Convention Recap: Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo 2024
TRANSPARENCYEVENT RECAP
This past weekend I got to take part in the Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo! I had a blast hanging with some of my favs, so here we go with my usual recap!
General Thoughts
Once again, this is a vendor con (giant room, tons of vendors, few panels). I shared a booth with a great group of authors. Richard Fierce organized it, and I specifically shared a table with Ben Meeks (my road dog). Besides them in the booth we also had Scott Blasingame (who I had met in the past at Alabama Comic Con) and Doug and Terri McKittrick. While we all write different things for the most part, we were certainly a fantasy centered booth for the most part. This event was maybe a little more geared to sci-fi than most events I take part in.
At a lot of these vendor cons, everyone is in line waiting to get autographs so much, that it really cuts down on the amount of time folks spend shopping. But this con does something amazing: you 'wait' in line on an app. So you just get pinged when its time to go get in line, so that there are never more than 10 folks in line. So that made for a TON more foot traffic, which was amazing. I reeeeealllly hope this catches on at all cons of this type.
My biggest take away is that I desperately need to get a high dollar item on my table. Richard has fancy editions of his books. Ben has his pens. And while I do have my 'ultimate bundle' deal, that's not the same. I need to get a fancy edition of my books out. Something in the 60-100 dollar range. I have the small dollar item. I have the midrange dollar item. Now I need the high dollar item. I've known this for some time, but this weekend really drove that point home.
I had rpg zines with me...but I basically didn't even try to sell them. One zine is not going to work, that I can tell. I figured that out very early on, and by Sunday I had taken them off the table all together. A solo journaling rpg is a hard sell, and when it looks like an afterthought, that doesn't help. So I am pretty much not going to even try and sell zines until I have at least 3 or 4 published so I can justify making a nice little display on my table. I have the next two both in the 80/90% done range, so it shouldn't be too much longer before I can do it up right.
Small Thoughts
This was the first event that family visited me during the event! My family is super supportive, but typically these types of events aren't really their bag. But this one, my cousin and her kids were able to come see me! So that was really, really rad.
Possums are hot y'all. I drew a ton of folks to the table with my possum shirts and having Horace on the table.
I made little signs for my books to replace the notecards I have been sticking in my books. They went well! I just need to find a better way to display them, which I think I have solved. We will see when my stuff arrives from Amazon. I also need to make one for my stickers, and my ultimate bundle.
I fully intend to put my prices on these little signs as well, and do away with my price sheet that almost no one ever looks at.
I need to start carrying a couple of extra books 2 and 3. I had basically stopped doing that, as I just sell either book 1 or an omnibus. But I have now had someone come up who had bought book one previously, and wanted book 2 but didn't want to buy the omnibus.
Lots of folks ask for audiobooks. And I am soooo close to having mine out. I was able to tell folks 'hey, may 9th mine will be out' but who knows if any of them will remember to go look. But once that's live, that's gonna be huge for me I think.
Our 'Intern'
Awhile back I made an offer to the world: "Shadow a Portly Author and Learn about Selling Books." Basically, if you are an author who wants to learn to do in person sales, you can come be my 'intern.' For the first time someone took me up on it, author Sydney Reames! She came out on Saturday and mostly observed and helped pitch. Then on Sunday we convinced her to bring out a few books to sell. So we wedged her between Ben and I, and she sold really well! Her numbers are not mine to reveal, but I did ask her if she would give a little recap. Here is what she had to say:
"This was my second ever con and I had an absolute blast hanging out with Ben and Bob for the weekend. As someone who had largely stuck to online sales until recently, sharing space with other authors who knew what they were doing took a lot of the pressure off. Ben has all the confidence I aspire to, and he knows how to engage with people and get them to the booth to begin with. Both of these guys are masters of the short pitch. It's hard to beat "a redneck wizard with a crippling meth addiction". That line always got a response. While this isn't the fun part, Bob is also incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to the business portion of things, including taxes. No one likes taxes, but he cleared up for me in ten minutes what multiple calls to state offices hadn't gotten answered. It's not the most interesting part of being an author, but at least now I know how to get my tax paperwork together and avoid angering the IRS. These two, along with the other authors at the con, were friendly and welcoming. I'd absolutely share a space with either of them again. That may also be because I'm not quite ready to do a solo booth yet!"
Sales
I had heard great things about this event. And it was overall a very solid weekend (especially with such low costs). I did have an unfair expectation that it would be better than it ended up for me, but I honestly had no real reason to think that. I will say that this con I had more of a struggle to 'close the deal' with folks than usual. Not sure why that was the case, but I will be pondering it. Sadly, this event broke my streak of selling Ultimate Bundles. But I made over 500 bucks in profit, and that is always rad.
Sales Numbers:
16 Bringing Home The Rain - 240.00
6 Omnibus 1 - 210.00
4 Omnibus Bundles - 240.00
1 Southern Saudade - 15.00
11 Stickers - 11.00
8 Sticker Bundles - 40.00
Total: 756.00
Expenses:
Badge: 50
Hotel/Booth Fee combo - 150.00
