Thursday 28 April 2016

X marks the Spot

Remember my confession for dog ears?

Today I talk bookmarks. I have a friend who, every time she buys a new hardcopy book, also gets it its very own bookmark to keep forever.  (I've got one or two bookmarks here and there. Otherwise I don't really bother.) Yes, I'm that gal who leaves books open face-down instead of sticking the nearest shopping receipt in to mark my place.  Then again, I'm that gal who slips used lottery scratchies in the backs of library books.

When I worked in the library, if we found a bookmark left in a book, we'd take it out and file it in our lost and found, in case someone came looking for it. And they did. You'd be surprised at how many people are attached to their bookmarks. At least, I was. Granted, some of them were really  nice, like cross stitched ones, those pretty metallic ones with a butterfly on the overleaf, and so on.

Bookmarks have other uses, I'm told. Many a fellow author has recommended bookmarks as handouts (instead of business cards or postcards) at literary conventions. People always have books at conventions (at least, the kinds of conventions I go to), and some of them bother to read them there. Hand them a bookmark and they'll most likely stick it in a book. I see the wisdom of this, as the reader will look at the bookmark every single time they open the book. Multiple, repeated exposure.

Must try that sometime.

Question: are you an avid proponent of bookmarks, casual user or a dog-earing, open-faced villain like me?
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Her Grace hates having to come up with entries for the letter X on A-Z lists because X is a very lame letter in the English language. Why on earth do we still have it?

4 comments:

Piper Presley said...

I've got to be honest. As much as I love bookmarks, I rarely use them anymore. I'm all about my Kindle.

Piper Presley

Heather said...

Ha! I feel your pain re the letter X (hence my own post being a bit of a stretch). As for bookmarks, I employ a used slip of paper - receipt, library due date slip, envelope, whatever is lying around. Someone gave me a nice bookmark years ago. I'm sure it's around here somewhere. In lieu of a bookmark, I dog-ear the page. *gasp!* Don't look at me like that. ;)

John Frain said...

X was tough, but it ended up working out pretty well for me. I got a nice suggestion from a reader and turned it into a six-sentence story.

I do remember your dog-eared post. In fact, I have fond memories of that post, kinda funny. For me, a good bookmark is fun. Love them. But I understand the issues with Kindle folks. Which makes me wonder: since bookmarks were the go-to tchotchke at book fairs and such, I wonder what authors are starting to turn to nowadays to take their place?

Mars said...

I was a break the spine kind of gal, but have become more attached to bookmarks as I've got older... but mine are generally receipts or odd scraps of paper that are lying around.

Trollbeads (a bead brand from Denmark) use bookmarks as a promotional material and I have used those as bookmarks instead of scrap paper.

Mars xx
@TrollbeadBlog from
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