Selling Your Books Via Bookmarks

Most "Sell Your Book" seminar speakers advise, "Have bizcards printed." That's sensible. But then they suggest printing a couple of thousand bookmarks, too. They should match the cover of the book you're promoting. Carry them, give them away.

Then, always, the speaker distributes (her; this is a women's thing) bookmarks to the audience. I mean, woot. I've never bought a book I've seen on a bookmark. Never got into the habit of bookmarks. I don't like how they feel. I leave books open, face down; or I dog-ear a page if the book is mine. People give promotional bookmarks as if this cheapest kind of freebie were a gift. Next time a bookmark is offered I will decline to see what happens.

But I just heard a bookmark strategy new to me -- Take Your Bookmarks to the Bookstore and Stick Them Into Books That Aren't Yours, But Are In the Same Genre. Logic: Reader of big author will buy book, find YOUR bookmark, & feel prodded to buy YOUR book. The chutzpah, logic, and business sense of this marketing move are beneath commentary.