Convention Recap: Conjuration 2022

So this past weekend I had the opportunity to be a part of CONjuration, a primarily Potter focused convention in Atlanta.

Now, to be up front I didn’t realize it was focused on Harry Potter when I applied. If I had, I might not have applied as I often tend to avoid more narrowly focused events, after getting mildly burned at Fandemic (a walking dead convention). I am however a proud Ravenclaw, so scarf in hand I trekked out of Alabama and made my way to Atlanta.

The real pleasure came from getting to share a booth all weekend with my pal Ben Meeks. We had worked out a deal: he had gotten signed up for a promo booth, and I had gotten signed up to run three panels. He shared his booth with me, and I added him onto my panels. We’ve shared space before (see: Fandemic) and it’s always nice to get to spend time with him.

In addition to my three panels, I applied to join three others, so in total I was on six panels over the course of the weekend. It was certainly enough to keep me busy, between helping run the booth, plotting future endeavors, and dashing from panel to panel. In short, the perfect weekend.

Friday: We got there fairly early and were completely set up by 2pm. The con wanted us to keep at a minimum the same hours as the vendor hall (we weren’t located there, we were arranged along the wall just outside of the main social area). So we were set up two hours before the time we needed to be, and stayed until a bit after 8 o'clock. While we didn’t have a ton of sales, each sale that we did have usually was for a bundle. I sold 3 of my books 1-4 bundles, which was more bundles than I sold in total back at the ArtStalk. After that we adjourned to the room, got some words in for NaNoWriMo, then hit the hay.

Saturday: We got up pretty early and grabbed the hotel complementary breakfast. At least they claimed it was complementary, but I never heard it say even one nice thing about me. That aside, it wasn’t terrible, so carbed up we went ahead and decided to go ahead and head on in early. We got a few more NaNoWriMo words in while we waited for folks to start trickling in. Sales for the day as a whole were…sparse. It wasn’t us, we could see that it was that way for the surrounding promo booths as well. It just wasn’t the best location. But it was a free booth, so I can’t complain. I sold a bundle and a couple of copies of book 1, but that was about it.

On the panel side of things I had four. Horror: The Darker Side of Fantasy was a fun romp into talking about the blurry line between horror and dark fantasy. Then I was on How To Promote Your Creativity With Podcasting. This was with Mark Gunn, a well known celtic musician that I’ve seen around quite a few times, and it was a pleasure getting to advise folks on starting their journeys into podcasting. That evening I had the pleasure of joining a panel moderated by Darin Bush, How To Fill Up Your Writing Portfolio. This was hands down one of the top few panels I have ever had the pleasure of being on. It flowed so well, Darin did an artful job of guiding the conversation, all the guests were extremely knowledgeable, and the crowd asked some fantastic questions. It was my first time getting to meet Darin, Marlena Frank, and Berta Platas, and I hope I get to panel with all of them in the future. Bobby Nash was on there as well, and he hung around our booth with us before and after, and I always love getting to hang out with him. Lastly I moderated my Southern Fried Fantasy panel. Ben and Bobby were on it of course, but I was so excited that Nancy Knight asked to be on. For those who don’t know, she is the Writing Track Director for DragonCon, and an institution in the southeastern writing scene.

That done we hung out for a little bit longer at the booth, then made our way to grab a quick bite of food, then crashed.

Sunday: We got a slightly later start this day, and went ahead and got checked out of the hotel. I also went and bought what is certain to be a winning powerball ticket, so this will surely be my last post on here that was written anywhere except my private island.

The day started with a panel, one of mine again, called Putting the Rural in Urban Fantasy. Nancy, Berta, and Ben were my panelists, and I had a blast. The crowd said they enjoyed it as well, and I began to notice that there were a few folks who were showing up to all of my panels. I know they weren’t there for me, but it was nice to get that validation that while my topics weren’t the most popular, they did really strike a niche that some folks are really passionate about. My last panel of the weekend was How To Get Your Book Published with Ben, Bobby, and Matthew Quinn. We kept it light on panelist discussion, and quickly shifted to primarily answering crowd questions (as a panel of this type should I feel). I like to think we helped some folks.

On the sales side of things, once again, they started out pretty slowly. It was pretty quickly looking like we were going to struggle to break even, much less turn a real profit. But Ben went on a bit of a walkabout and stumbled on an empty table. He asked if anyone was using it, and upon finding out it was vacant, asked the Con if we could move to it. They kindly said yes, so our last few hours were spent right along the main thoroughfare! We made more in those few hours than we had the previous day and that morning combined, throwing us well into the black! It was there that I finally started selling stickers (I hadn’t sold a single one to that point), and within an hour I had sold close to thirty bucks worth of them I think.

Observations: So here are some observations and takeaways from this weekend:

• Each day we were pretty much the first ones there, and the last ones to leave (except Sunday because I had to get back to Bama, so we left when most everyone else did). The booth to our left kept cracking jokes asking if we slept there at our booth, because we were always there when they arrived, and there when they left. Sadly it didn’t really translate into many more sales for us, this time, but it was nice to have someone as equally motivated on board to share a booth with. So surround yourself with folks as driven as you.

• Selling stickers requires good lighting I think. Our initial booth location didn’t have a bright light overhead, so I think folks couldn’t see my stickers all that well, and thus didn’t check them out. Once we moved we were by a window, and stickers started moving like gangbusters. So I may look into getting a small battery powered lamp to help light my stickers up.

• The moral of the story: just ask. Ask if you can join that panel. Ask if you can move to that vacant table. Ask if you can send someone your book pitch. Just ask. It might be hard to build up the nerve, but just know that the worst that can happen is they are just going to say no. No one is going to dog you out or make fun of you. Just ask.

• Craft a good, concise hook. I heard some really bad pitches this week. Pitches so bad they drove people away and got weird looks. Don’t be afraid to ask your fellow vendors what they think about your pitch. Ben for example will ask passersby “Do you have a moment for me to tell you about my book?” I will tell people who walk up “I write about a redneck wizard with a crippling meth addiction.” They are quick blurbs that aren’t overly invasive, but get to the heart of what we are trying to do.

• Having someone to run the booth while you go off to be in a panel really is crucial. Which in theory we had…if we hadn’t had panels at the same time almost every single time. So all told there were 4 or 5 hours where our booth was left without anyone to make sales. So there is no telling if we missed out on any, but I suspect we did.

• Doing panels helps make sales. I know that some of my sales can be traced directly back to some of the panels I did. They give you a chance to showcase that you are competent and approachable, or in my case that I look scary but am almost certainly not a serial killer.

• CONjuration is a fantastic fan led convention, and has probably the most accessible founders/con runners of any con I have been a part of. Chris and Angela are saints, and while you have to question their judgment in letting me out of Alabama to come run panels for them, you can’t question their heart. They’ve set up a great con, and I hope I get to be apart of it in years to come.

• Damn it Bob, remember to actually take business cards with you to your panel. How hard is this? Why do you never….WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?!

Breakdown: So how did I end up doing for the weekend?

My costs were - 150 for my share of the room, 20 for parking, 40 for food, then gas (not sure exactly how much I spent, but you can imagine. Lets call it 40). So that totals to 250ish. This is not exact of course, but I’m not trying to be exact at the moment, I’m just trying to illustrate for my fellow hustlers what they might could expect.

My earnings were - 370 from card sales, then I think about another 100 in cash sales (I don’t have my notes in front of me, but I think thats right). So call it 470ish.

470ish - 250ish = 220ish in profit. That dog will hunt!

More importantly: I made some really good connections, grew my email list a bit, added to my convention resume, got some good leads on potential future opportunities, and got to hang out with some of my favorite folks.

Being an indie author is a marathon, not a sprint. Most times the actual in person sales are secondary to the networking and face time with fans.

But actually turning a profit is always nice.