Marketing for Fun: 1:2

Back in December I wrote about a fun way to market your book: creating unique quizzes on Quiblo and other similar sites.

I want to revisit the "Marketing for Fun" topic today.

A few weeks ago, contriving ways to antagonize @mikecane on Twitter (I know it isn't mature, not the point!), I went on CafePress's site and created a free shop, uploaded an image I created in Photoshop, chose a cute T-shirt option to put it on, and then began to tweet about its creation and availability to @mikecane to (successfully) annoy him.

And although I was giggling with glee like a little kid as I created the CafePress shop, I was also really excited about what it could do for book marketing.

Why not, after all the blogging, Twittering, Facebook grouping and fan paging, go on and create a CafePress site offering materials that feature parts of your book? It's a fun departure from social networking because it allows you to think creatively! And you can buy a T-shirt!

There are a few things I know about copyright that I'll share with you. This is not actual legal advice as I am not a licensed legal advice giving person, but is instead just me saying some stuff that I think pertains to copyright. I repeat, this is not legal advice. Do not send your attorney after me (I have no money anyway ...).

If your book cover has images that you or your designer purchased from a site such as iStockphoto, you cannot use it on purchasable goods without the proper extended licenses. You can, according to their customer support line, use the images for any freebies you want though. This means, that if you create a mug on CafePress with your book cover on it without the extended license, you can buy it yourself and then give it as a gift, but you can't make it available to sell ... got it?

But you CAN take excerpts from your text and put in on the shirt because you own the rights to your text. And, if your book is available through Wheatmark, we'll be happy to lend you our bookstore URL to list as a purchase site on the promotional item.

You can also use any of your own photos as long as you took them or have permission from the photographer.

Are you going to become a major clothing or promotional item retailer? Not likely. But it is just one more way to get your marketing message out there.

CafePress and Zazzle are both great options for creating unique promotional items in support of your work.

Try it out today!