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.

Review of What Worked for Two Gun Hart

Now more than six months after the release of Two Gun Hart, it’s time to review what worked and what did not with its release and promotion.  I point out six months because that’s typically the amount of time after a book’s release that promotions last before it is labeled a “backlisting.”

It’s hard to believe it’s been that long as it seems like it just came out.  But the time has flown by because I did so much for it; and yet it feels like there’s been so little result, or at least far less than there should have been.

The promotional plan was broken into four parts, each lasting three months, so I’ll go through each one here.

6-4 months before release:  The plan was to give people an idea of the story; sort of get them primed, if you will.  I did this by promoting the sister book, The Great Heist.  This had one chapter in it that covers Two Gun Hart, and the idea was to get people curious about it.  I also used this time to get it to reviewers so they’d be done with it by release.  This worked moderately well.  The Great Heist was difficult to sell as people didn’t know me or the book, and it would have probably done better just to give it away for free.  I did have a free giveaway for the Kindle at one time, which I think did the best good, but it would have been better to get it into more hands.  As for reviews, a lot more people promised to review it than came through.

3-0 months before release:  This was the big period where I tried to generate interest and did a pre-release.  Most importantly, I tried to get onto every radio show I could and to speak on every blog and podcast that would have me.  I also tried to get as much press coverage as possible.  I wanted everyone to buy during this time because all pre-buys would count as having released on the day of release, thus giving me the best chance of a best-seller.  I worked all day practically every day sending out press releases, emails, calling places, etc.  One press release I sent out got picked up by stations all across the country, but they all talked about the story and few even mentioned the book.  As for radio stations, especially NPR, I was mostly ignored.  Since I wasn’t a major publisher, they didn’t care.  As for fellow independent bloggers and Youtubers, there was silence.  Some even said they wouldn’t have anything to do with self-publishers, which is funny since they are self-publishers.

0-3 months after release:  My celebration of the release was to go and talk at as many places as possible.  This was mostly in Nebraska and Iowa where I had a tour with the Hart family.  Everywhere we went had a large reception, and everyone bought the book.  This was the best time of sales.  Any time I could directly talk to people, they were fascinated with the story and immediately wanted a copy.  Radio stations in Nebraska and Iowa had me on… scratch that, in Lincoln and Iowa had me on.  Omaha and most of the rest of Nebraska ignored me.  Strangely, Omaha is very much uninterested in independent endeavors; you can tell by the fact that few independent stores are anywhere in the city.  As for bookstores, only a few would take the book.  Even independent bookstores would say that since it’s an independent book, they weren’t interested, all the time not recognizing their hypocrisy.  I did manage to get it into the Barnes & Noble system and a few stores bought it, but not many.  There were a couple of the ones that have always been supportive of me, such as A Novel Idea and The Bookworm, both of whom had signings for me.  And then there were a few other stores that opened up to me since I had it printed through Ingram Spark which made them returnable.  But I only made a little bit above what it cost me to have them printed through that company.  I’m not sure that even includes the listing I paid for that went out in Ingram’s catalogue that supposedly goes to bookstores everywhere.

4-6 months after release:  I learned along the way that a lot of clubs, such as Rotaries, want authors to come speak, especially if they wrote about an interesting non-fiction subject.  The bookstores were often empty when I went to speak at them, but organized events were typically pretty full, so I gave it a try with a new visit to Nebraska.  This has worked better, with the captive audiences always enthralled, and almost everyone buying a copy of the book.  It’s a bit inefficient, however, as I have to go to each one, and after a two week trip to Nebraska, I just barely paid for my flight there and back.  I also learned to sell the book at specific markets that are interested in this sort of thing.

All in all I learned two important lessons.  First, the way to sell a non-fiction book is through personal interaction.  If you have an interesting subject, people will want to hear the story, see the pictures, then they’ll give it a chance.  It’s a good idea to have elements from the book, such as pictures, clips, and evidence of what you’re talking about, so people can see for themselves that this is true and fascinating.

And second, I learned why someone said something I read a while back.  He said that he published his fiction independently and his non-fiction through major publishers.  I didn’t understand why at the time, but now I do.  For non-fiction to sell, you need the aid of news and radio organizations to give you some legitimacy.  There aren’t as many online locations to build interest in your work.  There’s also a stigma with non-fiction in self-publishing.  People believe that if it’s traditionally published, it’s gone through a gambit of editors who are checking on its accuracy.  This is not true, as editors with big houses are looking for what is profitable, not what’s true; and the idea that they’re checking over your accuracy is a myth.  In fact, traditionally published books are less likely to be accurate because of their motivation to make money.  But most people don’t know this, so they’re only likely to buy a traditionally published non-fiction book.  To add to all of this, most history readers are themselves traditionalists, and are more afraid of technology than embracing it, so it’s very hard to reach your audience.

Fiction, on the other hand, has a lot of readers who are likely to try something new, especially in the areas of science fiction and fantasy.  As a result, I’ll be focusing my efforts on releasing and promoting Relic Worlds and my fantasy story, then doing non-fiction on the side from now on.  It’s unfortunate, but I want to make a living writing, and if readers, and especially the media, refuse to see the value in independent non-fiction, there’s nothing I can do about it.