Convention Recap: Fan Expo New Orleans 2025
TRANSPARENCYCONVENTION RECAP
General Thoughts
I'm tired yall, and it's only January lol. Gonna be a hell of a year at this pace.
This past weekend I was a part of Fan Expo New Orleans for the first time, and it was a really great experience! My road dog Ben and I did this one together, and I think we would both consider it a success. Enough of one that we have already booked our spot in it for next year, which we are thinking could be even better.
You see, between the weather and the recent terrorist attack, attendance was down from what we were told. Quite a few folks told us they were down in sales from last year (some dramatically so), which makes since. From what we could tell, no one from New Orleans actually goes to this, everyone we met was from (on average) several hours away. We also met a bunch of folks from many states away, like New York, Michigan, Minnesota, etc. Turns out Fan Expo events acquire groupies of a sorts who travel to all of them each year. So with the weather being what it was, that meant a lot of these 'groupies' couldn't make it. It also meant a decent number of guests had to back out last second, especially because of the fires in California.
In the past, this sort of cascade of bad events has really boned us (looking at you Alabama Comic Con). And maybe it did this year too, but we had no point of reference. But what I know is we covered costs, walked away with good profit, and no doubt made some new fans. If that's not a win, I don't know what is.
Mostly though, and this may seem lame to some of you, but I don't care. It's just rad to get to spend a weekend with a likeminded author. We spent four days essentially thinking of ways to take ourselves to the next level, commiserating, and just generally enjoying each others company. Next year we are thinking about trying to bring our wives to this event, so we can all enjoy a weekend in Nola, but even if that doesn't happen, I know me and Ben will have a great time.
Also, big ups to the Maxey's for inviting us out to dinner and showing us some amazing eateries and being rad people. I had crawfish and gator sausage.
Yessss.
Small Thoughts
I have a few small thoughts.
When am I going to remember to start packing zip ties? Seemingly never (he said for the second event in a row).
Ben and I came up with a great idea for a youtube show, that may hit the 'airwaves' soon.
Then we came up with an even better idea, that I am certain will hit the 'airwaves' this year.
Ben changed up his pitch line, and it worked so well. Without getting super into the weeds with all the specifics (I am planning to save that for a second post later on), he changed things up and you could instantly see folks reactions on their faces change. It was rad to witness.
Got some great tips on some events to check out. I made much more of an effort to ask folks for tips in this regard, as we don't really have anyone in our close network who does events west of Alabama.
I need to remake all my little book insert pitch cards, since I seem to have lost them.
I need to make a big TTRPG sign to highlight my zines further.
I want to make a sign that says "No Tip, No Pressure, No AI."
What...?
This section is where I relay the occasional WTF conversational moment(s) we get into at booths sometimes:
We had a long, long chat with a guy about the Ship of Theseus, and the implications of what that entails for consciousness, if we ever manage to upload them into a digital space. It was a really fun conversation, but sorta wtf heavy of a conversation while trying to sell some books haha.
Panels
It ain't none.
Sales
I have now had a non Dragon Con event where I broke 1k in sales for the weekend. Fuck yeah.
How did I get there? Here are some thoughts:
My zines sold really well! To the point that I sold out of a couple of them. I only brought ten of each (20 of Witch at the Edge of the Woods), because while they have been selling better, they have not sold THAT well. But I sold 35 of those suckers! At 8-10 bucks a pop (you can get 3 for 24) that adds up pretty quickly. Over 300 bucks in zines? Yes please.
What helped the zines sell though? Well, day one (Friday) was kinda...bad. Bad to the point that we were worried this event might be a bust. Fridays are often very low selling days, but this was pretty rough. So on Saturday we changed things up. Rather than have been with his books stand, and me with mine, we put all of our novels on my large book stand. Then Ben's smaller book stand I took and put my zines on. This made my zines stand out a little bit more, and made it clear they were a separate thing. I think that was the biggest part. Not being separate, I think they get 'lost' on the table a bit.
I only sold one Southern Saudade and one Create Your Way To Freedom. This wasn't great, but it wasn't unexpected. I'm not great about pushing SS, and am sort of waiting on my new covers for it to help me push sales. And Create is only going to appeal to a very, very small number of folks.
While I would have loved to sell out of Omnibuses and Book 1s...if I had there would have been no stock for Chattacon on Friday. As it is, I won't have a toooon to sell, but its a smaller event so that will be fine. If I play my cards right I will basically sell out of them this weekend, than have all new inventory for ConNooga. A boy can dream haha.
I didn't sell an Ultimate Bundle. I also didn't push it to anyone. I am waiting until I have hard back copies of each and that will be my new ultimate bundle. Again...cards right...ConNooga...dreams... Building on this, moving forward once I sell out of books 2-6, I will no longer be carrying them for display purposes. I don't think they really add to my sales, and they tend to sort of...clutter up? my space. I am shooting for a more clean, easy to visually parse setup. That I think will do more for my sales than just having a few extra covers to look at.
We realized that we could have fit a third author in the booth. We had booked two six foot booths, and with combining our books onto the same racks, it would have made for easy fitting. So we invited a 'baby' author we know to take part with us next year. Sort of trying to pay the help we've gotten over the years forward instead of just defaulting to working with the same folks like always. To be clear, you are still gonna be seeing me/us with a lot of the same folks. Just every so often we want to bring in someone new to help give them a leg up.
We only ran one register, which made things much easier. I think we are going to do that more often moving forward, where it makes sense. I really believe we probably got a few extra sales between us with folks not having to be charged twice.
My new Toughbuilt Stackdeck dolly thingy worked so, so well for getting my stuff in and out. It even doubled as a bench seat for me all weekend, and book stand. I dig it, for sure.
All that said, great weekend. 1100 bucks? Fuck yes.
Daily Sales Numbers:
Friday: 129.00
Saturday: 665.00
Sunday: 307.00
Total Sales Numbers By Item:
11 Bringing Home The Rain
0 Books 2 or 3
14 Omnibus 1
3 Omnibus 2
3 Omnibus Bundles
1 Southern Saudade
1 Create Your Way To Freedom
14 Zines
7 Zine Bundle
0 Ultimate Bundle
Total: 1,101.00
Fixed Expenses:
Badge: 0.00 (included in booth fee)
Booth Fee - 360.00
Parking - 34.50
Hotel - 159.00
Other - 45.00
Total - 598.60
Grand Total Profit - 502.40
