What About Swag This Year?

If you've been a past participant of TWWBF then you know we love swag. It's little prezzies to remind people who you are and what you've got to offer. We are doing a little re-vamp of how we handle swag this year. In the past we collected all of it via mail, took it took the facility, and pre-stuffed the bags the weeks before the event. For our first few years it was perfect and not too hard, but with the way we've grown it's become a very heavy lift, so we're gonna switch up to having authors and vendors keep their swag at the table, and do a game of getting people to go to your table and get your swag from you. This isn't a new technique or unique - many festivals do this. We just were smaller and the other way worked pretty well at first. As always, we try to evolve and change as we grow to keep things scalable and sustainable. Even though we've grown we are still a very small team of three and this way I think will work better.

This is going to work better for us because we don't have to find volunteers, coordinate a weekend to do it, as well as store and sort everything, confirm swag as it comes, coordinate pickups etc.

It's going to work better for you because you won't have to pay shipping or otherwise find a way to get swag to us. Previously we needed a promised amount of swag, but this way you can provide less swag than 50 to 100 pieces. Plus, doing it this way with so many genres present, your swag will likely be collected by somebody who is into your genre.

When planning what swag to bring, keep table space in your mind, and how you're going to display it.

DO I HAVE TO BRING SWAG?
Absolutely not, but we think it's a good idea and make sure your info is on the swag. We have gotten beautiful bookmarks and other swag with no name on it for the attendees to look back on and find the author!

WHAT KIND OF SWAG SHOULD I BRING?
Popular Swag
Bookmarks (flat printed, or mini magnetic), fridge magnets, candy, pens, stickers, pencils

Popular & Fun
Buttons with graphics or words, keychains, can koozies, free story downloads, little booklets with mini stories or the first chapter of one of your books - this is great for pushing a specific book!

Other Unique Swag We've Seen
Cellphone stands, fancy bookmarks (gem encrusted, ribbons with charms, etc.), cute coin purses, hot cocoa kits, tea kits, charms, favor sized soap with custom stickers, travel candles, lip gloss, chokers, necklaces, small character posters, character cards, mini-tools

It's great to go to Etsy and check out all the unique wedding favors - many could translate into book swag.