My author friend Travis Ludvigson pitched the idea of splitting a table at the Eau Claire Comic Con, and I figured, “What the heck!” I like doing the occasional public appearance, but I’ve always had better luck selling books when I get to give a talk first. The whole trick to book sales is the ability to engage with people, and it’s tough to do that while sitting behind a table. However, I’ve seen enough stuff about Comic Cons from my friends online to be curious about attending such an event, so I decided to go along.
I’d never been to a Comic Con before so this was a pretty neat experience. The Eau Claire offering is pretty small by comparative standards, but there were still a fair number of people that showed up in fantastic costumes, which really made things fun. There was one guy dressed up as the ‘Return of the Jedi’ outfit Luke Skywalker, who had made his lightsaber out of parts from Menards. It looked pretty good too. Also notable was a guy dressed as Green Arrow (I asked him if they let him in with a functional bow, but he dodged the question…seemed sort of dangerous), Captain Jack Sparrow (he’s got a book coming out), Mystique, and several Ghostbusters with fully functional power packs (okay, they didn’t really shoot streams of electricity, but they had a lot of flickering lights). Also, it turns out regularly dressing up like the Ghostbusters is a thing, find out more about that here.
The displays were mostly comics (obviously), although as we sat there and watched, neither Travis nor I could figure out how vendors actually managed to sell enough comics to pay for the price of their tables. There were a few tables that literally had nobody visit them the whole time we were there. There was also a guy who had his own movie production company, which seemed pretty cool (here’s a link to one of their trailers), and then there were all the tables with antique toys from the 70s. I tell you what, it’s kind of a harsh nostalgic blow to walk by a table set up with a complete Millenium Falcon playset with all the ‘77 Kenner Star Wars action figures. Sometimes seeing something like that brings back a memory jolt of endless imagining with friends in your youth. It’s always kind of neat when something makes you remember moments from your childhood you haven’t thought about in decades, but it can also be a little overpowering.
Travis and I engaged well with a lot of cool people, and during down times, we brainstormed ways to be a little more effective should we decide to do something like this again. Here are some of our ideas:
- Don’t make selling books your priority, making connections is your priority—As a writer, you are a gateway to a new community, and the writers who are featured in Perseid Press books have a lot to offer. Most of these folks are very approachable on Facebook, and once readers get to know them, they’ll find they have a lot of worlds to discover.
- Have incentives for people to come visit your booth—Travis and I thought it might have been nice to have some giveaway items available in exchange for taking a selfie at our table and posting to Facebook. You could do something like give away a York Peppermint Patty, for posting a selfie, or something like that (who doesn’t like York Peppermint Patties)—for the giveaway, I don’t think it should be book related. You can’t give away a magnet featuring your cover, have it be something random. Actually, for some ideas, go through any expo at a marathon or other sporting event. The most effective tables almost always have some kind of knick knack available to get people to visit their tables.
- Offer a prize to anyone who can correctly answer a trivia question.
- Have a computer there with some incentive to get people to sign up for your newsletter, or just a sign up sheet (the internet was iffy at this venue). People like to interact at things like this, give them something to do.
- Stand in front of your table, don’t sit behind it. You have to immerse yourself in the flow of the traffic, don’t passively wait for people to come to you.
- Come in costume. The tables I saw that had the most interaction featured people in costume, and why not? The folks who go to these conventions have to pay to get in, so they deserve some type of show.
- Have some nice banners. Travis got a couple great banners made from VistaPrint and you could tell that automatically raised his clout in the perspective of the folks walking through, plus it made our display area look a lot better.
What most authors don’t realize, is that even very famous individuals aren’t going to get much interaction if they’re just sitting passively at a booth. People come to things like Comic conventions to be entertained and find a bit of nostalgia, but they’re super excited to get a breath of fresh air as well. Give them something new to be excited about, create a new, fresh, living community. As an author, you attend conventions not to sell books, but to recruit awesome people and get to know them. You also have the opportunity to combine your social influence with others for the benefit of the whole. Take advantage of that. Too many authors seem to sit around and sulk that not enough people are interested in their work. Well, give them a reason to be interested!
Travis and I had a fun day, and we sold a bunch of books and made some cool new connections, but overall the day was a learning experience. As an author, you’re not necessarily what the folks who attend comic conventions have come to see, but if you do a good job with your presentation and your energy throughout the day, you can make a comic con wholly worthwhile. Nostalgia tends to dominate at Comic Con, but if you can give folks something new and fresh and alive to be excited about, they’re going to respond. Travis and I will continue to brainstorm this over a few beers at the Amber Inn I’m sure, and I’ll provide updates in further articles. In the meantime, be sure to leave your own suggestions in the comments below.
Good luck, and don’t forget to like my and Travis’s Amazon Author page!
