I have lots of thoughts on the event, and I’m not sure where to begin. The TL;DR — I had a good time and I’m really glad we went, even if it wasn’t a pure financial success.

The thing about events like this though is that there are intangibles that are hard to quantify. For example, I was interviewed three different times this weekend. At least one of them was for a school project, I think. One might have been for a podcast. People enjoyed talking with me at the booth, and a few of those people had microphones and wanted me to answer questions and record my thoughts on writing and the industry.

I’ve spoken before how there is writing books, and there is selling books, and those are different skillsets. Enthusiasm helps with both, and both activities require practice. Working a table at an event like this is great, hands-on practice selling books directly. It’s not quite the same as marketing.

Really, the big thing I enjoyed the most about the event was meeting people. I met a system engineer that works for Riot, the company that makes League of Legends and Valorant. I met an actor/voice actor that sounded very interested in producing an audio book for me. I met a Chinese writer that, when she saw the title “The Repossessed Ghost” asked, “Is that real?” She talked about how her mind’s eye has remained opened and she’s helped people talk to the dead. She wanted to know how to get an agent.

One writer I spoke to wanted to know about tools to use, and I gave her a bunch of information. She went to take one of my cards from the table but grabbed Steven’s by mistake. I found out as we were driving home that she told Melissa that I was her new mentor, which would be great if I didn’t know how much she liked using ChatGPT to augment her stuff.

The event had its challenges, some of which I’m still paying for. As an example, I had to park pretty close to a mile away from our booth, and both days, I had to make multiple trips to the cars. My legs and back are sore from all the walking, and my feet are still complaining because of all the standing. The event ran until 5PM, and with tear down, we weren’t able to get on the road to come home until after 7PM. We didn’t get home until near 2AM, and I had to work Monday.

I’m tired and sore, but it feels like I did a good thing. The event was good for my mental health, though my physical health might have taken a hit. My voice is raspy and I’m right on the verge of getting sick.

Will we do the event again next year? Probably not the way we did it. We all might have enjoyed the intangibles, but the publishing company is a business, and we financially took a loss this weekend. I’m not sure what we could do differently that would get us into the land of profit.

I came away with some good experiences, some of which will show up in my stories. Now, I need to rest and recover, and take some of those good vibes and turn them into writing.