Perfect Christmas gift

A business book is the perfect personalised (Christmas!) business gift

This is one way to think about your published book. It has your personalised branding all over the cover and so it can be given to all your key clients as a ‘thank you’ for their business. It’s a constant reminder to clients and prospects about you and your expertise. It’s a gift that has real intrinsic value, unlike a personalised stress ball or novelty fidget spinner. And it has a perceived value that is greater than its cost to you.

How many of your books you give away rather than charge for is a careful calculation you will need to make. Some business book authors treat their book as a 100% promotional tool, with the whole print run given away as part of a careful strategy to win and retain clients.  When you can pay £3-£8 each for a personalised A5 hardcover lined notebook, a commonly used business gift, giving away a book which you have written, with a similar cost to you, may not be such a daft idea.

For most authors though, it’s a mixture of approaches, with a portion of the books given away or used for a specific promotion: “Sign up for my three-day course by x date and receive a FREE signed copy of my latest book.”

The lower-cost way to give away books is of course to offer a free e-book or audiobook. You will have had costs associated with producing these, but free delivery is now not a problem. You may even choose to create a ‘taster’ version as the e-book given away – not the whole book, but an edited version, complete with a different ‘promo’ cover design.

But just as no business owner sends clients a ‘personalised 2020 e-calendar’ for Christmas instead of a printed personalised calendar, the e-book as a gift just doesn’t have the same value or purpose as a gift as a physical book.

The obvious danger of using your business book as a promotional gift is that you undermine its value. You’re now giving away your hard-earned expertise and not only that, you are giving away a book which has taken considerable blood, sweat and tears to bring into the world. You don’t want to create the general perception that your book is only worth reading if it’s been received it as a freebie and that there is a rarity only to unsigned copies.

So, add your published book to your armoury of promotional tools, use it wisely and probably sparingly, but it could create a more far-reaching and longer-lasting impact than any other giveaway.

So, at Christmas time, what could be a better gift to give to your favourite customers and prospects?