I recently learned of a project called Bookworm Bags whose motto is Finding New Authors One Bag Full at a Time. www.bookwormbags.com  It’s an ingenious pooling of authors who promote their work by giving goodie bags to readers and other interested persons. The goodies inside are promotional items. I’m still trying to discern what that consists of exactly. The little I know sort of reminds me of going to the county fair where you’d get one vendor’s pamphlet and keychain in a plastic bag. Then as you go from display to display, you stuff your bag with informational items you’d know you’d take a second look at back at home when you have more time.

I met a new author friend online a few weeks ago and her promoting strategy just blows me away. What a resource for information. A successful seasoned author, she has all kinds of goodies from t-shirts to postcards. It was wonderful of her to take the time to explain it all to the grateful newbie I am and in doing so described just how they’ve worked for her. All I can say is wow, they obviously have. When I finished reading her emailed reply, I saw all manner of goodies featuring Rose Anderson in my mind’s eye. I have to weigh those ideas with my experience at the county fair. I still use the pencil from the water softener company while the plastic flyswatter from the guy running for county coroner has long since been discarded.

Still, a flyswatter is a necessary thing. People use things that they find useful. If they use them they look at them. If they look at them and my name is on it, they’re reminded of my books. There’s useful then there’s useful. My odd sense of humor compels me to envision my sexy Jinger Heaston book cover for Hermes Online…those long high heeled legs and that buff bare chest, all covered with splattered fly goo.  🙂 Even if I only use my name and not the book’s cover, the splatters might set up a subliminal negative image in the long run. lol Nope, I don’t think I’ll go the promotional flyswatter route.

All I have going for me right now are templates for my bookmark (see my earlier blog entry to view it) A book mark is useful, but then again, I’m a dog ear reader. Nothing works so fast as dog-earring the corner to mark the page. This past weekend I thought of something else completely useful to an avid reader – the bookplate.  I’d give prospective readers a lovely way to show ownership of a book and hopefully they wouldn’t mind my small print. I’m working on several designs today and will post more later. You gotta love the work of John William Waterhouse.  I put them out there for opinions and after much consideration and tweaking, here are the final bookplates ~