I woke up this morning with nowhere to be, and that felt weird as heck.
The last four weekends in a row have been dominated by back-to-back conventions and book fairs all over Ohio, from the shores of Lake Eerie to the West Virginia state border. Let me tell you, it was a rush!
We kicked things off at the Akron Book Fest on March 11th, where I had the great honor of sitting between my friends and fellow authors Cari Dubiel and Kalynn Applewhite. We had a great time and sold a ton of books considering it was only a half day event, and I definitely hope to return next year.
(Incidentally, Kalynn is currently absolutely crushing a Kickstarter for her upcoming novel, Awakening Anne. I’d like to embarrass her with a surplus of support, so if you’re into paranormal historical fiction, go show her some love and back her Kickstarter.)
The next weekend was Cleveland ConCoction, and I have to say, I think this was the most fun for me, even though I sold the fewest books there. ConCoction was unique in that I didn’t have to man my own table for the event; convention staff sold my books for me, giving me total freedom to explore the convention and participate in the event programming. I had the great privilege to sit on three panels with some absolutely brilliant fellow authors, and pretty much any time I wasn’t in an author’s panel, I was watching one. Even though my sales were pretty slim for this event, the networking I was able to do was absolutely invaluable. I built some great new friendships with fellow authors from all over the Midwest, and had the great privilege to learn from their experiences and share my own in kind.
The following weekend was The Big One: the Cleveland Fan Expo. This one rivalled Galaxycon in scale, and probably surpassed it in turnout this year. Once again I had the chance to participate in a panel with a bunch of fellow authors, discussing our writing and answering audience questions. This was part of a pilot program Cleveland Fan Expo just started this year, so attendance and organization was a bit wanting, but that’s to be expected from something like that coming together for the first time at the last minute. I’m still glad I got to participate, and I’m optimistic to see how it goes next year. And yes, I will be back next year, because my sales were quite good at this one! I beat my record for most books sold in one day here, and you really can’t go wrong with that!
The last convention in this stretch was Ratha Con, and let me tell you, that was an endurance test for me. Four conventions in a row is rough under the best of circumstances, but Athens is a three and a half hour drive away, and it started at 10:00 AM. I got up at 4:00 in the morning and hit the road with my soul still asleep, and didn’t get home that night until midnight. But it was worth it! Even though Ratha Con was much smaller than any of the other cons I’ve gon to this year, I sold just as many in that one day as I would expect to sell at any other event, which really goes to show that you should not dismiss the value of smaller venues. I also had a really awesome fan interaction here that I won’t soon forget. Someone bought a copy of Tantalus Depths in the morning, and came back to my table around noon to let me know they had already made it eleven chapters in, and loved it so much they bought two of my short story collections as well! By the end of the day they were 24 chapters in and still loving it. That one interaction would have made the whole event worthwhile even if those were the only three books I sold.
So that brings me to today: my first weekend off in over a month. I definitely needed the rest, and I’m hoping I’ll make some significant progress writing Proteus this weekend. You know, being an actual author, and all. But this is only a brief interlude, because I am jumping back into the convention world right away. Like, literally, next weekend.
That’s right. I wasn’t overcommitted enough with the events I’d already signed up for, so I’ve added five new ones, starting next weekend with Operation Fandom in Wooster! Add these bad boys to the list of coming attractions:
Operation Fandom
April 16, 10-6:00, Wayne County Fair Event Center, Wooster, OH
Local Author Fair
April 22, 1-3:00, Chardon Public Library, Chardon, OH
MARcon
May 26-28, Hyatt Regency, Columbus, OH
50 Book Challenge Author Fair
June 11, 1-3:00, Twinsburg Public Library, Twinsburg, OH
Columbus Book Festival
July 15-16, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH
That brings my 2023 convention schedule up to 12 events, and I’m probably still going to add more later in the year. You’re probably saying “Even, that is too many events.” Yes. Yes it is. I have an underdeveloped preservation instinct, and I’m capitalizing on it. I regret nothing.
Since I have so many events now, it’s getting hard for even me to keep track, so I’ve set up a page on my website conveniently listing all of my upcoming events and linking to their respective websites. I’ll update it as often as possible, so stay tuned for a lot more stuff in the future!