Listening Can Yield Terrific Marketing Ideas--Here's How

We all know people get nervous when they get up to speak. Shoot, I worked as a professional speaker, and I can tell you that even the highly paid pro's get wobbly knees.

But often in our unguarded moments, truths are shared. Here's the intro I received a couple days ago--and remember, the protagonist in Paper, Scissors, Death is a scrapbooker named Kiki Lowenstein:

"I want to introduce to you Joanna Campbell Slan, our speaker. I can tell you after reading her book that I think she's KINKY."

Uh, right.

She meant to say, "Kiki," but we all had a bit of a laugh. Even she snickered when she realized what she'd said.

So I got to thinking, and I came up with these fab buttons to give away at Malice Domestic. I'd love to hear what you think of them!

The point? We need to listen. Hearing what our readers think or what tickles them or excites them is valuable stuff. Remember: They pay marketing firms BIG bucks to ask questions. We should do the same as we visit with our readers.