I recently received a small order of my latest book, A Gentleman and a Scholar, the ninth book in the Longleigh Chronicles. I pre-autographed them which saves lots of time later and slapped an autographed by author sticker on the cover. I finally ran out of the 1,000 stickers I had ordered fifteen years ago. Basically, this means I've hand sold about the same number of books, though some are still in storage. By this time, however, they barely stuck to the covers and often popped off so I was back to saytng, "Yes, it is autographed" as if my signature would ever mean anything in a hundred years. I vowed to only buy a hundred more. But discovered that although cheap, they only come in 1,000 piece packets. Amazon offered many shapes and styles, but I will never use them all. My daughter is now writing YA SF and if she gets published, I will give her at least half of these or more.
I also purchased 1,000 elegant business cards with my name and full contact information on them, and I mean all, phone number, e-mail address, street address. No, fanatical fans did not track me down though occasionally I'd get a nice note when a person had read one of books and liked it-if only they had dropped a review instead. It did make my day until a spoil sport told me they only wanted to get a free book out of me. Mostly, I got a bunch of annoying phone calls from people who wanted to sell me things. It seems folks would walk through an event picking up cards and selling the information. Even the old Yellow Pages called telling me I could get a lot more painting jobs if I advertised with them. My card said I also painted. I had to explain I did not paint houses, only on canvas, for fun not money. Though I still have 500 cards left, I give them out only sparingly to people who ask for them. If I move or change my phone number they will end up in the trash.
My e-mail address and blog are listed on my book cards. I used to order 250 of these with each new book that came out because it was the best price. They have the book cover on one side, a blurb on the other, and a listing of all my titles plus the basic contact information. These have been useful, but believe me, 100 of each would have been plenty. I used to include an ISBN number but when one of my publishers went under and I resold the book, I had to throw all of those cards out since the book was recovered and the ISBN no longer correct.
Swag-readers at events love free swag-and seldom buy a book. Save your money. Even now I have a few foam footballs left from an order of one-hundred and posters I used to give away with the purchase of a book (boy, did that fail). I've had friends who bought 1,000 cheap pens with their names imprinted on them only to find the ink ran dry after a year or so, and they had to be thrown out. My personal favorite swag is an emery board, useful and doesn't go stale. What I am saying is don't go overboard buying swag in your first flush of publishing fame unless you do strike it rich.
My books are not self-published but put out by small e-presses which lately are dropping like the autumn leaves. So far my two still exist for now. I order my books to sell at events from them and do not get any for free which is why I am cheap about giving them away. Still, the self-published often ask me how many copies they should order. I always tell them 100 as that is the extent of your friends and relatives who will buy your first book, but not likely your second, and many will not read it at all. Way back I did order 100 copies of each new book. I did sell out my first, Goals for a Sinner, my best, Queen of the Mardi Gras Ball, and another entitled A Taste of bayou Water of which I had only ordered 50. Most of the others still have around thirty each laying around in boxes in the storage area ten years later. Now I only order a dozen and will reorder if needed. E-publishers would rather sell e-books. My orders are print on demand. They don't exist anywhere but in my back room and a few available on Amazon, also PODs or used books for ridiculous prices. Contact me and I will sell you one for $20 which includes postage, all but the latest which are $25 because the price of paper has has gone up so much.
Now, I was taken to task by a friend who self-published a memoir of growing up in a small town in the 1950's. It was well written and had photos of her family. She went ahead and ordered 1,000 copies and sold them all for over twenty dollars each. Why? Every person in that small town wanted to see if they had been mentioned. For the most part, they weren't. It was a very personal story and only notes some stores of which she had fond memories which are now gone. She reordered. Who knows how many are her storage area now. I end by cautioning, don't buy 1,000 of anything.
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