Convention Aftermath
In an effort to promote the new anthology Sidekicks!, in which my story "In the Shadow of His Glory" appears, I arranged for a reading to happen at Odyssey COn in Madison this past weekend (April 12-14). The folks at Odyssey Con generously gave us a slot for our reading; the downside to this is that my fellow contributor Alex Bledsoe happened to be one of the guests of honor at OddCon this year, so his time was heavily booked up. We ended up with a less than prime reading slot - 2:30 on Friday afternoon. Typically for science fiction conventions, this is before many people have even arrived.
Even so, we had a decent turnout; six people were there to hear the three of us - Alex, myself, and Patrick Tomlinson - read from our stories. The audience, though small, was appreciative and generous with compliments, which made me feel good. As a writer, it's rare to get positive feedback on your work; negative feedback can't wait to slip into your pocket like a handful of bad pennies, but the positive stuff comes few and far between.
Part of the deal working with this particular small publisher - Alliteration Ink, out of Ohio - is that their authors are encouraged to buy copies of the book at cost to sell at conventions and book stores to help promote it. I purchased two medium boxes of books, and managed to sell a few at OddCon. I found a vendor willing to sell copies for me - that way I don't need to worry about sales tax, or paying for a booth, and for a cut of the sale price my books are at the con to catch any impulse sales that happen along.
I also had fliers out for the reading coming up on April 24 at Madison Wisconsin bookstore A Room of One's Own (http://www.roomofonesown.com/event/si...) and was pleased to see a number of those fliers disappear into people's hands over the weekend.
One good thing about this set-up for me is that Odyssey Con is in town, so expenses are few. I had to buy a membership of course, and spent a little on gas schlepping the books back and forth, but that's about it -- cheap promotion. For a rookie author like me, keeping expenses at a minimum while promoting my work is critical, as my writing income is also at a minimum!
All in all, I'd have to call the reading a success. A modest one, to be sure, but definitely chalk up one in the "win" column: we pulled off a good reading, maybe found a few new fans, and I sold a handful books.
Even so, we had a decent turnout; six people were there to hear the three of us - Alex, myself, and Patrick Tomlinson - read from our stories. The audience, though small, was appreciative and generous with compliments, which made me feel good. As a writer, it's rare to get positive feedback on your work; negative feedback can't wait to slip into your pocket like a handful of bad pennies, but the positive stuff comes few and far between.
Part of the deal working with this particular small publisher - Alliteration Ink, out of Ohio - is that their authors are encouraged to buy copies of the book at cost to sell at conventions and book stores to help promote it. I purchased two medium boxes of books, and managed to sell a few at OddCon. I found a vendor willing to sell copies for me - that way I don't need to worry about sales tax, or paying for a booth, and for a cut of the sale price my books are at the con to catch any impulse sales that happen along.
I also had fliers out for the reading coming up on April 24 at Madison Wisconsin bookstore A Room of One's Own (http://www.roomofonesown.com/event/si...) and was pleased to see a number of those fliers disappear into people's hands over the weekend.
One good thing about this set-up for me is that Odyssey Con is in town, so expenses are few. I had to buy a membership of course, and spent a little on gas schlepping the books back and forth, but that's about it -- cheap promotion. For a rookie author like me, keeping expenses at a minimum while promoting my work is critical, as my writing income is also at a minimum!
All in all, I'd have to call the reading a success. A modest one, to be sure, but definitely chalk up one in the "win" column: we pulled off a good reading, maybe found a few new fans, and I sold a handful books.
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