Book Swag!

What to make, what elements to include, and where to order book swag.

I love making book swag! Partly because I like having things to give out with pre-orders or at events, but also because it helps me celebrate the book for myself (which I mentioned in our Celebrating Our Books post).

I’ve made all kinds of things and I’ve seen some great examples from other authors and illustrators! So I thought I’d share some inspiration and tips for those of you thinking about making swag for your next book.

Let’s start with the basics…

Stickers!

These are my favorite because they’re quick and easy to design and oh-so-satisfying. And kids love them! Plus, I love having the stickers to stick onto my iPad or laptop, or send out with giveaways or to readers who reach out to me. I’ve made sticker sheets (expensive!) and individual stickers (cheap to moderate). Christine has used Stickerapp and really liked it.

I do ask my editor for permission and credit the illustrator with a copyright line if I’m using illustrations I didn’t make.

Bookmarks

I once asked a 2nd grade class if they preferred stickers or bookmarks, and they said bookmarks! Maybe it was just that class, but librarians are always giving out bookmarks and they can be great swag to sign for kids who may not have a book for signing. Bookmarks take a bit more work to design, but you can sometimes get your publisher to design and make them. I use Vistaprint for my bookmarks (though I did have quality issues with one particular design that had a white on white background, which for some reason resulted in slightly off-center cutting, even after they re-did them, and now I have hundreds of slightly off-center bookmarks, gah! But kids don’t seem to mind. And my other designs have come back okay.)

Elements I like to include:

• Book cover

• Brief description

• Additional covers for upcoming titles if it is a series

• Publisher logo

• ISBN (yes, bookstores and libraries really use this!)

• QR code to book info on my website

• Space for signing

Postcards

I make postcards mostly for promotional purposes. They’re nice for handing to a bookstore owner or sending out to bookstores. I usually make these once a year to highlight my new books and I’ll mail some and send some out with giveaways. I use Vistaprint for my postcards too and have been happy with the quality.

Elements I like to include:
(FRONT)

• Book cover(s)

• My name/photo

(BACK)

• Title, Publisher, Pub Date

• ISBN

• QR code to book info on my website

• Brief description for specific book postcards, or additional books by me for general postcards

Pins, cookies, pencils, etc.

There are all sorts of fun swag you can get made (or make yourself)! However, many of these can be difficult/costly to mail, so these are mostly suitable for events. I made acrylic robot pins through Stickermule for my AlphaBot book and Christine made custom cookies through Zazzle for Evelyn the Adventurous Entomologist.

Get creative!

I’ve seen some fun swag ideas—like Rajani LaRocca’s current pre-order campaign for Sona and the Golden Beasts, where she’s added to her custom bookmarks with tassles and golden charms, or Margaret Greanias’s pre-order campaign for How This Book Got Red, that offered an exclusive art print, or Stacey Lee’s pre-order campaign for Kill Her Twice, that offered hand-sewn booksleeves!

For my Ava Lin book, my main character loves finding small treasures, so I created swag that looks like a note from her to the reader with special treasures: a glittery sticker and a rhinestone! (I checked to make sure these could go through the mail easily.) On the back, I’m adding a little signed note from me and I’m partnering with my local bookstore, Linden Tree Books, to send these out with pre-orders. (If you’d like to pre-order, I would love the support!)

Design Tools

I do most of my design in Photoshop because I often use the vendor templates and want to make sure I have sufficient bleed (extra margin so your colors go all the way to the edge) on my designs and that it all lines up properly. However, I find that doing more complex graphic layouts is much faster in Canva because they have so many design templates and fonts and elements built in. (If you haven’t used Canva, I highly recommend it for promo graphics.) So, sometimes I will start in Canva (especially for my postcards) and move over into Photoshop for final touches, or fix the sizing/bleed directly in Canva. I know Canva has a printing option to order postcards through them, but I have heard the quality is not great.

How much swag?

It depends how heavily you plan to promote! I usually plan for about 25 items per bookstore event, plus 50 for random purposes. If I’m doing a pre-order campaign, maybe another 30-50, or if I’m planning to give away swag at schools—that can mean a lot more! (I don’t usually give away swag at schools, but might leave a stack of bookmarks with the librarian to distribute as they see fit.) These are my personal numbers based on my experience, but of course your numbers will be specific to you! I will say, when my publisher made me bookmarks, they sent me 1000 and it took me 3 years to give them all away during the pandemic—but they’re all gone now.

More Ideas?

If you have made some creative swag for your books, please share! I know everybody would love to see more ideas.