I went to my first convention on Sunday! I knew that fellow author and blogger MLS Weech was going to be there, so I wanted to take the opportunity to stop by his table.

But I also wanted to start preparing for my next big move in book publishing: selling my book at conventions.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I basically just wandered around, looked for fellow authors, and checked out some board games at two different board game vendors. That was pretty surprising: I didn’t expect the variety of goods being peddled at this place. It was basically an indoor bazaar for geeky stuff.

And the cosplay was cool, of course. I didn’t get any pictures of cosplayers, even though I had intended to, but I was sort of just enjoying being there.

The Convention Haul

For not being a big comic book fan, I came home with a lot of stuff.

I got that book on the left from someone (I assume and hope it was the author) handing them out for free on the corner as I walked into the convention. Apparently that’s the benefit to going in the late afternoon of the final day.

Ancient Illumination I picked up from Rod Van Blake’s table. The cover caught my eye, and it sounded like a cool sci-fi story.

Same with The Island by S. Usher Evans. The cover drew me in, and the author quickly gave me her spiel on each of the five or six books she had for sale. I decided to buy the her fantasy trilogy, because it sounded cool and she was nice.

I told her I was doing some recon to prepare for conventions next year, and she promptly gave me her card and told me to email her with any questions on conventions or publishing or whatever. I was blown away by her offer, and I will definitely be reaching out to her.

I then stumbled upon a metal band selling graphic novels based on their music. Read that sentence again.

I’m not into graphic novels/comics, but I appreciate their creativity, so I picked up their most recent album. A Sound of Thunder happens to be from DC, and they happen to be playing at my favorite rock bar in Baltimore in January. And I happen to be going.

Finally, I had bookmarks printed! Weech was generous enough to hand some out with his own freebies from his table, and I managed to pass a couple out.

All of this is to say that a) I had a good time at my first convention, and b) I feel really ready and really excited to begin our convention slate in 2019.

Convention Time!

Oh yeah, did I mention that? Jessie and I are going to hit the convention scene hard next year, perhaps 3-5. Her sci-fi novel will be out by then — even though she refuses to talk about it — and we’re going to share tables with other authors we know to drive costs down and sell loads of books together.

I’m already planning out what my table will look like. I’m thinking some combination of bookmark freebies, a banner for WoEM, and a couple of other things I don’t want to spoil yet.

But just as a teaser, we have our sights set on Awesome Con in DC next spring.

Big things are coming, and I cannot wait to dive in.

Steve D