The Write Conversation: Marketing with Palancas to Leverage Your Books and Brand

Palanca is a Spanish word that means lever. In science levers are used to more easily move or lift a load. At retreats, they are used as surprise gifts to represent the spiritual force of the Hold Spirit in our lives. They remind us that prayer can lift us up and use our abilities to do more than we thought possible. These can be letters or little gifts, activity kits, or trinkets. Just something affordable that shows you care about the reader and serves as a connection to your brand.

One friend called them swag gifts. These include bookmarks, pens, postcards, and even more expensive items like mugs, t-shirts, and bags. They can also be hand made or something unusual you discover. I recall an author who had a novel where the story took place in Austria hands out tiny, dried Edelweiss. I kept it for years as I always wanted to travel there (and finally did a one day stop enroute to speaking in Russia).

Finding the Right Palanca

It often starts with an image or phrase that you can promote. When the book is focused on growth, a packet of seeds can be great with a printed label added to it to connect your book to the concept of new growth. They could be veggies or flowers, depending on the image you want to use or an anecdote in the book.

Start with recurring images in your book or a humorous anecdote. I wrote a book on time management years ago that’s now an eBook. The story I told when I spoke involved pinecones and they became a memento to use with the book, especially tiny ones I could easily carry with me. Once you think of an image, consider adding it to a bookmark or finding a small trinket online that is sold in quantity.

Or approach it by finding an item you like, even a crayon, and considering how it matches your theme, such as adding color to your life. One friend has a children’s book with snail characters. Think how fun it would be to pass out tiny snail shells with the book. A permanent marker could be used to add one of the character’s names.

Making Activity Kits

For children’s books, the illustrations often provide the ideas. And illustration outlines can become coloring pages or be made into a tiny book to color. Women also enjoy coloring, so having the cover or other artwork as a coloring bookmark can be a perfect fit.

Another friend gave out mini-magnifying glasses to accompany her Bible study book with a bookmark on how to look deeper in examining God’s word. That connected them to her book, but also gave them tools to use. Another study leader wrote a book on direction and gave out little compasses with notes on finding God’s direction.

There are endless possibilities when you start to think about the goal of your book like getting readers to go deep.

Use Palanca to Equip Leaders

My line of books includes craft books and books with activities, so I often make an activity kit when I’ll be promoting the books. One devotional book for boys includes Bible stories with snakes. So, I am making little paper snake puppets with a link to the pattern to give children’s ministry leaders at an upcoming show. They can have immediate fun playing with them, use them to introduce the book or related lesson, and download the pattern to make them with the kids. I’ll also add in a one-page handout that becomes a new, original hidden window story to connect with my paper craft book plus the link to make more copies. This equips the leaders with inexpensive ideas to use.

This type of gift that equips can be a bookmark with steps to take, a refrigerator tile with a call to action. Remember the wood circles called round tuits to get around to doing something? That’s a great example.

Make the Most of Palancas for Greater Connections

Palancas, like the activity kits and bookmarks, can have a link to provide more. A book on peace could include giving people a tiny dove with a link to a website on steps toward inner peace. Then you can put up a landing page as a link where you include subscribing to your newsletter for more information. Or give a link to a quiz that segments your audience to direct them to what they need most. That kind of quiz is great when you have a group of books where each one might be targeted to a specific need within your brand, or a book that addresses segments such as personalities.

Brainstorm Ideas

Gather a few friends to brainstorm ideas for your next book, or your brand. It can be a fun time as you help one another. If you feel stumped, it might be time to hire a coach for one time just to focus on palancas and other marketing ideas. Suggest that everyone arrive with a few of their calls to action, images they relate to in their book, the most humorous story in the book, and the goal for their readers. Those should inspire ideas.

Hopefully what you choose to give, will lift the reader’s spirits, and help them remember your book and brand!

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Marketing with Palancas to Leverage Your Books and Brand, tips from @KarenHWhiting on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Karen Whiting (WWW.KARENWHITING.COM) is an international speaker, former television host of Puppets on Parade, certified writing and marketing coach, and award-winning author of twenty-seven books for women, children, and families. Her newest book, The Gift of Bread: Recipes for the Heart and the Table reflects her passion for bread and growing up helping at her grandparent’s restaurant. Check out her newest book Growing a Mother’s Heart: Devotions of Faith, Hope, and Love from Mothers Past, Present, and Future. It's full of heartwarming and teary-eyed stories of moms.

Karen has a heart to grow tomorrow’s wholesome families today. She has written more than eight hundred articles for more than sixty publications and loves to let creativity splash over the pages of what she writes. She writes for Crosswalk. Connect with Karen on Twitter @KarenHWhiting Pinterest KarenWhiting FB KarenHWhiting.

Featured Image: Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash