The Unconventional Con

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In Arizona we have Coppercon, Phoenix Comicon, Tucson Festival of Books, and a number of opportunities to be a small fish in a large pond paying upwards of $150 for 3 feet of booth space in the hopes of grabbing readers’ attention. I go, I love it, but I don’t always break even.  By the time I pay for lodging, my books, the con space, and my meals, my profits seem to disappear. Is it still worth it? Usually, but not always.

Last year, however, I was invited to a rather unconventional con, the Tempe Library Comicon. It was small, just covering the back lawn behind the library, but it was well attended for a community event. People came in costume, just like any other convention, and unlike most outdoor events in Arizona, since this was in early February, it wasn’t even hot. Well, not too hot. I didn’t sell many books, but I did make a profit. As an invited guest, I didn’t have to pay for my space, I brought my own table, and I even managed a sack lunch. Since it was only one day long, there was no lodging to worry about and I was home for dinner.  Was it worth my time? I don’t know, but it was nice to be able to relax and just interact with other people who love to read without worrying about whether or not I’d sell enough to pay for my booth.

So, when you consider your conventions this year, you might want to spread your net just a little wider. Enjoy the comicons and regional cons, but keep an eye out for the occasional unconventional con. You might be surprised at how much fun you can have in a less-stress, small-attendance environment.

Have a great day, a great year, and con on my fellow readers, writers, and fans!

Colette Black Bio:
Author PicColette Black lives in the far outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona with her family, 2 dogs, a mischievous cat and the occasional unwanted scorpion.  She loves learning new things, vacations, and the color purple. She writes New Adult and Young Adult sci-fi and fantasy novels with kick-butt characters, lots of action, and always a touch of romance. Find her at www.coletteblack.net

 

Capclave: One for the Mid-Atlantic

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I’m going to ask for a couple of indulgences here in this post. The first comes in the form of a plug:

I’m sure a lot of you have heard of Humble Bundle, but how about StoryBundle? It works in a similar way. Namely, you pay a surprisingly small amount of money for a surprisingly large amount of quality ebooks. Look, I get it. Everyone would like to give indie authors a shot, but there’s so much to read out there, how can you know what’s worth your hard-earned money?

Well, with this month’s Truly Epic StoryBundle, you can get FIFTEEN books for just $15 dollars. This includes a mix of genre stalwarts like Brandon Sanderson, R.A. Salvatore, and Michael A. Stackpole, as well as a bunch of talented newcomers, including four Fictorians (myself, Kim May, Scott Eder, and Quincy Allen). PLUS, you can direct a portion of the proceeds to go to the Challenger Center, a charity teaching space science to kids! This deal is CRAZY, and it’s only on for about another week, so you’d best jump on it.

Here’s the link: https://storybundle.com/epic

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On to the post, and the second indulgence: a little whining:

Those of us FSF writers/fans who live in the Mid-Atlantic have it rough. With the proximity of both Washington D.C. and historical sites aplenty for both colonial times and the Civil War, area writing has a much heavier focus on politics and history than it does on sci-fi or fantasy. Correspondingly, there just haven’t been a lot of cons in the area (the more recent addition of Awesome-Con is a welcome one). That’s why I’m so grateful for Capclave.

Capclave has been around only since 2001 officially, but before that it was Disclave, which ran from 1950 until 1997. As you see on the link, that final instance proved the doom of the convention, when a fire sprinkler incident flooded the con hotel. But the Washington Science Fiction Association (WSFA) wasn’t done. Capclave rose from Disclave’s ashes and has been going strong ever since.

Located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, the con is an easy drive for anyone in Washington Metropolitan Area or further afield, if you can tolerate a jaunt on I-95. For a local con without the name recognition of something like DragonCon, Worldcon, or SLCC, Capclave nabs its share of high-profile Guests of Honor. I’ve only managed to attend one Capclave myself (as I’ve written before, my con time is extremely limited and only growing more so), but that one had George R.R. Martin himself as the GOH. It was a pretty great experience to meet one of the finest fantasy writers of our day just a few hours from my home, and the con was bustling in no small part due to his presence.  Heck, I even won a spot in his kaffeeklatsch, which was pretty cool!

Capclave has another plus over some of the larger cons: it’s run by a local group of FSF fans who just want to put on a good time for their like-minded fellows. Despite the lack of corporate money, the event organizers did a great job and I was very impressed with how smoothly things ran. This smaller con atmosphere is the perfect place to discover some lesser-known authors as well, and I met several rising stars whose names I hear more and more, as well as getting introduced to my now-favorite podcast, Welcome to Night Vale. Hat tip to E.C. Myers on that one.

So consider this my second plug of the post. If you, like me, are a writer of strange things in the strange land of the Mid-Atlantic, don’t despair that you’ll never find writers of anything more than Civil War biographies and … politicians’ biographies. Capclave is here for you.

 

About the Author: Gregory D. Littleheadshot

Rocket scientist by day, fantasy and science fiction author by night, Gregory D. Little began his writing career in high school when he and his friend wrote Star Wars fanfic before it was cool, passing a notebook around between (all right, during) classes. His novels Unwilling Souls and Ungrateful God are available now from ebook retailers and trade paperback through Amazon.com. His short fiction can be found in The Colored Lens, A Game of Horns: A Red Unicorn Anthology, Dragon Writers: An Anthology, and the upcoming Undercurrents: An Anthology of What Lies Beneath. He lives with his wife and their yellow lab.

You can reach him at his website (www.gregorydlittle.com), his Twitter handle (@litgreg) or at his Author Page on Facebook.

 

Working the floor…

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This month I’m afraid I don’t have much experience to draw on for my blog post. I’ve attended exactly one writing related convention in my life. And that was Denver ComicCon in 2015. I was invited to participate because of my Superstars Writing Seminars attendance in February of 2015, and at the time I was living on a separation package from being laid off, so I had time to kill. I agreed, even though I had no books to sell and would mostly be doing the grunt work of hauling books, selling other author’s books and trying to get the public to buy books.

It was also a chance to network with some actual published authors, which is valuable in itself.

There is some work to do pre-convention to set up the booth, but that’s about as interesting as it sounds. So I’ll focus instead on the activities on the actual convention floor.

The first thing I was asked to do was to distribute leaflets directing people to the booth itself. The meant walking the line of incoming attendees as they waited to get inside, and handing out the leaflets. For a natural introvert like me, that was stressful enough, but I managed to get through it.

Then I was back behind the booth, using an iPad with a card-reading device to take orders. That wasn’t too bad either. Then I was asked if I would be willing to “work the floor.” Which meant moving out from behind the booth, into the milling mass of feverish fandom. Right there with the cosplayers and the hardcore fan base.

So I waded in. Again, my natural introversion makes this sort of thing very difficult for me. On top of that, I tend to dislike being approached myself in such situations, so I felt more than a little hypocritical even attempting to engage with the public.

But I try my best to fulfill my obligations, so I buckled down and did my best.

“Excuse me, ma’am, I couldn’t help but notice your Star Wars T-shirt. Are you a fan? You are? That’s great, I remember standing in line for the first one back in 1977. Say, if you like Star Wars, you would probably really enjoy these books set in the Star Wars universe…”

Or

“Hi there, that’s an awesome steampunk outfit you’ve got there. Do you like steampunk novels? You do? Well, come on over here, because I think you’ll like this.”

Over and over, for hours. Sometimes you get the cold shoulder. Sometimes you get the “are you flirting with me” gaze, but mostly people are willing to check things out and over time, the sales accumulated. It was amazing to see how well it worked. But that’s mostly because the product I was selling, was a solid product. In many cases the author of the books I was directing people toward were behind the booth, so I could increase the effectiveness of the pitch with:

“Oh, you like the look of this one? Well, if you have any questions, the author happens to be right here, and I’ll be glad to introduce you.”

That leads to signed versions of books being sold, and that usually makes everyone happier.

I’d like to do more convention work. I’d like to sell my own books at a convention. Unfortunately I still haven’t been able to get away from the reality of a day job that is still paying the bills.

But someday. Hopefully soon. 🙂

Tampa Bay Comic Con

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Tampa Bay Comic Con (TBCC) is a family-friendly convention held in the Tampa Convention Center the first weekend in August. If you like your Cons sweaty, this one’s the fandom sauna for you. All joking aside, TBCC is hot when you’re standing in line, but you get to cool off inside the Convention Center. It’s got a strong vendor presence and attracts top-notch celebrity guests (including best-selling authors like Kevin J. Anderson, Terry Brooks, and R.A. Salvatore). The panel schedule is crammed with celebrity appearances, fandom-specific topics, and even quite a few writing panels. Let’s talk about the whole panel thing in a little more detail.

I’ve hosted and participate on TBCC panels for several years. The process to get into TBCC programming hasn’t been very hard. They start taking panel submissions in the Fall and make decisions during the year to fill out their three-day schedule. The key is to have a compelling, popular topic, and a description that will grab an audience. Watch the website for details and submit early.

As I stated before, the Con is family-friendly with guest ages spanning eight months to eighty years. I’ve always found the crowd pleasant, if not a bit snarky (not that I bring that out in people. At all. Ever.) and welcoming. The vendors I’ve worked with, both at my own table in the Artist Alley and while volunteering in the WordFire Press booth have been easy to work with, always willing to watch your table when you need a bio break.

Parking can be a bit of an issue, but you’re all set if you get there early. As a vendor, you can enter the Vendor Room an hour before show opening, so grab some coffee, arrive early, and get a choice spot in the parking garage across the street or connive your way into the Marriott parking lot.

Book sales have been strong. I prefer to partner with a few other authors to have more titles on the table. The different, vibrant covers and multi-genre offerings draw more interest.

Overall, I love TBCC. It doesn’t hurt that it’s in my backyard, but it’s a solid, fun Con and I will continue going back as long as they’ll have me.

By the Numbers:

  • 2017 Attendance – Approx. 60k
  • 2018 Dates – Aug. 3-5

Cost:

  • 6’ Artist Alley Table – $250 + 3% Paypal fee (includes two entry badges)
  • 10’ x 10’ corner booth – $575 + 3% Paypal fee (includes badges, but not sure how many)
  • Parking (how much depends on where you find a spot)