Convention Recap: ConCarolinas 2024
TRANSPARENCYEVENT RECAP
General Thoughts
I found my way back to North Carolina this past weekend, sharing a table with my bud Ben Meeks at ConCarolinas! Year two was a lot of fun, with some great panels, good sales, and fun hangs. What more could a poor boy from Bama want?
Well, I mean I walked in to find my table had me listed as "Uberpossum" and Berta Platas had left that amazing bit of possum paraphernalia there for me to find. So that. That is what more a poor boy from Bama could want.
On the people front, I got to share a room with Richard Fierce and Ben. The three of us have done this a few times now, and I really enjoy it each time. We sell all day, and then when we get back to the room we just laze about and strategize. I know it's made me better at all this, and I like to think I've been an asset in that regard to them as well. We all three operate on a real hustle hard mindset, and being able to surround myself so closely with like minded gents has been great.
I got to spend a lot of time with Superfan Steve again! We operated as his base of operations as he bought a staggering (literally) amount of books from a ton of authors there. And I also got to meet in the flesh a few folks from the Discord channel, and reconnect with some fans I have met at other conventions. It's a really good feeling to have someone who bought book 1 at a previous event come out to make sure they could snag the next books in the series.
And I am not going to name all the author friends I got to hang out with, because it's a super long list and would hate to forget someone (though I will mention that it was rad being right next to Mel Todd all weekend). But ConCarolinas is heavy on Falstaff authors, and I have gotten to know so many of them over the past few years, so it makes for a good time. And I got to hang out a bit with Matt Dinniman. I like to think I managed to not make too much of a fool of myself.
Small Thoughts
I need to get on making a few more zines. It looks like I have priced them right, now I just need to expand on my options. I also need to start fine tuning how I will be displaying them.
I made one of my best puns of all time. Someone bought a book from Darrin Kennedy, and he gave them and Olive Garden bag to put it in. They then came over and bought a book from me, also placing it in that bag. A couple hours later on a panel someone asked 'how do you come to terms with asking a bigger name author for help.' I relayed that exact story, and then said "so it helped me to know that Darrin Kennedy also suffers from im-pasta syndrome."
Panels
Blue Collar Heroes - I got to start out with a bang, sharing a panel with Larry Martin, Richard Fierce, Sarah Joy Adams, and Wayland Smith (moderator). We talked about the blue collar characters in our work, though to be fair Howard Marsh is really more of a 'no collar' hero.
How to Build a Cult (Following) on Social Media - Jim Nettles, Milton Davis, Jess Adams and myself chatted building up your social media following while being moderated by Matt Dinniman (Dungeon Crawler Carl). I mean, really we probably all should have just shut up and let Matt talk (well Matt and Milton mostly), but I do think we managed to offer up some good tips.
So You Want To Be A Podcaster - I did this with the crew of ConCarolinas TV and half of the Spaceman and the Halfling podcast. Twas a lot of fun, and I hope folks were able to take some good tips and tricks from us on how to start their podcast journey.
Game Recommendations - Rey Nichols organized myself, April Baker, and Lee Roberts onto a panel were we discussed what makes a great game, and mostly, our top recommendations. Any time I get to sing the praises of CK3, Ascension, and Grave Robbers from Outer Space is a good time in my book.
Respect the Hustle - Side Gigs for Writers - Sarah J Sover set up a panel with myself, James Palmer, and S.H. Roddey where we talked about all the (very) different ways we supplement our income as writers. There were some very diverse income types mentioned, which I like to think showed folks there is no 'one' way.
Geeky Dad Jokes - All you need to know is that I won The First ConCarolinas Geeky Dad Joke Championship. Seriously. I guess years of terrible puns and #bobsbadjokeoftheday has paid off, training me for the this moment. The LadyWife had told me essentially "on your shield, or carrying it" when I told her about this. So I am happy to announce that I was allowed to come home.
Dune Through the Years - 40+ Years of Flowing Spice - I have gradually been getting added to more Main Programming panels, and this was one of those. But let's be real: no one wants to hear what I have to say about Dune, not when Kevin J. Anderson is on the panel. Luckily for me, he contractually wasn't allowed to talk about the new Dune movies as he was a producer on them. So I got to gush about them a bit, spread the faith of the Lynch movie, and shit talk the Sci-Fi ones, all over the course of an hour while sitting one spot away from a titan in the industry. And hey, I had two folks come up after to talk to me! They chose me over a faaaaaaaar bigger name, which made me feel good.
Sales
Last year you may recall that I lost money on this event. This was because I wasn't able to split a hotel room or gas costs. I did 330, which included my very first Dino'ing (if you know, you know). This year I am super excited to say that I beat that! I sold 450 bucks worth of books! And my costs were sooooo much less! Mostly because I was able to split the hotel with Richard and Ben, and Ben and I split gas to get there.
This was my first event where I sold my rpg zines. I was worried that the 10 dollar price tag might scare folks off, but every person who asked how much, when I said 10, didn't even blink. So that was great to see.
The space is what hurt my sales the most. The table was so narrow (it had to be) that I was unable to put out my stickers, which cut out some sales I know. And I also didn't have room to put out Southern Saudade where folks could easily see it. But them's the breaks sometimes. The Zines made up what I likely would have gotten from those, and I'm not complaining. I am getting to a point though where sharing a small table isn't as viable for me, so that is something I will have to take a look at with future events, especially as I get more books out.
I also got screwed by the escalator AGAIN. Somehow, someone broke the up escalator the exact same way as last year. I was located on the side of the escalator that folks would naturally take to return to go up in a lot of instances, so it being shut down translated into our side getting less foot traffic. To be clear, I don't hold this against the Con runners in any way (much like the narrow tables). Sometimes you just get a bum hand delt to you, or the nature of the space dictates restrictions. Also, the table was free, so I'd have to be a real asshole to go around blaming folks that my free space wasn't ten feet wide and placed directly in front of the registration table to maximize my foot traffic lol. I will say, despite the hand of fate, we fucking hustled on our side of things. Talking with other folks, we still managed to outsell most of the folks we talked to about specific numbers (we being myself, Ben Meeks, and Richard Fierce).
Also, I am planning to start using the below format for all events I have sales. If I wasn't lazy I would go back and update old posts to fit this. But...yeah.
Daily Sales Numbers:
Presale - 100
Friday - 35
Saturday - 235
Sunday - 80
Total Sales Numbers By Item:
2 Bringing Home The Rain - 30.00
2 Books 2 or 3 - 30.00
5 Omnibus 1 - 175.00
1 Omnibus 2 - 35.00
0 Omnibus Bundles
0 Southern Saudade
0 Stickers
0 Sticker Bundles
8 - Zines - 80.00
1 Ultimate Bundle - 100.00
Total: 450.00
Fixed Expenses:
Badge: 0.00
Booth Fee - 0.00
Hotel - 95.00
Grand Total Profit - 355
