So I attended (and was a vendor) at my very first convention this weekend.
It was fun! Although I didn’t sell as much as I’d hoped, I think sales were pretty decent considering that I only had two books available (in one series) and that I’m a mostly-unknown author. Aside from sales though, I had a great time!
Some highlights:
My table was next to Rebecca of lossingfeathers.deviantart.com and papertulipstudio.tumbler.com. She had mostly cat and kitten art displayed, but she showed me her portfolio, with some fantastic pen and ink drawings. I may have to commission her for some future artwork.
My table was across from Chrispy of daretodreamca.weebly.com, who had some pretty eye-catching, handmade hats.
I was across the aisle from Leslie of DVyneWrytes.com, who makes gorgeous leather journals, blank books, etc. I came home with a purple one.
I also talked to the guys who make The Broken Continent, a fantasy web series that you can watch free online. I haven’t had the chance to watch the episodes yet, but the series looks awesome, which is all the more impressive since they’re on an indie budget.
The guys from Castwave Studios, a podcast, were down the row from me too, and we had some good conversations about writing.
Also check out Snow by Night, a colonial fantasy series.
I had several great conversations with D. H. Aire, who guest-posted on my blog during the Blogger Book Fair. I also posted on his blog on Writing Fight Scenes. It was really nice to meet him in person. You should check out his website – he’s doing a really interesting experiment with collaborative writing with his Highmage’s Plight series.
AND I was on a panel with Stuart Jaffe, Ben McCormick, Chris Impink, and somebody else who wasn’t listed on the program (and unfortunately I have lost his name… sorry!). Stuart Jaffe writes “word books” (AKA prose) like I do, while Ben McCormick, Chris Impink, and the other dude do “picture books,” AKA comics. The panel was on putting together your first book, focusing on the technical aspects of self-publishing – how to get ISBNs, whether to buy them or use the free ones that Amazon and other companies will provide, how to get cover art, how to get editing, what to prioritize, how to format your book, etc. The comics guys have an interesting challenge, because most of the templates provided by Createspace, LightningSource, and other POD companies are geared towards prose books. We had some great questions from the attendees and I think the discussion was fun and informative. I also had several people come by my table later to ask questions and say thanks for the good info, which was really nice.
InterventionCon is still a very small convention, with about 1000 attendees. But I loved that it was very family friendly. It was my very first convention, not just as a vendor but as an attendee, and I really enjoyed the friendly, fun atmosphere.
In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I’m considering applying for AwesomeConDC, which will be held April 19-20, 2014. Have you been? Did you enjoy it?
