Event Recap: CONjuration 2025
TRANSPARENCYEVENT RECAP
CONjuration, year 4! Let's go!
This is always the convention I end my year on, and as always it was a blast! I really can't recommend this con enough, especially if you have a family. They do a ton for kids, so if you have a few youths, gather them up and come out. They also have toooooons of panels, which I love. I think they probably have about the highest ratio of panels to people of any con of it's size.
As always here I shared with Ben Meeks, which is always a recipe for a good time. We also let Mab Morris come set up on a corner to sell her books, and she helped mind the booth while we were away. Good times!
I have a few small thoughts.
This is one of the rare cons that sales are actually highest on Sundays usually. 'Everyone' always says that about pretty much every con, but I never really find it to be true. Except for here.
Our table was next to the big guest. She told me stories about her time working at a wildlife rescue, and the albino possum she worked with. Very cool stuff.
Last year I did 11 panels here. The year before I did 11 panels. This year I did....10 panels, but one of them was a two hour panel. So I count it as 11 for my mental health lol. Anywho, here is what I did:
Friday
Page Numbers: How Much Can You Make as an Author
I suggested this panel, so they let me do it, and moderate it! I really enjoyed it, and it had a really great turn out considering the Con hadn't even had opening ceremonies yet!
Cryptid Capture Corp Live Play
For this we played my game The Cryptid Containment Corp, live! The group went hunting a Skunk Ape in south Georgia, and it was a blast. It's hard to fit an entire adventure in 45 minutes, especially when the players spend a weirdly long time at a bait shop buying jerky.
Wise N Nerdy: Where Fatherhood Meets Fandom
As ever, if I am at a convention where Wise N Nerdy does a live podcast recording, I jump on! Ben got to be on for the first time as well, which was cool.
Saturday
Bigfoot: Myth, Mystery, or Missing Link?
Normally I am the one to suggest a cryptid based panel, but folks picked up my slack this year! We discussed three major views of Bigfoot, and super cool, at they end they did a live vote that displayed on a screen for what people thought was most convincing!
Humor in Fantasy
Like a mushroom, I'm a fungi. So they had me jump on this panel, and yeah, fun was had!
First Page: Ask For More or Trash It?
I want to do more panels like this! Basically, folks in the crowd could read us their first page and we workshopped it on the spot with them. Very cool.
Fandom Face-Off!
Joe Ard and myself were the agents of chaos for the game show Charles McFall hosts at conventions. It was good silly fun, and if you see this panel on a list, go attend. You will have a fucking blast!
Everyone Is John Live Play
The second live play I ran, only this time it was for a game I didn't make: Everyone is John. It was even more bizarre than our CCC live play, with highlights such as a catholic priest converting to worship of Possum Jesus and a man on a quest for the perfect taxidermy roadkill.
Sunday
Be Awesome Together: Pitch Your Podcast or Story Idea
The Be Awesome Together Podcast (which I guest on occasionally) set up a two hour panel where folks could come pitch their podcast and/or book ideas and we would workshop them! It was a ton of fun, and I hope the folks we mentored got a lot out of it.
Conjuring Worlds: Magic Systems that Actually Make Sense
My final panel of the weekend, and it was what it says on the tin: talking about making believable magic systems. The real highlight was when folks kept bringing up various laws, like Sanderson's Laws of Magic and Murphy's Law. So I asked the crowd if they had heard of Coles' Law.
It's thinly sliced cabbage.
Their groans filled me with life.
The event started fairly slow for sales, but it really picked up on Sunday. Overall sales were down from last year, by about 150, but that wasn't terribly surprising. The renisance festival had an event going on on Saturday, which hurt some of the attendance I think. Overall I am pleased with how sales went.
Most excitingly I sold two of my 7 book bundles! I haven't sold one of those in a bit, and to sell two in one event was nice! I only bring two, so I actually had to tear down some of my display to sell the second one haha. What I changed was doing away with my hardback bundle. It just didn't sell as well. Going forward I am only going to sell those bundles through my site. In person, it will be seven book paperback bundles for 100 bucks, and I throw in a few freebies.
Anywho, here are my numbers:
Daily Sales Numbers:
Friday: $80
Saturday: $248
Sunday: $430
Total Sales Numbers By Item:
Bringing Home The Rain: 7
The Depth of the Water: 1
Omnibus 1: 6
Omnibus 2: 2
Southern Saudade: 1
Zines: 9
Ultimate Bundle: 2
Total:
$758.00
Fixed Expenses:
Badge: $0.00
Booth Fee - $157.00
Parking - $0.00
Hotel - $223.35
Other - 0.00
Total - $381.35
Grand Total Profit: 376.65
