checked on, one was taken down (bigbee) the other two had full amount of cards, but I'm still hopeful.
total waste of time and money if you ask me .. when designing effective marketing you have to look at 'why' from a consumer perspective Why would anyone pick up your card why would a reader care why would they buy your book because they got your card (and for that matter why would they buy something after you've give it away free) Biz cards are for giving to people at networking events, meetings, conferences etc, who might want to contact you later - other authors, podcasters, bloggers, agents (yeah right), publishers (even more yeah right) cover designers, girls in bars , and so on .... they aren't for readers Also someone at a community notice board isnt in the right mood to buy a book (necessarily) whereas if someone is on amazon or bookbub or wherever then they arent just in the right mood they are actually thinking about buying Ergo that money would be better spent on targetted advertising via Amazon or Bookbub ads (and similar) With the proviso that paid advertising for a free book is not good economic sense - unless that free book also features a strong call to action to your paid book. (Personally I'm initially going to give Honest Intent away free if and only if someone joins my mailing list ... that mailing list is then used to sell Darkest Storm, After the Wave and future books. When ive got a bigger back catalogue I might make HI perma free but the back matter would be used to present a call to action to go to my website/join my mailing list from which I'd then sell other books)
Useful link here about giving away free books as marketing https://kobowritinglife.com/2017/08/09/kobo-writing-life-podcast-episode-88-five-strategies-for-using-free/?utm_content=buffer8a9b5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
I wasn't that impressed with the quality of the vista print ones, so I tend to get mine from Moo (wedding photography, not writing... although I'd probably get some writing ones done before going to a writing conference), but yeah $200 dollars is nuts (and $500 dollars for a website that is less good than a wordpress template is also bonkers) ETA Banana print are also a good cheap option and sit in the middle quality wise between vista and moo ETA 2 Another thing Ive been known to do (again in photography) is have two sorts of biz card one cheap and one more classy - I give the cheap ones out at wedding fairs etc and keep the expensive ones for serious prospects (or existing clients - most brides take some to give to their freinds) on the latter its worth paying the 15p a card to make a good impression , the former tend to be more of the 500 for 9.99 type. If i was going to display them on notice boards (and i can't think why i would) it would definitely be the cheap ones seriously Taylor - yes you need to speculate to acumulate but you also need to put the money on the right things.
Entirely possible, but since countless websites pop up windows that can be closed on my browser, it strikes me as a quality issue.
I'm still molding the sites content, so I appreciate the feedback. I'm close to closing the book on edits for Teresa's Gift. I think it's time to call one piece finished...
An update. I receive 1-2 new email followers a day from magnet giveaway. It's impossible for me to tell if it's impacts sales. Virtual Heaven has been out 25 days and sold 15 copies, three to pals. One first week, then 7, and we still have today counting toward week three (I started at first sale or emailed update). Thursday saw the first time I sold 2 copies in a day, yesterday 3, and I sunk almost $200 into driving traffic to my first professional book review, https://bookreviewsbyshalini.wordpress.com/2017/12/25/virtual-heaven-by-taylor-kole/ Which I'm crediting with my uptick. They traffic drive starts today. Wish me luck. Merry Christmas
really you should invest your money in driving traffic to your site - not to someone elses (you can link your review from your page)
Driving traffic to my site is great advice. I have added a Kindle giveaway to entice litters. My mailer is 6 weeks old, I hit 650 this morning. I'm not sure how that compares. Giveaways have led to sales and reviews. Though there's a downside. A man named Jorah posted on reddit, angry the mods allowed me to repost my magnet giveaway a 3rd time. The next day a Jorah gave 1 star review. I'm doing good reads giveaway next week, five print edition. I'll keep updated.
don't worry about bad reviews so long as you are also getting good ones - everyone gets some bad reviews (If you look at Joanna Penns first book Stone of Fire she's only got 50% five star ratings)
I make very simple business cards on Avery stock, and keep a pack of them in a card holder in my pocket. If I talk to someone about my book, I give them a card. My wife does likewise, and also carry each other's cards. Simple, but it works.
