Promoting ‘Undercover Unicorn’ Using Posters and Cards

Cards

By cards, I mean cards that are designed to be distributed as giveaways or takeaways, left in stacks on tables or at businesses, or given out personally. These are designed to be carried away by potential purchasers to be read and used at a later time. Of course, just by being there, they can cause immediate interest, but the overall intent is a delayed action. That is why I recommend a heavier paper / card stock, not just a standard 20 lb or 24 lb paper which is the standard type of paper normally available, many times discounted, through the usual sources: the heavier stock will resist folding and mangling much better than thinner paper.

I should mention that these card designs are the results of several iterations of concepts, designs and modifications.

Card Creation

I believe business cards are too small to promote books or stories, so I use a modified form of a standard postcard. Office products manufacturer Avery Dennison produces an 8 ¹⁄₂″ x 11″, 32 lb card stock product (stock number 3380, template number 8387) that is perforated into 4 ¹⁄₄″ x 5 ¹⁄₂″ quarters. (Alternately, if I had access to a professional-style paper trimmer instead of just an office-level paper cutter, I could use plain card stock instead.) I could use a lighter and less expensive plain paper stock, but I much prefer the heavier feel of the card stock over the flimsier paper stock: I think it gives the resulting cards a more professional look and feel.

Avery Dennison also supplies the layout design software that references their templates so the layout will correctly fit the paper stock. (One note: the software is Java based, apparently, and from my experience does not work on my main Windows XP machine: I was instead forced to use my laptop, which runs Windows 7. This was a minor problem, since it is not connected to my printer: I was forced to print the images as PDF files, transfer them to my main computer and print them there.) It is very good at layout design, although I would wish it allowed for full text justification in addition to the standard left, right and center. What I find especially appealing is that the software can produce QR codes upon demand within the software, so there is no need to produce a graphics file and import it into the layout.

Card Front

Front side of the promotional card

The front of the card is designed to be noticed. To do that, the left half consists only of the cover artwork. The right half consists of the introductory “sales pitch” for the story, taken and reduced from the poster text. The list of publishers is limited to the two biggest in the final paragraph, largely for space here.

The font used is the standard sans serif Arial font, bolded with italics used for the story and series names. (There is an obvious spacing flaw surrounding the italic type here, unfortunately. Because of that and the lack of any justified text, I am considering generating the text as a graphics file and importing it into the layout, but that will require some experimentation to accomplish.)

Card Back

Back side of the promotional card

The back of the card holds the necessary but not eye-catching information about where to find out more information about the story, where to buy the story, my website and contact information, etc., that would detract from the visual appeal of the front of the card. The font used is Arial Bold.

Notes

• The upper center contains the name and the URL for the primary page on my personal website about ‘Undercover Unicorn’, using the shortened URL as supplied by the Short URL plugin. The primary page contains links to all distributors and publishers carrying the work. Below that is the QR code graphics for the given URL.
• Since I only mention these two primary distributors on the front side for convenience, I only reference these two on the back. Both are enclosed in a box, created by using the rounded rectangle shape tool with the border size increased and the shape fill being set to off.
  • The center left box lists the distributor name and URL for the Amazon page of ‘Undercover Unicorn’, using the URL from bit.ly. Below is the QR code graphic for the given URL.
  • The center right box lists the distributor name and URL for SmashWords page of ‘Undercover Unicorn’, using the URL from bit.ly. Below is the QR code graphic for the given URL.
• The symbol in the center is one that I am using on FaceBook and Twitter as a personal mark. It is an ancient alchemy symbol for ‘essence’ and is used in the White Wolf RP game Mage: the Ascension as the symbol for the Sphere of Prime, the source of all magic. I wanted something here, because otherwise the blank space directly in the middle of the card was distracting.
• The lower center contains:
  • The URL of my personal website.
  • My email address.
  • My Twitter page.

Just to be sure, I verified the QR codes using my tablet computer, and they all work properly. I didn’t add QR codes for the last three entries because the card was getting too busy looking. That is also one of the reasons why I did not include any background graphics, the other being it is more expensive to print both sides in color.

Printing

For my test runs, I printed these pages on the above mentioned card stock. I may continue that practice for small runs, but those can be a pure hassle: I am forced to print the sheets one at a time, one side at a time, because the printer had problems handling the heavier card stock, especially when reversing the page to print the opposite side. Cost wise, a box of 200 sheets (resulting in 800 individual cards) costs $22.99 while a box of 120 sheets costs $13.99. Therefore, each sheet would cost approximately $1.10 and each card would cost approximately $0.28, not taking into consideration ink, printer wear and my time needed to print and separate them.

That is why I am considering printing them professionally. I estimate that each sheet costs approximately $0.95 each, so each card costs approximately $0.24, not counting any specials or discounts. There was no charge for trimming the printed sheets into quarters when I was getting the estimate in person, however, when I checked the online ordering system, there is a charge per each set of 250 sheets.