Denver Comic Con From One Writer's Perspective

Denver Comic Con From One Writer's Perspective:

So you’re trying to sell a book without pictures at Comic Con.  How’s that going for you?

 

 Before the Con

Everyone tells me “You’re a writer.  You should blog more.”  The problem is that I rarely take the time to compose anything  that I really think would make a great post.  However, fresh off the heels of the Denver Comic Con, I think I may be able to offer some insight that other writers may find useful.  I will share with you the things that I wish I had known heading into my first “con.”

But first a little background.  I am the author of two self-published novels; one dark horror (Chamberlin) and the other contemporary fiction about a superhero (Call Me Rockstar: The Story of a Not So Super Hero).  My titles felt like a natural fit for the Comic Con scene so the day that the application window opened I applied for a table to sell my wares .  Unfortunately they were full so I was put on a wait list.  (How could they be full instantly you ask?  I’ll get into that later.)  So I put aside my goal of getting in front of sixty thousand people and tried to forget that I didn’t make it.  Flashing ahead several months, the con started on a Friday at 10:00AM.  Around 4:00PM that Friday I got a call that there were some no shows and I could have a table.  Elated, befuddled, stressed and surprised were just some of the feelings I had.  I rearranged my family schedule and my day job and went for it.  Lesson #1: Sometimes a wait list turns into an opportunity.  I wish I had realized this ahead of time because when I said yes it was with the realization that I was completely unprepared.  Luckily I had enough product on had to make a go at it and I could improvise the rest.  I spent the night getting everything in order and if anyone really cares I’d be happy to share my list of essentials.

Due to my daughter’s track meet I did not arrive at the con until 2:00PM on Saturday – four hours after it started.  It’s important to not let that happen.  Under any other circumstance that would have been completely unacceptable.  Having an empty table is bad for the show, bad for the patrons and exceptionally bad for your neighboring vendors.  But given the circumstances my turnaround time of less than twenty-four hours was pretty good.

 

At the Con

It’s all about the presentation.  Everything about Comic Con is visual.  It’s all bright and flashy; from the costumes to the products for sale.  And those that were selling had the formula down.  Most had very professional promotional materials and well thought out layouts.  I had just a few items that I had thrown together and a sliver of display experience.  I was small ball.  I was a very little fish in a big pond full of professional sharks.  Here’s a picture of me at my display on Saturday. 

I stood there for five hours and sold one book.  But I learned an awful lot and I’ll provide my sales lessons later.

Reviewing the day with my super supportive wife that night she made the keen observation that I did not have enough product out and I looked even more amateur that I really was.  So with the help of my marketing team (who resemble my three kids) my Sunday display looked much better.

Not only did it look better, it garnered a lot more attention.  Lesson #2: Presentation may not be everything, but it is the gateway to everything else.  My customer engagement was up by an order of magnitude and my sales followed suit.  By the end of the day I had sold enough books to cover the cost of the table.  Success!  For me personally, in this unique situation, that was where I had set the bar.  This brings us to Lesson #3: It’s really hard to sell novels at Comic Con.  The quote I put in the subtitle was from a customer.  He came up to me and said: “So you’re trying to sell a book without pictures at Comic Con.  How’s that going for you?”  We both laughed but we also both knew he was right.  As I mentioned above everything about Comic Con is flash.  The table to my right was super bright comics and the table to my left was incredibly good art (props to A.J. Moore who was also just a really nice guy).  And there were tons of people selling graphic novels.  But when It came to books with words there was just a few of us.  Black and white in a sea of color.  Old school paper in a sea of digital media.  Lesson #4: Hand out as many cards as you can and push the digital version of your work.  As of Sunday night my ranking on Kindle was up significantly for both books.

 

On the Sales Floor

I’m not a salesman and I sure as hell am not a closer.  But I did take notes on everything I could over the day and a half I spent there.  While I call these lessons they are really just my observations.  The author across the aisle from me may have very different perspectives. 

Lesson #5: You have less than one half of a second to engage a potential customer.  As the river of people passes by your booth, and I mean thousands of people over the course of the day, they struggle to absorb it all.  If you are lucky they will look at you propaganda.  For me the most successful eye catcher was the poster showing the cover of Call Me Rockstar; people love the yellow shirt. 

So if you are lucky enough to catch their eye one of two things will happen.  They will either intentionally avert their gaze to indicate that they have no interest or they will glance up to see who is at the booth.  Because they are walking that glance will only last a fraction of a second and this is when you need to draw them in.  “How’s it going today?  “You a big reader?”  Anything to try and engage them.  Now the real work begins. 

Lesson #6: Perfect your elevator pitch before the con but be ready to adapt at the con.  If you are lucky enough to get them to your table the first question 90% of them will ask is “what’s your book about?”  Using what I observed on Saturday I changed my pitch a bit on Sunday and I believe this also helped boost my sales.  But I still don’t love it so I will be working on refining it in the very near future.  I also found that men and women responded to different verbiage so by the end I had two slightly different versions.  I’d also suggest reading a book on sales. (That’s what I intend to do.  If anyone has any recommendations please put them in the comment section.)

Lesson #7: There needs to be something simple to tell customers what you are selling.  This may sound obvious but it is more nuanced than you may think.  My neighbor across the way had a sign by her books that simply read: “Do you love science fiction?”  It was genius in it’s simplicity.  Passers-by knew immediately what her book was without any engagement at all.  At my table they either had to read the back cover or engage me directly.  Both took time that most people were not willing to invest.  A simple sign that read something like “Warning!  Dark Horror” next to Chamberlin would have been hugely helpful.

Lesson #8: Genre hopping confuses people.  I knew this could be a problem the day I started my second book and boy was I right.  I think I come off as someone who either can’t make up his mind or couldn’t cut it in the first genre.  I know that I am neither of the above but shoppers don’t.  The short product descriptions that I mentioned in lesson 7 may have helped alleviate this a little but I doubt it.  I think the completion of the sequel to Rockstar will be my best remedy to the genre problem.

Lesson #9: More product equals more sales.  Again, this is deeper that it sounds at first blush.  There is a perception among readers that the more prolific a writer is the better he or she is.  I get it.  It’s easy to look like you’re not really committed if you only have a small body of work.  There also appears to be a huge base for series.  Fiction readers seem to really like it when they can bond with characters over multiple books.

Lesson #10: People in costume don’t buy books.  I know there are rare exceptions but really, they are just there to be seen and are probably not worth engaging heavily.

 

After the Con

Would I do it again?  Absolutely.  In fact I’ve already signed up for 2015.  I found the con was exceptionally well run and the staff was great to work with (Thanks Ryan and Keyra!).  I had a great time and I gained extremely valuable experience.  Fortunately I will have the opportunity to do it next year which brings me back to how I didn’t, and then did, get a spot in 2014.  It was explained to me that they give precedence to those that have already participated and they held true to that paradigm.  At the close of the con on Sunday night they allowed the current vendors to reserve and pay for their 2015 spots.  Before I had a spot I hated the policy.  Now that I have a spot I love the policy.  In both cases I respect and understand the policy.  And this leads me to my final lesson.  Lesson #11: Expect the worst but prepare for the best.  Yes preppers,  I know that is backwards.  What I mean is get your marketing materials together even if you don’t think you’ll need them.  You may get surprised like I did.  But even if you don’t, your book will still be there and someday the opportunity to promote it will show up.

Sales are great but let’s face it: it’s really about getting your work out there and improving your fan base.  I hope you found this post informative and useful.  If you did, please share it.  If there’s anything I didn’t address that you want to know just leave me a comment and I’ll try my best to answer.

Thanks,

John R. Bendle