I attended Terry Sue Harms’ Left Coast Writers book launch last weekend for Pearls My Mother Wore. Besides wowing the audience with her personal story and delightful reading, Terry amazed us with her SWAG, and she gave us some …

We’ve all heard the phrase, collected it, perhaps bought some. In many marketing circles, it is almost as important as writing a book. What is it?

Swag was originally associated with pirates’ or thieves’ booty or loot. Goods gotten unlawfully. Leave it to the 21st Century to transform that into booty gotten lawfully—in fact, given away. For authors, offering swag to audiences is an effective marketing method to keep themselves and their product (like a book) foremost in the audience’s mind long after a book launch, reading or signing is over. Other terms to describe swag are giveaways, take-aways or promotional items—familiar marketing terms.  Typical swag for authors can be t-shirts, hats, buttons, matchboxes and, as today’s graphic illustrates, postcards and bookmarks. Proforma Mactec Solutions produced them for Christi Phillips’s paperback version of The Devlin Diary.

Pens, mugs, notebooks, notepads, book lights and t-shirts are also ways to help advertise a book. If someone wears a t-shirt printed with your book cover and name, you’ve got a walking billboard. And, more often than not, awareness ultimately equates to more sales. Oh yes, backpacks make good swag too, as they can carry a book, a pen, a mug, a button and many of the thousands of items that can be branded with your book title.  One thing to remember when considering swag as part of your marketing plan—that it is associated with you, your story, or your book, so make it the best it can be.

Be sure to contact us with your swag requirements.

—Lowry McFerrin, Proforma Mactec Solutions