Melissa and I have the table set up for the final day. It’ll be short. In a few hours, we need to take the final inventory, pack everything up, haul everything to Steven D. Brewer’s car, then Uber to the airport to make our 4:15PM flight, assuming it isn’t delayed or canceled for mysterious reasons. As far as I can tell, the weather here is fine and shouldn’t be a factor, but we already received a warning email from American last night, so who knows what will happen.
Because of that, I’m writing this now, in case I don’t have another opportunity to write my post today. This is #15 of potentially 366. Gotta keep the streak going.
Most of my time at Arisia has been spent in the dealer’s room, selling books at the Water Dragon and Small Publishing in a Big Universe tables. It sounds like I’ve missed out on the conference but in reality, I’m doing exactly what I like to do at these things: I’ve been meeting people and geeking out over writing and books.
The panels don’t hold much draw for me anymore. The after party scene was not robust here — I checked last night before going to bed. Conferences like this have always been about meeting people and networking, and that’s exactly what I did, from the dealer’s room.
I also sold books, but I wasn’t a monster about it. I did best when I went to the other side of the table and just talked with people. I talked about other people’s books first, generally, and then gave my rehearsed elevator pitch for The Repossessed Ghost. I didn’t pressure, but I expressed enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is contagious. Several copies of The Repossessed Ghost sold simply because people enjoyed talking with me.
I might have even sold a copy to our Uber driver last night. They found out I was a writer and looked me up on Amazon before I got out of the car. I wasn’t trying to sell him anything. I was just engaged, enthusiastic, and authentic.
It’s something I’ve seen with Steven D. Brewer and the sales of his books. He pushes his stuff a little more than I push mine, but he’s authentic and friendly, and he has a good hook when people are passing by: “Do you want to be an airship pirate?”
I think this has been a good weekend. Does it make financial sense for me to come all the way out here and sell 7 of my books and bunch of other people’s stuff? Absolutely not. Like I said in a previous post, I’m planting seeds. I’m meeting people. I’m doing what professional authors do, and I’m doing what I was doing before I finally managed to get one of my books out in the world. Nothing has changed in that regard, and the goal is still the same.
The dealer’s room just opened. Time to get back to work.