Ultracon and Conventions

This weekend was Ultracon at the South Florida Fairgrounds and I was there selling books. It's the first time I've ever attended this convention.

I met some nice people. Two that I plan on staying in contact with. So that's cool. However, I wouldn't have been very happy at spending $30 to get in to this event, and I only sold 6 books (on Saturday and 0 on Sunday). The general consensus from the other vendors was disgruntled and the other authors mostly did the same on average, give or take a few.

There was one booth of authors that sold (I don't know how many Saturday) 50 books today. That's pretty good, especially considering how terrible the rest of us did!

I asked them what their secret was and they gave all the credit to having banners. They had 2 banners behind them that were stacked one atop the other to form a wall behind them 8 feet wide. Now, could it be that they acredit their sales to these banners because they also do printwork? They gave me their card so I could order my own banners through them. Yes, I do believe this is probably the case! Lol! But I also believe that they believe in their products and that the banner wall did drive traffic and cause them to be more easily seen.

I plan on investing in my own. If you're selling at conventions, I'd recommend you do as well. You can get them for a pretty low rate (around $40).

Would I recommend Ultracon to buyers or sellers? To be honest, not really. Not just because of my own low sales, but the sales overall. As someone in attendance, I go to cons for more than just the vendors and they didn't have much else to offer other than wrestling and MMA on Saturday, neither which is my cup of tea. Honestly, I could go shopping online and they deliver to my home and I don't have to pay $30 to shop, so just having shit for sale wasn't enough for me. They had a couple panels as well, but there was never an online schedule for them and none of them interested me either.

And that's about all I have to say about Ultracon.

See you at Magic City Con in January!