This Saturday I’ll be going to Wondercon to promote my
new book Relic Worlds: Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised
World. That makes this the perfect time
to explain how I use conventions to promote.
When I first started going to book conventions to promote my work, I went in with the mentality that they are book sales where I would sell my work and try to make a profit. I was VERY disappointed. When I compared not only how much I paid to get space at the table, but also to get gas to get to the convention, food while there, parking, and sometimes even having to buy a ticket to the convention, I found that I had to sell a huge number of books just to break even. Frankly, I didn’t even make enough to justify the time spent. I didn’t even make enough to pay for the gas it took to drive to get my seller’s permit.
Did that make it a complete waste? At first I thought it was. However, when I started giving material away,
people flocked to me. They started
following my work, and some have become long-term fans. This has paid off in terms of people
purchasing my material later.
The moral of the story?
Bring material to give away.
Also, try to get a table with others.
Getting one by yourself is not only costly, but doesn’t look as good
unless you have a huge amount to fill the table. Sometimes there are lone authors sitting at a
table that no one wants to go near. It
actually looks a bit sad and can be a deterrent. I go with the Greater Los Angeles Writers
Society. Sure, it’s their name on the
banner, but I get a space at the table with my own materials, and often I get
people who came over to look at other authors.
I prepare for the convention by making a small diorama of
the subject of the book. This weekend it
will be Relic Worlds, so I have a diorama of some ruins in the desert with an
adventurer exploring them, and a little battle happening around him. I will also have bookmarks, and the first
chapter of the book to be given away for free.
It’s an investment of around $150, but the series will be seen by a lot
of people and will be taken more seriously because they saw it at a booth at a
major convention.
It’s also a good idea to get into a convention where the
trend of your audience is going. I’m
actually more excited about being at a booth at Wondercon than I would be at
Comic Con this year because a lot of the die-had sci fi and fantasy fans are
moving to Wondercon from Comic Con. They
have gotten tired of how overly commercialized Comic Con has gotten, and how it’s
more about the big mainstream movies than they are about sci fi, fantasy, and
comic books. So, while there will be a
lot more people at Comic Con, most of them are curious onlookers wanting to see
what the new trend is rather than people who will become long-term fans.
It’s always about the niche in independent
publishing. You’re not going to get the
mainstream audience; not at first. Go
for your niche.
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