The Grape City Con in Lodi, CA.

I attended my first Comic Con this last weekend. It was the Grape City Con in Lodi, California. (About 45 miles from my home.) I've been to Baycon and World Con, which are both science fiction and fantasy genre based. (Much more writing than visual. Though each had a strong role playing, cosplay, component.)

But, this was my first time as an author with a table of my own, trying to sell books. I sold three books. For the price I paid I certainly didn't get my money back. But making connections and learning how the whole system works was worth it.

Here's what I learned and how I would do it differently next time. Stockton Comic Con is in August and I plan on being there.

1) Wear a t-shirt. I was wearing my standard long-sleeved, button-down, plaid type, shirt. If the shirt has a super hero on it, that's even better. Maybe I can get a "Flypaper Boy" t-shirt made. It would have the caption, "A teenage superhero with tenacity". Or any other t-shirt with something clever to say would help a guy like me blend in. I was certainly not the oldest coot in the building, but definitely the uncoolest.

2) Take my daughter with me. She would have fit right in with a lot of kids her age and she loves to draw. I think the inspiration alone would have been good for her. Plus, I could walk around a bit without wondering if someone would have stopped at my table if someone was there.

3) Make eye contact, smile, and talk. Like I said, I sold three books. No one walked up and asked for a book. Well, one lady did, but she was one who bought one before and said she needed another for her sister. For the most part, people walked past me without looking. Those who looked for a split second and I smiled at them, they smiled back and looked at what was on the table, before they walked away. Those who smiled back and I asked how they were, replied and spoke with me. I was able to tell them about my podcast, my books and what I had coming in the future. It was also those people who bought books, or vowed to buy one for their Kindle.

In summary. I had fun and will do this again.

pec

What's Going On...

What's Happening Now.

So. In trying to find out if writing a blog every day was something that would help me sell books, I found out that it has no short term effect. I found I would only get new people reading my blog if I advertised it on twitter. The only person who came to my website and read my posts consistently was my daughter. Thanks, Lisa. Maybe longterm blogging will have an effect. Trying to come up with an idea every day was too hard. Maybe once a week.

In the last week I have finished editing the text of six episodes for the podcast novel, "The Pariah". I've recorded the first episode and I'm edeting it right now. I want to have at least three episodes completely done and ready to play at the end of the month (January). I want to post my first episode on Feb 6th.

I've signed up for the Grape Con, in Lodi, California for the 8th of Feb. It's a pretty small comic con, but it's a place for me to get used to taking to people about my books.

I got 25 copies of "Shooting Stars" to add to the 23 copies of "Flypaper Boy" to have at the con and I'll sell them for $9.99 instead of the regular $12.99. I ordered a iPhone credit card reader for Paypal, that I will have there so I can take credit card payments. I'll also have flyers about the Pariah Podcast and  the Patreon.com compain for it.

"Shooting Stars" launches on January 26th. It's really already on Amazon, but I'd like to have people buy it on that day if at all possible. I have a Kindle Countdown starting on that day for "Flypaper Boy" so it will be selling for 99 cents. It will be 99 cents until Wednesday, when it will change to $1.99 and then back to $2.99 on Friday. 

I paid for an advetisement for the first three days. I also paid for an ad for "Shooting Stars" whichi will be 99 cents for those first two days as well. I'm hoping the two books cross pollinate each other and boost sales over all. I'm also doing a book giveaway for Shooting Stars at good reads from now through launch day.

Finally, I'm giving away a Kindle Fire HD7 through a website that will administer the drawing and collect email addresses for me from an opt-in form they fill out while entering the give away and generating likes for my author's page on Facebook.

I added an author page on Amazon.com.

Trigger Warnings is still will the editor. The picture book idea sounded too risky for a publisher I talk with about it. I may try doing it for the Kindle with an application they have developed for picture books on the kindle.

pec