That was a pretty damn good con.
At the end of ECCC2014, I impulsively got together a few friends to share two booths this year. I asked for a location either in the middle of the second hall, or in the first hall.
We got into the first hall. This meant that a huge percentage of the 80k people attending the show passed by our booths. Not all of them did, and only some of them stopped, and only some of them spent money. But I made back my portion of the booth on the first day, and did at least similarly well each of the next days. And I went through a little more than 300 business cards. I don’t expect more than a small percentage of the people who picked those up to come visit my site, let alone give me money in the future, but I’ve still definitely expanded my audience. Which is my primary reason to go to these things right now.
That said, the money I got at this con plus the money I’m making from Patreon this month is going to be able to pay my rent. And I’m pretty goddamn happy about that! I am finally a Pro Artist.
Things I need to do for next year:
– amend my signage to include the blurb Phil Foglio was gracious enough to give me – I was about one diagonal block away from his booth and saw a lot more people sporting Girl Genius shirts than I have before.
– add some Rita prints to the print book (at the suggestion of some fans who wanted to buy just that, and were kind enough to point out panels they thought would work well)
– have some stickers/buttons/some kind of cheap little purchase, both for returning fans who I can’t quite give a new book to yet, and for people who’re in the Just Curious stage. Probably stickers; they’re very flat. I like flat things. They’re compact.
Also I think I need to replace my sign with a taller one. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while.
Only half of the folks at my pair of booths made a profit, but everyone is down for doing this next year. So I signed up for two booths again. Here’s hoping I can still have the same awesome placement.
(Protip: When applying for a con, look at the map of last year and ask for a good location. You might not get it but you sure won’t get it if you don’t ask.)
And now I am going to sit in the living room and play Bloodborne for a couple of days.