Con Nooga... and reactions to my book selling techniques

Posted on February 26, 2018 (Subscribe to Blog)

So I did Con Nooga 2018. I bought a table (along with three 3-day passes) and sat myself down with my collection of books to see if I could make this convention thing work for me.

It worked just fine, as it happens. I didn't sell as many as I'd hoped, but I sold more than I expected. But apart from the networking with other authors, I got something else out of the weekend: experience and plenty of ideas for the next time. Now, I've done numerous book signings at libraries and book stores, and I've done book talks, so setting up a table isn't completely new to me. I did, however, adjust my sales pitch as the weekend went on, honing it as I went. And I learned something a little worrying.

First, here's my table:

Note the spiffy lighthouse and even spiffier fog. Note the really, really spiffy new edition of Island of Fog. This is the very first batch I've printed, which arrived just in time for Con Nooga. (Seriously -- UPS delivered the day before.)

Note also the lame banner hanging in the background. I'll forego that next time. But anyway, as you can see, I have a bunch of my books laid out. I have 22 in total, but I only brought 15 of them. I had loads of Island of Fog but only one copy of the rest of the books in the series. I had loads of Unicorn Hunters and a few of the others. I had loads of Sleep Writer and Fractured. Basically, I concentrated on the first books of each series. Despite that, a girl bought Fog Books 1-3 at a special discounted rate. Then I met a boy who'd already read Books 1-3, so he bought Books 4 and 5. That was pretty lucky!

My neighbor was local author buddy Kenyon T. Henry (Travis for short). Of course I ribbed him relentlessly for only having one book published, and naturally he took advantage of my absence one morning to add a stack of his books to my table. All good fun! But he never really mastered my trademark look of authorly contemplation.

Whenever people walked by and glanced over at my table, I looked for that spark of interest. Most people were fine to stop and chat for a moment whether they were interested in buying books or not. Some were interested but apparently a little too shy to stop, so it was a bonus to grab those people and get them talking, especially when they ended up buying. It was a bit of a mixture, and I think I got pretty good at judging who to stop and who to leave alone.

Some people made a beeline for my table and wanted to buy. Most of these happy readers had already stopped by earlier and picked up a business card, so I assume they checked out my website and books and liked what they saw.

Giving out business cards is THE best thing to do. On Friday, the first day of the con, people were browsing and not ready to buy anything. Saturday was the busiest, and quite a few were ready to buy. Sunday was the day some people decided to grab what they'd been hankering after for two days. So giving out business cards on Friday and suggesting they come back Saturday or Sunday seemed to be a good strategy.

I got my sales pitch down pretty well, first asking whether they liked sci-fi or fantasy, and then telling them about all my books anyway. I noticed most people were impressed that there are currently nine books in the Fog series, and even more impressed when I told them of another four books in the follow-up Legacies series.

I also managed to get them interested in my Sleep Writer book by flipping to the back cover and showing them bestselling author Piers Anthony's quote where he said "For my taste, this is one of the best novels I've read regardless of genre; it haunted me for several days after I read it." After that, I gave a quick summary of how Madison predicts alien arrivals, and then I flipped to the front cover where it shows the very first example of such an arrival. The quote and summary together with the images worked a treat.

But I started to notice Fractured is the one that impressed the most. The story involves a futuristic sci-fi city and a ghostly fantasy land, neither of which knows the other exists. Kyle escapes the city while Logan is exiled from the enclaves, and both end up in the wastelands between, where they eventually cross paths. Pretty much everyone loved the plot and found it super-interesting how I wrote the book with co-author Brian Clopper, alternating chapters the whole way through.

So I sold a fairly equal number of Island of Fog, Sleep Writer, and Fractured.

But I didn't sell any of the first Legacies book, Unicorn Hunters.

Here's what I learned that was kind of worrying. A young girl looked horrified when she saw that her favorite fantasy creatures, unicorns, were being hunted. That was an instant turn-off for her. I explained that the good guy, a 12-year-old boy named Travis, goes after the hunters to rescue the stolen unicorn, that the hunters were bad guys... but the girl had already lost interest in that book and was busy looking at the others.

Another person, a more mature lady, had the same reaction except that she was a horse lover and couldn't abide the idea of equines of any sort being harmed.

So... did I shoot myself in the foot with a title and cover that dares to suggest harm to beloved unicorns?

I came away wondering if I should alter the title. Would Unicorn Rescue or something similar be better? Should I remove the sinister shadowy hunters from the cover? But then the book might suggest it's a happy, sparkly, colorful, rainbowy, fluffy book about unicorns, and I'm sorry, I don't do sparkly or fluffy. A reader might pick it up and be shocked by the first couple of chapters in which hunters chase after and capture a unicorn.

There's no actual harm to unicorns, of course. I'm not a big rotten meanie. But a story without crisis is not much of a story. The darker the menace looms, the brighter the heroes shine.

Thoughts, anyone?

All in all, Con Nooga was fun and eye-opening, and despite sitting or standing at my table for three days, it was only the last two hours on Sunday that I got a little bored, mainly because everyone was clearing out by then. Would I do it again? Yes -- next year. And there are other cons in the meantime, too.

Next up is an author book signing at the library in Dalton on Saturday, March 24, from 10:00 AM -2:00 PM.

Comment by BRIAN B. on Monday, February 26, 2018...

UH? Leave it as it is. Looks like you'd a great time. I'm somewhat jealous!

Comment by BRIAN CLOPPER on Saturday, March 3, 2018...

I would leave it as is, too. Your audience isn’t the type to be worried or offended.

Or you could cater to the gooey sweet set and call it: Unicorns With Sprinkles.

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Saturday, March 3, 2018...

Thank you, Brians!

"Unicorns With Sprinkles" doesn't fit the title format. It has to be two words. And anyway, are you talking about confectionery sprinkles? That doesn't even make sense, man! Nobody eats unicorns... well, except maybe unicorn hunters.

How about "Sparkly Unicorns"? "Fluffy Unicorns"?

Comment by GRAEME JENKS on Monday, March 5, 2018...

I would also leave it as it is. Even changing it to Unicorn Rescue would suggest unicorns in trouble. I suppose it's that old thing, you can't please all of the people all of the time.

I will say you missed a perfect opportunity to push Quincy, haha.

All the best for future events

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Monday, March 5, 2018...

Thanks Graeme. And speaking of Quincy, I didn't push that one because I'm in the process of doing a new cover so I can start over with it. I'll finally put it in print as well. :-)

Comment by D. F. ANDERSON on Saturday, April 7, 2018...

Interesting post.

How about "Unicorn that Is Hunted but I Promise Ends Up Okay in the End, though Does Experiences Some Distress upon Being Captured, but, I'll Repeat, Ends up Totally Okay"?

Comment by KEITH ROBINSON on Saturday, April 7, 2018...

Hmm... I don't know. Sounds a bit... long?

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