Swag Advice

As I do my own search for the most epic swag at a convention, I reached out to other writers for feedback. 

Aside from the general advice to know your budget and know your audience I received some great nuggets of wisdom.  And also an anti-swag voice.

Lucy Farago cautions that many swag-hunters are the grab-and-go type.  ‘Swag junkies,’ she says. I know this is true. I’ve seen people shovel handfuls of loot into their pack without even looking twice.  Lucy suggests that swag is not the best use of marketing money for authors who don’t have an established brand.  Her suggestion for new authors is to use swag for small reader events

Jo McNally recommends checking on the fine print before pulling the trigger on your purchase.  An item that seems cheap might be too good to be true.  Make sure you’re taking into account things like setup fees and shipping costs. You don’t want a $2 item to end up being $15 when you factor in all the minor charges.

Ava Cuvay remarks that readers/swag-hunters might not understand the use of certain items.  For example, the wine charms a reader thought were naval rings. (That’s quite some jewelry if you’re brave enough to try it. Owie)

She also notes that promotional plastic fans make for dual purpose ice scrapers. (Pro tip)

Now for the fun part!  Links to your swag shopping pleasure!

www.vistsprint.com – Great for paper promo items and pens. (My experience with Vista Print has always been great.  I haven’t seen much of their higher end product but have seen pens, mousepads and of course business/post cards.)

https://www.uprinting.com/ - Great for paper promo items.  (My experience with Uprinting has been spot on.  I created some large brochures and they came out great. Lots of options including mini & pocket brochures.)

www.stickermule.com/‎ -- Stickers and magnets

www.stickeryou.com – Stickers, Magnets and even Temporary tattoos!

www.journalbooks.com – Journals/Notebooks

www.4imprint.com/‎ -- Put your logo on everything! It is a deep, dark rabbit hole. You’ve been warned.

www.anypromo.com/ -- Another site with promo items to slap your logo on.

http://www.eversonbrand.com – Higher end swag

www.themagnetgroup.com – Higher end swag

http://www.logomark.com/ – Higher end swag

I’m sure there are more sites out there, this is just a scratch on the surface, but it should keep you busy shopping for a little while.  Thank you for reading and if you haven’t, please complete the survey.