The Return From Confluence
Jul. 29th, 2008 02:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jpskewedthroneSo, I managed to make it back from Confluence (with a stopover at my mom's) and WOW, look at all the great responses to the "why do you write" question in the post I made before I left! Very interesting reading. Since there's 60+ entries in that post, I likely won't respond to everyone individually. Instead, I think I'll do some heavy duty thinking about why I write personally and do a post on that in the coming week. But thanks for all the great responses!
Confluence was a rather fun and productive trip/con for me. On the way down, I did the "road trip" thing. A few weeks before I left, I researched bookstores along my route and called them all individually, asking if they'd get in a few copies of my books. If they were willing, I stopped by on my way down to Pittsburgh and signed whatever stock they had. I got the mix of responses I expected: bookstores that weren't interested (which boggles my mind, but I still expected this); bookstores that said they'd get in books and when I stopped they had no clue what I was talking about; bookstores that couldn't get permission from the higher ups to order the books; and bookstores that were happy to get in copies. I even had one bookstore ask if I could hang around for an hour, which I did. Overall, nearly everyone at the bookstores was friendly. At each bookstore, I also asked if there was someone on staff who particularly liked SF and F and talked to them in person if they were there. Otherwise, I asked the employees to bring my books to that person's attention.
In any case, I sold nearly 20 books on the way down because I was there in the store in person. About half of these sales were to employees of the bookstores, which I count as a bonus, since if they like the books then perhaps they'll recommend them to customers. So the road trip idea worked out well and I hope to do it again for future cons (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pbray has now been warned). I get teased by Patricia and Jennifer (jennifer_dunne) because I seem to have the uncanny ability to sell my books to people by just opening my mouth while in the presence of customers at a bookstore. And I have to admit, it does seem to work for me rather well. I can even sell to people who "don't read fantasy".
In any case, the con itself was a blast. I roomed with Sam (scbutler), had dinner with old friends and new the first night (Hey, steve_buchheit and Karl, James and Carey!), lots of panels and activities on Saturday, cool dinner at Buca di Peppe (or something like that), and a final panel on Sunday. The only bad thing was that on Saturday night the bar closed WAY, WAY too early.
Also good was the visit with my mom, with a day on the way down and another on the way back.
So thanks to everyone at Confluence for making it a great con and I look forward to getting back there again next year! Now to prepare for Worldcon in Denver. I only have a week to pack! That's just not enough time!
Confluence was a rather fun and productive trip/con for me. On the way down, I did the "road trip" thing. A few weeks before I left, I researched bookstores along my route and called them all individually, asking if they'd get in a few copies of my books. If they were willing, I stopped by on my way down to Pittsburgh and signed whatever stock they had. I got the mix of responses I expected: bookstores that weren't interested (which boggles my mind, but I still expected this); bookstores that said they'd get in books and when I stopped they had no clue what I was talking about; bookstores that couldn't get permission from the higher ups to order the books; and bookstores that were happy to get in copies. I even had one bookstore ask if I could hang around for an hour, which I did. Overall, nearly everyone at the bookstores was friendly. At each bookstore, I also asked if there was someone on staff who particularly liked SF and F and talked to them in person if they were there. Otherwise, I asked the employees to bring my books to that person's attention.
In any case, I sold nearly 20 books on the way down because I was there in the store in person. About half of these sales were to employees of the bookstores, which I count as a bonus, since if they like the books then perhaps they'll recommend them to customers. So the road trip idea worked out well and I hope to do it again for future cons (
pbray has now been warned). I get teased by Patricia and Jennifer (jennifer_dunne) because I seem to have the uncanny ability to sell my books to people by just opening my mouth while in the presence of customers at a bookstore. And I have to admit, it does seem to work for me rather well. I can even sell to people who "don't read fantasy".In any case, the con itself was a blast. I roomed with Sam (
scbutler), had dinner with old friends and new the first night (Hey, steve_buchheit and Karl, James and Carey!), lots of panels and activities on Saturday, cool dinner at Buca di Peppe (or something like that), and a final panel on Sunday. The only bad thing was that on Saturday night the bar closed WAY, WAY too early.Also good was the visit with my mom, with a day on the way down and another on the way back.
So thanks to everyone at Confluence for making it a great con and I look forward to getting back there again next year! Now to prepare for Worldcon in Denver. I only have a week to pack! That's just not enough time!
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 07:07 pm (UTC)Feeling your pain...I had to pack most of my stuff last week, so it could ride to WorldCon with
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Date: 2008-07-30 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 01:45 pm (UTC)