Gen Con 2023: A Lookback

Hey everyone! Mary here, still somehow recovering from Gen Con even though it's been a week since the almighty gaming convention. Brave New Girls co-editor Paige Daniels and I have been doing this con every year since 2015 (except for 2020, of course), and our shtick has evolved quite a bit since then. 

For instance, it took three years for us to figure out that we should brand ourselves as something... enter The Sci-Fi Gals (kind of by accident... in 2017, we realized we were the only table that had only sci-fi on it, whereas most people around us had fantasy). So in 2018, we showed up with a "Sci-Fi Gals" sign to give our booth cohesion. In 2021, we realized that our big "Sci-Fi Gals" sign, which featured four Brave New Girls covers and a cartoon robot, made it look like we only had children's books (when all of Paige's books are actually aimed a grown-up audience and rife with f-bombs). So last year, I printed a second sign with all our grown-up titles and a more serious sci-fi-looking background. 

This year, a new thing we tried was bringing a tall collapsible bookshelf to stand behind our table, giving us more space to display our ever-growing collection of books (we seriously have so many now, some things have to go spine up to make room... interestingly, that doesn't stop people from noticing them; in fact, several make a point of pulling out the spine-up ones to see the covers). It definitely helped in terms of expanding our display space.

Another thing I've been doing with my series is having little signs displaying the discounted price for buying multiple books (for instance, the Jane Colt trilogy is $15 for one book, but $35 for the set). We kind of accidentally A/B tested this because Paige didn't have an equivalent deal for her Non-Compliance trilogy. The result? She sold out of Book 1 but was left with a bunch of sequels. I sold out of trilogy sets before I sold out of standalone Book 1s (which I'd brought more of than the sequels). 

Since Paige sold out of Book 1 halfway through Sunday, with a whole afternoon of shopping left, she steeply discounted her sequels, the pitch being that you could get them directly from the table (and get them signed) for cheaper than they'd be on Amazon, then go home and order Book 1 to complete your set. She didn't think she'd get any takers, yet 3 people ended up walking away with the sequel sets.

I remember back when I only had the first 2 books of Jane Colt, it was tough getting anyone to pick up Book 2, even as part of a two-book deal. But it was easier to sell 3-book sets once the trilogy was complete. Which makes sense as a buyer... either you just want to dip your toe in with Book 1, or you want the whole thing. I wouldn't want to risk buying an unfinished series either. Which is why I wasn't too concerned when no one really picked up Starswept's sequel when I only had Books 1 and 2 out. Once I had my trilogy sets though? People began scooping up the whole collection.

It's impossible to predict what people will want year to year, though. Last year, copies of my cryptid tale, Found Footage, kept walking off the table. This year, I literally sold two. No one even wanted a closer look at them. Maybe cryptids aren't trendy anymore?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mary Fan 🐲 范诗蓉 (@astralcolt)

Another new thing we did this year was printing short stories as mini books, between 50 and 100 pages long, and selling them as $7 for 1, $12 for 2, or $15 for 3. Lo and behold, people were happy with these low-commitment impulse buys and they walked off the table (I sold out of 2 of my titles).

And lastly, we did a new "mystery book" thing this year because we have so many titles between us (I think it's literally like 30 now), some people just can't decide. Plus, this is a gaming convention, and a little risk is fun. All our paperbacks are $15, and all our hardbacks are $20, so we set it up so that you pay $15 to roll a D20, with each number corresponding to a book. Most are paperbacks, but the higher numbers (16-19) are hardbacks. Nat 20 gets you a whole trilogy. We didn't get a ton of takers (I think maybe 6 over the whole weekend), but those who did do it had fun.

Anyway, I'm sure we'll try new things next year as well. I was very happy with how Gen Con went overall this year... it was our best yet for sales. That could be because it was the most populous Gen Con ever (they sold out of 4-day badges and Saturday badges), but I like to think it's at least partly because we've gotten better at running our table.

A Little Experiment

Hey everyone! Mary here, just back from Awesome Con and already packing for Origins (oof, back-to-back cons are always rough for me...). My brain isn't in the right place to write anything thoughtful, so I'm just gonna tell y'all about a little con experiment I've been trying.

At this point in my writing life, I've been in quite a few anthologies. As I wrote about previously, I like to use these anthos as a low-commitment way to experiment with new genres. I've also gotten to a point where it's no longer feasible to tote all these anthologies around to conventions, mostly because, sadly, not every Mary has a bottomless carpetbag. 

So back in January, after exhibiting at MAGFest, I got the idea to reprint some of my older stories, whose rights had reverted, as standalone baby books. I'd previously printed a short story of mine, "The Adventure of the Silicon Beeches," as a baby book because the anthology it was meant to be a part of never came together, and I'd noticed it tended to randomly sell itself at cons. As in, I'd have it on the table, but I wouldn't really pitch it, and some people would scoop it up anyway because it seemed fun and low commitment (I was originally selling it for $5 a pop; I've since had to bump that up thanks to inflation).

I originally wanted to print these stories literally as pamphlets, hoping to keep 'em cheap, but all the printing companies I looked at required minimum orders of a few hundred for the per-unit cost to make sense. I only wanted to print, like, 20 of each at a time, so back to Amazon KDP it was.

I did the covers and formatting myself, thanks to Canva and Microsoft Word (it helped that I already had a template from "Silicon Beeches), so the total cost of producing these baby books was maybe $2 each for the stock art on the covers. Chucked 'em onto Amazon and voila! "The False Nightingale," "The Last Gunslinger," "The Messenger," and "Haven," all originally published in themed anthologies (Magic at Midnight, Thrilling Adventure Yarns, Keep Faith, and Pangaea III) now stand by themselves.

Okay, so there was a middle step before voila. I disclosed on the copyright pages that these stories had originally been parts of anthologies, and either because of that or because of some algorithm, the Mighty 'Zon requested paperwork proving that the rights had been reverted. I suppose that's kinda encouraging? Make sure y'all have contracts, folks!

I took said baby books, each between 50-100 pages long, to Awesome Con and stuck 'em on the end of the table. Again, I didn't really pitch them, just said "here are short reads for if you're looking for something quick." And they did surprisingly well! The con overall was pretty much a dud for sales (might've been the placement of my table, since there wasn't even much foot traffic), but the "littles," as I've taken to calling them (thanks to Paige Daniels, who's reprinting some of her short stories as well), over performed considering I didn't even know how to talk about them other than "here, they're short." People tended to just pick them up, read the back, and buy them if it appealed to them, no hemming and hawing with the usual "do I have enough space for this" or "but I've spent so much money already."

So I guess the conclusion I can draw is that little, cheap, low commitment short stories lend themselves well to impulse buys. And it's a nice way to add more options to the table in a year where I've fallen way behind on my novels...

The Return of the Con

Hey everyone! Mary here, and it'll be a quick one from me tonight because I have to pack... for a convention!!! After a year and a half of Zoom panels and virtual portals, in-person cons are finally back, and it is WEIRD.

I'm heading off to Gen Con in Indianapolis, a con I've been exhibiting at since 2015, and I have no idea what to expect. Will there be any attendees? Will those who come be in a book-buying mood? Or even just the mood to talk to a stranger about the stuff they've written? Will they be shopping, or did the 'rona recession take its toll?

At least this won't be my very first con back. That was AwesomeCon in DC, a few weeks back. I was so unprepared, I didn't even have any signage. Part of it was because I'd been so burned by all the cancellations of 2020 and the first half of 2021 that I didn't expect it to actually happen. About 2 days before I was supposed to drive down, I was like "oh, I should probably pack books or something." I had to relearn how to use my Square app, re-rehearse all my elevator pitches. I didn't have any new swag... I was just handing out whatever bookmarks or cards I had left over from cons past.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mary Fan 🐲 范诗蓉 (@astralcolt)

It went pretty well nonetheless... surprisingly well, actually. Sales-wise, I did pretty decently. And I had fun debuting my new cosplay, as Silk from the Spider-verse. Sadly, very few people recognized me (an annoying number of Spider-Men and Spider-Gwens looked at me like "who??"). Funnily enough, Silk's relatively unknown status is a bit of a running joke in the comics, so huzzah for getting into character?

Anyway, I figure as long as I have books and a way to take payment, I can improv the rest. At least with Gen Con, I have enough stuff left over from cons past to be in decent shape (the "Sci-Fi Gals" banner I use while exhibiting with Brave New Girls co-editor Paige Daniels didn't make sense for AwesomeCon, where I was solo... just one gal). And if no one shows up, or no one's in a book-buying mood... well, at least it's better than being locked down again.

Wish me luck.

The 10 Con Commandments (for Exhibiting Authors)

A post by Mary Fan

Many authors choose to exhibit their books at conventions and other events as a way of reading new readers. I've lost count of how many cons I've gone to over the past four years, and I've seen a lot of fellow exhibiting authors fail to meet a certain level of... basic etiquette. 

So here are 10 Con Commandments to follow:

1. Thou shalt not interrupt a fellow author while they are pitching their book to a customer.
2. Thou shalt socialize with fellow authors when the dealer's room/exhibit hall is dead. It gets boring in there.
3. Thou shalt offer to watch a fellow author's table so they might run to the bathroom or obtain food.
4. Thou shalt tell a fellow author if there's an issue with their display (slipping posters, tipping books, etc.).
5.  Thou shalt not walk around to other authors' tables to sell them your book, for they are here to sell their books, and thou art wasting their time and costing them potential opportunities to pitch passing customers. Especially if thou dost not haveth thy own table.
6. Thou shalt not block a fellow author's table, even if thou art there to chat with the author. Stand to the side.
7. Thou shalt not badmouth any aspect of a fellow exhibiting author's book.
8. Thou shalt share tips for setting up display; there is no sense in being weird about it when a fellow author asks where you got your cool poster or book rack.
9. Thou shalt recommend thy fellow authors' works where possible. For instance, when thou hast finished a sale, direct the customer to also check out thy neighbor's works. Or if the customer stops and chats but is not interested in your genre, but may be interested in thy neighbor's genre.
10. THOU SHALT NOT POACH ANOTHER AUTHOR'S CUSTOMER. When a potential customer stops by an author's table, thou shalt not engage this customer until that author is done pitching their book. Thou shalt not attempt to direct the customer's attention to thy own book instead. AUTHORS WHO POACH FROM FELLOW AUTHORS BURN IN A SPECIAL CIRCLE OF HELL.