Convention Recap: CONjuration 2023

My second year at CONjuration is sadly behind me! It was their tenth year, and their first at a new location, and all in all it was fantastic! I will keep doing this one as long as they keep having me. I was a busy little beaver, that’s for sure, so let's dive in!

General Thoughts

This is one of the best cons for families in my opinion. So much so that this was the first con that the whole family attended. The Kiddo had a blast, doing some cosplaying and all sort of quests that the Con put on. Shoutout to the LadyWife in a huge way for herding that cat while I worked. I know she had fun, but don’t get it twisted: she worked harder than I did this weekend running in the Kiddo’s wake. Plus she took a stint watching the table for me while I hit my big stretch of back to back panels. I really, really am blessed.

This was an event where I shared a table with Ben Meeks. We share whenever we can, and he really is my favorite table mate. We vibe well, and I always feel like I learn a lot. I just wish I lived closer so that we could share more often! We have a number of events coming up next year that we will sharing at though, so I have that to look forward to.

This was also my first con where I had a lot of ‘fans.’ Folks who remembered me from last year or other cons, and made a point to come say hi, talk about my books, see what I had new, that sort of thing. There is one couple, who will remain nameless, who I met at CONjuration last year, saw them again at Multiverse (which they came to at my suggestion), and we got to talk a ton this year again at CONjuration. That has been so rewarding. It’s still surreal to have folks becoming friends all because I wrote some books.

I think I only have one (super minor) complaint, and that was not getting to panel with Sarah J. Sover! We did have our tables right across from each other though in Author Alley, so we did get to hang a good bit. Big props to Con Runners for putting us friends all really close together.

Sales

Sales were noticeably better this year, which was awesome. The author's alley wasn’t on the ‘busy side’ but I don’t know that that really hurt anything. It’s a small enough con that everyone tends to go everywhere, and we were beside popular panel rooms. And my sales were good, so I’m happy.

I try to keep track of sales on a business card as I make them, because I only use Square to track my card sales, not my cash ones. So knowing that I probably missed recording a sale or two here and there, here is what sales looked like:

• Friday/Saturday: 529

• Sunday: 225

• Total: 754

I sold 7 book 1s, 8 omnibus 1s, 5 omnibus 2s, 8 Southern Saudades, 6 sticker bundles, a few individual stickers, and 1 UItimate Bundle. I have to say, I have done two events now with the Ultimate Bundle (which is one signed copy of all 7 books I have out, with 7 postcards and 7 stickers for 100 bucks) and have sold one at each. I don’t see this ever being a huge seller, but getting a 100 dollar boost once a con is huge at my level. So I will 100% keep doing that. This con also showed me the importance of making sure I have something new on sale each year for those repeat customers. Generally speaking, Friday/Saturday seemed like more returning customers and new customers who were just now discovering me from walking around, while Sunday seemed like more ‘folks who saw me on panels this weekend and followed me back to the booth’ type sales.

Panels

I did 11 panels. 11. ELEVEN. And they were all on Friday (4) and Saturday (7). This is the most I have done at a con (Multiverse I did 7 over 3 days which was the previous record for me). It was a lot…but you know what? I really enjoyed it. I worried that maybe it was too many, but it wasn’t. I had an amazing time, and would be happy to do that many (or maybe even a few more) under similar circumstances. If I did more though, I would want to moderate less. Moderating is a lot more stressful than just paneling haha. Also, time paneling is time away from my booth, which usually means less sales. The trade off is that folks often check me out because they saw me on a panel. So…it probably evens out? All that said, lemme (briefly) talk about each panel:

• AI and the Impact on Creatives. Third con in a row that I have paneled about AI. This one didn’t break any new ground really, but most folks don’t go to as many cons as me so it was a fresh batch of folks to worry about the end of the world. There wasn’t an established moderator, so this one ended up being pretty conversational, which worked well.

• On the Outskirts: Rural Fantasy in an Urban World. Any time I can panel with Marlena Frank, Ben Meeks, or Nancy Knight individually I am down like four flats. All of us on one together? chef’s kiss Not the first time I’ve done this panel, but this one was far more southern centered, which I appreciated. Ben did a good job moderating this one.

• So You’ve Finished Your Book…Now What? Ben moderated this one as well, and I got to sit next to Richard Fierce. This is my second con with Fierce, and I have really been enjoying getting to know him. Very insightful guy. This panel had a lot of great crowd questions.

• Sorting the Demi-gods of Elden Ring. Vincent E.M. Thorn was the moderator on this one. CONjuration has a lot of these panels, where you sort characters from different IPs, and this was the first time I got to participate in one. Sadly, no one showed up for it haha. I think if this had been last year, it would have had a good showing, but Elden Ring just isn’t as fresh on folks minds. Thorn definitely knew his shit a lot better than me though, so it was probably for the best haha, less embarrassing for me. We did have a few folks show early for the next panel, and we had fun having them sort by name alone, and were surprised to see they got about half ‘right.’

• One Sheet RPGS. I was so worried about this panel. I’ve never done it solo before, I’ve always had folks on the panel. I haven’t even moderated it before. So…I was worried that I would run out of things to say. But yall, it went so good! It had a great turn out, and there were so many good questions. And some really good connections came out of this one. I have got to start having more confidence in myself haha.

• Worldbuilding. Me, Ben, Nancy and Berta Platas. What more could you want? Good turn out, good crowd questions. Ben did a good job as moderator. Good stuff. How many times can I say good? Good god.

• People Who Live In Your Book. Nancy Knight invited me on to this panel, which also had me, Ben, and Berta. There were some great questions from the crowd, and I am always impressed by how Nancy just pulls these awesome panel questions from thin air. Me, I have a binder of notes with potential questions, and she just shows up with maybe a scrap of paper and a pen to on the fly make a note. Impressive as hell.

• Diversifying Your Revenue Streams as a Creative. Richard Fierce and Aubrey Spivey really pulled their weight on this one, bringing some nice variety to the panel. I’ve only ever given this as a solo workshop before, so I was super excited to have folks other than me give their perspectives on this topic. Quick aside: I get asked ‘how I get onto panels’ a fair bit. To the point I did a blog about it recently. Aubrey did it just right. She reached out to me over social media a couple of weeks before the con asking if I had room for her on my panels. I knew who she was from a brief meeting at another con, and gave her the all clear to reach out to the panel organizers to add her to my panels. And she was great, both on this one and the AI panel.

• The Witch Is Dead Live Play. I’ve never done a live play before, either as a participant or as DM. But I have wanted to showcase one sheet rpgs for some time, and The Witch Is Dead is my favorite, so it was an obvious choice for me to run. Ben Meeks and his wife agreed to play, and then we took two folks from the crowd as volunteers. And yall, it went so good! There were a ton of laughs, and I think the attendees had fun. I had a few folks come find me over the rest of the weekend and tell me they enjoyed it, so that meant a lot.

• Firearms in Fantasy. Probably the panel I was least qualified to talk on, but when Ben asks, I do. I have to say, even though I don’t write much in the way of guns, I surprised myself by having a lot more to say than I would have thought going into it. Who’d have thunk, growing up in southern gun culture like I have lol. I got to panel with Vincent Thorn again on this one, as well as Dennis Medbury, who really impressed me. He’s great on a panel.

• Cryptids of the Southeast. This was my last panel of the weekend, at 10 o'clock at night. It was in the same room as where just the night before I’d done the Sorting panel and no one showed. And CONjuration isn’t really a paranormal laden con. So I went into this not knowing what to expect. Yall, we had folks sitting on the floor to be able to attend. It was the highest attendance that room had to that point, by a good number. And it was so much fun! Marlena Frank was my partner in crime once again, with a solid assist from Mathew Quinn who I also paneled with on the You’ve Finished Your Book panel. And we had so much fun! We got weird and meta with it, while still trying to keep it grounded in the Southeast. It was all I dreamed it would be! It was the perfect end to my paneling at the con!

Were you at CONjuration? I’d love to hear your thoughts!