Postcards and business/contact cards...

So, Sonya asked if I could put a little something up about creating my postcards and ordering them. No problem!

First and foremost, I knew that a lot of authors, print and e-pub, had what's called book swag. These included postcards, bookmarks, of their books, or books' cover art. It's a great promotional tool. I still have a few from one author I knew.

I shopped around for pricing. Some places wanted WAY too much for just a few cards made. If you're an established author and have that much cash to spend for promotional items, or can use it as a write off, YAY! Me? Not so much. I have to do this on a tight budget.

The best pricing, I found, for the quantity and quality, was through VistaPrint.com. You can create your own postcards or use their graphics. I downloaded their Photoshop templates to use, followed the easy directions on the templates, and created my own. Basically, cover art on the front, and blurb with my name and contact info on the back. at the time of ordering, I didn't have a release date or ISBN number, so I left those off. I also made sure I left enough white space on the card to sign because I won't have a physical copy of my book to sign.

Business cards I used their graphics and designed my own.

Both are standard sized, 4x6 for the post card and sx3 for the business card. The postcard is glossy on the front and normal on the back, to make it easier to sign.

My order total came to $48.94 for 250 postcards and 250 business cards.

This is a picture of my contact card.

One thing I do like about VistaPrint is the fact that if you want to create matching sets, such as cards, letterheads, etc, they can do that.

Also, your cover art can be made into mugs, totebags, spiral bound journal notebooks, key chains...you know, promotional swag. =) I spent three days on that website before I finally convinced myself to order just the postcards and the contact cards. LOL.

I loved the fact that I could play with the graphics designer to create items.

My next step is to order bookmarks. LOL

Hey, all. Sonya is a debut author with a book due to be released in August. Go check out Sonya's blog at http://sonyabclark.wordpress.com/ and she's got a website at http://sonyaclark.webs.com/