Presenting My Game at Wondercon

I'll be going to Wondercon again this weekend, and this time I'm doing things a little differently.

Rather than getting a booth and trying to sell books that way, I've got a big table in the gaming area.  The main presentation there will, of course, be the Relic Worlds miniatures game, Relic Worlds Showdown.  The setup I made for this with the big volcano and everything (Breakup Mountain) always gets the most attention, so it's probably the best thing to grab attention for the series as a whole.

So I'll be putting on the game, but I'll also have flyers, and copies of the books.  I probably can't sell them since I don't have a booth, but I learned a while ago that I never make a profit at these conventions; it's about exposure.  So the whole point will be to get attention and to hand out flyers to get people into the Relic Worlds series.

Since part 1 of book 3 will have just released, I'm giving out business card sized flyers with a link for readers to download it for free.  Book 1 will also be available for free on Amazon Kindle that weekend as well, so there will be flyers for where they can find that as well.

And there will be presentations of the game all day, which recently released, and it more or less premiering at that convention.

If you're there, drop by our presentation in the game area.  You won't be able to miss the giant volcano!

Still Promoting at Conventions I Can't Make

The main reason I went to the Alamo City Comic Convention was because someone I met told me that you can make more money at conventions in Texas than anywhere else.  "Texans will buy anything," he said.  I needed that sort of a break, so I looked into getting a booth at the Alamo City Comic Con.  I chose that one because it's near Austin where my uncle lives, and I've been wanting to show Austin to my girlfriend Jamie for a while now.

When I saw the price of the booths, I was taken aback.  $600.  I looked for a small press area, and there was none.  I looked around at other conventions and it was the same story.  It seems Wondercon is unique in having a small press section for independent artists.  It's really a pity because I can't see us independent authors making back $600 plus all the other expenses.

I tried to get a list of vendors who would be at the event, but the website was never updated with their names.  (It said 'vendor list coming soon' all the way up to two weeks before the event, at which point I stopped looking.)  By this time I already had a plane ticket to Austin and Rotary club talks scheduled for another one of my books, so I just went and got a badge to the convention.

I met several vendors, all of whom said they maybe just barely make their money back, and that it's really about exposure.  I suggested the idea of renting table space from them next year, and a couple of them seemed to like the idea.  One of them called it "sublet renting."  I'm going to try it at that convention.  I'm also going to see about hiring a model to cosplay at the front and hand out flyers, and also offer a giveaway to attendees if they write down their email addresses.  This might be a good way to proxy myself into these conventions that are too expensive for me to go to.

Before I left the convention, I set out a bunch of flyers in the common area.  This only worked slightly as I got five new views the day I put them out, all of them around 7 pm, soon after the convention ended.  So the tiny spike was probably from that, but it wasn't enough to justify going out of my way for it.  I'm really coming to believe that the best solution is anything that involves building the mailing list where I can be certain to personally send people things rather than counting on them to check out my projects.

Sci Fi and Comic Book Conventions I Want to Attend

I’ve been talking recently about what worked and what didn’t when I released book 2 of the Relic Worlds series; and more importantly, what I learned.  In one weekend I released book 2, presented the Relic Worlds series at Wondercon, and gave away book 1 in a KDP Select free promotion.  The result was not a lot of immediate sales, but a lot of people who are now following the series.

As a result, I’ve begun to plan for more online promotions on Facebook and Twitter, I’m doing a newsletter campaign on Mail Chimp, and I’ll be doing another free book promotion in conjunction with the second book having a countdown deal.  These are all the online plans, and the other half of the equation is networking in person.  This is best accomplished by going to conventions, so I’ve made a list of the conventions I plan to go to.

I was told that Texans will buy anything.  In fact, I was told that Dallas has the best sales rate of any comic book/sci fi and fantasy convention in the country.  Denver is apparently a close second.  I’ve decided to make my trips to these conventions coincide with trips my girlfriend and I want to take, and since we want to see Austin, I’ve decided my next convention will be Alamo City, which takes place in San Antonio, (just an hour’s drive from Austin.)  San Antonio supposed to be a pretty fascinating city itself, so I’m looking forward to that one.

I plan to keep Wondercon as sort of my “home base” if you will, building a regular following there while I travel to other places just once each to build my following.  I also want to attend Emerald City, which is in Seattle, and Chicago’s C2E2 Pop Culture convention.  Unfortunately, both of those are right around Wondercon, and that might be too much intensity in too short a time, (not to mention the expense.)  So I might only do one of those two.  Finally, I want to do New York Comic Con, though that might be way too expensive.  However, it’s the largest Comic Book convention, even larger than San Diego Comic Con, so it might be worth it.  Or it might just swallow a small project like mine up whole.  Maybe I should do that one a little further down the line.

I’m also looking at Sac Con, which is in Sacramento, and Nerd Con in San Diego, since they’d be close.  I did Loscon, and they want me back, but SO FEW of the people at that convention go into the dealer’s room that it’s not really worth it.

I’ll be looking at more conventions, and I’ll be going to as many as I can afford.

http://alamocitycomiccon.com/

My Wondercon Experience - Saturday

Saturday is always the biggest day at any of these conventions, so I pulled out all the stops.  I had two volunteers: Laura and Rachel, who took care of the booth.  I also had two models who I had hired to walk around the front area in costume.  I did this because I had noticed that tons of photographers take pictures of cosplayers who look great.  I wanted to take advantage of this, and am I ever glad I did.  The costumes cost a couple hundred dollars, and so did the models, but they really grabbed attention.  They had just arrived and I had just given them the flyers to give out when there a line of photographers formed.  Before I left, they were literally mobbed by photographers as though they were celebrities.  I had intended for them just to give out business cards and/or flyers to select photographers when they felt it would be beneficial, but they went above and beyond, giving out flyers every time, and sometimes to non-photographers.  They got really excited about the characters and posed in character.  And they even posed with the books.  They were phenomenal, and I realized I had gotten my money’s worth.

To be clear, I didn’t not make a profit off of them.  Laura and Rachel were selling books upstairs, (far more than I sold all day Friday,) but the sales didn’t come close to the $400 I put into the models and their costumes.  But that wasn’t the point of Saturday or the convention in general.  It was to get attention, and I definitely got it.  At one point I passed someone who was talking about our models when we weren’t anywhere around them.  At another time I saw someone in a different part of the convention who asked if I was the one with the volcano.  People were getting to know who we were, and they were beginning to learn the name Relic Worlds.

I had also signed up to put on a game in the gaming area during the day.  This one was actually in the convention center, so taking the miniatures was much easier.  This once again got a lot of attention as people saw me moving the volcano, and they got to see the whole, six foot diorama set up.  The best part was that there was a slow moving line right next to the gaming area, and people kept gawking at it.  The game itself only had a few kids, but a bunch of people took flyers because they wanted to learn more.

Part way during the day we started telling people that they could have a free drink if they signed up for the mailing list, which went over well.  We had twice as many people signed up than completed the treasure hunt, so the mailing list grew.  We also figured out how the booth itself should look.  (It helped to have a volunteer who was a designer.)  I learned that the best look for me was to have all the books and flyers on one side of the table, a diorama on the other side of the table, the horizontal banner at the front of the table, and the two vertical banners of the books in the back, with the name tag the convention provides hanging on the wall between them.

And prominently displayed all on its own either in the middle, or on the far side, is the all-important mailing list.

This setup was one of the most important things I learned that day.  I also learned that I need to have a separate person to run a game if I do that, (which is a good idea because it spreads out my exposure.)  It’s also a worthwhile expenditure to have cosplay models who catch a lot of attention at the front.  But it’s important to not just have them in the outfits of your story, but rather a mixture of something established, (one was in the Princess Leia slave outfit and the other was in steampunk.)

Next week I’ll conclude this story with Sunday at Wondercon.

My Wondercon Experience - Friday

I posted before about my experience at Wondercon.  I didn’t really say much about the specifics, or what I learned, so I’m going to tell about how things went over the next three posts.  I’m giving this one extra attention, because it was a huge event in my life.

It was important because this was the last chance I was going to give myself to make sure something happened in my profession of storytelling.  If this didn’t work, I was going to settle down into some other career, and accept that book publishing would just be a hobby.  I had promised my girlfriend Jamie that I would do this so we wouldn’t be constantly in poverty with me chasing my dream.

So the plan was to make the booth so flashy it looked like it was from one of the larger companies, not in the small press area.  I spent a couple thousand dollars on decorations, including several banners, greenery to wrap around the poles, a large diorama, and of course the books and book stands.  Basically, I didn’t want people to be able to miss it if they tried.

Thursday was setup day, and when I arrived, I was excited to see my booth was the first one you saw when you came in.  Then I realized that I was entering through the loading zone, which was at the very back of the convention hall.  However, the food court was directly in front of me, so that would be my strength.  People would see it when they were at lunch, so I used an idea my girlfriend gave me, give away free soda.  This would work splendidly as drinks at the convention cost $4.

Even though I had taken most of the supplies on Thursday, I still had a few to bring Friday, so I went a bit earlier than I had originally planned.  As it turned out, I should have gone even earlier.  By the time I got there, attendees were arriving, and it took me a while to get parked.  I took the remaining pieces upstairs and returned each time to my car.  The last big piece, the diorama of the volcano, (Jamie called it “Break-up mountain” because it almost cost me my relationship with her,) was supposed to go in three pieces.  However, time was short, so I picked up the whole thing and ran upstairs with it.  I had to run through the entire convention to get to my table, and it was so difficult I nearly had a heart attack.  Ironically, I passed the booth that I used to go to Wondercon with, the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society, but I wasn’t able to stop and say hello.  I was in a tremendous hurry.  When I set it down, I wondered if I had time to wipe my sweat off in the bathroom.  But just at that moment, the voice on the intercom announced that Wondercon was beginning.

I still had to put up the banner, which shouldn’t have been too much of a problem.  I had created a PVC pipe setup which I had practiced setting up at home and it worked fine.  But for some reason, now that I was trying to put it up at the convention, it kept falling over.  I got one end up, and the other end fell over.  It seemed as though the laws of physics had suddenly changed in the convention hall.  I was tremendously frustrated, especially since the crowds were coming in, and slowly they started making their way to the back where I was.  The other booths around me were all set up with the people at them ready and waiting.  They started taking customers, and there I was, a sweaty mess wrestling with PVC pipe that kept falling over.  I was in a near panic.  I had been preparing for this for a year, and now here I was and I couldn’t even get the sign up.

I at last had to scrap the idea and threw the pipes beneath the table.  I taped the banned to the front of the table, then went into the bathroom and changed my shirt.  (Luckily I had more Relic Worlds shirts with me that were supposed to be giveaways.)  I returned to the table, and began.

Throughout the day I set up bits and pieces, placing up one of the vertical banners of the first book hanging from a C stand I owned.  Ultimately, it didn’t look too bad, all things considered.  The convention had provided a sign for the back wall that said Relic Worlds, so I didn’t really even need the long banner.  In fact, when I got the second vertical banner of the second book up the next day, it turned out that horizontal banner in the back would have made things too busy.

As for the day itself, there were a lot of people who came by perusing, but not too many ready to buy.  The hope was that they would be looking now to buy later in the convention.  I had a lot of flyers out, one of which was a treasure hunt that led attendees to other booths.  When they returned, they would get entered into a drawing for free stuff, including a trip to Disneyland.  But to get their prize, they would need to give me their email address, which would go onto an email list.

One thing I learned from this element is the importance of the email list, and how I had shot myself in the foot by making people have to jump through hoops to get to that point.  I met other independent publishers at the event, and all of them told me how important it was that they build that email list to build their fan base, but very few were coming back to give me their email address because they didn’t finish the treasure hunt.  I would have to change strategies.

The biggest trouble that happened all day was I hadn’t heard from one of the models who was supposed to help out on Saturday.  She was coming back from Egypt and had gotten stuck in Germany.  I needed a new one fast, and she was trying to help get a replacement from Germany.  I was trying to text and make calls while also talk with customers.  At last the one that was still coming the next day said she had a friend she could bring, so it was arranged after about three hours of stress.

But that would be the next day.  In the evening I was supposed to put on the Relic Worlds miniatures game.  I was exhausted by the end, but it had to happen.  The worst part was, it was supposed to start at 7, and the convention hall didn’t end until 7.  So I had to leave a little early to get set up.  I took a couple things with me since I didn’t know how far it was.  And boy, was it far.  First I had to go all the way across the convention hall, then I had to go across the rest of the convention center.  After that was a gap before I got to Staples Center, which I had to go across.  A basketball game was about to start, one of Kobe Bryant’s last, so there were crowds to go through.  Then I had to go a block, go into the Marriott, go through the lobby, go up a couple escalators, walk across to the opposite side of the hotel, then across a walkway, then up another flight, then to the opposite side of the next building to reach the gaming area.  My miniatures game had a huge number of pieces, and this would have taken all night to get set up.  So I just returned to the convention center, grabbed the small board game, and went back.  (Someone bought a book during the short time I was back at the booth, one of the only copies I sold all weekend.)  I returned to the gaming area and found a friend.  We set up the game to show it off, and to provide a little more advertising for Relic Worlds, but we never got around to playing.  I was too exhausted.

So that was Friday.  My take away from that is that Friday is the day to present yourself, and to not expect any sales.  It’s the primer for the convention, and for your potential audience.  It’s important to have an easy and attractive way to get people to join your mailing list.  It’s also a good idea to have a great looking booth with something that catches everyone’s eyes, (Breakup Mountain was a big hit, and it actually helped that I carried it through at a time everyone saw it.)  And it’s good to have a gimmick.  The treasure hunt was great in this regard, but I needed to not have it tied to the email list.  Next time it will be just you sign your name and you draw from a treasure chest.

Next week I’ll tell about Saturday, the biggest day of the convention.

Wondercon in Los Angeles

This was the first year that Wondercon has been in Los Angeles, and it was perfect timing for me since it was the first time I had a booth.  It made it easier for me to get to the convention, allowed me to go home every night without having to get a hotel, and it was easier for me to get people to help out with the booth and promotions.

What made me nervous, however, was not knowing what to expect.  I had gone to several Wondercons in Anaheim, including the first one when it moved there from San Francisco.  (I remember rain leaking in all over the convention floor which they caught with carbage cans.)  Each year I took note on what I would do when I ran my own booth, and I had everything planned based on what I saw.

So when it changed to LA the very year I decided to run a booth, much of what I had learned became useless, and I had to go off of what seemed would work regardless of the venue.  It turned out fine, and I really stressed myself over very little.  But it was a little discouraging having spent several years learning only to have to relearn again elsewhere.

It’s something I’ve had to learn in general.  Sometimes you spend so much time learning that things change before you get to use the knowledge you picked up.

My First Booth at Wondercon

I ran my first booth ever at Wondercon this weekend, and I learned quite a bit.

First I must explain that I have been studying this for quite a while; how to best use a convention to sell my products.  I first went to Comic Con in 2007 and have been trying to utilize that convention and others in the best way possible.  Mostly, I tried to do it on the cheap, handing out flyers in the front, and running events that didn't involve getting a table myself.  One example was the treasure hunt I ran, where I gave out flyers full of clues that led attendees to several booths until they got to the last one where they got a prize relating to my series.  (The flyer, of course, also said the name of the series on it.)

All of these attempts failed to have much of an impact.  The treasure hunt, first of all, was too difficult to accomplish, and few people got to the end.  But the biggest problem was that I was, ultimately, outside of the convention.  To really be taken seriously, I had to go all the way and get a booth.  So that is a must.

I became impressed with Wondercon when it first moved to Anaheim.  The first year was rough; but overall it had the feel of a more independent minded convention that remembered its sci fi and fantasy roots.  It wasn't quite so owned by the corporations.  I knew that when I got a booth, it would be here.

My booth was way in the back, which made it easy to load, but harder for attendees to find.  Luckily, it was right next to the food court, so a lot of people saw it during lunch.

I ran the treasure hunt again, but this time it was simple to do.  And at the end, people who wanted to claim their prize had to give their name and email address to enter the drawing.  The grand prize was a trip to Disneyland, so there were a lot of people who wanted to do it.  This left me with an extended email list.  However, it was not as long as it could have been since people had to do the treasure hunt first, and some didn't want to bother.

The table was filled with the flyers on the right, the books in the middle, and a large volcano model I made on the left.  The Relic Worlds sign hung from the table int he front, and vertical signs of the two books hung behind me.  I found this to be a really good layout, though I might have overdone it on the number of different flyers and different books.  What I really needed was a flyer with the treasure hunt, a flyer with the books, and a flyer with a free short story.  Maybe adding the bookmark was a good idea as well, because it was easy to get people to take a bookmark after they had bought other books.

The way the days worked seems to be the same for every convention.  Friday is the day when people trickle in and look at what there is to offer.  It's best to give them previews of what I have as well as get them on the treasure hunts.  At night there was gaming in a different building.  I thought this would be super important as it would be a whole new audience that extended into the evening.  However, this year the gaming area was far away from the convention center, so hardly anyone was there.  Also, people tend to break off into cliques at these gaming events, so its effectiveness was limited.

Saturday was the big day.  It was the day to push both the free fliers and the books, as well as attract everyone with the volcano, and put on a game that utilized the volcano.  This was more effective than the night gaming as it was in full view of other attendees, who looked on at the setup with amazement.  (I spend hundreds of dollars making it.)  I did find, though, that it would be better to have a separate person run the game, as I needed to be at the booth.  I also had two models dressed as a couple of the characters posing for the cameras out front where the cosplayers hang out, and give out flyers.  This was one of the best and most effective things to do as we got TONS of people photographing them along with the books.  I could not have arranged this, however, if I hadn't had two wonderful volunteers at the booth selling books while I was dealing with the models.

Sunday is known as the dead day.  However, it's also the day people are usually more apt to buy.  They've spent the last couple days looking over everything, and on the last day they go through buying what they've decided to get.  It's also the best day to network with other booths as they're less busy.

In the end, I learned that conventions are essentially the second half of the equation to sell books.  The other half is online, which I'll get to in another post.  Conventions are where you spread the word in person.  You can't really expect to make any money at them; you're going to spend more money than you make creating an effective platform.  However, this platform should be used to create something that the attendees go back and tell others about.  The experience should be something they want to photograph either at your booth, or in the cosplay area.  (I had both with the volcano at the booth and the two models in the cosplay area.)  It's also a great way to get people to learn about your website and any deals you have going, such as a free book deal or a sale.

But what it's best for is what I've recently learned is the most important thing in independent book selling: building the email list.  I never thought of this as such an important step, but it is.  Having a website and Facebook page is important for people to go see, but the general public will forget about you unless you actively remind them of your existence, and sending short stories and/or updates is the best way to do it.  So an email list is what you need.  And there's no better way to build this than at a convention.  When people meet you face to face, they get interested in what you're doing.  They're usually not ready to buy anything because they want to keep checking you out.  So they're willing to give you their email address for you to tell them.  I made the mistake of tying it to the treasure hunt.  While the hunt was fun and unique and best of all, made me stand out, it limited the number of people who signed up on the list; and many who would want to hear more later on never came back.

So the bottom line is it's best to find a way to have the attendees join your mailing list by doing something there at the booth that's fun and memorable, but they need to give you their name and email to do it.

Preparing for Wondercon

Wondercon is going to be a huge event for me, and for Relic Worlds.  The obvious part of it that’s important is that it’s where I will be releasing book 2 of the Relic Worlds series, Lancaster James and the Secret of the Padrone Key.  However, it’s also important for other reasons.

For one, this is the first time I will have a booth of my own.  I have attended other conventions, but always with the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society.  It was a good way to try out the convention, paying less and only having to take care of a small space.  However, I had to share the booth with others, and because Relic Worlds is so much about the entire franchise, it benefits from having an entire table.

This is also the last chance I’m giving myself to make a full career out of writing.  If this doesn’t put me over the top so I can work as a writer, I’m going to have to start getting a regular day job and settle into a career.  So I’m going all out with this event.  I’m doing every event and marketing idea I’ve ever had.  This includes a large, miniatures game on Friday night with a volcano and ruined village, models posing out front of the convention, a treasure hunt inside the convention, assistants helping to run the booth, and every Relic Worlds product that exists.

It’s been an expensive project, and I’ve spent a lot of time putting everything together.  Even if I sell all my books, I won’t come close to breaking even.  However, the idea is to kickstart interest in the series, and that’s what I’m hoping to do.

Below are the steps in putting together the volcano that will be part of the miniatures board for the game Friday night and to show at the booth to get people's attention.

Relic Worlds, Book 2 is Available for Pre-Order for One More Week

The second Relic Worlds novel, Lancaster James and the Secret of the Padrone Key, is available for pre-order.  You can get the Kindle version on Amazon, and you can get a hard copy or paperback on Kickstarter.  You can also get other perks by pre-ordering on Kickstarter, including the hard cover version of this second book, which might not be available after the book’s release.

The Padrone Key will be officially released to the public this Friday, March 25^th.  You will be able to find it on Amazon, or you can purchase signed copies in person at Wondercon, where we will be at booth SP-004.

The New Schedule of Relic Worlds

After reviewing what’s been working and not working for me in publishing, and where I am in terms of Relic Worlds, I’ve reworked the schedule for the second book, short stories, and pick your path books.

The second book will now be released at Wondercon at the end of March.  The short stories will continue to be released up to that point, and the fourth pick your path book will come out on Christmas day.  In fact, the fourth pick your path book and the first novel will both be available for free on Christmas as an incentive to get people to reading them.  I might make all the pick your path books free on that day as well.  The idea is that people will be getting new Kindles on Christmas, and they’ll likely turn them on to see what’s available for free, so I’m hoping they’ll pick these up.

I plan on having a lot of events between January and March to build interest in Relic Worlds, and to generally have fun with it.  Overall, Relic Worlds is intended to be fun, so I want people to enjoy some events and games that relate to the adventure and science fiction of the story to get into the series.  Some of these will include geocaches, programming, online treasure hunts, etc.

For now, it’s time to release more short stories and continue building up the website for the immersive experience that is Relic Worlds.

What's Coming Out for Relic Worlds

Since I've been talking about Relic Worlds recently, I figured I'd describe what products will be coming out for it, and what I'm working on for them.

First, what already exists are the following:

7 short stories
3 Pick Your Path books
2 novels
1 comic book

Here's what I'm coming out with this year:

12 short stories
1 Pick Your Path book
2 games
1 novel

There will actually be one more Pick Your Path book that will come out at Wondercon, but that's technically next year.  Some of the short stories might also come out next year as well, depending on how quickly the magazines publish them, (if they publish them,) and whether I am able to stick to my schedule.

www.relicworlds.com

Relic Worlds Promotions

I spoke before about the fact that I'll be pushing Relic Worlds over the next few months.  I thought it might be a good idea to explain the overall plan of how I will promote it.

August-September:
Get the word out about the series in general
Release past short stories to all mediums
Send out past short stories and novel to everyone who might review it or talk about it.

October-December:
Push the current short stories.
Release the current Pick Your Path book and games
Fix up and promote the upcoming book

January-March:
Release the new book
Promote the new book
Get as many reviews of the new book as possible

April:
Climax the whole thing at Wondercon

By "climax" what I mean is I'll have everything showing together.  That means all the books with the new one front and center, all the games, and all the ancillaries. I'll present it all at a booth, but I'll also have a presence at the game tables during the day, and the game room in the evening.  I'll also have models wandering the front getting their pictures taken and handing out cards.

This last will make it clear once and for all whether or not this series is going to work, or if it will become just a hobby for me.  We'll see.  In the meantime, check out Relic Worlds at:

www.relicworlds.com

Using Conventions to Sell Books

I went to Wondercon last weekend, and will be going to the LA Times Festival of Books this weekend.  I have a space at the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society booth where I sell books alongside two or three other authors.  Conventions are an important tool for the independent author/publisher, but it’s an often misunderstood one.  I certainly had difficulty with it for a while.

I was very discouraged at the first few conventions I went to.  I had almost no sales at any of them.  I gave away some flyers and bookmarks, but the sales themselves didn’t come anywhere close to the amount I spent just to get there, let alone pay for parking, the booth space, the copies of the books, etc.  I was, quite frankly, angry, and felt ripped off.  I was especially disgusted when I heard the people who sold the most number of books only sold about eight or ten.  When you consider the fact that you’re only making about $5 profit per sale, not even taking tax into account, you can see that you’re not even going to make back the $75 you spent to get the table space, let alone everything else.

But then I stopped and considered my gains.  I had given out tons of information about my books, and I saw the number of visitors to my websites grow.  People were willing to give my free stuff a chance after the convention was done.  I then did a little self-experiment.  I walked around the convention considering what books I would buy.  I found myself falling into the same pattern as everyone else.  I was willing to consider buying the big flashy things, or the books with brands with which I was already familiar, such as Dune.  Independent books made me nervous.  I had enough money to buy just one or two books, and I was afraid to take a chance with new products.

I realized what hypocrite I was being, but then came to accept that everyone is going to feel this way.  There was a time when even Dune was new, and people slowly took a chance on that.  But likely they saw a bit about it somewhere for free.  Most people don’t want to spend money on something with which they’re unfamiliar.  They need samples.  That’s perfectly reasonable.

And so I determined that the conventions have two uses.  First, for the brands that are already familiar to people to sell to them and give them a chance to see the authors and others involved in the projects they love.  Two, to introduce new products to the public for free so they’ll start getting into it.

This makes promoting Relic Worlds relatively easy because it’s a series, but other books, which are more difficult, rather hard.

I’m going to go into more detail about how I’m promoting Relic Worlds on my Relic Worlds blog as there is a LOT to tell about.  But here I’ll basically say I’m branching out into every part of the convention I can, including the game section, cosplay, flyers, a treasure hunt, even the panels.  As for the more tricky one-offs, here’s what I’m doing.

First, at the booth I have something relevant to the book I’m selling.  This year it will be Two Gun Hart and The Great Heist since they’re related to each other.  There were a lot of newspaper articles about these two stories, so I’ll have blown-up versions of them at the booth along with some photographs to attract people’s attention.  Also, to attract attention, I have one sheet that says “Al Capone’s brother was Prohibition Agent.”  I’m hoping that alone brings people over.

I will be giving away bookmarks with Two Gun on one side and a list of all my books on the other side along with the Bandwagon website.  I’ll also have flyers to give out which tells about Two Gun on one side, and The Great Heist on the other.  Each of these will have QR codes on them that lead the reader directly to their pages on the Bandwagon site.  I debated with myself on this one, considering whether to have the QR code go to Amazon, or to the site.  I finally chose the site because all the options of buying the book are there, along with more information than I can tell at the booth.

Even though my assumption is that these are what people will really be picking up, I’ll still have copies of all the books there to sell.  I may also have a sheet with the prologue written as well.  It’s always good to be able to give away a chapter to people.  This can either be done by printing it out, or by giving away a QR code which takes the person to a website with the chapter.  The print-outs are better, but can get very expensive.

I’ll try to report on how it goes, but I’ve not been very good at keeping promises on this blog.

Holding a treasure hunt at Wondercon

I'm heading out to Wondercon this weekend to promote Relic Worlds.  I know this is a time when I'm supposed to be promoting Two Gun Hart.  After all, it just came out.  But unfortunately I can't change when the convention happens, and this is the biggest one for independent sci fi and fantasy authors.  It draws the numbers, especially those who are really into sci fi and fantasy, though it isn't so mainstream that we independents get cut out.

So I'll be at the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society booth Friday morning, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday late afternoon.  I'll be running a treasure hunt all three days.  People who wish to play follow the clues in the photo below and photograph them.  They then post their pictures to Facebook and Twitter with the hashtag: #relicworldstreasurehunt.

#wondercon2015 #treasurehunt