My Experience at Wondercon - 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 Experience at Wondercon - 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.

The Secret to Independent/Self-Publishing? - Series! (Part 2)

Last week I talked about my journey through independent publishing learning what was working and what was not.  I had started with writing non-fiction and one-off novels, and found that the promoting of them was very difficult, particularly because, once I had promoted them, I was done.  There was no series which I could build over time.

What I’ve done with this blog post, in splitting it up, is illustrate part of what works.  If you can generate some interest and say the story will continue, that draws an audience in.  It also helps because it’s spread over two areas.  Some of you will undoubtedly see this post first, and go back to the last one to see where I began while many of you will have seen that first, and come here.  This is called casting a wider net.  If I had another one come out next week, some people would undoubtedly see that and trace it back to see where it all began.  And when people make sure to read all the way through, that counts as three views to my blog per person rather than just one.

In short, having a series builds an audience over time, something independent authors desperately need.  The more reasons you have to post about your series, the more opportunities others have to find it.  And by having multiple books come out, you can have something new to talk about regarding your series as time goes along.  It’s especially helpful when you have short stories that take place throughout as well, as you can post and talk about those for free, and they’re tiny amounts of your story that people can digest without a huge investment of time.

In my case, I’ve chosen to do my series Relic Worlds, about an anthropologist searching for ancient artifacts in the ruins of distant planets to learn what happened to alien civilizations in the galaxy.  Sort of Indiana Jones in space, if you will.  This series has a novel once a year, and a bunch of short stories in between each novel.  There are also games, choose your own adventures, and other interactive materials that come out for it all the time.

By having so many different elements, I’m able to talk about what’s happening in the series on an ongoing basis.  This is a huge departure from my other books where the only update I could give was, “book’s still out on Amazon and waiting for you to buy.”  As an ongoing tale, I can keep everyone up to date on the latest products and stories in the ongoing adventure.  And I can bring everyone along for the ride like they’re involved.

I bring them along by being a part of their discussions on Facebook, Twitter, forums, etc.  Being sci fi and adventure, those are the groups I belong to; and I enjoy the discussions.  I can get involved in what they’re saying about other sci fi and adventure stories, and I build trust and engagement with them.  So when I say, hey guys, something else has come out from Relic Worlds, I’m not just appearing out of nowhere and trying to sell them something.  Hell, I’m not even selling to them, I’m giving away most of what I’m talking about for free.

Speaking of which, it’s best to make the first book free as well.  This pulls people into the story as they’re likely to get the first book for free just to see what it is, then they’ll get curious where the characters go from there.  I made sure to end the first book by giving a sense of where everyone was going, but leaving it open-ended enough to make everyone curious.  With my one-off books, when I gave them away for free, that was it.  They had the product and didn’t need to buy anything else.

And then there’s the conventions.  While it was difficult for me to find conventions to sell my other books, with sci fi, there are plenty of conventions dedicated to just that, or to the “popular arts,” which generally includes sci fi and fantasy along with comic books.  Now, at these conventions you’ll generally spend a lot of money getting a booth and decorating it, but then you’ll hardly have any sales.  So why are they worth it?  Because that’s where you build your following.  They may not want to spend money at your booth because they’re spending it all on Batman and Star Wars paraphernalia.  But since they met you, they’ll go home and look at your stuff, and possibly buy it later.  They’re also pretty willing to join your mailing list.

This mailing list, I’ve learned, is perhaps the most important element.  By having it, I can contact them directly to remind them I exist rather than counting on people to look up my page and start following along.  Again, with a one-off book, all I can do is tell them what’s in the book and hope they buy it, or maybe tell them about new books I’m writing, which may or may not be of a genre they’re interested in.  But by having an ongoing sci fi series, they will stay connected, and follow the story that matches their interest.

So, the plan for Relic Worlds going forward is basically in two parts: online and at conventions.

Online I interact with others in their groups and on my pages, twitter, blog, etc.  I tell them what’s new in the world of Relic Worlds while interacting with them about other subjects in sci fi and adventure.  (Even throwing in a lot about real science and archaeology.)  This is all centered on the newsletter that I send out once a month to the people on the email list.

Meanwhile, I go to whatever conventions I can get to and afford, and I build my email list, as well as give out flyers to get people involved in the series.  So far it’s done well to generate some interest.  Few sales have come from it, but I’ve just started, so hopefully this will work.  I’ll post later about how it continues.

The Secret to Independent/Self-Publishing? - Series! (Part 1)

When I started doing independent publishing, I wrote nonfiction books and single, one-off novels.  While I’m proud of these works, and the non-fictions in particular have been met with rave reviews, I’ve learned that these are precisely the sorts of books that are the hardest sells for independent authors and publishers.  What works, in short, are series for niche markets.

You see, major publishers can sell one-off books more effectively because they have a larger marketing budget, and they’re well established in the industry.  They have connections and inroads into distribution channels that give them a virtual monopoly in certain venues.  This is especially prevalent in pre-sales where they are able to get reviewed by major publications that have large subscriber bases and loyal viewers, readers, and followers.  These connections would take individual publishers and authors years to build, if they can build them at all.  Additionally, traditional publishers have large teams of people dedicated only to publishing without the distraction of writing.

Independent authors are trying to get the attention of news reporters, bloggers, show hosts, etc. while continuing to write another book and often while doing a day job as well.  And when they finally break through those barriers and get some coverage, all that effort is rewarded once, and then it’s back to the drawing board for the next story.  Sometimes people who bought one of your books will remember you for the next one.  And Amazon has been great about telling people who buy one book that there’s another book by the same author.  But this all has limited success, especially when your books are not of the same subject.

However, social media gives the author complete control over their promotions.  No longer are you dependent upon news sources to see some value in your product.  You can post about your newest creations online.  The problem with this is two-fold.  First, people don’t like to be sold to while you are on social media.  So you can’t just go on and start saying you have a book to sell.  You have to become a part of the community; like and comment on things other people are posting.  After a while, you can bring up your own book, and if you did it right, you’ll get some sales.  But then that’s it.  You’ve done what you can for that book.  And now you belong to a group you only joined because you wanted to do that one thing.

In my case, I did have three non-fiction books that were all true crime related, so I was able to be a part of the true crime community and talk about each book as it came out.  But this was limited because I couldn’t post too much about each book without giving their content away.  And, to be honest, I’ve never had that big of an interest in the whole world of true crime.  I just happened to have three stories I’m fascinated by that happen to be defined as true crime.  My posts probably reflected the fact that I just wasn’t that interested in the general subject matter.

Also, the only conventions I could take these books to were general book conventions.  There are no true crime conventions, (at least I hope there aren’t,) so I was limited to what I could do online to try to generate interest in these books.

Fiction series for a niche market, however, that’s a different story; one I will get to in my upcoming post next week…

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.

Relic Worlds Book 1 is Now on Audible as an Audiobook

Relic Worlds, Book 1: Lancaster James and the Search for the Promised World, is now an audiobook available on Audible.  If you join audible, you can get the book for free!  The audio was done by a wonderful actor named Jon Ryan, who added music and some sound effects to give it the proper feeling.  You can find it at:

http://www.amazon.com/Relic-Worlds-Lancaster-Search-Promised/dp/B01AIYMH6C/ref=sr_1_1_twi_audd_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1453169725&sr=8-1&keywords=Relic+Worlds

Why Can't Steven Avery of Making a Murderer Get a New Trial?

Like so many people I watched in horror as the events of Making a Murderer unfold.  The police corruption is undeniable.  The fact that they planted evidence is pretty obvious, and their bully tactics to lead to a confession are undeniable.  I’m not 100% certain of Steven Avery’s guilt or innocence as I did not see the whole trial, but the guilt of the police in shoddy, unethical, and illegal police work is undeniable.

The reaction of the public has been the obvious response, to petition for a new trial, and to try to convince the federal government to step in.  Unfortunately, both are futile gestures.  Murder is a state crime, not a federal one, so neither the president, nor any federal representative, can step in.  Legally, it is a matter for the state to handle, and we’ve already seen that the powers that be in Wisconsin don’t want to do anything about it.

As for a new trial, that can only happen if new evidence is brought forward.  It doesn’t matter how much one proves that their trial was tarnished, they cannot receive a new one.  One can bring charges against the people who fixed the trial, thus placing more people in jail, but the person whose life was ruined by the unfair trial remains in prison.  This is one of the many reasons that our prisons are overcrowded.

If there’s one thing we should be learning from this documentary it’s that the legal system is completely messed up.  It protects rules more than it does the public.  Even in the face of overwhelming proof that a wrong has been done to someone, and continues to be done to them, the rules are in place to protect the system rather than the individual.

In my book Pro Bono I follow the case my father and grandfather were involved in, defending a 14-year-old girl named Caril Fugate who was sent to prison for assisting her ex-boyfriend on a murder spree.  There were mounds of evidence that she had nothing to do with the murders, including the fact that in the end she ran to the police and was the reason her ex-boyfriend was even captured.  Yet the prosecuting attorney, who had already filed charges against her before she escaped, did everything he could to gather evidence against her, even interrogating her without a lawyer, or even telling her that he had pressed charges against her.  Like in the Avery case, he did not investigate the crime from both sides before coming to a conclusion; he was looking for a promotion, which comes about by a high conviction rate, not from a rate of fairness.

Caril’s trial was as absurd as Steven Avery’s.  Seventy-two violations were later cited, including a juror who made a bet that she would be found guilty, the judge not allowing my grandfather’s partner to work on the case, and the fact that Caril was interrogated without being offered a lawyer, even after she asked for one.

Despite all this, she was denied a new trial.  The first problem with her case and with Avery’s was that the judge who handled the original case was in charge of deciding whether or not they’d get new trials.  In this they are being expected to admit their own guilt and/or incompetence, so the very act of asking them for a new trial is a waste of time lawyers have to do in the appeals process.  They can then climb a legal ladder that is set up to protect its own system rather than find what’s fair.

Most absurdly, the defense attorneys, if they’ve stuck around, must find something new to introduce into a new trial.  Even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the trial was fixed, such as in Steven Avery and his nephew’s cases, the conviction will remain as is unless new evidence can be brought forward.  They might bring it to the Supreme Court eventually, but they only consider cases that affect the entire nation.  Again, justice isn’t concerned with one man.  The system, as it currently stands, does not care about being fair, only about protecting itself.

The only chance some of these people have is if they’ve been given a chance at parole.  As they point out in Making a Murderer, the convict must then admit to being guilty in order to have a chance at parole.  They have to admit guilt so they can show how they’ve changed and deserve a new chance.  Caril went through this exact dilemma after she exhausted all chances at a new trial.  When the parole board asked her how much she had changed, she said it was an unusual subject for her.  She still maintained her innocence, but she knew no trial was possible.  She still satisfied the parole board by saying she had indeed changed in prison over the past 17 years, however, which is why she was finally released.

Steven Avery does not have that chance this time.  He was convicted without the possibility of parole.  This always looks good for prosecutors on their records because they’re “tough on crime.”  However, it really means that innocent people are denied a last chance at justice, as messed up as it might be.  This is also a problem with the death penalty, as that final solution of course denies any chance at later restitution; and as we’ve seen in Making a Murderer, police can, and have, set people up.

The best way to fix all of this is to change the system overall.  When I was doing research for Pro Bono, I was appalled at how fixed the system was toward keeping people in jail, even in the face of obvious and overwhelming evidence.  The system is set up to protect itself, and the legal representatives, who are often watching each other’s back more than they are protecting the public.  I don’t know exactly how to do it, but the first step is in recognizing where the problem lies.  Only then can the issue be addressed, and hopefully one day fixed.