My Lessons Learned in 2018

This year I worked three shows trying to sell my books and meet people. Before this, I had worked one other small con before in 2016. This year was a lot different and I learned a lot from each of them. In order of what I attended and can remember…

1. PREPARE FOR WINTER

My first stop was in Berkeley earlier this year at a local book festival. The East Bay is usually the part of the Bay with the nicer weather. And it’s close to the water so it’s not scorching. Yet the weekend of the festival, it was unusually windy, cloudy, and cold. Because of that, it made setting up outside a bit difficult. My signs, which I soon realized I needed an upgrade wouldn’t stay in place, and my newly bought banner had to be tied down. Thank the gods I had some hand straps because I would have had no banner.

It’s very rare that most booksellers and authors sell outside, but as I learned, you need to be prepared for the outdoor weather. So bring whatever tools you may think you need as if you’re camping. Odds are you probably will. And wear pants and bring a blanket. Luckily, I did that on the second day.

2. KIDS ARE MY AUDIENCE

I always thought I knew who my target audience was. The problem is despite all the bloggers I contacted, reviews I’ve gotten, and books I’ve sold, I’ve never really known who my audience is. I don’t have the analytics of the book buyers unlike Amazon. And Amazon isn’t going to give it away. It’s always been a deducing game.

At the book festival, I learned that young adults are my target audience, and also, people with a young adult’s heart. A lot of preteen and teenagers bought my books, and so did their parents, grandmas, and aunts. I always thought that they were my audience but I never really knew until now. It was also heartening to see that the young people of today weren’t as cynical and bitter as the world has become, and that they were hopeful. Will they stay that way, who knows? I hope they enjoy my books, and I can see how and why Harry Potter got so big.

3. SHARING A TABLE

Even though I had a couple of wonderful helpers at Berkeley, I never really shared a table with anyone before who was selling books. At least not until Baycon.

I occasionally go to a local meetup with some writers, and there was a posting that they needed someone to share a table with at Baycon. I said I would go even though I never planned on going to Baycon. Even though the con was small, I sold a decent amount of books. The best thing about sharing a table is you have someone to watch your stuff, you can go grab something to eat, walk around, and even take in a panel or two. It also helps defray costs, which always helps. And because the places I’ve gone to aren’t full of people, you always have someone to talk with. It can get a bit boring at the table.

4. LAPTOP

I didn’t get a laptop until Worldcon. I wish I had one a lot sooner. There’s a lot of dead time working a table. I did some reading and played a lot on my Switch, but what I should have been doing is working on Eternal Darkness.

Unlike most people, I don’t have a desk job. That means that all the things I need to do with a computer, I do when I get home. Even though I have a phone with the Internet and have access to my Google Drive, I prefer to type things on my PC. There’s also a lot of tabs open to remind me of things.

Because Worldcon was so long, I was able to get a lot of work done. I only had my manuscript on it with edits and nothing else to distract me on it unlike say, my PC. Even though I had my Switch, I still worked. I should have gotten one sooner even if it was a cheap one under $100 and I’ll only use it a couple of times a year.

5. PANELS

At Worldcon, I was lucky enough to be on four panels. It was my first time doing panels, and it was an experience like no other. While I have been to dozens (hundreds?) of panels before, I never sat behind the table. Unless you’re used to public speaking, nothing can quite compare you to the experience.

What was interesting was that each panel felt very different. The main reason for this was how the panels were moderated–either heavily or lightly. It also depended on the audience and how they participated or if that was even allowed. Again, that depended on how it was moderated.

While I was very nervous at first, I eventually got used to being on them. What was jarring was how different the second one was from the first. I preferred the ones that got the audience involved as opposed to one that didn’t. That felt more free flowing and like a conversation rather than us talking to the audience. Of course, the audience would sometimes get out of hand and tell us opinions rather than asking questions with maybe a quick comment or two.

I talked about race on a lot of my panels. To be honest, I got tired of talking about it even though that’s the reason why a simple, nobody, first-time author like me got picked to be on them. My last panel I had a lot of fun because I was at a geek convention and finally got to talk about geeky things. I live with my races 24/7, I don’t necessarily want to talk about them or think about it most, if not all of the time. It would have been nice if my schedule was more balanced.

Since talking about race could get heavy and emotional at times, one of the panels I was on wasn’t that great. It was heavily moderated and the room felt tense because of it. Some of the things that were said and how they were said weren’t said in the best of ways. You’re not going to change people’s minds or even open them up with the way people were talked to especially when you only have 50ish minutes.

That said, I would totally be on panels again if I had the chance. Just please give me something fun to go with the serious.

6. WORLDCON

What’s funny is that Worldcon was the reason I did so many shows this year. Because I got into it, I thought might as well do other shows. I was going to attend it but thought might as well have a table and sell some books and have people come to me. Unfortunately, things did not work that well.

I’ve been to a bunch of conventions over my lifetime, and Worldcon is the biggest, littlest convention I had ever been to. The prices are expensive and there are big names from the industry that go to it, and there is even an award show, but it doesn’t feel like that many people attend even though it’s expensive.

Because of the price, it’s not family friendly. A family of four would cost you around $500. Most cons I’ve been to kids 12 and under are free or at an extremely discounted price. Not here. The reason prices are cheaper for kids is that you want adults to come. Sometimes they have to bring their kids otherwise they can’t make it. Kids will want to buy things so adults will spend more money. You also want to cultivate the kids into what the con’s about and have them be fans.

The con could be bigger than it is. I get that they don’t want to invite Hollywood in to keep it “pure” or whatever. But when you have people like George RR Martin and I think Neil Gaiman has been to a few, you could invite HBO to have a presence specifically related to their show. You don’t have to get actors to come but I think considering the type of people there you could get writers, producers, set designers, etc., on panels. This is the Golden Age of Sci-fi on Television and having those people come would have been a good idea.

Because Worldcon moves every year and I think different people run it, it wasn’t run well. I’m specifically talking about being a dealer. The panel programming was OK, considering how often my own schedule changed and I didn’t have time to prepare for them. As a dealer, my emails leading up to it and during it weren’t answered, I had no idea where to get my badge as it took me going to five places, I didn’t know where the loading dock was, didn’t have directions to anything, and I didn’t know where my table was. But we were reminded how we couldn’t bring stuff in on carts because of the union multiple, multiple times. The hall we were in was huge but things were not situated well. There was a lot of dead space and the dealer’s area was on the other side in basically one corner/side of the hall. There were kid areas but they were empty when I went by because of the lack of families at Worldocon.

That said, the people I met were cool be it on panels, my next door neighbor, or just random people I talked to. I wouldn’t mind returning to Worldcon if it’s local again, but I’m probably not going to go as a dealer.

So what’s next? Writing more stories and finally putting out a newsletter. Unless I’m invited somewhere in 2019, I won’t be tabling at any shows. But hey, you never know. In 2020, I’ll most likely do a show here and there. Even doing a few shows a year, they’re all very draining and sitting at a table can be very boring at times. I also have to take time off work to do some of these, and you know, sometimes I just want to relax and chill on my days off.

All that said, I wouldn’t trade the experiences I learned this year for anything. I learned a lot, and I’m all about learning, adapting, and getting better. Until next time…

Marc Johnson