As the more observant of you will have spotted, I’ve become much more active on the selling front, not just online sales but also actual, face-to-face, whites-of-their-eyes style selling. This is largely due to the encouragement of the EAA and the support that comes from going to events as a group.
Together with colleagues from the Exeter Authors Association, I went to the Corn Exchange in Exeter to take part in Devcon Exeter, a sci-fi extravaganza. It was a bit of an early start but living in Brixham, I’m used to being miles away from just about anything that I want to go to.
Along with fantasy authors P.J. Reed and K.Y. Eden, we set up our stalls and waited for the customers.
This was the first comic convention that I’d been too as an author and I didn’t really know what to expect. There were a lot of people in costume and the quality of them was pretty amazing. While some were obviously commercial, a lot of effort had clearly gone into making the others look as authentic as possible.
Sales wise, it was interesting to see that, while there was interest, a lot more of it was directed to the availability of ebook versions. Although I sold some paper copies of both novels and short stories, if I had been able to directly sell downloads I think that I would have sold a lot more. We’ll see if the promises translate into sales but that’s certainly a subject for investigation. There ought to be a way to make it happen.
It was also a good chance to see how other traders set up their stalls and get some tips for next time.
Here’s a picture of one satisfied customer, with his copy of “The Rocks of Aserol.”
I did meet a childhood hero of mine. One of the original puppets from the Gerry Anderson series “Stingray,” which people of a certain generation might remember. When I was a child hiding behind the sofa during the scary bits, I never thought that one day I would do that.
I also managed to do a bit of networking and secured myself a place in an upcoming Steampunk event, later this year, thanks to these guys.
The EAA will be at Bath for another convention on March 17th, it will be interesting to compare events, see if we’ve learned anything and meet up with all the characters again.