Swag and The Women Who Love It

I am a huge fan of swag. I know that doesn’t come as a shock to anyone. I mean who doesn’t like free stuff. Not all swag is good, I am sorry to say. I have gone to just a couple of conventions, but I get swag from other places as well. It is called marketing tools. I am just one person, contrary to popular opinion, and I know that a lot of people will not agree with me on this subject.  

Good swag to me is something I can use in everyday life. I do like the unusual as well and if it makes me laugh, I always remember it. I do not use a lot of the swag I receive. I put it in a keepsake box and when l feel down or I just want to remember something, I can just pull it out and it takes me right back to the moment I picked it up. I know I am a packrat, but that is a story for another time. When I kick the bucket, my poor nephew Squirrel will love cleaning those things out. Moving on.

I am proud to show off author bags and pens. I get more questions about the bags, of course, but that is to be expected. I am also a big fan of pins. I have my Righteous Pervert bags and I put them all on them. When I use my bags, I get lots of questions or at least some strange looks (especially from my I like my Men Rough and Ready pin). I also like the swag that ties into the books. Melissa Schroeder has dogtags for her Military Harmless books. I can’t remember (because I missed out on them), but one of the authors who was at Authors After Dark in Philadelphia had a band aid kit and her series took place in a hospital. Makes sense right? I like things like that. It helps me remember the books and the authors. When you read as many books as I do, every little thing helps.

I have seen all kinds of swag from the normal pens, notepads and bumper stickers to the unusual like sex kits. My favorites are books. I know how expensive this is for the authors but to me, sometimes it is worth the expense. I am not talking about giving everyone a book. That is just crazy. I am talking about having a system of giving them away. I have ideas on this and I am sure the author to whom I beta will love hearing about it. Anyway, to me, getting a book from an author is priceless. That means they want me to read their book and they care enough to actually give it to me (or I like to think they do). The best part is they are right there to get it autographed and yep, I collect autographs. Another popular but expensive thing is t-shirts. I love them. Here is the only thing that is an issue for me. If you put your book cover on it, sometimes I feel like a walking billboard—you know the ones you see in big cities advertising sandwiches. I prefer a witty saying or if there are specific settings that are important to the books then advertise that. I don’t mind having the author’s website on the shirt either.

Now on to bad swag. I hate having to write this part, but I think that it needs to be said. I see a lot of paper being used. No one keeps paper things. Most get tore up just in the packing for home—if it even makes it that far. Most get left behind in the hotel rooms. If you autograph it, it might have a chance of surviving. I know it is a cheaper way to advertise but does it matter if it doesn’t make it home with the reader? Same thing with business cards. Unless you own a bookstore, why give them out? Maybe a first time reader will want one to remember your name, but an autograph and a conversation can do the same thing. Another popular thing is bookmarks. We all know my feelings on books but with ereaders, not many people have need for a bookmark.

I know this is a learning process for most authors. Most do not have a background in marketing and a lot of publishers are not great in communicating with their authors in what they should use as swag. One way for authors to find good marketing items is go and check out a website. Look around to see what is available. It might spark something in your head that will pertain to your books. Another is post the question on your website, Facebook, or your blog. Ask the people to whom you are trying to make contact. I know that opens the door to complete and utter crazy talk but sometimes, you can find a great idea in chaos. 

Perfect Partners

I attended an RWA conference this last week. I taught a class about conflict with my writing partner, Shayla Black. I was surprised that at the end of the session what most people wanted to talk about wasn’t emotional conflict – it was collaboration.
Though seriously – there’s some emotional conflict in that topic.

So I thought I would talk a little about the beauty and pit falls of collaboration.

First off, if you choose to collaborate, pick your partner wisely. You will be married to this person for the rest of your life. There is no divorce in the self-published writer marriage. You get a joint bank account and start an LLC. Your names are tied together. You have to trust this person.

For Shayla and myself, we dove tail nicely. We were friends for about a year and a half before we got the brilliant notion to write Their Virgin Captive. It happened—as most good things happen—over a pitcher of margaritas. We quickly learned that while we value the same general things when it comes to a story, we also had some differences. I love to have a clever external plot and she pushed me to find more conflict to push the story along.

We plotted out that first book and decided that this would be a fun way to test out the self pub waters because we couldn’t think of a single New York house that would be insane enough to buy a book about a virgin, three brothers, a stalker and moose all set in Alaska. We were pretty sure readers wouldn’t buy it, either, but the story was in our collective brains and wanted out.

So we tried several methods. The collective writing thing didn’t work for us. Nor did writing every other chapter. Though we have similar values, our styles can be very different and that first draft would have ended up creating a new bi-polar model for novel writing. We finally realized that my strength was speed so I bang out the first draft and Shayla massages it with her well manicured editing fingers.

What I’ve also realized about writing partnerships is that there’s always the calm, patient one and then there’s the crazy bitch. I was deeply disturbed to realize I was the cra cra one. I am the one who must be talked off the ledge. I am the one who requires copious amounts of liquor and the promise of pretty shoes to calm down during the editing process because my every single word is not precious.

It’s odd since I always thought I was totally sane. That’s the other thing a good partner can do for you. They can make you see that you are not as sane as you thought – and that’s okay because she’s the one who is always ready with the martini.

Partnership is hard. Make no mistakes about it. There is conflict. We don’t always agree. We can both be difficult. We have to put our friendship aside sometimes and deal with one another as business associates. But at the end of the day, I’m not alone. I don’t have to shoulder the whole burden.

In an industry know for its solitary nature – that might be best reason to collaborate—to share the ups and downs, to celebrate and mourn, to never be alone. And now that I’m writing the words I realize I am not just talking about a business, I’m talking about family. If you jump into the collaborative waters, a family is exactly what you could find.

Lexi Blake writes erotic romance. Her latest book, On Her Master’s Secret Service will be out in May.

And her newest collaboration with Shayla Black, Their Virgin Princess is out now.

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-theirvirginprincessmastersofmenagebook4-1046805-146.html