26 November 2008

I dream of swag.

Can you believe it's time to start thinking about swag for AWP? In addition to giving away free books every day, the University of Akron Press table is going to have some fabulous swag.

Here's where your input comes in. What kind of swag (freebies) do you like the best? Was there ever a swag item that you found yourself especially fond of (like my ubiquitous mini composition book from Inkwell, which has lived in my purse ever since)?

PS--The above items, including my heart, are just there to get your attention. However, I would really dig a giveaway of anything Chococat related, now that I think of it.

14 comments:

stacebro said...

The Georgia Review gave away these great little notebooks one year with artwork from the magazine on the front and a poem on the back cover. I still use them. Notebooks are very good swag.

marybid said...

I agree! A good small notebook is hard to find.

michael salinger said...

Jump drives are always handy.

Oliver de la Paz said...

Some journal gave away backscratchers the last time AWP was in Chicago. I totally wanted one but they ran out quickly.

Sara said...

Stickers. There are never enough stickers at AWP.

I'm serious.

Teeny notebooks sound cool, too. :)

Justin Evans said...

Art Quality postcards.

If you go through winkflashj and upload images, you can make all sorts of things. I have decided that in addition to any photgraphs people buy from me on Etsy, I will create a postcard for them and give them 5 copies.

You can make all sorts of other things, but the postcards seemed to make the best sense. You can get them for approximately 39 cents each, and you can write something U-Akron fiendly on it like a poem, to remind them where they got it from.

Make bundles of 5 or so and hand them out. Winflsh is very fast and reliable.

verification: horde

Justin Evans said...

Sorry for all of the typos. I was continually distracted by my students---it's slave day here, and a lot is going on at once.

marybid said...

Justin, I actually love this typo:

write something U-Akron fiendly

I think that may be my main theme.

:) Thanks for all of the ideas!

Frank said...

Ipods!

Or lanyards.

Or little zipper tags (get it, Zips!).

Or...hmm...I'll think of more.

You really should go with Ipods though. Pre-loaded with Audiobook versions of recent titles.

marybid said...

Dude, how the hell will we be able to hand out ipods? Unless they're cardboard ones, stuffed with quelque chose?

Erin Murphy said...

Jar openers -- you know, those round rubber things. One can never have too many.

Radish King said...

Pens and pencils.

Stephanie Kartalopoulos said...

the best swag I ever got is something my dad got at a conference and gave to me just before my AP Chem test in spring, 1994 (junior year of high school): a plastic slinky. It had violet and blue as its colors. That slinky has been with me ever since and now sits on my desk in my Missouri apartment. Maybe slinkies with, instead of logos, quotes from poems published in UAkron-Press books? :)

I also second whoever mentioned jump drives. Or art postcards. Or, maybe as a spin-off of art postcards, funky kitchen magnets where each one is the cover of a different book that the press publishes?

(I know that I would personally love an Ashley Capps magnet on my fridge!)

Lyle Daggett said...

My favorite giveaway at any event I've been to is from the Minnesota Atheists, at their table at the annual Twin Cities Book Festival: they give away a small wallet-size orange card, printed to resemble one of the cards from Monopoly, that says "Get Out of Hell Free."

I never leave home without it...

Aside from that, however, I also like the idea of art postcards. (Maybe photo or painting portraits of poets?)

Charleston gratitude and overdue update

I've been good about keeping things updated over on my website, but not as successful in updating this dear old blog. Many apologi...