Event Recap: Multiverse Con 2025
TRANSPARENCYEVENT RECAP
Multiverse, year 4! Let's go!
I am going to break this section into a couple of subsections: me the guest, me the person, and me the sponsor.
Me the Guest
As always the team who runs Multiverse did an amazing job of making me feel like the beautiful snowflake that I am. It's about as smooth and seamless of a process as you could hope. If every con ran this smoothly, I would feel like a goddamn rockstar all the time.
Me the Person
Multiverse is the con I call my 'family reunion' con. The bulk of my creative friends who I don't get to hang out with as much while out on the con circuit (because we are all so busy) come to this. And we make more of an effort to hang out at this one I feel like.
So I got to spend quality time with a huge swathe of my favorite people (though never enough with any one of them!). And best of all I got to share a room with the two guys I consider my brothers from other mothers: Joe Compton and Ben Meeks. What more could a portly lad from Alabama wish for?
Me the Sponsor
This was my first experiment with being a sponsor. And honestly? I think I did a pretty shit job at it. It didn't work out like I thought it would, and I don't know that it was worth it.
If you had asked me about it on Sunday, I might would have blamed the con, or my luck, or a million other things, I don't know. But having had a couple of days to process the blame lies with solely with me. For sure. Let's dissect.
I was inspired to try my hand at sponsoring by John Hartness/Falstaff books. I have modeled a lot of the actions I take as an author in my career on John, so this seemed like the next logical step of experimentation. And Multiverse is a con that I have a lot of connections at, so I figured why not ask. Especially as this is the year I have really launched Bearded Bard Inkworks. I thought a Play Track sponsorship (their gaming panel room specifically) would be a good fit. I want to grow my gaming brand, it needed a sponsor, match made in heaven.
The sponsorship cost 300. For that I was given a space in the vendor hall, was put in the event marketing, added to the website, and put in the program. In return I was expected to help out the Track, which mean working with S.M. Hillman, one of my absolute favorite people in the world. Win/Win.
I was honestly surprised at how affordable the sponsorship was. I was expecting at least a grand. And maybe the con gave me deal because they had pity on this poor boy from Bama, but whatever the reason, I'm glad for it.
But I didn't make the most of it.
I have a couple hundred copies of zines lying about my office. I recently released the second editions of them, so I thought 'hey, I can give away the 1st edition copies for free' at panels in the room. So I set up a table in the corner of the room with my Bearded Bard Inkworks Banner. On said table I set up a rack of zines, and covered the rest of it with freebies like stickers and business cards. You can see a picture down below in the photo roundup.
And then I basically just walked away other than occasional stops by to restock the rack. I didn't even think to make a sign that said "Free Shit." How dumb am I?
As such I ended up bringing home a ton of said zines. And I don't really know that it had any actual effect on growing my presence and brand. Because I didn't really do much to tie it to me. It was just a table of free shit in a corner, very passive. And Bearded Bard Inkworks is too new of an entity to be tied to my name. The association isn't there yet I think.
I did mention it on every panel I was on, in an attempt to drive folks to the room with the lure of free items. But I don't think that really worked.
No, what I should have done was be in the room at the end of each panel, and actively handed out stuff. I didn't take it seriously, I didn't really work it. I just set up a table and thought that would be good enough.
It was not, and that's on me. The con did everything they could to set me up for success, and I didn't hold up my end of things.
And that's on me.
So will I sponsor a track next year? I'm not sure.
If I do, it won't be the Play Track. I love the Play Track, I love Hillman, but it's not the best fit for the overall direction I am wanting to pursue. My game design is the side hustle of my side hustle. I like being known for designing games, but only in addition to being an author. I want to be known as an author first, game designer/podcaster second.
So if I sponsor a track next year I would prefer to sponsor the writing or horror tracks. And if I do that, I don't know if I want to be in the vendor hall. I think I would want to be closer to the panel room (which to be clear the Con offered to let me have a table outside the room, I just chose to be in the vendor hall instead).
Yeah, sponsoring didn't seem to really have much of an effect. On the whole, I'd have been better off just being in the authors alley, as it would have been cheaper. I think.
But only because I didn't make the most of it.
Lesson learned.
I have a few small thoughts.
I always love seeing Dino, he's the best. He brought me an amazing possum magnet!
I am too old to stay up until 3:30 drinking. Damn you bar con.
I had a bunch of panels! Here they are:
Friday: Kill Team Preliminary Painting Judging
I was asked to help judge a Kill Team painting contest! How cool is that?! Sadly, there was only one entry.
Friday: Best Wizard Miniature Painting Judging
I was asked to judge again! But again, sadly there was only one entry. How am I supposed to lord my judgment upon the masses if their is but one mass!
Friday: Friday Night Firefight
This was meant to be a limited sign up event in the gaming room. Four of the convention guests facing off against six attendees who had signed up. Only no one signed up. The problem boiled down to the gaming hall just not being that busy on Friday, as most attendees had not yet showed up. So all three of my Friday panels were a bit of a wash, but that just meant I got to go hang out with folks!
Saturday: Getting Back to Nature: Utilizing the Natural World in Horror
Paneling began in earnest Saturday morning on the Horror track where we talked about nature and horror. I got to talk about Lake Placid more than once, so life was good.
Saturday: Beyond 20: Experimental Mechanics
I moderated this panel where we discussed tabletop rpgs with unusual mechanics, like Dread and A Quiet Year. I hate moderating, but this group made it easy.
Saturday: Indie RPG Design Jam
One of my all time favorite panels, and one done every year at Multiverse. This year we designed a game where the party plays as a team of pizza delivery folks for a multiversal pizza chain, that uses dominoes as it's mechanic. It was all I dreamed it could be.
Saturday: Chuck Tingle: Potato and Glass
My second year doing a live play of the Chuck Tingle rpg, and it was just as over the top and amazing as last year. I played a bigfoot based on the Fonzie, with crimson hair and an eye color of 'Roll Tide' (Alabama was playing Tennessee while this panel was going on, and I willed them to victory through this move, you're welcome). The highlights (for me) were:
Charles McFall making his bigfoot character a parody of me. He literally had a spell that was executed by him retelling crazy stories from my life to comedic effect. I fucking died laughing.
We ran into some triceratops. I said 'since this is the Tingleverse, shouldn't they be tricera-bottoms?' The name stuck.
Sunday: Questioned Faith
Sunday paneling started with a discussion of writing religion in your fantasy stories. The panel ended up discussing race issues fairly heavily on the back half, which as a cis-white guy no one really needs to hear my thoughts on that matter. So I let the rest of the panel do the bulk of talking, and mostly listened. I did get to make a pun about Alan Quartermain though, so that was my stunning insight on race relations in the year 2025 ("The thing about Alan was he had Quartermain Character Syndrome.").
Sunday: Selling at Cons
The panel I was most looking forward to (even though I was the moderator). We talked about selling books at cons, and at the end I gave away 8 copies of my little 'Create Your Way To Freedom' book to folks who wanted it. A couple of panelists mentioned that they had gotten tips from me over the years, which was incredibly kind of them I thought.
Sunday: Podcasting for Writers: From Guest to Creator
I wasn't put on this panel, but a friend of mine who was got sick and had to drop. So I was asked to fill in. Joe Compton moderated, and it was the perfect end to paneling.
So I brought in Ben Meeks to come be a part of my booth. The deal was he would not have to throw in on the booth, and in return he would run it all weekend while I was going to be gone doing panel stuff a bunch. It worked out really well...except that I didn't make any money haha.
Womp womp.
So to be clear, I don't consider Multiverse a con I do to make money. I do try to break even though at least. This year I did not though, and I ended up losing 81 bucks. I actually sold better last year (92 bucks profit after costs, 150 the year before), despite attendance being noticeably higher this year (I was told at least 50% higher).
Why was this the case?
You can never really know, not really. But here are some potential reasons:
I was in the vendor hall, instead of arguably the most plum author alley spot (where I was last year).
I was away from the booth, a lot. Including most of Sunday, which was the day I made the bulk of my money last year.
I have away a lot of zines, so I sold less zines. If I had sold the three extra zine bundles that I sold last year, that would have put me only losing 6 bucks.
I sold one copy of a book at coast to a friend, for reasons. I also have a second sale coming from them, but until the money hits the bank I can't count it for this.
I shared space with two other authors, instead of having my own space. That will always depress sales a little bit. And if I had been splitting the space expenses, it would have absolutely been the right call. But Ben did me a real solid, so that was worth taking a very, very minor hit. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
We tried a different booth configuration, more u shaped. And I think it was a good move. I think I just used the space poorly. I should have had my books on the arm of the U, instead of at the bottom.
Alright, pity party aside, one cool thing was we had a little space left, where we were going to set up our checkout. But then Rob Grimoire stopped by the booth. He's a new author and a friend of ours. We asked if he was selling his books, and he revealed that he was just doing a signing. So we told him he could set up with us. And he sold out of one book completely, and sold half his stock of the other! It was his first booth experience, and he rocked it! How cool is that!
So overall, while I did not make a profit, the booth as a whole actually did quite well! As a whole we did over 1,200 bucks!
Anywho, here are my numbers:
Daily Sales Numbers:
Friday: $60
Saturday: $200
Sunday: $109
Total Sales Numbers By Item:
Bringing Home The Rain: 5
The Depth of the Water: 1
Omnibus 1: 5
Omnibus 2: 0
Southern Saudade: 1
Zines: 5
Total:
$369.00
Fixed Expenses:
Badge: $0.00
Booth Fee - $300.00
Parking - $0.00
Hotel - $150.00
Other - 0.00
Total - $450.00
Grand Total Profit: -81.00
