[beccaprice]

I'm going to a 2-day educational conference to try to sell my books and the lesson plans that go with them. They've asked for "bag fillers" for 400 attendees. I've got a ton of bookmarks, but bookmarks and fliers are two a penny. Does anyone have any ideas for bag fillers that are relatively inexpensive but would stand out? and that I can get in 2 weeks?

 

[Guest]

Badges, signed postcards, excerpts from the book on postcards, signed...?

 

[Victoria LK]

pens, post-a-notes, band-aid holders  Go online & look up promotional products- there are tons out there and a number of the companies have fast turn around times.  One of the more popular that I'm seeing get passed around are pen that have the soft tip to act as a stylus for your tablet.  Good luck!

 

[beccaprice]

I decided to create an 8.5 x 11 one page folded in half, both sides printed brochure. The cover and back will be in color, the inside is an excerpt from Princess for Tea (ending at a cliff-hanger). The back side has a picture for that excerpt plus the Wyrm Tales Press logo and contact information. Overnight Express will mail it directly to the conference in a reasonable time. I'm hoping that the color cover will grab people, and that the excerpt will hook them, at least enough to wander past my table and actually look at the books and lesson plans we'll have available.

I may try to get pens or something else similar at a later date - for this one, I wanted something that would really draw attention.

 

[Christine Tate]

What about taking 1 or 2 Hershey's kisses, putting them in a 4 x 4 inch square of netting, tying a ribbon around the neck to close the netting and attaching a tag with your book title to the ribbon?

 

[beccaprice]

I've already ordered the fliers, and they'll mail them directly to the conference. But if I have a smaller conference to go to, the chocolate in netting with my bookmark attached sounds fun, if a lot of work. It reminds me of getting ready for a big wedding!

 

[cinisajoy]

Hun,
A piece of paper is not a bag filler.  It needs to be something a little more substantial.    Bookmarks, stylus pens, pens, candy.  Something memorable not something that will be dumped in the nearest trashcan.

 

[Tim_A]

Fridge magnets always go down well.

I agree with Cinisajoy, a one sheet flier on (presumably) ordinary paper is likely to be seen as junk mail.

 

[beccaprice]

I was hoping it would be seen as a mini-book. It has a full color cover, and inside is full text of at least part of the story.

I've used bookmarks before, and hadn't had very good luck - I didn't see them scattered on the floor, but I think most people saw it as just another piece of paper.

In spite of the encouragement I've received both on this site and from other people, so far we haven't seen much action from the education conferences we've been to - they mostly seemed like CEU factories. And they're expensive. Come summer, I want to reach out to some of the home schooling groups, but their conferences are even more expensive than the general education ones - and I get a lot of religious pushback for writing "evil" stories about fairies, brownies, and the like. I'm trying to expand my audience, but it's being hard.

 

[telracs]

becca-  put aside that it is YOUR product you want to promote.  turn yourself into a conference goer.  now, what do YOU like to find in the bag?

personally, at conferences, i like magnets.  magnetic bookmarks work great also. pens.  i can always use pens.

what i don't like?  anything paper. 

also, i don't recommend the chocolate idea (even though i love chocolate) because it's too easy for stuff to melt and get all over everything and then you've annoyed someone.

 

[beccaprice]

I mostly only go to SF conferences, not professional conferences, so I'm lucky if I take away a pocket program.

What's a good source for magnetic stuff or for pens? (I'd want good quality pens)

do I just put "www.wyrmtalespress.com" on the pencils or some sort of tag line?

"Modern fairy tales with a classical approach" is what I have as my sig file on my email. Any other ideas?

 

[cdk]

Hi -

I recently self published for the first time and I've been hanging out here for months, but this is officially my first post.  So, "Hi" to everyone. My 14-year-old son started a small candy business that I think might be a good idea for your bag fillers.  He creates custom candy wrappers for Hershey miniature candies.  They're easy to make and you can print your cover on the front of the candy wrapper and print your website address on the back.  Once you create a template you can typically print about 15 wrappers per sheet of paper.  A large bag of Hershey miniatures generally cost about $9-$10, and it's an inexpensive way to create a custom bag filler that you can make yourself.  It's almost like giving people an edible business card that they'll always remember.

Good luck.

 

[beccaprice]

would rulers be good for early ed teachers?

eta: just looked around some - pens and rulers start at about $5 each - I can't afford 400 of those. Maybe for a smaller, more choice audience...

eta(2) I found a source of pencils I can afford - even with express shipping it comes to just about the same amount as the brochures will. I wonder if I can cancel the brochure order?

 

[cinisajoy]

Becca,
Idea.  Do you have a local print shop?  Call and ask their prices.  They might make you a deal.  I know the print shop here prints on every thing.  And I know you can get pens for under $5 each.

 

[cinisajoy]

I just found pens for less than 50 cents a piece.
https://www.google.com/search?q=printed+pens&oq=printed+pe&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0l3.7178j0j4&client=tablet-android-samsung&sourceid=chrome-mobile&espv=1&ie=UTF-8

 

[beccaprice]

Thank you, Cin.  There has been so much going on in my life this week that I'm just being easily confused - not to mention not mention that I don't really know what I'm doing.  I know there has to be a better way of bringing my books to people's attention - I just don't know what it is.  I'll look into the pens, and again, thank you.

 

[kathrynoh]

I know this would be far more than you'd want to spend on bag fillers, but I could really see some of your characters as stuffed toys

 

[Christine Tate]

I was hoping it would be seen as a mini-book. It has a full color cover, and inside is full text of at least part of the story.

I've used bookmarks before, and hadn't had very good luck - I didn't see them scattered on the floor, but I think most people saw it as just another piece of paper.

In spite of the encouragement I've received both on this site and from other people, so far we haven't seen much action from the education conferences we've been to - they mostly seemed like CEU factories. And they're expensive. Come summer, I want to reach out to some of the home schooling groups, but their conferences are even more expensive than the general education ones - and I get a lot of religious pushback for writing "evil" stories about fairies, brownies, and the like. I'm trying to expand my audience, but it's being hard.

As a homeschooler myself, my experience has been summer is scatter time for most homeschool families. Some do school year round, but most like to forget about it during the summer months, so not sure about your timing for reaching the homeschool market. I know what you mean about homeschool venues being expensive. A cheaper option would be for you to find a few coops within driving distance from your home and offer to be a guest speaker in a few of their classes or offer to do a special reading event for the whole coop.

 

[Jan Hurst-Nicholson]

Children like to collect things in a series. I had copies made of the original drawings from my Leon Chameleon books and I print them out postcard size with details of the book on the back, and I sometimes sign/autograph them. If you number them you can get the children to collect all the numbers  . Might even start a swopping craze 

 

[beccaprice]

I know this would be far more than you'd want to spend on bag fillers, but I could really see some of your characters as stuffed toys

For Christmas, my daughter got me a WebKiz stuffed dragon from Amazon - he's adorable. I have tiny fairy dolls that I got from the HeartSong catalog - I think they're made in Germany. They're perfect for my characters, but buying them retail I'd have to sell them for something like $7.50, so I mostly use them as decorations for the table. I need to do a bit of research where to buy them retail.

also, my artist is making simpler versions of all her pictures for me (no shading and only minor detail), so I can create a coloring book, and my daughter drew me 4 really good fairy doors for the coloring book, so I am branching out... it's just finding the audience.