60 Days to Publication and Counting -- Website and Promotional Materials

Despite suffering a few panic attacks over the past few days due to an ill-advised trip to the bookstore, I'm still pressing on with my quest for self-publication.

The former acquisitions editor from Simon and Schuster who I hired to do a manuscript review gave me her initial feedback which filled me with hope that I'm moving in the right direction. She said, "Just to let you know, I've finished reading The Bum Magnet--what fun! It takes alot to make me laugh out loud and Charisse made me roll . . . You have a great voice. Writers are either born with a great voice or not, and you were born with one."

Yaaay!

So, as I await for her written notes to arrive in the mail so I can make my final revisions, I decided to put the finishing touches on my website, finalize the price, and determine which promotional materials I was going to use and design them. (I'll post the designs later.)

Website: http://www.klbradywrites.com/
It's pretty much done. I've posted my media kit, posted a book description, added a book order page and a paypal button for people who want to order directly from me, posted an event and tour schedule in which I do have some events posted. I've signed up to attend the National Black Book Festival in May, that's the biggie. I'm still thinking on the South Carolina Book Festival. I've also added links to my blog. Once I create a blog and/or facebook page specifically for the book, I'll include those as well.

Promotional Materials
I've decided on three promotional materials to promote my book: postcards, bookmarks, and bookbags (the cinch backpacks). I'm ordering 5000 bookmarks, 2500 postcards (8.5x5.5), and 70 bookbags. Altogether, they'll cost less than $500. Can't beat that price, right? If you can design your own materials, order from http://www.gotprint.com/. I started using their services for my real estate ads and through my research, they are the cheapest around. And believe me, I've looked EVERYWHERE.

Why'd I choose those materials? Bookmarks are really cheap so I can hand out alot of them and give them to my wonderful friends to hand out to their friends. I selected an oversized postcard (almost the same dimensions as my book), which is more expensive, but will stand out among the little 6x4 jobs most people send out.

And I wanted to have the bookbags for giveaways at book signings or other events. If someone is bold enough to walk around with a bookbag with the words "Bum Magnet" on it, it is sure to draw attention and people may ask questions, at which time they can tell them about my book. Genius? Yeah, I know. Okay...maybe not so much. But I've already heard from several people who say they know friends whom they'd like to give one to. If you're not that friend, then you're probably going to be the friend that receives it. :)

As for the price? Well, I had to bump it up to 14.95 from $13.95because once I did the formatting, I had a lot more pages than I was expecting to which resulted in a higher printing price.

So that's it for today...I'll post pictures later (when I get home) so you can see exactly what everything looks like and tell me what you think...