Inserting

Inserting Examples SpreadFirefox.com "Readers to 50+ books will get a little surprise when they hit the shelves on the day after tomorrow. The 50+ lucky ones will find a bookmark (hand drawn, excellent design by yours truly) in their book. They are carefully placed in random titles among the piles of books at the Woodlands Regional Library here. (Titles include: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s stone, A Separate Peace, Life of Pi, George Orwell’s 1984, Internet Explorer 6 for Dummies and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 Step by Step)” —Karen, Firefox Tales Doctor Steel Magazine Inserting

Inserting is the practice of putting cards, flyers, discs and other small materials into books and magazines by slipping them inside for readers to find.

People browsing those books in the store or library will encounter the idea card or find it after taking it home if it is printed with thin paper.

Targeting Books

Correlating the topic of the Idea card with the topic of the printed media isnt essential, activists and potential activists have all manner of hobbies that are not related to philosophy or politics. However, a greater success rate will be achieved if you stick with the topics that you believe are important and attach them to books dealing with this area.

Preaching Beyond The Choir: Targeting Contrary Books

Try to find a book which has a contrary opinion to the card- for example, hide a card detailing starvation and malnourishment in Coffeshop pamphlets, or if you find a book detailing the cons of a certain political philosophy, attach a card which points to where the reader can find the pros of that philosophy. Readers are often disapointed that a book offers only one point of view on a subject, so try to offer alternative views or objections by printing website addresses, disussion forums, book titles, etc. If they aren't looking for another opinion, you may even encourage them to be more open minded.

Building Community

Many religious groups deposit cards in holy books for sale detailing where the local religious community can be found. Think of doing the same, pointing them to the ACTFOR community and other similar groups. Like minds help strengthen ideas, and this cannot happen without advertising the fact that there are other people out there who think like you do. It is also a very empowering experience knowing that there are other people out there who think the same way you do, particularly if we are talking about a small, or largely misunderstood idea.

Carding campaigns work better when they are coordinated in large numbers.

If you do a particular card campaign, put it up along with specific targeted publications that others can find in their local bookstores. Share data on how the campaign is going. Track the success of the campaign together.

Pesudonymous Carding

Of course the booksellers are going to discover the carding eventually. Naturally, they may try to track you down by following the links to discover your identity. Here is where pseudonymity comes in handy. You can create pseudonyms for all your carding-related activities and only you will know about your involvement.

Anonymous Carding

If you don't care about tracking the results of your your carding, link without any pseudonym at all directly to the source material.

Recruiting Mules

You may become blacklisted if you get associated by the bookseller with your carding. To avoid this in the first place, recruit mules to carry cards to the books and insert them for you. That way, if your mules are harassed, you can get others so the bookseller will be forced to give up against the invisible army of carders.