Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Bookmarks!

The other day I went on a mini-rant about bookmarks. Specifically bookmarks given out by bookstores. I like bookmarks but they don't need to be fancy. They really just need to be "piece of paper to keep my place". So I am more than happy to use bookmarks that stores give out. I'm happy to give indie bookstores some free advertising. And obviously I don't know the actual costs to hand out bookmarks with all purchases, but it seems like a relatively low-cost option.

I thought hey, why not pull that out and make it a whole post, and thus push off writing a real post (you know, review) for another week. Huzzah!

I mentioned Porter Square Books gives out bookmarks. As does Strand. I think the Booksmith started handing them out, after I left, which is lame. The bookstore near me, BookRevue, does NOT hand them out despite me thinking REALLY HARD that they should. (What's that? Actually suggest it to someone who works there? Haha, yeaaah that won't happen.)

Why don't we take a look at the 2 I do have?


Look how handy these things are!
Logo at the top, so it's poking out of my book and HEY FREE ADVERTISING FOR YOU. Granted, the Porter Square logo mostly focuses on books, which is great for a plan (books should be the focus!) but not great for branding (cos it looks like "yay books" instead of "yay books from this specific place, hey buy your books here!")
Info on the back: Address(es), hours, website, phone number, social channels. Now I have this information right in front of me and don't need to go through any extra work to look it up. And the less work I have to do THE BETTER.

Strand's bookmark is slightly fancier. The bookmark is a little bit thicker and shiny, with that picture of their storefront. But that's not to knock Porter Squares. It's a thicker card stock with a little texture but that's about it. But it does it's job.

So there you go. This is a thing I think all bookstores should do and now I want to start a collection of indie bookmarks.