The shred of good news is that if you still want a signed copy of a book, you can always order them right through my webstore. And if you’ve signed up for my newsletter (on the bottom of any page on this site), you have a coupon code already.
Lexington Comic & Toy Convention!
Conventions are back!!
It is about time. We’ve been without major shows and conventions since 2019, and independent authors and artists (and so many more) everywhere are hurting because of it.
If you can get to Lexington for the show, come on out. This one is one of my all-time favorites, and it has been for years.
I’m just so happy to finally be in a booth signing books and meeting fans. If you make it to the show and mention this blog post, I’ll toss you a discount or maybe even a freebie.
Author SWAG!!!!
AUTHOR SWAG - SERIOUS BUSINESS
Check out one of my detailed table assemblages on Instagram
Villainous Halloween Market 2023
Bookmarks
Business Cards
Stickers
Once you have all your swag under control, check out the Marketing Series for tips and tricks on picking the right conventions and selling!
I get all my table swag from Easy Canvas, UPrinting, and Vista Print. It just depends which company is having the best sale at the time, but they’re all virtually the same. I have gotten some posters from Staples too.
Have your own author swag? Post it in the comments!
Some humble advice for convention organizers...
Conventions!
For many indie authors, conventions are our lifeblood. Without selling our books at local comicons and other such events, we wouldn't be making enough money to keep producing books.
As an author and huge fan of conventions, I've been to tons of them. Some massive, some tiny, some new, some established, and everything in between. I've pretty much seen it all.
But one thing has been a constant of many conventions, especially the smaller ones, which makes little sense:
TOO MUCH PROGRAMMING
What do I mean? Too many panels, too many discussions, too many contests, movie screenings, gaming hours, celebrity meet & greets, etc.
But Stu, isn't that why many fans go to conventions? Why of course it is. The programming brings in fans from around the country. Especially the celebrity stuff.
So why limit it? Well, we don't need to cut it back much. But here are some of the complaints I've made and heard over the years of attending conventions:
- Panels with large interest overlapping (common concern at big conventions)
- Panels drawing 0 audience members because other panels take it all at the same time
- People waiting in line for hours to get an autograph and missing programming
- Vendors complaining about people always being consumed by programming and not making it to the vendor hall. This is a huge complaint.
A few conventions I have attended have also had poor floor plans. Hosting all of the panels / contests, etc in a room adjacent to the vendor hall means many people never even see the vendor hall. That's an issue.
How do we fix it? I have an idea I've tossed around to a few vendors and organizers over the years: make a vendor hour an event in the programming.
Make from 7pm - 8pm (or whenever, just not in the morning) a vendor hall hour. No programming, no contests, no dances (yes, some conventions have dances), no celebrity sessions, no screenings, nothing but vendor hall time for an hour.
Vendors could offer promotions during that time, sales, free stuff with purchases, all that jazz. It gets people to enter the vendor hall, probably spend some money, and see things they might not otherwise see if their day is full of programming. It also lets people grab some dinner (depending on timing) which is never a bad thing.
Just some food for thought.