Convention Recap: Dragon Con 2024 - Selling and Signing
TRANSPARENCYEVENT RECAPDRAGON CON
I was part of Sidestreet Book Market again this year! This year we cut the number of authors down from 22(ish) down to 8, who all came together under one banner created by broheim Ben Meeks. They were pretty much all people I have sold with before, most of them multiple times, so we had a great time! It was a great weekend, for sure! I also got to take part in the Fantasy Gather for the first time!
To clarify, 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. This year I brought book 1's, both omnibuses, Southern Saudade, two ultimate bundles, and a shit load of zines.
In the booth, I signed up for 3 signing times (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), and then worked the booth for a couple of hours to give Ben a break on Monday. Friday was the big day for me (and for the booth overall I think), and Sunday was my longest signing time (4 hours I think). Otherwise my books were in the bookstore there, getting sales.
The coolest thing was that I had a number of folks come up to me to tell me they saw me on a panel LAST YEAR, and were coming to buy a book. I'd always been told that 'folks will follow you 'home' from a panel,' which I have experienced many times at cons. This was the first time they came a year later for that reason though! How rad is that?!
Another wild moment was when a woman came and bought a book. We got to talking, and she revealed she lived in Troy. I told her I had a pair of degrees from there, and jokingly mentioned I probably have delivered her pizza before. Now the thing about Dragon Con that I love (for signings) is that people have their names on their badges. It makes it easy for me to not misspell their name when I sign. When I saw hers, and saw the last name, it was familar...so I asked a couple of questions, and yep! I had delivered to her and her family many times over the years! I know that sounds creepy/insane, but I can't really reveal how I was able to make the connection without potentially doxxing her, so just trust I am not a creeper, there really was a reason why I would remember this particular family over a decade later. So anyway, I got to sign her book "A Tip 15 Years In The Making," which made us laugh. What a small world!
The Gather was Friday night from 8-midnight. How it works is the Fantasy Lit Track took over a ballroom, set up a few dozen tables, and assigned a couple of authors to each. Said authors were allowed to show up at 7 and set up on their table, bringing in books to sell. Imagine a ballroom sized book festival, and you won't be far off. And lord, did people come to buy! I moved a ton of books in a short amount of time, almost selling out of the omnibuses I brought with me. I didn't bring any omnibus 2's, which I see now was a mistake. I will likely not do it again next year (see my Struggle With Balance post for why), but if I do the plan will be to pack a few less single books, and few omnibus 2's in their place. I will likely also skip bringing zines.
Long story short: last Dragon Con was my all time record for sales at 980 for the weekend. This year I blew that record out the water!!! If you want to see by how much, scroll down to The Numbers section.
What will I do different next year?
I think, for balance reasons, I am going to try and do a bit more of my signing on Friday, and a bit less on the other days. Ben is able to let folks not officially part of the booth use my signing times (he gets a percentage of sales), so I will probably sell a bit less, he may make a bit more, and I will have some more balance. But we will see. I don't want to hog all the Friday signings obviously, and who knows what my panel schedule might look like.
I will have horror on hand for next year, that I think will be big for me. I really hope to have the full Crimson Horror trilogy out, and in an omnibus by then. It's doable, for sure. Just gotta keep at it.
I will make more of an effort to have a couple of books on me at all times in my backpack. I won't be advertising that I have books for sale at panels, but occasionally folks come up after and ask if I have any on hand. I got one sale that way (because I was packing back my leftover books from the Gather back to the vendor hall and had some on hand).
I had planned to figure out some fancy way to package my ultimate bundle. I did not. As such I don't know that anyone ever really knew it existed unless I was there to promo it. I almost sold one, but at the last second they swapped to the omnibus bundle.
I need to be better about being more situationally aware. I cut Ben off from a sale without realizing it. It's something I would never do if I had known I was about to do it. You can ask, I am good about sharing the love and passing potential customers to the other authors in the booth and not hogging them. I don't remember it happening (Ben pointed it out later), which just goes to show I need to work on my overall awareness.
How many books to bring next year: If I do the Gather, I will bring 10 less Southern Saudade, plus whatever Horror I have going on. I may not bring any zines. That space will be better used bringing Horror I believe. If I get some tabletop track panels, I may bring some to give away. If I don't do the Gather, I will also bring 10 less book 1's and 5 less Omnibus 1's.
The Numbers
Booth Sales:
Bringing Home the Rain: 17 for $255 (13 last year)
The Demons That Haunt Him: 19 for $647.95 (18 last year)
Burning Wisdom: 8 for $269.22 (5 last year)
Southern Saudade: 6 for $90
Zines: 14 for $135.83
Ultimate Bundles: None, womp womp.
SBM percentage: 5% for $-69.90
Taxes Collected: $123.55
Total: 50 books/14 zines for a total of $1,451.65
If you are wondering at why some of the sales are all exact change and others have fractions of dollars, its because of discount bundles. You could get 3 zines for 24, and you could get both Omnibuses for 60.
Also, Ben did not actually charge a % this year, which I thought was not fair to him. He puts in a ton of work to organize this, set up the booth, and then he spends more time selling everyone else's books than his own. He told me he was going to do a 5% fee next year, so I decided to pay that this year as well. I'm not telling you this to be all virtue signally, but:
I want to be accurate with my numbers, and
I want to emphasis to folks that this is a business, but not a cutthroat one. I want Ben to flourish, and our relationship as friends and business partners to continue until we either give up the ghost or the grind. This felt like the right thing for ME to do, so I did it. My ethics are my own, you have to do what works for you. I am privileged that this isn't my primary livelihood, don't take food out of your mouth if you can't afford to.
Gather Sales:
Bringing Home the Rain: 6 sold for a total of $90
The Demons That Haunt Him: 9 sold for a total of $315
Southern Saudade: 1 sold for a total of $15
Zines: 1 sold for a total of $10
Total Sales: 16 books/1 zine for $430
Assorted Sales:
Panel Sale: 1 Bringing home the Rain for $15
Giveaways: I gave away one copy of Bringing Home The Rain to Ilona Andrews super kind husband.
Dragon Con Overall:
Total Book Count: 67 (36 last year)
Total Zine Count: 15 (Didn't exist last year)
Total Sales: 1896.65 (980 gross/863 after SSBM cut last year)
Table Cost: 460
Total Profit: 1436.65
Total Brought/Sold:
Bringing Home the Rain: 30/23
The Demons That Haunt Him: 30/28
Burning Wisdom: 10/8
Southern Saudade: 20/7
Zines: 75/15
Ultimate Bundles: 2/0
