Convention Recap: Dragon Con 2023 - Selling and Signing!
TRANSPARENCYEVENT RECAPDRAGON CON
So for the first time I got to sell my books at Dragon Con! I was part of Sidestreet Book Market, which was a group of 22(ish) authors who came together under one banner created by bud Ben Meeks. I knew a few of my fellows already, such as Sarah J. Sover, George Windstein, Venessa Giunta, Richard Fierce, Bobby Nash, and Kim Conrey. But I also got to meet a bunch of other authors, and folks I am sure will become future friends! So lets dive into the numbers, as I know you are all curious!
I will only be sharing my stats, as not those of other authors or the booth as a whole, since they aren't mine numbers to share. I only stock copies of book 1 and my omnibuses currently, though in the future I will likely stock a few copies of the rest of the single books, and offer some sort of specialty bundle. I sold book one for 15, and each omnibus for 35, but you could buy them in a bundle for 60.
So here is how sales went:
Bringing Home the Rain: 13 sold for a total of $195
The Demons That Haunt Him: 18 sold for a total of $620
Burning Wisdom: 5 sold for a total of $165
SBM percentage: 12% -$117
Total: 36 copies sold for a total of $863.00 net (980 gross)
I was so, so, so close to breaking a thousand dollars in gross sales! Just one more omnibus would have gotten me across the line! It wasn't even a specific goal, until I got that close haha. Next year though, my goal will be to break 1k! I think I can do it, if I stick to what worked this year, and just do that more. I just have to keep in mind that my SBM percentage will go up next year (its going to go up for everyone to be clear, Ben isn't picking on me lol). But how rad would it be to NET over 1k?
So what worked? First off, I did a signing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings from 10-noon. Now, no one was showing up because I was signing lets be clear. But being there to sign, with my books out, meant I had a front row to all the thousands of folks coming by, and got to try and 'pull' them in and pitch to them. 'Pulling' is probably a good topic for another post, but in short I was there to be able to sell my books face to face. Most of the time I just pulled them in and asked them what they liked to read, then pointed them to whichever authors we had that fit the bill (like Comedic Fantasy meant Sarah J. Sover, while High Fantasy meant Richard Fierce for example). But if my books fit the bill, or they weren't specific, you bet your ass I pitched mine haha!
This was really effective. I don't know how the numbers broke down each day, as my memory is hazy, but I know for a fact on Friday I sold 12 books total, and six of those came during my signing. Being in the booth helped. No one sells my books better than me (except my wife), so that was the first thing that helped my overall sales.
The other thing that helped was doing panels. I can trace a number of my sales back to someone seeing me on a panel, and going to the booth to snag a copy. And since I will hopefully be doing more panels next year (fingers crossed!), that should lead to more sales. Ben told me that at one point three or four young folks walked straight into the booth, beelined to my books, each grabbed one, paid, then left. Clearly they had seen me somewhere and come to buy.
What will I do different next year?
I need to make little 'pitch signs' to stick in/on my display copies. These will help 'sell' my books to browsers.
I need to bring a way to take sales at panels for those who want to buy there.
I need to try and do more signings.
I need to do some signings later in the day, rather than only at the start.
Consider doing a signing on Monday. This will be harder, as I tend to want to gtfo of there pretty early on Mondays.
I will have a wider variety of books to sell, so I can hit more markets.
I will make a little quick sheet for my fellow booth mates to explain my books, so they can pitch mine like I pitch theirs.
Pray that the fire marshal doesn't close down the vendor hall for three hours again, right in the middle of peak selling hours.
