Last week, in preparation for a coming conference, I decided it was time to make some business cards. At past conferences, I was always happy to accept someone’s contact information but rarely gave out my own. If I did, it was on a scrap of paper that I tore from my notebook. This needed to change.

As I am also trying to grow some contacts in the writing and publishing community, I chose to make my business cards similar in theme to this website (writer & research scientist). I had quite a lot of fun designing them, though I’m sure a professional would’ve done a much better job.

So here comes the part where you roll your eyes. As I was checking out of Vistaprint and preparing to pay for a stack of 100 business cards, a little advertisement popped up showing my logo on a coffee mug. “Would you like to add this custom mug to your order?” it said.

Well duh. It looks awesome. I clicked yes and sure enough it was added to my order. But then another advertisement appeared. My logo and title on a pen? Who wouldn’t want that?

Five minute later, I confirmed my order of 100 business cards, 1 custom mug, 2 pens, and 1 custom mouse pad. A week later I received them in the mail.

I know, I know, I fell for a common marketing ploy. In my defense, I really needed all of these things… sort of.

But the whole experience got me thinking. Why not use these same types of services for selling my novel? I could print pamphlets, posters, mugs, t-shirts, etc. So that is my plan when I finally get published.

If you clicked on this link in the hopes of getting tips on self-promotion, I apologize, I am not nearly experienced enough to give advice on that subject (yet). To give you an idea of this, today I made my first tweet (cue gasps of disbelief). You can follow me @PhilipKramer9

How do you promote yourself and your writing? Do you have any advice to share?