Convention Recap: TezalCon 2025
TRANSPARENCYEVENT RECAP
TezalCon! Let's Go!
General Thoughts
This was my first experience with TezalCon, but their third year. The first two years occurred in Daleville Alabama, but the Con Head moved to Montgomery for school, so he moved the Con along with him. This is also the first Con that Montgomery has had in some time, and the first video game centered one I am aware of.
It went ok. There were some headwinds against it though, namely Kami-Con (Alabama's biggest con occurring an hour up the road) and the Superbowl on Sunday. The con itself was well run, especially the vendor hall. But when most of your local crowd is going to travel to the far larger con that they have been attending for years, there is an upper limit to how good your event can be.
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 fourth event in a row).
This convention started at noon each day. It was the first time I had seen that happen, and I can now attest, it doesn't really work all that well. Especially in downtown Montgomery.
I need to order some better bags for my books. I have bags that fit my books, but only just. They don't handle well, so I need to step that up a bit.
What...?
This section is where I relay the occasional WTF conversational moment(s) we get into at booths sometimes:
I keep having events where I end up talking to folks a surprising amount about trains. It's only WTF in that it happens at so many cons, because frankly I am very pro train. But yeah, I had a fun talk about trains again.
Panels
I did two panels, one each day.
Saturday
1. Game Writing for Fun and Profit
Moderator: Me
This panel was at 6pm, and really, pretty much everyone had gone home by then that wasn't a volunteer or participant. After five minutes of no one being there I was about to get up and go back to my booth, but one lonely soul wandered in. So I did a panel for one haha! The topic was me talking about how I have gotten into writing for various computer and tabletop games over the years, including my own.
Sunday
2. How to Get Published
Moderator: Me
This was the opening panel for Sunday, and it was my typical 'here are your pathways to getting published' panel. It was decently attended, and had a ton of great questions from the crowd.
Sales
This was my first event with my new covers, and my hardbacks. I really think they are going to hold me in good stead. There just wasn't a ton of crowd after the initial press on Saturday for me to be able to accurately tell yet. I also didn't have any copies of Omnibus 2 (curse you amazon shipping!) so that hurt me a bit. This con was super spurty...I would estimate that 95% of my sales came within a span of about 2 and a half hours.
Luckily this was the rare con that was in my home turf, so I didn't have to get a hotel or anything like that.
Daily Sales Numbers:
Saturday: 296.00
Sunday: 168.00
Total Sales Numbers By Item:
3 Bringing Home The Rain
0 Books 2 or 3
6 Omnibus 1
0 Omnibus 2
0 Omnibus Bundles
2 Southern Saudade
1 Create Your Way To Freedom
4 Zines
3 Zine Bundle
0 Ultimate Bundle
Total: 464.00
Fixed Expenses:
Badge: 0.00 (included in booth fee)
Booth Fee - 125.00
Parking - 0.00
Hotel - 0.00
Other - 0.00
Total - 125.00
Grand Total Profit - 339.00
