Clare C. Marshall's Blog, page 9

Banff Farmers Market Post Mortem Part 2

So shadowy, what am I planning?? It was a day of being in the shadows and not being seen, that’s for sure.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
I talk conventions with my BFF on my new podcast, BUSINESS BFFs. Listen here.
General Impressions

I wasn’t sure if this was going to be a good day, sales wise. The forecast was cloudy with a chance of showers in Banff. Last week felt pretty long because I was alone all day – this week I had Best Friend Sam helping me out, since she’s here for When Words Collide. HURRAY! She drove us to Banff and back. THANKS SAM.

LOOK NO HANDS

Also thanks to Rene and Raffi for helping me get set up!

Considering I didn’t get much sleep the night before, I was surprisingly coherent. Drinking water = yes.

Location

When we arrived, Rene, the organizer, told me that the Saskatoon berry vendors were not coming this week, so I could have their space. Initially, I was excited. This space is in the market proper.

After setting up, it became clear that this space wouldn’t work to my advantage for several reasons. One: we were right by the food, and a large collection of tables and chairs. This sitting area created a barrier that separated the back wall of vendors (including the busker) and our row—creating a dead end! People would come halfway down the row, decide they weren’t hungry, and turn around—with the barest of glances on my stuff.

The second factor that impacted this day was the rotating buskers. Each hour, a new busker sanctioned by the market would perform (sound system and all, of course!) for the eating patrons. I’m all for buskers (I used to be one!). But if the quality of the busker was mediocre—bye bye potential customers. AND it meant that people would face them, and not me, meaning, not a lot of brand exposure or interest.

So next week, I’m going to try and go back on the street or on the outer periphery of the market – away from the dead-end food area – so that people can actually see me!

Display

I brought slightly less Sparkstone books this week, and more Violet Foxes. Same display as last week. Sam made me a pretty button sign – bye bye folded over piece of paper, hello piece of art!

I touched up the paint on my box displays so they looked a little better this week. I was sad – one of my plastic display windows came apart so I only had one cover display for my purple lid. Womp womp.

I also put my banner in the front of my display – this blocked me a little from the approaching side but it’s a pretty powerful draw as well. The shadow from the tent diminishes my banner’s power somewhat, but I think behind me is probably the best place for it.

Sales

Location matters! I only did about half as much in sales as last week. Still covered my expenses and made a small profit, but hopefully this isn’t the trend for the rest of the month! This was also the second week where it took a LONG time to make the first sale. Most of my interactions took place in the afternoon, after 2pm.

The Violet Fox Series continues to dominate at that $35 price point. Had some Stars In Her Eyes sales, and some individual The Violet Fox sales, but no eBook sales.

I also had a couple of people blatantly tell me that they weren’t interested in my books, they only wanted to look, and that my books weren’t “for” them. That’s fine – but I don’t really need an excuse if you’re not interested! I’m just happy you stopped by.

Best Friend Times!

I’m so grateful that my best friend can come visit me for an extended period – that both of our careers allow us to schedule time to hang out. Ultimately I wasn’t too bummed about my sales, because we got to eat delicious vegan/GF pho and talk shop. Also it’s nice to have someone who understands the industry and is in your corner NO MATTER WHAT?

Also we recorded a podcast the next day. LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST HERE. We are pretty great.

Weird Interactions

There were quite a few weird ones this week.

1. The woman who signed up for my newsletter, left, and returned asking, “You don’t sell this newsletter list, do you?” Nope, definitely don’t do that, that’s illegal?

2. The little girl chewing on her father’s elbow as they hurried past. Yep. You read that right.

3. When we were setting up, an elderly woman just wandered into the back of our space…with seemingly no regard for traffic flow…and no regard to the fact that we were trying to move a table…

I leave you with a photo of Minnie the Pig! She was walking around the market with her owner, very content and calmly taking in the many vendors and popcorn treats. It was a highlight of the day.

I’m doing WWC currently – it’s been a busy week – but stay tuned next week for more Banff adventures and my When Words Collide post mortem!

Banff Farmers Market Post Mortem Part 1

If you would have asked me a few years ago if I’d try outdoor farmers markets to sell my books, I would have said no way. Other than fear, I had some legit reasons: it’s not easy to predict which way the weather will turn, there are costs involved with setting up a tent, not all farmers markets accept books/non-handmade stuff (or their acceptance is limited).

And the biggest reason for not trying, of course, is fear of failure.

But I don’t like to let fear win. And with the success of my multiple shows last year, I researched the hell out of nearby farmers and craft markets. A market is a market as far as I’m concerned. I selected Banff Farmers Market as a test, and I’ll be exhibiting there from 10am-6pm every Wednesday in August.

This is the post-mortem for my first day, August 2. I’ve decided to write one for each day (there will be 5 in total) as markets are different from week to week and no doubt I will be learning a ton about this new way of selling!

I met so many friendly people! Special thank you to Jim, the t-shirt vendor who helped me sort out my tent problem, and Raffi, the marketing coordinator and temporary guy in charge who got me everything I needed, and Cheyenne, my neighbour, for fun talks, snacks, and company! And of course Dave, for driving me.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
I talk conventions with my BFF on my new podcast, BUSINESS BFFs. Listen here.
General Impressions

I chose the Banff Farmers Market for several reasons.

First – It’s Canada 150 and Banff National Park is free.

Second – it’s a popular tourist destination anyway, so I’m likely to reach not only the locals but lots of from-away people who have never heard of my work. Meaning, less chance of saturating the market.

Third – Banff is pretty and any excuse to go there sounds good to me. It’s easy to get around the town and isn’t a far car or bus from Calgary.

Fourth – July/August are busy tourist months for Banff, and I had confidence that I could make back my entire investment – and then some.

I was nervous the week leading up to the market because I had no idea what to expect. Unlike with the large cons I do, where there are multiple emails sent to vendors weeks and days before explaining move-in procedures, parking, and set-up, I got nothing from the organizers. I wasn’t even sure if I’d have a tent and a table when I showed up – or when I *should* show up.

Location

When we arrived there at quarter after nine, almost everyone had set up already. The market runs in one of Bear Street’s parking lots, but also spills out onto Bear Street. It didn’t seem that busy. My spot was the only one not set up. It was on the street–not in the market proper. To be honest, I wasn’t that perturbed about that. I was getting a lot of street traffic. But I can see how being in the parking lot/market-proper area would be advantageous. It’s across from the mini mall: I can see people wandering outside into the market, walking the circuit, and then not going onto the street–exiting down the alley instead.

The other thing about my spot is because the road slopes sharply towards the sidewalk, I had to be on the lookout for spontaneous books falling over. Which happened twice!

Display

My space was 10×10, covered by a tent. The nice thing about displaying for one day is I only brought what I thought would sell, plus a little extra to fill out the table. AKA, no lugging a TON of boxes and items around! The box displays worked well, but I need to paint over some scuffs – the wood is just not that durable for all the travelling I do!

Also, no matter what you do, the wind WILL try to knock everything down! I had a terrible time with my reliable banner. No matter which way I positioned it, it fell. Between the wind whipping around and the cars whizzing by behind me, it created enough force to push the banner over–sometimes onto the table itself!

Fortunately, my experienced market neighbours came to my rescue. They lent me some bungee cords to attach the banner to the tent. Fixed the issue! I’ll have to get some of my own for the future.

Sales

The sales experience at the farmers market was pretty much the same as selling at a convention, with less cosplay and more relaxed, happy locals and tourists.

The morning was so, so slow. At 1pm, I was starting to resign myself to only making back my table space. But by 2pm, more people were venturing out, it was getting warmer, and sales picked up. I surpassed my minimum sales target and nearly doubled it! Essentially: I made back the entirety of my investment so far for the five days plus some.

My neighbours on both sides commented on the slowness of the day. The BC wildfires are still raging, meaning smoke is drifting over to Alberta–sort of. We passed through a Stephen King’s The Mist-style haze when we were approaching Canmore, but came out the other side to an otherwise sunny mountain view. We speculated that potential visitors may believe that Banff is covered in smoke and not be venturing out, as the past couple weeks since the fires had been slow days as well.

Now that I know what I can make on a slow day, I can better predict what I’ll make when it’s busier.

This is my first event without Within on the table. I only had one person ask about it (it was still on my pricing sign). When people asked, “What’s the first book you ever wrote?” (Why was this a common question…?) my response, “I don’t have it on the table” was more than adequate. While I lament it brings my earning potential down slightly, I’m happy not to have to explain “This is just a stand-alone, it’s a little more mature than my other books.” It also solves my awkward display problem and makes the selling process smoother.

Stars In Her Eyes won for bestselling individual title – but The Violet Fox Series continues to win bestselling bundle. I’m curious to see how many people will return within the next month to buy the next Sparkstone Saga book. I had one (local) mother tell me she would. This is an advantage of the market: if the customer consumes my content quickly, they can come back the next week for the next installment. Of course, there’s the potential for saturation fairly quickly, but I think about half my customers were tourists, so that should stave off the saturation point. I’d be more concerned about that if I was exhibiting for the entire May-October season!

For those keeping track of my payment methods: It was about an even split between cards and cash, and a quarter of the card payers paid with debit. So, again, very on trend with what I’ve experienced so far.

Yes, Everything Is Difficult and I Should Relax?

This event saw the return of some general questions I’ve mostly gotten past at comic cons, such as: “Where do you get your inspiration?” and “Is it hard to publish a book?” I got the “is it hard?” question two or three times. This one always baffles me. Writing is hard, but it’s not as hard as production (or having the means to produce), and that in turn is not as hard as marketing and selling. This is difficult to convey in a short conversation!

In the afternoon, I began to relax. It’s hard not to appreciate the chill attitude of the locals and my fellow vendors. I even left my table to go to the bathroom–on my way back, I was running so as not to miss a potential customer, and my neighbour saw me whiz by and said, “Whoa, it’s okay, slow down!” RELAX CLARE EVERYTHING IS FINE. People look out for each other at this market–everyone was quick to lend a hand.

While it was easy to fall into my selling routine, I had to remember that not everyone was into science fiction and fantasy–unlike selling at conventions where that is pretty much assumed! This means a softer approach: engaging only those who want to be engaged and treating my booth as a pop-up shop rather than a destination for con attendees. In general, people seemed interested in my work and excited to meet a local author.

For Next Time

Next week I’ll bring my horizontal banner and a chair. Even though I stand all day, sitting during the slow periods will really save my feet!

I leave you with a new friend I made – a magpie that hung out across from me pretty much the entire day. He was very determined to eat an abandoned cherry but he kept dropping it. He was also interested in the wood chips but again could not fathom why his beak couldn’t hold onto them for more than a few seconds.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
I talk conventions with my BFF on my new podcast, BUSINESS BFFs. Listen here.

Otafest 2017 Post Mortem

This was my first anime convention and a risk for me. On one hand, I figured I’d try it since there’s a demographic overlap between Faery Ink Press and anime in general. Also, the Sparkstone covers are vaguely anime–another advantage. On the other hand, I know very little about anime culture and I was afraid someone would pop out of nowhere to quiz me. Fortunately, that did not happen–and nor did it matter! While the majority of the attendees were cosplaying as anime characters, many others were dressed up in Harry Potter costumes or wearing buttons with other non-anime fandoms.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
General Impressions

Overall, it was a very welcoming atmosphere and my fears about “belonging” were put to rest. Especially when the sales started rolling in.

The convention was well organized; volunteers wandered the floor regularly, and there was even a dedicated person who checked in with each artist every few hours to ensure we were fine, in case we needed a bathroom break, etc. On Sunday, there was even a food delivery service! I got mochi. Tasty, tasty, mochi.

Location

I was in a pretty good location, in a row just off one of the entrances. Unfortunately, I was right under the air conditioning. This is one of those things that can’t be changed. Someone had to be stuck getting blasted all weekend, and this time it was me. You just have to roll with it. I get cold easily, which doesn’t help either. What really sucked was my sign kept blowing forward: I had to tape it down so it wouldn’t knock over my display. And this is my GOOD banner too!

Display

Remember in the Ottawa post I was talking about the branded display that my sister and I were working on? This was its inaugural convention!

It is a three-box set, Russian-doll style (the boxes fit inside each other), painted white with a purple lid. The lid has plastic panes that can fit two irregularly sized pieces of paper, and can sit on its side as a display piece itself.

I had a couple of fellow vendors compliment the box display. A good display set is like good typography: it serves up the content while not being distracting to the content its displaying. I think people appreciated the bookshelves as it allowed them to easily browse what I had.

I think it will take a couple of shows before I perfect the use of the boxes. Ideally, I need lights inside the box. The box is deep enough that it casts a shadow on the interior contents. I also would like a second set to even out the table.

The boxes stacked on top of each other also creates a blind spot for me: I’m happy to have people browse the shelves, pick up books, read the backs, but I can’t see if they’re returning the books to their rightful spots. This means I’ll have to do more clean-up and straightening.

Sales

I had an ambitious sales goal for this convention – and I exceeded it!

Nearly 60% of people used a card to pay, and about 40% of those people opted to throw the purchase on debit. No issues with Moneris, and because of the shorter convention hours, I wasn’t worried about keeping it charged for the whole day.

Friday was surprisingly good for me. Even though the traffic was slow, I managed to meet and exceed my daily target. It was a slog, though–long periods of few people walking by, and when you start seeing the same people walk by three or four times, that’s when you know there might not be much else going on.

Saturday will be better, everyone says. But Canada 150 celebrations could tip things either way. Either it would be extremely busy, or slow. It was slow. I did maybe 60-70% of what I did on Friday. I went home feeling unoptimistic. I’d already made a profit by this point, of course, but it was the first time I’d felt relatively unstimulated. Usually I am buzzing with ideas about how to improve my performance at this point. Instead, I felt more like I was going to a grueling 9-5 job each day.

Sunday was a major improvement. Not sure why, but it seemed like everyone decided to come on Sunday. From 11am-1:30pm, I was selling consistently. This is more of what I’m used to. The interactions make the time go faster, and it was one $30-$40 sale after another. After 2:30pm, the sales halted as people left, though I still got some enthusiastic interest.

For most of the convention, The Violet Fox Series was the strongest seller. On Sunday, the brisk sales changed up the dynamic and the Sparkstone Saga caught up. Stars In Her Eyes sold slightly more than The Violet Fox, but as a series The Violet Fox sold far more than the Sparkstone Saga bundle. The $35 price point continues to be the most appealing. I like the $45 price for all three Sparkstone Saga books, and people in general seemed to think that getting three books for that price was a good deal (especially considering Hunger In Her Bones’ size!). As I add on to each series and approach ten books, I may start evening out the book prices and doing simpler deals. This will also play into my longer-term, customer onboarding goals.

I’m still selling the eBook bundle for $21 – I think I can afford to knock a dollar or two off that as an experiment to see if that converts better. On the plus side, I’m seeing slightly more sales of individual eBooks. This may increase as I have more selection.

Speaking of selection, I sold out of Within – I only brought three copies. This will be the last time I have it on the table, at least for a little while. It’s getting harder to justify its place in the brand and the table itself, even though it quietly and consistently sells. I’d rather focus on my two series until I have another horror book to promote. People who bought it did not tend to buy my other books and there’s nothing worse than splitting your brand. I’ll still have it in eBook form and in the eBook bundle.

I also sold quite a few buttons. To be honest, I can’t wait to get them off the table. While they attract button lovers, they don’t really attract readers, and they take up a lot of space. Their optimal position for best sales is annoyingly at the front of the table. I may drop their price again just to move them faster. They were a good experiment, but I’m ready to try something else, and like I said above–diluting your brand is no good.

“I Don’t Have Any Money.”

Instead of the parents, I was face-to-face with my audience–teen girls. Usually I’m selling to their parents at other conventions, as they’re too shy to speak to me directly. I got that this time too.

Young girls don’t have dollars. They’re enthusiastic, often confident, and many are aspiring writers themselves…but they have a budget. And of course, many of them don’t have credit or debit cards. The cash they have is precious! So I chat with them and give them my card, hoping later they will return.

Besides the teens, who understandably have restraints on their wallets, the adults were throwing around this bomb of a statement too. It’s a powerful phrase, “I have no money.” The trouble with it is it can have multiple meanings. And because of that, you have to be ultra-sensitive to context, and have appropriate responses ready to disarm the customer. The goal is never to push or persuade. The goal is to gently lower defenses to establish a connection. Some of the true meanings include:

–“I don’t like the product; I am just interacting with you because you said hello to me.” Usually indiciated by shy, one-word responses in initial conversation. I don’t push these people. 100% of the time, if shy people like the product, you need to leave them be so they can make their purchase decisions. I don’t waste time convincing people outside my potential audience to buy. There are many fish in the sea.

–“I like the product, but I am not convinced that I should buy it from you right now.” This is a classic case of not enough social proof. Someone meets you for the first time and sees your product – why should they buy from you? Some people need more from you to get to a place where they are comfortable with the purchase. Whether that’s more conversation, bigger discount, more time—it’s different for every person.

–“Stop selling to me, you are too aggressive.” Probably the most defensive of the meanings. By bringing up money first, they are attempting to take control of the conversation. The thing is, they were always in control of the conversation: I am in control of their attention and focus. I direct them to my cards, and reinforce that they have all my book information on them if they care to take one for the future. Sometimes, however, if they continue to browse, I take the opportunity to make conversation. At the very least, it makes the time go faster. At most, an interested browser attracts another and another.

–“I don’t have any cash on me.” This is where I reinforce that I take credit and debit cards.

In all meanings, “I don’t have money” is a closing statement and needs to be treated with respect. If you’re selling, you either have to figure out how to quickly resolve the conversation in your favour (by giving the customer a business card) or finding the truth behind the statement (getting them to return later when they do have money).

Weird Interactions

I had a couple of strange interactions this weekend, but this one was the funniest.

A man approached the table and was looking at the Sparkstone Saga. I engaged him in conversation. His English wasn’t great, but eventually he came to understand that everything on the table was young adult fiction. He returned the book to its holder, saying, “Oh, I only read stuff like Triple-X.”

Me and my naïve mind thought, Oh, he likes action-adventure stuff, in the style of that Triple-X movie starring Vin Diesel. I laughed and said, no, this is not exactly like that.

He smiled and waved goodbye, telling me that if I decided to write his favourite genre, to let him know.

It was only after he left that I realized he meant X-rated.

Will I Go Back?

Otafest runs on a lottery system with its vendors. I’ll apply, but there’s no guarantee I’ll get in next year. I think adding more local anime conventions to the docket would be a smart move for me. Otafest is also over the May-long weekend in 2018 and not during the Canada Day weekend – I’m unsure if this is an improvement.

My next appearance will be at the Banff Farmers Market. Yes, you read that right! Every Wednesday in August, all day. See you there?

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.

Ottawa Comiccon 2017 Post Mortem

Ho boy. What a weekend. What a WEEK! At least I am on the mend from my cold. Just as I had gotten used to Regina, I whisked myself away to the capital of our great country: Ottawa.

I have tons of cousins in Ottawa on both sides of the family!! From the Monday after Regina until after the Ottawa Comiccon, I stayed with relatives in the Ottawa suburbs. Thank you so much to my cousins Rita and Bruce and their daughters Kathleen and Jennifer! Rita baked me many tasty treats while I worked and enjoyed the city. Kathleen took me around downtown and showed me the sights. This was just after the flooding, and the river was HIGH! She also stayed with me on the harrowing day that was Friday (she is now the Faery Ink Press morale officer!). Jennifer helped me out on Saturday and Sunday and I was so pleased that she got to take in a bunch of panels and experience the con! On Sunday evening, my cousin Kevin (other side of the family) took me out to supper with his fiancé. What a nice way to cap off a very eventful week!

Me at the parliament building at noon. The clock sang to us, how cute. It was such a nice day!

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
General Impressions

I arrived Friday morning at the EY Centre to set up. I had one box of books from Regina that I brought with me. I was expecting two more to show up. I was already worried because according to my tracking information, only ONE box was out for delivery that morning. The other was set to arrive Monday morning—too late for convention times! Why two boxes, sent out at the same time from the same location were not shipped together on the same truck, I’ll never know.

I had what was left from Fan Expo Regina: a fair number of copies of books in the Sparkstone Saga, a handful of books from The Violet Fox Series, and some copies of Within. I set those up, and we waited for the ONE BOX to be delivered. I checked the delivery bay several times. Nothing.

That was when I checked my tracking information again.

The box had gone out for delivery at 8am. At 8:10am: address incomplete. Box returning to sender.

Returning to sender. IN CALGARY.

No, no, no, no.

I called up Canada Post, and after about an hour on the phone, I got to the terrible, dark bottom of it all.

The address I’d put on the boxes? Not incomplete, per se. “Incorrect.”

When I was looking up official exhibitor shipping information on the Ottawa Comiccon site, I couldn’t really find much. I found it difficult to find an address for the EY Centre (though in retrospect, I now see it in several places on the site), but more difficult was finding reassuring information about WHERE I was supposed to send my product, and the procedures surrounding this. The EY Centre is a HUGE place. I’d never done this before. I take everything with me in my suitcases, or I ship to friends. Which is what I SHOULD have done in this case.

The information I found in an official looking document on the site was about exhibitor services. Exhibitors could ship items c/o a third party company and they would take care of it. Mostly it seemed to be about large display items (hanging banners, etc), but at least there was a ship-to address, instructions about putting your booth number there, and be sure to put “Ottawa Comiccon” on the box! That felt right to me: it was spelled out in a clear manner, it made sense that the con would have a company handling the onerous task of turning what is essentially a warehouse into a comic-con friendly environment, including handling exhibitor arrangements. Otherwise, in the exhibitor PACKAGE document only said to ensure your package arrived Thursday or Friday, because it wouldn’t be received before or after that (in and of itself, stressful)—they had no spelled-out address or clear instructions that would ease my mind.

I even called the official Ottawa Comiccon exhibitor manager about shipping, and confirmed that as long as I put the address on there, my booth number, and “Ottawa Comiccon” on the box, that it would arrive and even be delivered to my table. So, feeling confident, I did up my boxes, and prepared them to be shipped.

But I asked the wrong questions. I didn’t notice that the address I put on the box was for this third party company itself—which was not where the convention was being held—it was a different address than the EY Centre. I did not put two and two together.

So of course the address wasn’t exactly wrong. It showed up at the “right” place, but there was no one at this address to receive the box, no unit number—so it was returned to sender. And no, there was no way to drive to a shipping warehouse to retrieve the box. It was stuck in the mailing system and I would just have to “deal with it.”

I bet another language would have a word for this, but I’ll attempt to describe. When you are positive you’re dreaming, and you want to wake up, but your brain tells you that you are firmly planted in reality? That was me for the majority of Friday.

I was so angry, mostly at myself. How could I have been so stupid? I should have double checked it before sending it away. Shoulda, woulda, coulda. And what made me more frustrated is, if I’m unhappy at all, I cannot sell efficiently. Happiness = business. Anger = lost sales. And I was already in several hundred dollars for this convention. The travel alone was nearly as much as the artist alley table. I was going to lose. Big time.

I was hurting, and I was in the middle of the country with very little product and low morale. I had to take my lemons and squeeze them for as much juice as I could, no matter what my true feelings were. This is the lonely part of entrepreneurship.

Sales

Within the first 45 minutes on Friday, I made $100. The customers were decisive! This lifted my spirits, though I knew this momentum wouldn’t last. I didn’t have enough stock to keep up the demand. One box. That was it.

I was going to sell out, that was inevitable. I had just enough to cover my expenses, maybe, if I took a couple of orders and upsold my eBook packages. There is a certain relief that comes with lowering your expectations. Instead of hitting my high minimum target goal, I told myself, as long as I make back the $450 table, it would be okay. The travel was very expensive, but at least I got to see my family. I could eat that if I had to. I had learned a lesson. This mantra relaxed me, and as Friday came to a close, I felt better. Kathleen kept my spirits high, distracted me by asking me questions about my business, helped to keep me caffeinated, helped me focus on the positive. Selling out is not a bad thing, she said. People will understand.

That night, I was debating what to do. My stock was dwindling. I had one copy of The Violet Fox left. A handful of the others. I could sell the last six books, leave, and work on other hourly projects so at least I could make my clients happy. But my cousins encouraged me to take orders for the entire weekend. I slept on it, and decided they were right. I was already in Ottawa. I had to at least try. If I couldn’t get orders on the busiest day of the con (Saturday), then I’d just leave. I set new dollar targets for Saturday and Sunday that I would need to meet to make my time spent worthwhile.

I created a strategy: I’d operate the table like my website. If the customer spent more than $X, I would ship to them for free. Finding the right number took some consideration, but I settled on $35. This is $10 cheaper than the website, currently. I chose it because I sell the two current books in The Violet Fox Series for $35 (a deal, they’re $20 each usually). The average person drops around $25-$30 at my table anyway. So this was not a huge stretch.

I was nervous. What if no one took me seriously? I put my “SOLD OUT” sign on the table. Changed my pitch. Chatted with people. I felt better than I had the previous day. I couldn’t change the past. I just had to make lemonade.

I was expecting maybe one or two orders. But no. My impromptu mail-order business was a success. As I ran out of books, I took addresses. People could take home the books I had, and I’d ship them the ones I didn’t. That was fine. Books are heavy. Who wants to carry them around the con, even in a bag? Silver linings to everything.

I managed to exceed my initial high minimum sales target for this con – a target I made assuming I would have all of my stock—with essentially six books, my eBooks, and a smile.

I’m not sure why I didn’t put two and two together before, but this city has money, and loves supporting its own—even if you’re from away. Almost every person I talked to, when I told them that some of my books were set in Canada: “Oh wow, I LOVE that. Everything is set in New York/the US nowadays.” And guess what—that led to sales.

I also had no issues with my Moneris reader! A lot more people than expected paid cash. Thank goodness for these small things. I also found that there weren’t many sales after 4pm. Once the celebrities and main festivities in the vendor hall had cleared out, the money dried up.

Where my strategy failed was, a couple of people only wanted the first book in a series, but because I had to charge a shipping fee on top of that, it deterred them from buying at all. They didn’t want to spend $35—after all, what if they don’t like the first book, what would they do with the second one? Understandable, 100%. So I probably lost a few hundred dollars here just from single-book purchasers. This gave me valuable insight into my website. Unfortunately there’s not much I can do about shipping rates in Canada. While I can eat the shipping costs if you spend $X, shipping is at least $10, sometimes closer to $20 if I’m shipping across the country. The more I ship in a box, the cheaper it is.

This experience was affirming for me. My books are attractive, the blurbs are enticing, and I am good at interacting with people. That even when I think I can’t, I can. That I’m going to make dumb mistakes, but I also make pretty good lemonade.

Unfortunately, because of this whole debacle, I didn’t have a chance to test out my new sales strategies. I’ll have to do that next time.

So THANK YOU to everyone who ordered from me at the table! Your confidence in me is inspiring and I won’t forget it!

Display

Because I didn’t have much to work with, I was disappointed with my showing at this convention. I don’t like it when I can’t present my best. I worked with what I had. My cousins insisted that it was fine, that it still presented nicely. And I will say that people STILL slowed down to look, even though I only had six books on the table and some signage.

So instead of bemoaning my table display, I want to share some pictures of a project my sister Jessie and I are working on! She wanted to sink her teeth into a new challenge: designing lightweight, functional display items for my convention tables. And um, if you think I’m talented? Jessie is a craftsperson. Not only does she draw/paint, but she blacksmiths too. Yep. She has what our family calls “the Holman gene”: she enjoys working/making things with her hands, taking things apart, discovering how they work, putting them back together, working with minute tools with precision and in general being a creative person! She works as a jewellery designer currently for a medium-sized jewellery company in Nova Scotia, where she also designs packaging and display items.

Soo when you put the two of us to work on something, cool things happen!

These are just mock-ups, but we’re hoping they will be ready for my events in August. She’s shown me the prototypes, and once we work out some more details, I’m giving her the go-ahead to produce a couple of sets.

The boxy bookshelves:

The book ends:

Newslsetter

An update on my newsletter. I haven’t sent it out in a while, but I am collecting email addresses with each con I go to. I don’t currently offer an incentive to sign up—I just have a list on a clipboard on the table. In retrospect, I suppose I should be the one writing down the emails so I can decipher them later, as I do have trouble with that.

Good People

Everyone was so friendly and professional at the con. Even when I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to figure out where my books got to. One woman who I was dealing with at the exhibitor services booth recognized me each day as I punched in: “You’re back?” Yep!

As in Regina, I had customers recognize me, even though I’ve never been to their city before. People recognized me from Hal-Con! Once again, my cross-country travels are paying off. It also occurred to me that in this year, 2017, I’ll be vending in MANY Canadian provinces! What a better way to spend Canada 150? Thank you to all who stopped and chatted with me!

I got to meet in person one of my long-term clients, Joanne Lecuyer, of Topsy Books. She came and sat at my table and we had a great chat about publishing and the future of her company. What I like about Joanne is her commitment to quality and her publishing schedule. Nothing can get her down! Someday soon you might see her at a convention near you.

Fan Expo Regina 2017 Post Mortem

Two down, one to go. Why did I think doing three cons in a row was a good idea? Oh yes. Good for business is why.

I am writing this on my flight from Regina to Ottawa, sleep deprived and sniffly from my cold. I’ll be staying in Ottawa for a week until Ottawa Comic Con. I am a little sad to leave Regina – I’d just gotten used to the flat, dusty, warm climate.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
General Impressions

This whole journey required me to do some mental gymnastics when it came to organization. Originally I was going to go to Prince George’s Northern Fan Con but Fan Expo Regina worked out better for my three-con hop extravaganza. Unfortunately, I didn’t find out that I had a table until a month before! That is almost no time. The communication between the vendors and the expo seemed to be extremely disorganized.

I took the Greyhound from Calgary to Regina. They only offer overnight trips, from 11:30pm to 9:30am. Dirt cheap, compared to flying and the cost of luggage. That meant I had to go on a Thursday night instead of a Friday, as getting into Regina at 9:30am Saturday would be too late for setup for this two-day con. I can sleep on a bus, I thought. After all, who the hell wants to go to REGINA on a Thursday night?

Well, turns out, an entire bus load of people. It was jam packed, the air conditioning was on full blast, and I could barely get two hours. Not good for me and my cold. Got some nice pictures of the sunrise at 5AM though.

When I arrived, it was relatively easy to get a cab to my AirBnB—a room in a woman’s house very close to Evraz Place in the Cathedral District. I was a bit early so I dropped my bags and got some breakfast at a local fair trade/vegetarian/vegan coffee shop. It was very tasty. The Cathedral District is an older part of Regina near downtown, similar to Kensington in Calgary but smaller. I’m so glad I stayed there, it was very conveniently located, cheap, and nice overall.

So I took Friday to relax and recover for the two hectic days to come.

Display

On Saturday morning, I got up early, got a cab to the convention centre, and set up. This was straightforward. I packed my display into two suitcases, plus I had my shiny new banner. I always worry when I’m travelling about whether I bring enough. I rationed and counted out my stock this time, bringing exactly what I expected to sell plus a tad extra to pad out the display. Once I had it set up on my 6ft artist alley table, it actually didn’t look too bad.

After Calgary Expo and figuring out how to display in 10×10, I really appreciated the smaller space more this time. There is something to be said for space restrictions fuelling creativity. I returned to my U-shape: putting the Violet Fox Series on one side, and the Sparkstone Saga on the other, elevated to eye level. Within went in the middle next to the newsletter signup.

In general, I was surprised at how TALL the vendors built their displays for this con, even in artist alley. Large towers of prints everywhere you look. In the exhibitor/merchandise area, everyone seemed to have ceiling-hanging banners. In the rules, there were guidelines about height restrictions but those didn’t seem to be enforced here.

Location

I was in artist alley. I actually liked the set up of the con. It’s not a huge show, and very navigable. The artist alley was several rows long near the back of the centre but it received a lot of traffic. I was the first table off the main drag, so my tiger banner was visible and drew people in. Good ol’ tiger.

Sales

This was a two-day con. It’s sometimes hard to say which day will be the better sales day. Generally Saturday is the best. It seemed to vary from artist to artist that I talked to.

Saturday was boiling hot. Regina was having very good weather: 27, 28 degrees the entire weekend. Unfortunately, for some reason the convention centre doesn’t know how to anticipate weather and they didn’t turn on the air conditioning for Saturday. This resulted in a lot of unhappy customers and vendors. In fact, the last few hours of the con were pretty dead as a result.

Surprisingly, I had a good Saturday, but a terrible Sunday. I had a lot of interest on the Sunday, but not a lot of bites. I didn’t end up doing any promotions—no first day sales. This is the first time in a while that I’ve forgone them. But I was a) eager to recoup my costs of the trip and b) had limited stock. Maybe if I had done a sale on Sunday I would have seen a bump in sales. Even with my debit and credit options, people seemed extremely hesitant to part with their money, preferring to buy later. I had a lot of people ask me if I’m in Chapters. I need to get better distro through there.

At the end, I was left with only 2 copies of The Violet Fox left and 4 copies of The Silver Spear, so my careful packing paid off. I sold almost as many Violet Fox bundles (first and second books together) as I did single Violet Foxes, so that tells me that my pricing here is good. In the picture above, you can see how few copies I have left! I also put the Emerald Cloth picture down so I can have a proper cover reveal later

Calgary Expo 2017 Post Mortem

Phew. First con of the year, done! This convention is the first of a busy THREE WEEKEND convention travelling trip that includes Fan Expo Regina and Ottawa Comic Con. If you look closely in the picture, you’ll see a sneak preview of The Emerald Cloth cover (full cover reveal coming soon).

Also, look, I have new hair!! Bye-bye purple and blue, hello regular brown. It hasn’t been this short since I was a young teen.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
General Impressions

Calgary Expo is currently one of my biggest cons on the roster. Attendance was down from 103,000 to 95,000 this year. Four-day cons are long and exhausting. Aside from some help from Kate and my editor friend Jessica, I was alone for most of the con. This made for a lonely time when it wasn’t busy, which was unfortunately more than I would have liked. Many thanks to Dave who spent hours helping me set up!

Display

I tried several arrangements for this con.

The difference between a 10×10 booth and a single-table space is astounding. Twenty square feet is a lot to play with, and I think I got a little blindsided by the opportunities. On Thursday, I tried out a radically different approach, something I’d wanted to try for a long time. I used the long, 10ft table along the side of the booth, and brought an extra table to create an L-shape, inviting people into the space. I was hoping that people would walk into the space to reach the books.

That is hubris talking. Of course I think people want to walk in and touch my products because they are pretty. The reality is, a lot of book people are shy, and the idea of going into a place where they may feel pressured to buy sucks. It’s a similar problem to the one Chadwick and I encountered at C4 last year. I thought I’d eliminated the issue by standing behind the table, but ultimately, my covers have to be in people’s faces for them to notice them amongst the other visual distractions, and as a person I have to be front and center to catch people’s attention.

So on Friday, I changed gears and we re-did my table space. People still had to venture in a little, but it was a much shorter, cozier distance than going ALL the way into the back. I also had a mat on the floor to give the feet a break from the concrete! This mat became super dirty and gross by the end of the four days and I ended up throwing it away.

Once my display was settled, I quickly found the brisk sales I was accustomed to. Now that I know I’m not ready for large L-shapes, I can go back to my U-shape, which works well.

Hunger In Her Bones looks SO GOOD! This is my first convention with my newest book. It arrived two days before the con. I had several compliments on its appearance and production, and it was easily the most-picked-up book on the table.

Sales

I had ridiculously high expectations for this convention. I thought that by changing my location, I’d be doubling my sales. Not so! Instead I did about the same as last year.

I had a lot of return customers! It was so exciting to have people approach and ask when The Emerald Cloth is coming out. Equally exciting was the number of people who returned to buy Hunger In Her Bones. Not as many eBook sales – I was expecting many more eBook library sales, I think I need to drop the price to $20 instead of $21.

The Sparkstone Saga outsold The Violet Fox Series this time, and Stars In Her Eyes hands-down beat out all my other books. This is due to it a) being at the front of my display b) Hunger looking so damn good c) many people have already read The Violet Fox Series, so I’m getting them on my scifi series while they wait for The Emerald Cloth.

Thursday was not as I expected, possibly because of my display. Friday was good. Saturday was also good. Sunday was weird! Perhaps it was my lack of sleep, but people were just not interested in interacting with me, as hard as I tried to engage. It got to the point where I was starting to wonder if I had something on my face.

Within continues to quietly grab sales. I desperately need another horror/thriller book to grab those horror dollars and bridge that gap between it and the other books. Originally I had one scheduled for this year but I dropped it in favour of focussing on The Emerald Cloth.

Ultimately, to maintain and maximize my profits for this space, I would have to have far more than five or six books. In general, if I want to increase and maximize my sales, I need to have a couple of new books each year. The first time someone comes to my booth, they’re spending $35-$45 on books. Occasionally more. But then they’re coming back only for new stuff: $20, max. As I reach market saturation for this con audience, I have to increase production to maintain or exceed my previous sales.

Taking Debit!

Hurray! FINALLY! I signed up for a Moneris account, which connects to my business bank account. Signing up was fairly straight forward, and the reader arrived in the mail about a week before the convention. I pay a monthly fee for the service.

The breakdown of my customers paying habits: 58% cash. 42% card.

HALF of my card-paying customers used debit, and more than a few said things like, “Oh you take debit, I’ll buy a book!” (Note the difference between that and “I’d like to buy a book, do you take debit?”)

The only trouble I had with it was on Thursday. Turns out, I didn’t tether the machine correctly with my phone. Fortunately, all I had to do was reinitialize the connection, and it worked well for the rest of the weekend! Many people were relieved that I took debit, and others were impressed with the professional nature of the reader itself.

My booth neighbours used Dream Payments, which I found very intriguing as they don’t charge monthly fees and you outright buy the little card reader for about $100. They’re a new company so I’ll have to keep an eye on it. I’m committed to using Moneris for now.

Crash & Burn: An Update

Last year, I gave Kate some of my table space so she and her friend Finn could sell their wildly successful comic, Crash & Burn. They had their own table this year in the Big Four Building, and unsurprisingly, they sold TONS of their first-ever volume of the comic, which is a collection of the first four issues. Not only did they have media interest, the Alberta minister of culture and tourism checked them out as well. You can check it out for free on their website, but if you’re a cool bean you’ll back them on Patreon. Thanks so much to Kate who helped me throughout the weekend and made sure that I didn’t die.

Cool People!

One of my favourite parts of going to cons is seeing my fellow creative entrepreneurs. I feel such kinship with people who make money from their art. I had the privilege of eating too much crème brulée with Greg Chomichuck (slowest eater of all who live), Andrew Thomas, Gibson Quarter, Scott Henderson, Justin Currie, and many others. Less fun was going home on the train at midnight and then having trouble sleeping because of all the good food!

Scott Henderson and I had many good chats throughout the weekend. He is an extremely talented, award-nominated artist who I think doesn’t get enough praise and attention. Not only has he done artwork for Highwater Press, but he also has his own graphic novel series, The Chronicles of Era. Everything I’ve read from it so far is really good, and he has the kind of artwork you can return to and find something new with each inhalation.

I also briefly got to see Hope Nicholson again, but our busy schedules didn’t allow us much interaction time! She’s promoting her new release from Quirk Books, The Spectacular Sisterhood of Women. I hope we can chat more when I’m in Winnipeg.

Ella Beaumont, formerly the acquisitions editor at EDGE and now the operating force behind her fiance’s ambitious writing-publishing endeavor, visited my table a couple of times as well. I always enjoy my chats with her. We have a lot in common and I enjoy her enthusiasm about the business.

My booth was in between two woodcraft companies! To my right was Pickering Woodwork, and my left, Charlie Rabbit. I really admired a lot of the work that went into their art. Charlie Rabbit had an especially impressive display, they basically built a whole structure around their space! Pickering Woodwork, for their second con, seemed to be extremely organized and had brisk sales the entire weekend. Yay!

Besides all my friends and fellow creatives, thank you to everyone who came up to me and chatted about writing, publishing, and making a living with your art! I LOVE talking about what I do–and I love giving people a dose of realism about the business.

Improvements for next time:

Better signage for the buttons. I’ve figured out how to optimize their placement, but if I’m going to have them in my wooden box, I need to have their price on the lid.
Run a social media promotion at the table: the booth next to me had a promotion and a draw. If you liked their Facebook page, took a selfie at the booth, you could sign up for the draw to win a custom-designed piece.
Better signage for my pre-orders. I took some pre-orders for The Emerald Cloth but I could clarify that it’s not out yet.
Have to remember to sign up for panels! I keep forgetting, I’m so focussed on my other work.
Branded display pieces. Shelving, bookends, that sort of thing. Some of this I’m already working on (stay tuned!).
Buy hand sanitizer: I write this with sniffles because I picked up some con crud! Usually I’m pretty careful at cons:

you shake a lot of hands, you handle a lot of money, but pobody’s nerfect, and sometimes your immune system breaks down and the sickness worms its way in.

Thanks for reading, come back next week to hear about my adventures in Regina! I leave you with a still from my new sitcom, Clare & Tiger. It’s grrrrrreeat!

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.

Turner’s Christmas at the Coliseum Post Mortem

Since I was in Nova Scotia for Hal-Con, and I’m staying until the holidays, I figured I should do at least one Christmas market. After much research, I found this one in the middle of Moncton, New Brunswick.

Also look at these windmills! They’re at the border of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. So pretty, but at the same time, a little creepy with their sheer height. JUST WHAT I LIKE?!

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
General Impressions

This was my first Christmas market and I think it was a good one to get me started. The Christmas market at the Coliseum is basically an institution in Moncton—this was its 29th year. From talking to the other vendors, I gleaned it used to be much bigger.

In any case, this was a major test for me, and a major risk at that. For the most part, I’ve been exhibiting at comic cons and book festivals. This is probably the first non-speculative related event I’ve done. Fortunately, it was a good risk, as I sold lots and got to introduce my brand to the good people of Moncton and beyond.

The thing about doing Christmas markets out of province is you’re always at the mercy of the weather. The hours for this show were so long (10am to 9pm on Saturday!) that when it was slow, it sucked majorly.

Display

I had a lot of lookers—people would walk down the aisle and slow down just to take in what I had going on at the table. Which was a lot.

I was very happy to have my sister Jessie around. Her “DON’T SHOW ANY TAPE” rule may stick on me someday. She creatively used fishing line to tie back the fabric, just like she did at Hal-Con. Also she helped me make the horizontal banner appear NOT droopy! YAY. The secret to success here was also fishing line.

To continue my previous display themes, I stole some of Jessie’s furniture to create height and a little alcove area (it would have been cute to have a little Friendly Giant scene in there…oh well!). And I FINALLY GOT BOOK STANDS. No more awkward propping against flimsy books. YAY.

I took some Christmas decorations because a) obviously, it’s a Christmas market and b) there was a prize for best display (which I sadly did not win, haha). I thought more vendors would be into decorating the booth but turns out, a lot of them were selling Christmas related items anyway. I used one of grandmother’s nutcrackers and my other grandmother’s tree. We decorated the tree with pretty, sparkly ornaments from the house. It’s a light up tree, and we could have plugged it in (FREE ELECTRICITY! Seriously, cons usually charge $70 A DAY just for the privilege!) but the plugs were all taken and alas we did not have an extension chord.

We brought a second table for gift wrapping. Jessie created a little station. It took a couple of customers to get into the rhythm of gift wrapping but I think the area looked super cute.

Sales

This show had a lot of expenses. The booth was $450—there was nothing smaller than a 10×10. I also had to pay for three nights in a motel, gas, food…etc. So my minimum sales goal to break even was pretty high, as was my target goal. Fortunately, I met and exceeded it!

I was extremely close to selling out of The Violet Fox. It didn’t take long to make my first sale, and my first sale was a Violet Fox bundle—unusual for people to drop that much money on an unknown author! I did my usual discounted Friday thing, though I probably didn’t have to, because I sold almost half of my Violet Fox stock on that first day. I mean, they did warn me that sales were brisk, but I didn’t expect them to be extremely brisk. Most people were eager to pay with cash, and I only had to inconvenience one person for not having debit.

I would have completely sold out of everything had it not been for the unusually slow Sunday. I only did around $100 in sales—basically nothing compared to the previous two days. I think the storm warnings hit everyone pretty hard. Had it not been for that storm warning/heavy snow later that day, I would have met and exceeded my Calgary Expo numbers. Ah well!

One tip I got from a buyer was that it wasn’t completely clear that I was the author. True, this is a question I’m asked constantly, especially since I brand myself as a publisher more than an author. Usually at events there’s room for me to write my name and title on my badge. I ended up doing that here, though it got me thinking that having an official nametag might be beneficial, especially if I have one or two other people working with me at the event.

Surprisingly, the gift wrapping wasn’t as successful as I’d hoped. I bought a special sparkly purple gift wrapping set from Winners just for the occasion. We even did a decent job of remembering to upsell it to the customers. I think the problem was that I had to rely on Jessie to do it (because there were so many people, I couldn’t stop to wrap a present AND sell the next person on the product), but Jessie wasn’t always physically at the booth. We charged $2 for the wrapping, which Jessie did beautifully.

I considered doing it for charity. That probably would have gotten a far greater response—though it was short notice to add the gift wrapping component in the first place and I didn’t want to rush a charity partnership. Furthermore, I’m strongly against adding a charity component to any project for the sake of bolstering interest or sales. In general, people told me that gift wrapping was something they liked to do themselves as a de-stressing activity, or that my books would be a stocking stuffer and not require wrapping.

All in all, even with the extremely slow Sunday, Christmas at the Coliseum just barely knocks Edmonton Expo out of its second place slot for sales this year.

Types of Vendors

For an established Christmas market, I was expecting more established brands to monopolize most of the spaces. By that, I mean small businesses run by creative entrepreneurs like me with an established look and product(s). And there was some of that. The booth across from mine sold nightlight lightboxes with exchangeable slides. Very cute. The people to my left have been doing the Christmas markets for years and sold Faberge eggs. But there were also a lot of unbranded or less-than-branded jewelry people, people selling random Christmas or old things from their attics, and people with good-looking products but terrible displays.

To my knowledge, I was the only book vendor. Attendees told me that there was another author or two a few years ago, but they stopped coming. I’m not completely surprised. With the cost of the booth, you’d have to be local and/or have a lot of product and/or have a solid brand to make this market worthwhile as a single author.

Local From Away

My sales at this con, I think, were boosted by the sheer fact that I AM a Maritimer. Everyone wanted to buy or at least look at books by a fellow East Coaster, which really created a sense of community for me. More attendees than I expected were from Nova Scotia. About half the people in attendance were French, and many more were bilingual. A couple spoke French to me, and I could understand enough to reply in English. Yay for *some* French education in my rural area. Gotta get bilingual one of these days!! Interestingly enough, several parents bought my books for their twelve and thirteen year old children because they “should” start reading more in English. Which I’d never even considered as a purchase decision. So that was very interesting.

Overall, everyone was extremely nice, staff and attendees included. I was invited to or told about multiple other markets and festivals I should attend—including the Frye Festival. Someday that would be a great one.

Observations

• Moncton is full of pregnant ladies and young kids! It’s not often in my experience that you see so many younger people in the Maritimes. Good to see that there will be a new generation of Maritimers SOMEWHERE. Then again, I know that the Christmas market is a skewed demographic—of course families are going to want to go, and thus I saw many.

• Christmas music would play at a comfortable level on the loud speakers. This was pleasant—I enjoy background music at comic cons because it really adds to the ambiance. Yet I wished they had another CD. It was the same Christmas mix CD, for three very long days. I guess this is what working in retail is like?

• I had people recognize me from Hal-Con.

• A group of friendly women walked by my booth, and stopped to take it in. I said hello. One of the women said, “Oh my, I can tell your books are scary!” Um, because of all the sparkly purple? People judging books by their covers…sort of…

• A man said to me, “Oh, I have to get my wife to look at your table!” He got his wife’s attention and says, “Look at this woman’s table, it’s purple!” She turned, and shuttered, and hurried away. He grinned and said, “She hates purple!”

Will I go back?

It’s hard to say. Theoretically I could send someone to the show. It would drastically cut into my profit—and of course, bad weather could destroy all my business. I’m going to have to think about it in the months to come. I’d love to have a presence in Moncton, or the Maritimes in general, during the holidays.

Year Wrap Up

I did ten shows in 2016. Jessica did the Expo Holiday Show for me (thanks Jessica!) and I’m hoping to make an appearance there next year. Will I do as many in 2017? I have four shows confirmed, and about seven more that I’m applying for. Going aggressive on larger shows this year not only boosted Faery Ink Press sales, but made my freelance business even more successful. So it’s a big part of my business plan for 2017 and possibly 2018. I don’t think it’s 100% sustainable to do every year—one convention can be extremely tiring, and doing several in a row is taxing on the body and brain. It’s not the most conventional method of distribution, but it works for now, and it does spread the brand across the country in concentrated bursts.

Hal-Con 2016 Post Mortem

Hal-Con, we’ve come a long way.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
General Impressions

In a lot of ways, Hal-Con is my home con, because Nova Scotia is my home, even if I don’t live here anymore. This was my fourth year at Hal-Con and every year my regulars come out and support me and my books. Thank you to everyone who returned and bought books this year. Also big thank you to my sister Jessie who helped out all weekend—including set up and take down and being my wing-lady! YAY SISTERS!

As with last year, Hal-Con attendance was capped because of capacity in the convention centre. C’mon Nova Centre, hurry up and get built.

Location

The biggest downside this year was the placement of the artist guests.

Every year that I’ve been going (and probably for years before that), Hal-Con has changed up how they place their artist guests. The first year I was there, most of us were on the ground level and benefited from the free entrance (except when the fire marshal shut everything down). Second year, I was upstairs in a segregated room with the artist guests, and sales suffered. Third year, everyone was together in the big rink-area and sales were very good. This year: artists and vendors were more integrated in that same area…and artist guests were moved to their own private area. Don’t even ask me what floor it was. Some people call it the second floor. Others say the fourth. That’s how crazy the convention centre is.

I knew immediately once the vendor placements were announced that I would be losing hundreds of dollars in sales by not being with the other vendors. Yes, I was an artist guest, and there were privileges that came with that. But ultimately I cared more about a) people being able to find me and b) people buying my books. We have to make the most of the location we are given, however—just like any other con. And I’ve been wrong before about my location being terrible—sometimes a location can surprise you.

The way the artist guest “alley” was set up: a semi-circle of tables, backed with drape, leading down to the “main event” – the voice actors from Sailor Moon: Linda Ballantyne and Toby Proctor. Very cool that they were there—they’re super nice and very engaging with their fans. But it’s not like they were there all the time–the line in the picture above would form in some degree every time they made an appearance.

Behind the drape there was a hidden walkway that led down to the green room that held snacks and coffee for guests. Beyond that were special signing booths for the celebrities and bigger authors, and the Supernatural Impala.

Usual problems with being near or across from the guests: depending on the kind of guest they are, they don’t always have large displays, and/or they’re not always at their table. If a customer sees a near-empty aisle that isn’t populated with product—guess what, they’re not going to go down that aisle! So I dressed up my table, pointed my covers toward the trafficked areas, and tried my best to tractor beam in some interest.

Most of the time, the area was not highly trafficked. The only times it got crazy was when Linda and Toby were signing. Then there was a line. And there’s nothing better than talking to and selling to people with nothing else to do!

I think I maximized the use of my location, though a lot of my customers expressed confusion and frustration because I wasn’t easy to find.

Display

So, for this display I ended up stealing some of my sister’s furniture to create the look I wanted. I created two focus areas for my two series. The Violet Fox area is actually a gaming table, but we draped fabric over it to create two distinct upper and lower “shelves.” The tables themselves seemed kind of narrow and shorter than 8ft, but at least I didn’t have to crawl under the table to get in and out. We bought some fresh flowers, and although not pictured, we added some purple ones for the Saturday and Sunday.

And thanks to Sam, I now have a new whiteboard! Bye bye, dollar store whiteboard, hello sturdier, larger board. Jessie drew the pretty faery and styled the text.

This space was roughly the size of an artist alley table space, but with the added bonus of backing drape (not every artist alley space has that). The more books I get, the more tight this space becomes and the more I have to get creative. My name was above it so that was fun!

Sales

As mentioned, due to my location, I lowered my sales expectations for Hal-Con this year. Surprisingly enough, though, counting my per diem I did make quite a bit of money at this con. And since I only had to pay for my flight, my expenses were otherwise low—so Hal-Con turned out to be extremely profitable for me this year. Usually it is a break-even or slight profit con (though again, I use this con as an excuse to come home!). I think my guest status, combined with my returning regulars & friends carried me through.

Unfortunately I didn’t have Hunger In Her Bones ready, but I took pre-orders and that was successful. It made me realize that I need to be always taking pre-orders for my next books of the year. Orders for The Emerald Cloth and my new potential horror book will need to start in April at Calgary Expo—which means I need to have cover art by then. Who orders the next book without knowing what it looks like? Pretty much no one. Unless you are extremely established.

Sales were overall steady throughout, even though it did feel slow at times. Sunday seemed to be fairly robust, and even if I wasn’t actually taking someone’s money, someone was always approaching me to talk or ask a question about my books or publishing in general.

Cool People!

I kind of met Phil LaMarr by accident. Between packing and travelling and conventioning in Winnipeg, I didn’t pay much attention to who the attending guests in Halifax were. Also as discussed previously, I am also bad at faces so recognizing celebrities is not my strong suit. So when he peeked his head around the drapes, wondering what exactly was beyond the main guest signing areas, I said hello enthusiastically, noting his guest badge. My sister was there too, and the three of us chatted for a while until I had a customer. Afterwards we looked him up and I was like OH Hermes from Futurama (and many other cartoons & games that I didn’t even realize)! He is such a sweet man, so down to earth and funny. We got to chat a few times throughout the weekend. Hopefully we get a chance to meet again!

Gates MacFadden also stopped by the booth. Again, I had a moment where I was like, wait, is that Gates? No, I don’t think so, but maybe it is? It totally was. She pointed out the promo sign for Hunger In Her Bones, and then wow’d at my entire display. She said congratulations to me for authoring and publishing my books, saying that it’s much easier to do what I do today what with the technologies available. She was just generally impressed with my stuff, so very cool!

Met Maggie Stiefvater for a second time. She was hanging with other author buds. Got my copy of The Scorpio Races signed—the only book I had on hand of hers—so that was fun!

One of my favourite people moments of the con was the World Building panel. Everyone on that panel was so talented and had something to contribute. I so enjoyed talking with Kevin Hearne, Ben Templesmith, Mike Rooth, and Chris Tulach. Also met the talented Youtuber & comic artist ALB and new publisher Joel Duggan, both super nice and enthusiastic. There is something about bringing a group of creators together to talk about how they create, and encouraging others in their creation process, that makes me feel centered—like I have found others that finally speak my language.

The only thing I wish was different about the panels in general was the moderation. One panel, the “moderator” just stood up and introduced us, and then sat in the audience. Another panel was actually moderated and the guy had prepared questions. The third panel, we self-moderated. I mean, I’m used to self-moderating, and I have moderated as well. I just wish it was more consistent across the board.

Anyway. In terms of customer interactions, I had a number that stand out prominently, but none so touching as this: an older gentleman approached my table, pleased that he had finally found me. He told me that he had searched the entire vendor floor, and asked every book vendor if they carried any Clare Marshall books—and then when they said no, he told them they should! Haha. He proceeded to say that he bought Stars In Her Eyes and Dreams In Her Head the previous year, even though he wasn’t much of a reader. He read them and told me that for the first time in twenty years, he became interested in reading again, and now reads all the time. Isn’t that amazing? It’s moments like these that remind me that even though I create things that speak to me, they can also speak to others too.

And funniest interaction? A family bought The Violet Fox for the second time because, get this: a dog ate their copy. Yes. You read that right. A DOG ATE ONE OF MY BOOKS. Because it was so tasty. A ringing endorsement??

Many thanks again to all that stopped by the booth for a chat.

Being a guest!

This year’s Hal-Con was completely different because I was a guest!

I received a per diem to be a guest at the convention, and a table in the artist guest area. I told them I was happy to be on as many panels as they needed. At Hal-Con, panels are reserved for guests or knowledgeable experts known to the staff. I don’t mind doing a lot of panels as it helps position me as an expert, and it’s fun to share my knowledge about publishing!

I was branded as a local author guest, even though I’m no longer a local—I live in Calgary, but I grew up in rural Nova Scotia. I plan my trips to Nova Scotia—my home—around this convention. Once they realized that, they offered to pay for my hotel room. While not totally necessary, this ended up being extremely convenient, as it meant I could use the many inside walkways from the hotel to get to the Convention Centre. Extremely grateful for this. The weather was cold, and crossing the ferry in the morning and walking up the hilly streets of Halifax in heels would not have been fun! Or back down at night, after the soiree, again in heels. I also received a little gift bag filled with candy from the Freak Lunchbox and some other fun Hal-Con swag.

I also had a personal assistant! Courtney was very professional and always thought of any potential need I had. And of course because it’s Nova Scotia, Courtney knows one of my friends I went to school with—Lizzy! Personally, I’m not that great at delegating tasks, so the idea of having another human being fetch me coffee, or help me find my panel room, or help me brainstorm any idea felt very strange to me. But once you’re in the swing of the con, an assistant is invaluable. Especially when she tolerates and even encourages the loud singing of show tunes in Scotia Square after the soirée. YAY.

The soirée is a ticketed event mostly for guests, warp speed pass holders (a special weekend pass), Hal-Con staff, and any attendee lucky enough to score a ticket. Basically, an opportunity to socialize and have more of a one-on-one with the guests, even the celebrity guests. It was held in an event room, we got two drink tickets (basically enough to make you spend more once you ran out….hahaha…), and they even had event photographers taking awesome pictures. Look at this crazy one they took of me & my hair!

In general, all the staff at Hal-Con were extremely professional, well trained, and knew what they were doing. C4 Con, take a lesson from Hal-Con. At C4, Chadwick and I watched a clump of volunteers move around the con listlessly, as if they had nothing better to do. The volunteer staff I worked with had earpieces and radios, and were never idle. To my knowledge, they treated the guests with respect. Huge thanks to Adam Sigrist for his time, effort, and organizational skills on the guest side.

The Real Ins and Outs of Self-Publishing

I was on a panel on Sunday afternoon called the “Ins and Outs of Self-Publishing” and I want to re-iterate some of the points I made there, and clarify/change some of the advice.

I work in publishing—it’s where all of my income originates. Whether it’s editing, formatting, website work, or Faery Ink Press book sales, I wear a lot of hats. And I’ve worked really hard for the past six years to get where I am today.

The other three people on the panel, they don’t work in publishing and they have day jobs. They all self-publish, like me. They’re out there promoting it locally, and that’s commendable. They made some important points about making the time to write—that’s certainly something I have to work on. Though there were times when their advice reflected their inexperience—you don’t sue printers off the bat for making a mistake, you call them and ask them to fix it. Not paying for a professional editor? Hmm, welp, that’s not really a good idea–you always get what you pay for.

I came across pretty heavily on the panel because I take this whole business seriously—or more accurately, I treat it like a business, and I expect everyone to do the same, because it IS a business. You’re trading your hard work for someone else’s hard-earned dollar—your customer deserves not just the best product that you can make, but the best product, period.

I was the “doom and gloom” as one of the other panelists put it, which got some laughs—but you know what’s not a laughing matter? Spending all of your disposable income on a book business and then ending up with piles of product in your garage that you can’t sell. Or more accurately, that you don’t know how to sell, because you didn’t think it through. That’s not funny. That’s bad business. And I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Yes, anyone can make a book these days. But if you’re just anyone, the odds that you’ll successfully distribute and sell your book(s) over a long period of time is not great. You have to pound the pavement, especially if you’re selling physical books. And yeah, lots and lots of people still read physical books.

You want to make a couple of books and sell them locally, that’s fine. Just know that the amount of work you put into promoting will pay off—if you put time and energy into your brand, people take notice and treat you accordingly. I know because that’s how I’ve gotten this far. People don’t stop at my table just because I have books. They stop because everything on the table is presented in a way that appeals to my audience.

Another misconception that was thrown around is that eBook sales are great, so just “do” that, and you’ll be rolling in it. Listen. EBook sales can be good—and it’s “cheaper” to make eBooks—but some markets like romance and scifi lend themselves to eBooks because the readers whip through them. The truth is that eBooks are less than 20% of the total book market. Don’t use the eBook excuse to cheap out on print formatting if you plan to sell physical books. Don’t think that just because you’re only doing eBooks that it means you can cheap out on editing or cover design.

Just because there’s a cheaper option, doesn’t mean you should use it. There comes a point where you have to invest in your product. Sometimes that investment happens before the product goes to market, and other times it happens later on down the road. Just know that your readers know when you’re cheaping out, and no one likes feeling ripped off.

The truth is, it’s not just about eBook sales, and it’s not just about being “good” at social media. Optimizing one or both of those things will bring you a little bit closer to your sales goals. But nothing beats pounding the pavement, showing up to industry-related events, talking face to face with people at local markets, and knowing your stuff. Especially that last part.

Will I Go Back?

Hal-Con 2017 unfortunately will not be held in the new Nova Centre, and it will be held the same weekend as Edmonton Expo, September 22-24. Much earlier than its usual dates. Since Edmonton will be geographically closer to me, and I theoretically won’t be spending Christmas at home in 2017, it makes the most sense for me to spend time in Edmonton instead of travelling to Halifax to this one event. However, I would very much like to have some kind of vendor presence at Hal-Con, so my regulars can buy my next books! Keep an eye on the events page to see if I can make that happen.

Yay Sisters!!!

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.

C4 Comic Con Post Mortem 2016

These past few weeks have been extremely busy! My time in Winnipeg is never long enough. Any excuse to go to Winnipeg–so I decided to give C4 Comic Con another try after three years of avoiding it–read my first experience at C4 here.

Oh, but before I get into the post-mortem: while I was in Winnipeg, I DYED MY HAIR! Yep, in all the pictures here, it’s purple and blue. I got it done at the Sapphire Hair Lounge on Academy Road. So exciting. I’ve never done anything with my hair before, and I was so glad to have Kelly turn it into something amazing. YAY.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
General Impressions

I was so excited to be back in Winnipeg! So many creative friends there, like best friend Samantha Beiko and great author pal Chadwick Ginther, both of whom I’ve written about many times in this post-mortem series.

I stayed a week in Winnipeg just to hang out and get extra things done before the con—including, of course, the all-important, very first hair dye job. Sam went out of her way to make me feel welcome, ferried me around, hung out while I went crazy with my hair, helped me with the table. I’m very lucky to have her as a friend. I wish I’d had more time to hang with Chadwick & Wendy this time around—Chad and I have at least one creative project planned for some time in the future!

I’m writing this at 6am in the airport as I journey home to Halifax, and while I’m excited to go home for the first time in about a year, I’m sad to leave this city with which I feel such kinship. I was just getting used to waking up in Sam’s spare bedroom, working with her, talking with her face-to-face instead of messaging her on Facebook about anything and everything. I was even getting used to the dog, Sophie.

Anyway. I haven’t been back to Winnipeg for C4 in about three years. I go at least once a year for other creative reasons, and I was looking forward to giving C4 another try after the last disastrous show previously. All in all, C4 still isn’t the best organized con, though it has grown considerably, and shouldn’t be ignored for the travelling creative entrepreneur.

Location

Chadwick and I shared an artist alley booth. It was cheaper than buying separate artist alley tables—about $450 split two ways, compared to at least $250 each. This was a good financial decision as it impacted our location. All of the cheap artist alley tables were in the Butt of the Con, as I like to call it. I’m learning more about the way tables are arranged at events like these. The more you pay, the better location you receive–theoretically. Better as in: closer to the entrance, on a more trafficked lane. Not always, of course, but it was true at Edmonton Expo, so I’ll continue to test this theory at other cons.

At first, I didn’t think our location was that terrible. I think we had a better location than most artist alley vendors. We were on a main throughfare, an express lane of traffic that was close to multiple entry/exit points. Unfortunately, we had a similar problem to Saskatoon Expo where the aisle was too wide, and we didn’t have much across from us. That meant we had to work twice as hard to call attention to our booth.

By the end, our feet were sore. My feet were sore at Calgary Expo, and it was pretty excruciating at Saskatoon Expo, but I don’t remember them being THIS bad. Time for some new shoes, maybe. You just can’t sit down with the kind of display we were rocking.

Display

I really departed from the norm with this setup.

Because the two of us were sharing a 9 x 9 ft space, but only were provided with one table, Chad brought an extra table. The original plan was to form some kind of U or half-U. But…that didn’t really work out.

The arrangement took a lot of brain maneuvering to make work for the booth of us. The lazy way out would have been to just have one table, and try and fit everything on…except that wouldn’t really work, since Chadwick has a LOT of various projects he’s selling. So it made sense for us to have at least two tables. The trick was arranging them so neither one of us felt shafted in the space. I think it would have been worth it—maybe—to have sprung for end space (it costs extra) so we could have done a complete U-shape. As it was, we each got table ends that faced the public, and had to build deep & vertically to maximize space, and still have standing room.

I borrowed these cute stairs from Sam and made a spiral arrangement with some of the books. The stairs and the arrangement got lots of compliments. I think it’s difficult to make this work, and I rearranged things a few times to optimize what I wanted to promote.

The problem with our display was the two of us were standing in the middle of it–essentially human walls that blocked people from coming deeper inside. If we didn’t stand, we would have attracted fewer customers. So…it was a tricky balancing act not to block our product but also be inviting.

Sales

I had a pretty high sales goal based on what my friends had done in previous years since I’d been there. But because they arranged the floor differently this year, vendors across the board were reporting a decrease in sales. Usually the artist alley is in a separate room, right off the main entrance. Many people believed that was the entire con, and so my friend did very well for themselves. This year, artists and exhibitors are on one floor, which was difficult as it’s a HUGE space, crowded with people.

I didn’t do terribly. I just expected better. There were a lot of lookers, a lot of people asking me if they could get them at Chapters or McNally Robinson. Technically you can go into McNally and order them–but dude, that’s more expensive than just buying from me, right there and then!!

I benefited from Chadwick’s home-team advantage—he has an established base here in Winnipeg of friends and fans. Usually there was no crossover in terms of interest or demographic, but sometimes his friends would buy a book from me anyway, especially if they had a younger relative with them. I tried to upsell Chad’s stuff whenever possible, especially to the older crowd. He did especially well after the Canadian Writers Panel. YAY BUSINESS.

“Don’t go into this business expecting to make money.”

This came up a few times this weekend, not because of customers at the booth, but by virtue of discussion with my creative peers.

During my publishing course at Humber, we were told that we shouldn’t be in this business expecting to make piles of money. We should be in this business because we love books. This is a simplistic and well-meaning statement, but is the wrong way of approaching being a creative entrepreneur.

True, there are other businesses where the margins are higher and you could get “richer” “quicker.” Yet it’s completely untrue to believe that if you’re in publishing, you’re resigning yourself to a life of poverty. To be clear, I’m speaking to the smaller creative entrepreneurs, those with dreams of writing and publishing their own books, artists, etc.

You CAN make money in this business. Maybe not billions and billions. You just have to know how to run a business—you have to treat your art like a business. I’ve met several successful artists here in Winnipeg that know how to hustle, know how to market themselves, and live off their art. It is possible to do it. It takes time, it takes making a lot of mistakes, it takes discipline, but it is totally possible IF you’re willing to commit your life to it. There is no dreaming about doing around here: there’s only doing. And if you ARE doing, but you’re not making money, maybe you need to revisit the product, the brand–and figure out how to make it work for your audience.

On the Canadian Writers Panel, I made this point: you can’t promote and promote and then just coast. There is no coasting. If you coast, you lose traction. You’re constantly going uphill. I think that’s something that those on the outside don’t get about creative entrepreneurship. There is no “making it”—there’s only the next thing.

And to the random guy who asked Chadwick if publishing is easy or hard—it’s hard, dude. If it was easy, everyone would be making piles of money. And if it was easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing.

Cool & Weird People

I was pleased to finally meet Hope Nicholson, who is friends with Sam, and is the publisher of Bedside Press, and editor of Margret Atwood’s Angel Catbird. Also was finally introduced to Nyco Rudoph, who publishes some seriously funny comics. Got acquainted with Jonathan Ball and James Gillepsie, writers who collaborated with Greg on their Shared World work. Shared World is a collection of stories that tell different stories in the same world. They printed a limited number of copies, and sold them at a premium. Another great idea. Greg is amazing at selling that stuff.

There seemed to be more booth barnacles than usual at this con. Was it my hair, or Greg’s display, or the fact that there are twice as many books to look at in our booth space? One particularly insistent man wanted to know if Chadwick and I were married…because we “looked” married…because we were standing next to each other? SIGH.

Will I Go Back?

I’d like to—I need to figure out how to make this con work for me. In a lot of ways, it’s a working vacation. I get to hang out with all my creative friends, but I also do a lot of business by doing so, because we all support each other.

I’d likely try a similar booth space on my own or with Sam if she was willing. She’ll have the first book in her newest series out next year and she also writes YA so that would be a good cross-promoting opportunity. We’ll see!!!

Edmonton Expo 2016 Post Mortem

It has been a busy week! First Saskatoon Expo, now Edmonton, with barely enough time in between to do my client work. While I have a lot to do to prepare for C4 next month in Winnipeg, I’m glad that I have a month to catch up on everything else.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.
General Impressions

I’ve been to Edmonton three times this month–once for a wedding, once on the bus on the way to Saskatoon (I know, they took the long way), and now for the Expo. Dave came up with me this time to help me out and just generally get away for the weekend. Total attending the Expo was 40,000 – down 10,000 from last year. Even with Carrie Fisher attending, the effects of the Alberta economy can be seen at the Expo. In talking with most other vendors, the general impression seemed to be that people have less disposable income, there are more independent authors vying for attention, and lots and lots of people selling the same merchandise.

Location

I was initially angry that I had been placed in almost exactly the same place as last year–by the tabletop gaming area, at the end of the convention. Even though it’s close to an exit/entrance, people are not initially let in through that way–they enter through the other end of the convention.

However, there have been some improvements. Last year, the tabletop gaming was completely surrounded by curtains, and blocked the customers’ view of my table. No one could find me, and by the time they did, they’d run out of money. This year, there was barely any tall curtaining around the gaming area, and you could easily see my banner from afar. I was also further down the row, close to the regular booths. I believe this significantly impacted my sales.

The type of section I was in is called the Economy/Small Press section – aka, pretty much a regular booth size, but in a worse location. I should mention here that like last year, the tables and the pipe and draping were situated in such a way that I had to either CRAWL underneath the table or walk through my neighbours’ spaces and then limbo under some pipe to actually get into my booth. We mentioned it to the organizer, and they’ve promised to change that for next year – but jeez, I usually wear dresses and comfortable heels to these things. I don’t mind maneuvering, but it doesn’t leave a professional impression if I have to crawl under a pipe, one hand over my boobs, another over my butt just to get to my space. Also, what if a vendor was physically disabled, and was placed in this area? How would that be handled? It’s a massive oversight that added to my sense of frustration upon arrival.

Anyway. This booth type attracts the larger artists and smaller authors/publishers. So almost the entire row was filled with books by independent authors–Adam Dreece included. We were neighbours again for this convention. While it’s nice to have someone next to you that is facing the same challenges in the same industry, I disagree with this practice of putting all the book people together. It benefits the book enthusiast to find all books in one place, but it increases the competition for attention. Books are an active sell. It’s not like art, where you look at it and you know if you like it. Books sales require “at least a five minute conversation,” as Brian Hades said as we discussed the situation. You engage a person once in a conversation they don’t want, they will ignore the rest of the sellers in the row if their products are similar. It’s a delicate balance between actively engaging our audience and drawing them in passively with our display.

Next year, I’ll spring for a booth in the regular section so I’m not competing as much with similar products.

Display

I copied my display from Saskatoon Expo with some modifications. I gave about equal weight to the Sparkstone Saga and The Violet Fox Series in terms of display and placement. I like placing them like castle turrets on opposite ends of the table, as it gives me space in the middle to sign and generally stand/be visible. I put Within in the middle again, just as I did at Saskatoon. My newsletter signup sheet right next to it attracted just over 20 new subscribers.

My poor vertical banner held up well throughout the weekend, but I’m going to have to put in more grommets to my horizontal banner so that it doesn’t droop in the middle. I ended up taping it up on the last day, and that held.

I’m going to have to get at least one more stand from Staples to hold the reviews for the Sparkstone Saga, as I’ve just been propping that up on other books or taping it to the fabric. Also, because I’ve been putting some books spine-out, I should probably invest in book ends. A couple of times, Sparkstone books fell over because they were propped up by the sheer force of books facing out. Just the regular pretty display problems.

Sales

I did extremely well at Edmonton Expo – I surpassed my sales goal! It’s my second-biggest con, and I happily report it’s my second-biggest show sales-wise (first place is still Calgary Expo). While I was hoping for this, I was worried due to my location and overall vendor talk about the economy being down. I had a surprisingly awesome Friday evening, a good Saturday, and an okay Sunday. I think if I had a sale on the Sunday, I might have done better, but I was also tired, suffering from overstimulation, and people seemed to be, in general, out of funds.

More than half my sales were done with credit cards. Despite my objections to doing debit, I think Edmonton is a card-loving city, and if I want to continue making this con a regular in my schedule I’m going to have to get a debit machine. A couple of times I inconvenienced people by only doing cash or credit. What I hate about the debit thing is I have to pay the monthly fee ($15-$20) to get the machine compatible with my smart phone. So, I’ll probably not do that until April next year, at the start of the convention season – it’s real tempting to get it now, since I have four large shows left on the docket, but I don’t want to pay $20/month during the winter when I’m not using it.

The Violet Fox and Stars In Her Eyes did about equal in terms of sales, even including bundle sales. Maybe one or two more individual Violet Foxes. I had a number of people asking for The Emerald Cloth (next year!!). Even more awesome was I had people telling me they’d heard of the Sparkstone Saga, that their friends loved it and won’t stop talking about it, and that they needed to have their own copy or at least learn more about it. I wasn’t expecting to sell as many copies of both Stars In Her Eyes and Dreams In Her Head–I was down to only four copies of Dreams at the end. On Sunday, people preferred to buy my stand-alone Within, as they wanted to try me out but they didn’t want to spend $15-$20 on my series starters. I was down to two copies of Within by the show’s end.

I sold a couple of buttons, but I think having it on ground level instead of elevated may make a difference in the sales. I sold about 10 buttons at Saskatoon and more interest in them as opposed to three in Edmonton and passing interest. I’ll have to test this at the next show.

Lil eBook Woes

My eBook redeeming system seems to be no longer functioning, as I had several people tell me they were unable to redeem the codes. Whether this is due to the system itself, or it’s my handwriting with the codes, it’s clear I have to completely revamp that system for next month if I want to continue selling them. I can also take this opportunity to upgrade the look and method of their sale. I sell all the eBooks as a bundle – about 99% of people don’t buy just one eBook, they buy all of them together. So instead of multiple cards for each book, I’ll streamline it and print one card with all the eBook codes, and make it worth their while to buy the entire library.

If anyone who bought eBooks from me is having trouble redeeming their codes, email me with those codes and I will send you the files. Thank you!

UPDATE: I believe the system has been fixed – please email me if you have trouble accessing the subdomain. Thanks!

Cool People & Celebrity Spotting

On Saturday night, we hung out with Greg, Justin, and their artist friends at a house they rented in Riverdale downtown. Greg had a good idea about how to manage multiple interactions at the table and I may try to implement that at the upcoming shows. I am really in awe at their stamina – they are doing so, so many shows this year, it’s crazy. They are such good storytellers. I didn’t end up seeing their booth this time, but it looked great in Saskatoon. I’ll have more time to chat with them in Winnipeg. Had some good chats with Adam Dreece, Ella Beaumont, Thea van Diepen, and S. G. Wong (pic below by Adam)!

If you’ve been reading all these posts, you know I’ve been suffering with a kind of face-blindness when it comes to these shows. If you come to the table and I ask you, “Have you been here before?” it’s because I’m trying not to re-sell you on something you already bought. I have the same conversations for three days in a row, and everyone starts to look alike, and that makes for some awkward conversations sometimes. At this show in particular, I felt myself calling upon my Alexander Keith Brewery training to help me to connect with people and change things up a bit. If I can learn something interesting about someone, I’m more likely to remember them, and forge a deeper memory. At the brewery, I played various characters in their musical, interactive tour. It was very scripted but there were times when we had to improvise while we waited for another character to make their entrance. During this time, we’d have set questions we could ask the patrons, such as, where are you from? That was my fallback question for this con. Most people were from Edmonton but a couple came from the surrounding areas. I also chatted with a family who had immigrated from Poland, and their daughter had grown up in Canada and really liked to read – in two different languages!

Carrie Fisher and her dog passed extremely close to my booth! Apparently she bought some things from a few of the vendors. Shannon Purser (Barb from Stranger Things) passed by my booth – though I didn’t realize it was her until after I said hello with a mouth half-full of crackers. She grinned and said hello back. I also chatted with Garrett Wang briefly on Saturday and Sunday. He expressed his love for Nova Scotia–he’s going to be hosting a sci-fi night at the symphony at the end of October in Halifax.

Will I go back?

I’m hoping to! Apparently Hal-Con comes early next year, on the same weekend as Edmonton Expo. Likely I’d choose Edmonton over Hal-Con just to keep costs down, unless I thought I would win an Aurora. Or unless I was really rolling in the dough, I could do both shows at once.

And now I leave you with a picture of Dave. While he did not win me the GIANT $500 Pusheen, he did give me a tiny purse-sized Pusheen that holds all my change. They’re friends now.

To follow my sales journey and to see how I did at past conventions, click here for the full list of articles.