The first evening meeting of Author!Author! took place on Tuesday, October 1. The guest speaker was Jean Kostal of K Designs who answered questions and offered some design advice for bookmarks, postcards and business cards. 

A!A! organizer Kate Gingold brought in a selection of print swag collected from past author fairs such as post cards, bookmarks and business cards to jumpstart the discussion. Jean answered questions as we talked about branding and logos, image resolution and licensing, what a graphic designer can do for you and do-it-yourself online options, among other topics. We also touched a bit on swag upgrades such as specialty die-cut designs, additions like gold-leaf or tassles and promotional items. 

While talking about the uses for print leave-behinds, the general feeling was that their only purpose was for table tops at book fairs or author fests, but since book sales were negligible at these events, there was little point in attending them so authors don't really need leave-behinds. Some alternate uses were then suggested such as slipping them into similar books at the local library as "suggestions," putting them in one's own books at bookstores or in-person sales and using them as rewards or gifts for readers. 

If you have an opinion or suggestion to add to the conversation, we'd love to hear from you and there are several places where you can chime in. You can leave a comment below on this web page or on the Meetup discussion page. Perhaps we should start a Facebook group page as well?

Many, many thanks to Jean Kostal for sharing her expertise with us and to everyone who attended the meeting. We look forward to seeing you all in November!