Promotional Merchandise For Authors FAQ

We can certainly do that for you, yes, and if we’re designing your book cover then we’ll already have all of the necessary assets to create the images.

If we’ve already designed your book cover, then it’s highly likely that we’d be able to use whatever we have without much manipulation. In these cases, there would be no origination fee. If, however, we have to keep adding to the design or making repeated changes then we’ll let you know in advance that a small fee will apply, but it’s an unlikely scenario.

Of course. Due to the nature of the various printing and pressing processes, changes may need to be made to your design but if you wanted to use the images exactly as they come then we would do whatever you’d prefer. It would, of course, be preferable to have a layered PSD file to work from as we’d undoubtedly need to make adjustments to background layers. In the case of you providing your own artwork, it’s likely that there would be an origination fee, depending on what would be required to take your artwork to a printable state.

If we’ve designed the book cover for you, and are designing your promotional merchandise, then we’ll be using royalty-free stock images which are paid for in advance but only allow for the imagery to be used on up to 500,000 books and on promotional material. If your book sales go beyond 500,000 or you plan on selling the merchandise, then you’d need to pay for an extended license for each of the images used within your artwork. Similarly, if you are providing us with your own artwork, we’d need to see your extended licenses for whichever images are used within the final artwork. Assuming all the licenses are in place, then you are free to sell the merchandise on a global basis with no legal repercussions.

If you are planning on sending out the items as part of an actual promotional package, then we would advise that you include the merchandise in the same shipment as your book. It should be presented as a complete package, rather than sending out the book first and then having a promo package arrive separately. If you are sending the merchandise to those who have already covered your book, by way of thanks, then we can send them out directly if that is what you prefer.

Absolutely not. We’re promoting YOU, and not the other way around. While we’d greatly appreciate you passing on our details to any potential clients, we wouldn’t push this on you by adding AuthorPackages branding to any of your merchandise.

Inkjet transfer paper is fine if you want to print a quick t-shirt for your kid and they’re fanatical over some obscure cartoon that has never been merchandised, but it could never pass as professional. For our black and coloured t-shirts, we use a dedicated state-of-the-art direct-to-garment (DTG) printer which prints a white base layer to ensure vibrancy, and a second pass with the coloured layer. The shirts are pre-treated with the best product we’ve ever found in the industry to ensure a longer-lasting print. Our white shirts are printed using the dye-sublimation process which actually binds the dye to the fibres of the shirt so that it’ll never fade or crack, regardless of however many times they’re washed. All of our other promotional products – wallets, mousemats, mugs, messenger bags etc – are also printed using the dye-sublimation technique. Again, this ensures a vibrant print which binds to the printable material rather than sitting on the surface. All of our products have been tried and tested over the years to make sure we’re using the highest quality items at all times.

The beauty of the processes we use is that there is no need to have a minimum order. If you suddenly wanted to send out a single messenger bag and mousemat to a potential reviewer or retailer, we can produce these quickly, and there would be short-run subsidy required.

As with all our designs, we’ll let you see a draft as soon as we have something that we think meets your requirements. The main difference between a merchandise draft and a book cover is that we’ll show you it in situ, so you’ll be able to see how the final product will look. These will either be 3D renderings (mugs, mousemats) or digitally manipulated versions of physical products (t-shirts, messenger bags, and most other items) so you won’t have to use your imagination.

That really depends on many factors. If the artwork is ready to go, or it’s based on a book cover that we’ve already created for you, then it’ll speed the process up considerably. The actual choice of item will affect timescale too, as we prefer not to hold much stock so that anything we use is fresh from the manufacturer. Once we know exactly which items you’d like, and in what quantities, we’ll look at the availability from our suppliers and get back to you with a realistic timescale. For items that we use regularly, and therefore always have in stock (t-shirts, mousemats, and mugs), we’d be able to produce and ship these within just a day or so of receiving artwork approval from you.

While it’s entirely unlikely, as we want to ensure that our clients are happy and that we’re also happy in our work, there may come a time where we (or the client) feels as though things can’t continue.  Potential scenarios would be where the client is unsure of what they want and has an “IKIWISI” (I’ll know it when I see it) approach to design where they’ll ask to see a certain cover; then, if they don’t like it, they’ll ask for another, and this could end up going on for weeks or even months.  In this case, it wouldn’t make sense for either party to continue because it’s clear we’re just not a good fit for each other.  Another scenario would be that the conversations become barbed and unpleasant for whatever reason. It makes for a tough relationship overall, especially if attempts have been made to diffuse the situation and it hasn’t worked.

In cases such as these, we are happy to walk away and take a hit for whatever work was done and however much time was spent on the project until that point.  The most important thing for us is that the client loves our work and we love working with the client; creative projects are much smoother when all parties involved are happy, and there’s no tension or antagonism, so when this harmony breaks down there comes a point where the only solution is to dissolve the relationship.

Whatever money has been paid up until that point will be refunded in full, unless any work has been completed. If the client has gone beyond the point where stock images were purchased and the cover has already been rebuilt with licensed stock images (whether we have the final page count or not), we’d not be able to refund as we’ve completed that part of the project and have purchased items on the client’s behalf.  If this is the case, the client could end the project early and take whatever has been paid for up until that point.  However, this is with the agreement that anything provided by us up until that point (artwork, concepts that were our own, formatting, and any edited work) outwith this is not used for anything in the future.  If the client wishes to use anything that has been supplied up until that point, payment in full will be necessary in order to release the required files to be used freely by the client in perpetuity.

Unfortunately, that’s not really something we can answer, as PayPal will determine the actual amount themselves based on the current rate of exchange.  When we list our prices, we do so in Pounds Sterling (GBP).  This is because we’re based in the UK and will therefore be billing out in Sterling.  We do also include an approximate value in US Dollars, but that value may be very different from what you will actually pay, as our approximations aren’t checked against current exchange rates.  If you would like to know an exact value for our services in your own currency, we would advise either calling your own bank or using an online currency exchange site such as xe.com, but please remember that their rates won’t be the same as PayPal.  Regardless, if our price is shown as £200 GBP, then we will invoice you for exactly £200 GBP.