Convention Recap: Alabama Comic Con 2024
TRANSPARENCYEVENT RECAP
General Thoughts
This was not a good event from a sales perspective. I still had a good time though.
I was told by lots of people that in past years this has been a great event. This year it was not. There are lots of theories as to why, but I suspect it wasn't any one thing but a perfect storm of:
There was a UAB home football game a few blocks away on Saturday. This stole most of the parking downtown near the BJCC where this was held.
The weather didn't help.
There were a number of concerts downtown which also hurt parking and such.
I'm told they increased ticket price.
It was slightly downsized, but they had more vendors than past years.
Possibly the election season has folks less spendy.
The guest lineup was nice, but honestly the weakest in a few years I think.
Whatever the reason(s) I managed to cover my table, but that was about it. Most of the authors I talked to, their experience was similarly bad/worse. I shared with Ben and Richard, my ride or die booth buds, and I feel bad for convincing them to come try this show with me. If I hadn't scored us a free place to stay with some amazing family members of mine, this would have been a BAD event for sure.
That said, I had fun. Any time I get to booth with Richard and Ben is a great time. And I got to hang with some other author buds off and on like Scott Blasingame and JB Mangold. I also got to meet James Maxey (that man moves some damn books) which was great. Plus there were a ton of really welcoming other vendors, volunteers, and most importantly, attendees. It wasn't a big crowd, but it was a welcoming crowd.
I don't think I will do this event again. If I do, it will be solo, and at an artist alley booth. I just don't want to bring folks down for an event where they lose money. And I will need to see if they make some changes.
Small Thoughts
I have a lot of small thoughts.
Yep, I need to make sure I pack a couple extra copies of books 2 and 3, for those folks who bought book 1 at a previous event. It rarely comes up, but as time goes by I know it will happen more frequently.
This was my first event where I set up my dice. I sold one set of 6. Kinda bad, but also...everything sold poorly. So it's too soon to say if I messed up switching from stickers to dice.
I am planning to get another book stand, and shift to doing two stands instead of my current method. The smaller stand will be for RPGs, with rpg branding, and the other will be for novels. I met James Maxey, and he does a far better version of the notecards I was doing (that I replaced with the small signs on hat stands I use now). I just need to replicate his method as it will take up much less room and look better (I think). This will allow me to likely go back to using my 'booth tote' as a 'book tote' and just use my tool bag for booth stuff.
Soon I will be making some in depth guides/videos about my booth.
Idk where I would be without Richard and Ben to give me advice and help me talk through things. I really don't.
Sparkytopia is an amazing artist who I set up next to at an event in Huntsville earlier this year. They surprised me with this amazing possum wizard art (below)! How cool is that?! You could go check out their artistry, it's too cool.
I also had an attendee from a workshop I taught come out specifically to see me! The fact that folks would take time out of their day, and pay a fee just to come say hi?! What even is this life?!
And lastly a fan I met at Dragon Con had a letter dropped off to me (they had to work) that came with a rad little possum/raccoon glasses cloth! The letter had some rad art, and expressed their appreciation for how I depict the south. I really do try to focus on that element of my writing, so when folks notice and appreciate that, it means the world to me.
What...?
This section is where I relay the occasional WTF conversational moment(s) we get into at booths sometimes:
-We had a very nice gentleman explain to us his belief that dragons had existed (and might still), then somehow turned that into a conversation about how incest happens. I thought it was a setup for a joke, but not, he really went into detail about how incest usually comes to happen.
Panels
There were no panels, so I just had to sit at my booth and sell. Ugh.
Sales
This was a two day event, Saturday and Sunday. Neither day was great, but Saturday (not surprisingly) was better than Sunday. I did manage to confirm my strategy of not really mentioning omni 2 has gotten my sales of omni 1 back up to where they should be.
Daily Sales Numbers:
Saturday - 239.00
Sunday - 130.00
Total Sales Numbers By Item:
4 Bringing Home The Rain
2 Books 2 or 3
4 Omnibus 1
0 Omnibus 2
1 Omnibus Bundles
2 Southern Saudade
0 Dice
1 Dice Bundles
0 Zines
1 Zine Bundle
0 Ultimate Bundle
Total: 369.00
Fixed Expenses:
Badge: 0.00 (included in booth fee)
Booth Fee - 275.00
Hotel - 0.00
Total - 275.00
Grand Total Profit - 94.00
