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25 Goodie Bag Ideas for Your Book Launches, Readings, Signings and Other Promotions

book bag

Image credit: Hammer & Thread

 

Goodie bags are not just for birthday parties anymore. Just like companies give goodie bags filled with small presents to promote their products, authors can fill goodie bags with little literary treasures to excite and delight the hearts and minds of book lovers. You can use them as gift bags for your VIP clients and strategic partners, as well as prizes in giveaways and contests.

Everybody wants to feel special, and with a little imagination, you can put together your own signature goodie bag to make your readers and clients happy. Here are 25 bookish goodie bag ideas for your book launches, readings, signings and other promotions:

  1. Your book autographed by you (Duh!);
  2. Bookmarks: check out some cute DIY felt ones on our Bookphoria Pinterest board or turn your photo collage into a bookmark with an added quote ;
  3. Reading lights;
  4. Fabric book covers;
  5. Pens custom-branded for you;
  6. Calendars with illustrations or quotes from your book;
  7. A set of cards featuring illustrations and quotes from your book;
  8. Stationary, such as notepads, cards and envelopes, custom-branded for you;
  9. Magnets with quotes from your book;
  10. A set of printed library cards that can be used as gift tags, invitations, records of book exchanges, or little notepads (see examples here);
  11. Gummy worm candies for bookworms;
  12. Book-themed mugs;
  13. Feeling crafty? Make some DIY Tile Photo Coasters or pick from the existing styles, colors and shapes, add your words, and then personalize your coasters with your own photo or art.
  14. Favor containers personalized with your quotes;
  15. Recipe cards if your book contains any recipes;
  16. Fortune cookies with your book quotes inside;
  17. A pack of custom heart candies with your clever sayings;
  18. A spice jar filled with your favorite spices and a label with your quote;
  19. A whimsy literary charm to mark a drink glass, like this set of 6 double-sided Fairytale Wine Glass Charms that include Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella;
  20. Copied book pages to wrap small items;
  21. Bookish socks, like Curl Up With a Good Bookworm Socks or Typewriters: “Your feet will want to tap, tap, tap the day away in our fun Typewriter women’s crew socks!”
  22. Origami made out of paper with your printed press releases, book reviews and other marketing materials that look impressive but not salesy in a cute origami form;
  23. A flash drive with audio files of your interviews, book readings, etc.;
  24. A DVD of your public appearances, talks or presentations;
  25. A custom designed library tote bag to hold your creative goodies.

What bookish gifts have you enjoyed giving or receiving? Share in the comments below.

P.S. Want our opinion on how you can multiply your impact and income?
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By | 2015-01-28T19:38:59+00:00 January 28th, 2015|Books, Communication|0 Comments

52 blogging ideas for authors and experts, based on their book content

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Many authors choose to publish a blog as a way to stay connected with their readers, promote books, build their brand, share ideas, grow and engage their readership. A blog helps you stay visible and relevant to your audience. Publishers look for authors with active, buzzing and growing communities of readers and a robust social media presence.

If you have just written a book, you may feel like you have exhausted your creative potential and squeezed every original thought out of your head. What else could you possibly write about in a blog? Don’t despair! Get your blog publishing calendar out and start filling it with these 52 blogging ideas. If you publish once a week, they will give you the whole year worth of material!

  1. Things that didn’t make into the book, such as background stories of the characters, descriptions of people and places, or details of the events;
  2. Your personal elaborations on the characters and the plot;
  3. Your motivation for writing the book;
  4. Your mission, goals and inspirations as an author;
  5. A brief video introducing you and your book to your audience;
  6. Alternative plot developments that could have happened;
  7. Questions that you struggled with as you were writing the book;
  8. Your answers to the readers’ questions;
  9. Your responses to the readers’ reviews and comments;
  10. The summary of benefits your readers can expect when they study and implement your ideas;
  11. The summary of pain points that your book addresses;
  12. Lessons, case studies and examples of application of the ideas in your book;
  13. Your personal favorite or least favorite parts of the book and why you chose them;
  14. Anchors, such as catchy phrases, memorable metaphors or anecdotes that can improve the recall of your book content;
  15. Tests and assessments that allow readers to evaluate their knowledge and skills;
  16. Your questions to your readership;
  17. Photos of any physical artifacts that became a part of your book or helped you in the writing process, with your commentary;
  18. Recipes of any food or drinks mentioned in the book;
  19. Sharing of how you implement your own ideas – live your truth – your personal successes and failures along the way;
  20. Your habits as a writer and your creative process;
  21. Guide questions and activities for book clubs that want to discuss your book;
  22. Your own interviews about the book;
  23. Interviews of other people who have read and used your book;
  24. Stories, scenarios, problems that build on your material and encourage readers to apply the strategies in your book;
  25. Additional activities and exercises to help your readers implement your ideas;
  26. Daily observations and spin offs that relate to your book content;
  27. Giving voice to different characters in your book by writing a post from their perspective on a situation or interviewing them;
  28. A collection of quotes from your book that can be easily shared on social media;
  29. A collection of quotes from book reviews;
  30. Endorsements of your book by other distinguished writers and experts;
  31. Press releases about your book signings and other public appearances;
  32. Unfolding a passage of your book with additional thoughts, illustrations, etc.;
  33. Making your characters and places come alive through drawings, cartoons, maps, photos, etc.;
  34. Creating and sharing an infographic or visual illustration of your book content;
  35. Commentary of the news and current events that can be related to your book content;
  36. Guest posts from your readers or other writers;
  37. Reader contests where you ask your readers to submit some content, such as their stories, reviews, designs, for a chance to win a prize;
  38. Participating in a blog tour where other bloggers get to interview you about your book;
  39. Clips from newspapers, magazines and other publications about you and your book;
  40. How-to lists based on your book content;
  41. Before and after photos that illustrate the implementation of your system or strategies;
  42. Reader “makeover” challenges where you follow and write about some readers who are using your book to improve their lives;
  43. DIY projects based on your book content;
  44. Crossword puzzles based on your book content;
  45. Reviews of other books with complementary topics;
  46. Product and service suggestions based on your book content;
  47. Recap of your social media activity with most popular tweets, Facebook updates, LinkedIn discussions, readers’ comments, etc.
  48. Brief audio or video tips based on your book content;
  49. Teasers of your upcoming books;
  50. Brainstorming future book ideas with your readers;
  51. Asking readers’ opinions on your titles, book covers, etc.;
  52. Sharing your work process and progress if you are writing another book.

What do you write about in your blog? Share in the comments below.

P.S. Multimedia solutions, such as brief video explainers, games, assessments, scenarios, and animations, can make your content marketing more engaging. Want our opinion on what kind of multimedia solution you could create? We’ll mentor you for free.
Click here to set up a free rapid fire mentorship session with us.

By | 2015-01-13T14:23:12+00:00 January 13th, 2015|Books, Communication|4 Comments

Book Lover Gift Guide from Bookphoria

“I don’t know what’s in the box, but I love it. Unopened gifts contain hope.”
~ Jarod Kintz

As our neurons sparkle with the anticipation of the holidays, many of us appreciate some gift ideas around this time of the year. Got a book lover on your list or need to indulge your Inner Writer? Look no further than our Book Lover Gift Guide from Bookphoria. Get your Santa bag ready…

1. Flip a book! We love these fast flip books from Japanese company Mou Hitotsu no Kenkyujo. Dive deep into three dimensional space with their artful animation through cut-outs and negative space that create movement. You can read more about fast flip books here.

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[Gifs via Travelry]

2. Color yourself happy! Coloring is not just for children, grown-ups can color too. Did you know that coloring helps adults combat stress? What a better way to do it than with humor? With over 200 comedy videos and 75 million YouTube views to their credit, Ryan Hunter and Taige Jensen know how to make people laugh. These masters of offbeat Internet humor hilariously combine the mindless fun of children’s coloring books with the mind-numbing realities of modern adult life in their book “Coloring for Grown-Ups: The Adult Activity Book.”

“Coloring for Grown-Ups: The Adult Activity Book

3. Learn a fake language for brain health and fun! Living Language started offering courses of Dothraki, fictional language from Game of Thrones. Now, Game of Thrones lovers can boast their new language skills at holiday parties. And if you are not a Game of Thrones fan and couldn’t tell Mother of Dragons from Red Priestess before, you will understand even less now.

English: “Have fun storming the castle!”
Dothraki: “Anha zalak meme vallayafa yera, jin athvashar okrenegwini!”

Dothraki

4. Have kids, will cookreal recipes from Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s books. Would you like to try WILLY WONKA’S NUTTY CRUNCH SURPRISE? Pair it with Dinah Fried’s “Fictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature’s Most Memorable Meals” for grown-ups to enjoy.

Roald Dahl's Revolting RecipesFictitious Dishes: An Album of Literature's Most Memorable Meals

5. Eat like royals from Goldbook square china dinner plates! This exquisite book-shaped dish set is wonderful for hosting a book club.

book dish set

6. We have a perfect cup of tea to go with your book! A Novel Teas box contains 25 teabags individually tagged with literary quotes from the world over, made with the finest English Breakfast tea: “Spend teatime with CS Lewis, Rita Mae Brown, Alice Hoffman, and more as they share their thoughts on the delights and comforts of tea and books on each individually printed tea tag.” Serve it in this cute one-cup book teapot.

Novel Teasbook tea pot

7. Why do old books smell so good? Science has the answer. Old books have a sweet smell with notes of vanilla flowers and almonds, caused by the breakdown of chemical compounds in the paper. Now, you don’t have to go to the library to enjoy the smell of old books. Get this Old Books – Book Lovers’ Scented Soy Candle instead. From the product description: “Ideal for bibliophiles of all sorts. The scent is a sweet and floral earthy smell with a hint of must. (Not mildewy, rotten old books!)”

old books candle

8. Bring an old-book feel to your hi-tech world. Books, coffee and iPhones unite in this Vintage Book and Coffee iPhone Case.

vintage book coffee iphone case

9. Become a neighborhood library builder. You may have seen them around – Little Free Libraries where people share their favorite books with their community. Take a book, return a book. They are artfully constructed by their creators and carefully curated by the community. What a beautiful gift that keeps giving to your neighborhood. Learn how to become a library builder at http://littlefreelibrary.org/builders/.

Little Free Libraries

Since our Bookphoria team can turn just about anything into a learning opportunity, we believe that authors, experts and speakers can learn even form a gift guide. Here is how you can be a good Santa too.

10. Do you have boxes full of your books waiting to be gifted or sold? Build a book tree from your books in your office and offer your books as gifts to your clients. Advertise your book tree on social media!

book tree

What other physical artifacts can you create based on your expertise that can help you tell the story of your brand and share it with the world? Post your ideas in the comments below or send them to info@bookphoria.com. You may even get a surprise gift from Bookphoria!

And above all, don’t forget to smile! Happy holidays!

P.S. To make your holidays even more “sane,” download the “Ultimate Online Tech Toolbox” that will help you minimize your stress while dealing with technology this season!

By | 2014-12-03T15:02:23+00:00 December 3rd, 2014|Books, Communication|0 Comments