Convention Recap: Atlanta Comic Con 2024

I have returned from the wilds of Atlanta, where I was a vendor at Atlanta Comic Con! I had a blast, so let me break it down for you!

General Thoughts

So first of all, understand that this is a vendor con. Essentially a giant room filled with vendors, with a bunch of celebs at one end that you can get autographs from (if you pay). These are not my favorite to do, because the focus is celebs really. They usually have some panels, but they are always an afterthought you can tell. Often I will try to get in on one or more of those panels…but honestly I just wasn’t feeling it for this event. I have had a ton going on lately, so I didn’t have the gumption to prep.

That said, I had great time. I shared a booth with four other authors, Venessa Giunta (Urban Fantasy with Not Vampire Vampires), Paige L. Christie (Feminist Western with Dragons and Fantasy), Lucille Yates (Paranormal Romance with Shifters and Witches), and as usual, my bro-ham, Ben Meeks (Were Otter Urban Fantasy). We all got along really well, and everyone did a fantastic job of pitching each other’s works.

I can’t emphasis this enough. If you are sharing a space, it’s not about you, it’s about yall. I have shared space with folks who only ever pitch their own books, or are never at their tables to help out. Bad form folks. Someone who likes something romance heavy is not gonna like my stuff maybe, but they will probably love Lucille’s. So what does it hurt me to point at her and say ‘Oh, man that’s who you need to go talk to, you’ll love her stuff.’

So yeah, everyone was really good about cross-pitching, and thus we all sold pretty damn well. By the time Sunday rolled around we were a well oiled machine. At least vocally….physically we’re all old and getting older and our bodies were shattered husks of aching bones lol. I recently hurt my tailbone quite badly (broke?bruised? Not sure). It hurts to the point that I essentially stood all weekend. Saturday I think I sat down one time over what was probably 10+ hours. My puppies are still barking.

The biggest related perk of this was that I didn’t have to book a hotel. One of the authors graciously let the rest of us crash on their floor. That probably saved me a good 200 bucks at least. They also fed us supper each night (it was great). The real perk though was getting to stay up late chatting with author friends. That is always my favorite part of a convention: hanging with the folks who ‘get it’ in a way that most folks who don’t choose this path can.

A Bunch Of Small Thoughts

• I need to make a small sign that says ‘bring a friend back, get a free sticker.’ This is already my unspoken policy, but I need to be more intentional with it.

• An author there was doing mystery books. Basically taking her books and wrapping them in plain paper with a few hints on them. They are all the books she gets from Amazon that are a little damaged, or slightly misprinted, and she sells them cheaper. She says it really works.

• I got told to check out Tampa Bay Comic Con, so I need to do that. Same for Yellow Daisy Festival.

• I think I will make a nice shirt display for when I am vending solo and have the room for it. I had a guy who didn’t read, but he loved my cover to death. If I had my shirt that has my book one cover on it, with a qr code so they could order on the spot, I think it would be eye catching.

• I need to make small signs that clearly say ‘this omnibus contains books 1-3,’ ‘this omnibus contains books 4-5,’ and ‘this is book 1.’

• I think I am going to put a price sticker on my display copies.

• I need to order bags for my books when I sell them, as well as some small bags just for sticker bundles.

• I got a great tip from Paige about how she does her banner. She has her name across the top of it, with evergreen art, and the rest is left blank. Then she makes nice, magnetized images of her books to place on it. This way if her covers change, or she wants to promote a different book, she can just swap it out.

• Having a nice ‘Mee the Authors’ sign would be a nice add to my booth I think, especially times when I am sharing. You would be surprised a the number of folks who think we are just…selling other folks books? So many are surprised when you tell them that, yep, I wrote them.

• Authors talk yall. When we have down time at the booth, during those lulls in the crowd, we chat. We talk about places we had good sales at, recommend potential connections, and dish on folks we’ve shared vendor halls with. There was an author who came up three times in discussions this weekend, from three totally different people, at three different conversations. It was not for anything bad per se, but more ‘that person is kinda annoying.’ As they say in Letterkenny ‘bad gas travels fast in a small town.’ Be professional, and kind. It’s not that hard, I promise. I’m awkward as a soup sandwich, but folks don’t (as far as I know) have lengthy conversations about how I probably cost them sales by being some kinda way. They probably just have lengthy conversations about ‘lord, how did you cram so much awkward into such a portly frame’ with much sighing and slow head shaking instead.

• At some point soon I will make an order/dedication form on my website for folks who want me to send a signed book to a friend/family member. It probably won’t really net me many sales, but it’ll take me three seconds to whip up and if I get a couple of sales over time, then it’s worth it.

• Got to talk to two different educators (one college, one highschool) about possibly speaking to their classes/being a resource for them in the future. I would really love that.

• Weirdly, I think this being so anime heavy of an event, it meant that folks didn’t really dig regular fantasy, as counterintuitive as that may seem. I am basing this off anecdotal evidence from the authors I spoke to who sold those types of books.

Sales

Sales were spurty as all hell, but I am happy with them. Here is the top line number: I sold exactly 700 bucks of books and stickers. My expenses were around 200 bucks. So call it 500 in profit. Now here are the details:

My streak of selling at least one 100 dollar ultimate bundle continued. That has really been working out pretty nicely for me. I may end up tweaking it a little at some point when my overall prices change, but for now it’s working like a charm.

Normally for every 5 book ones I sell, I usually sell about 3 or 4 omnibus copies (not counting any bundles). That was not the case here. I think this being a vendor con that really catered more to celebs, there wasn’t a built in crowd of more book focused folks like at my typical cons. I ended up selling 14 book ones to just 5 omnibus 1s. I also sold 3 omnibus bundles, 5 sticker bundles, and a few single stickers. I did not sell a single copy of Southern Saudade though sadly. This was not a good crowd for my unmarketable book haha.

Few sales centered notes: First, I have been, at the smaller fan cons I do, starting to run into folks who have bought all my stuff at a previous event(s), and want to buy whatever new I have. Which means I have to keep cranking out new stuff to get sales with them. This con…I don’t think that’s going to be an issue here. And I suspect that is going to (generally) be the case at most of these big vendor cons.

Secondly, Ben Meeks sells these awesome custom pens that he hand creates. I really wish I had a comparable skill set like that, because I can see where it has really been working out nicely for him.

Everyone at our booth made money, a pretty good bit. I know one author outsold me by a couple hundred at least. But I also know that a lot of authors who were doing solo tables did not do nearly as well unfortunately. Some didn’t make back their table fee. So yeah, keep that in mind if you want to do this event.