What sorts of things can I use as promotional material?

Hello again!

Today I'm going to give you some ideas for promotional materials and some links to websites that you can get them from.

Let's start with the basics.

• Bookmarks
• Postcards
• Posters
• Refrigerator Magnets
• Bumper stickers
• Window Decals

Most of this stuff you can find at Staples or Vistaprint.

Other basic items you should consider:

• Stationary (including small paper for writing thank you notes, return address labels and possibly stickers and post-its.
• Pens
• Tote bags
• T-shirts

Now this is where we get to the cool stuff. This is the stuff you can get custom for your book. Every book is different and you may want to pick one of these and order a lot or you may want to pick a few of them and order as you need them.

Let's start with what you can find at Vista Print:

• Coffee Mugs
• iPhone cases
• Bottle openers
• Letter opener
• Key chain flashlight
• Can Coolers
• Rulers
• Photo key chains
• Magnetic Clips
• Mouse pads
• There is also calculators and flash drives, but they are a little pricey.

Now here is what you can find at Staples:

• Calendars
• Key chains
• Luggage tags
• Sports Bottles
• Match Books
• Button pins
• And tons more!

The last few items are a little hard to find, so here is the direct link: http://www.staplespromotionalproducts.com/ProductList.aspx?nvid=300&so=4&pl=48&start=0

Okay, let's move on to a site that I stumbled across the other day, Printer Studio.

• Puzzles
• Dominoes
• Magnets
• Mouse pads
• Bags/purses
• Tote bags
• Reusable shopping bags
• Coin Purses
• Cosmetic bags
• Wristlet Clutches
• Calendars
• Clocks
• Aprons
• Notebooks
• Laptop Sleeves
• Playing cards in all sizes

Printer Studio has some great prices and allows you to do the most customization possible with out charging you even more for it.

Okay, so far we've talked about promotional items that can be used for virtually any book. Now we need to talk about cool things that you can giveaway that are specific to your books theme. For example, my book takes place in Hawaii, so I give away Hawaiian Leis. Also in my book, there are protective rings that ward off vampires carved from sea shells, so I found some carved sea shell rings online and bought them for giveaways. They've actually been very popular.

One site that offers cheap goodies is Oriental Trading. They have great prices and lots of stuff to choose from, plus some of it is customizable! What kind of things do you think would work well for your book? What promotional items would you add to my list?

Come back here tomorrow for ideas on DIGITAL promotional materials!