Writers Tricks of the Trade Issue 3 Volume 9 | Page 40

Q UALITY P ROMOTIONAL M ATERIALS ARE
S O I MPORTANT
M ORGAN S T . J AMES
Your promotional materials and publications speak for you...are they
high-quality or not up to par?
T
his advice goes beyond the world of
writing. Having spent five years as the
co-owner of a marketing and promotion
company, I constantly told our clients how
important presentation materials are. They
represent you and your product and trigger
the image the buyer forms from the “get-
go.”
Whether you are promoting a widget or
a book, whatever you hand or show a po-
tential client (reader) is your calling card. It
speaks for the quality of the item you want
them to buy. Too many authors are tempt-
ed to go the cheap and easy route. In the
end, the cost is not that different than in-
vesting in high-quality materials.
W HAT THE MATERIALS COMMUNICATE
Would you be inspired to buy some-
thing represented by handouts that look
like the product was produced by “Loving
F ALL 2019
Hands At Home” or “Gowns by Mama.” By
the way, I didn’t coin those phrases. I owe a
thank-you to Carol LeVeque who was my
partner in an interior design business many
years ago. That was the label she applied to
poorly designed interiors, color boards and
brochures, and I’ve used those two exam-
ples ever since.
Your book may be beautifully produced,
but if you hand out bookmarks on flimsy
stock that appear to have been printed on a
home printer ready for the junk pile, that is
how the quality of your book will be per-
ceived. The same goes for “do-it-yourself”
business cards and one-sheets. They are
not going to impress the person you hand
them to. Unfortunately, they do just the op-
posite. One time I’d run out of business
cards and was participating in a book fair.
An author with no cards? Unthinkable. I or-
P AGE 36
W RITERS ’ T RICKS OF THE T RADE