This has happened much sooner than I thought it would – I’ve had 100 business cards printed declaring myself a writer of contemporary romance. I’m excited.
I’m going to the Romance Writers of Australia conference in a couple of weeks time, and while there I’ll be pitching my first novel, Somewhere In Between, to three publishers. Rather than float in, waffle on for seven minutes about my book, and float out again, it feels wise to give the publisher’s representative a business card before I wander off. On the outside chance they want to speak with me again, it’s better that my name and email is on a professional looking card, rather than a scrap of paper. Also, writers exchange business cards at conferences, so I’ll need something, other than the aforementioned scrap of paper, to swap.
And the business card was born. It was a tricky balance between a romance design and something not too feminine, after all I am still a man of the male variety. I plumped for a black and white floral pattern and looks effective.
Another few notes and tips about the business card purchase:
- I got mine from Vistaprint. They had heaps of designs and were competitively priced. The minimum order was 100 which was more than I really wanted, but it still worked out at less than $20 for the lot – so all good.
- I didn’t put a phone number on. I was advised that an email and website is sufficient, and mobile numbers on an author business card looks weird. If someone needs to contact me then an email is good enough, and if they want a phone number then that can always be provided later
- I used my author name on the card. Everyone calls me Tim but I’m writing under my full name, Timothy Patrick Brown, simply because the timothypatrickbrown.com domain was available.
- I needed a tagline under my name, so I went for Contemporary Romance – super straightforward. I could have gone for something with a bit more vim, such as ‘Stillness, Simplicity and Romance’ or ‘Offbeat Sweet’ but it’s early days and I didn’t want to limit myself. Also, I’m fortunate that I’m a male romance writer, so the mere presence of an XY chromosome pair makes me stand out, and I don’t really need to invent anything more memorable – at least for now.
Now that I’m armed with 100 business cards, 3 appointments with publishers and a finished manuscript, all I need to do is actually write the pitch. But that’s the hard part.
