I got my cards in—too late for the festivals, but in great time for the rest of the events I have coming up this year. Now, whenever someone asks if my book is available in a digital version, I can hand them the card. “Yes, You can get it here.”

Instant sale instead of the hope of one.

As is evident from the image (somewhat blurry–sorry about that), Texas Association of Authors made my cards for me. The individual cards through TAA are more expensive than what DropCard offers, but with DropCard, I’d have to buy 100. So, instead of paying $450 for 100 cards, I paid $30 for 30 cards.

I’m testing them out right now and seeing advantages and disadvantages. The biggest advantage, of course, and the reason to have them to begin with, is so that I don’t lose sales to customers who want the digital version of my books, but then don’t follow through to order them. I’m looking forward to the day when I can whip one from my purse and present it to someone I’ve been talking to about my books.

Another advantage is that they serve as an inexpensive giveaway, so I can use them either as an income-generating product or as a promotional item.

The disadvantage of buying them through TAA instead of doing them myself is that the TAA logo and content is on front instead of my cover image. I bought stickers to put on the back so the customer will remember what book to buy. But, as I said, I can’t whip out $450 right now for 100 cards to design as I’d like, especially when I can’t be sure how well they’ll sell.

Disadvantage #2 is how easy they are to steal. I lost two at a conference recently despite the fact I’d put the price on the containers holding the cards. I’ve come up with several ideas of how to display them, but none are theft-proof and each idea adds more cost to the product. Since avid readers know the price of an ebook and already know how much they’re willing to spend on an unknown author, I can’t afford to add too much cost to my product without eroding my return on the investment.

So, the jury is still out. I have three more major events this year, not to mention tons of opportunities that crop up through personal contact with others, so we’ll see how well they’ll sell. I’ll keep you posted.