A Mooney Marketing Tip - Free Excerpts

It costs pennies per disk. All you need is time.

Buy CDs by the bulk, and use those white paper envelopes to put them in.

Hand them out at all book signings, in each book order you mail out, or send them to friends and fellow authors who are seeking freebies for giveaways!

Here's what you do:

Prepare an ad for each book.

Include a picture of the cover,

a direct BUY link (from your publisher's website, Fictionwise, ARe, wherever!),

ISBN number,

genre,

link to your website, MySpace, and YouTube (if you have a book trailer video),

BLURB,

EXCERPT (be sure to give a rating for the excerpt!).

Save as a MS Word file, or better yet, convert into a PDF file (you can find free PDF converting software on the internet.)

If you save every ad in one folder (mine is labeled PROMO DISK), then all you have to do is "drag and drop" the folder to burn on each disk.

I also found out that you can even drag and drop those .mpv files on the disk, too!

Business Card vs Pen - Getting the Most Bang For Your Buck

I belong to a neat little marketing email loop. Every so often the question comes up "Should I invest in business cards? Or would I get more bang for my buck distributing pens?"

Okay. I've been used both, and here's what I've found out (by accident, and by asking around.)

* Business cards get lost or thrown away.
* One reader said that if she saw a book she wanted to get, she'd write the title on the back of the author's card.
* One reader confessed she collected authors' business cards like her mother collects Hummel figurines.

* Pens work great if they don't clog or leak.
* Pens get USED. A used pen is another chance to advertise.
* All-in-one pens are best, as opposed to pens with removeable caps.
* Get black ink. Most businesses prefer important documents filled out in black ink.
* If a pen gets left behind, someone else will pick it up and use it.
* Pens that write on that slick cashier paper are worth their weight in gold.
* One can never have too many pens.
* If you get pens in different colors, people tend to fight over a particular color (i.e. "I want the blue one!")
* GREAT marketing tip: At book signings, have the reader pick out a pen you then sign the book with, and hand them the pen as a keepsake.

Please drop your opinion whether you use one or both to promote your books. :)