Mari Atherton, click
here to update your pages on AuthorsDen.
Blogs by Mari Atherton
GenCon 8/19/2006 10:01:42 PM
Summary of the terrific time I had at GenCon in Indianapolis. Okay, so I'm at the biggest Gaming Convention in the US with gazillions of people here. I think it probably feeds Indianapolis' economy for the entire year because they actually have banners welcoming convention goers, who seem to have taken over every hotel in downtown Indianapolis.
Day one of the convention itself. I pull two suitcases packed with books five blocks to the Convention Center. I don't care if the luggage does have cute little wheels on it-- it is still heavy. I finally stopped some guy and convinced him to haul the larger suitcase. I gave a him a free book when we got to my booth-- one less book that has to go back on the plane.
There are three other authors there. One is a graphic artist/author. She is dressed in a tight black lace up top and skirt with heels that are about ten inches high. She's cute. All the guys flock around her. I start sending nasty text messages to my daughter telling her that she needed to come with me so she could flash her cleavage around and get the guys flocking around our table.
The guy next to me was there last year. He was the only one there last year. Last year he barely sold any books. They begged him to come back and promised it would be better because they would find a way to bring more people in to Author's Avenue. Their solution-- get some major SF authors to come and sign autographs. To get to these major authors, the attendees have to walk the gauntlet of our booths. Heh! Heh! Heh!
The people across from me are a hoot. The guy has written his first book, and today is the first day it's been available. We all feel a little dismayed because we didn't realize we'd be expected to decorate our booths. Christine, the cute one, has her booth beautifully decorated-- but of course, she's a graphic artist. Jonathan, the guy next to me, has two posters on his booth. Not bad.
Barbara and Chuck had nothing but they sell T-shirts too so they tacked the shirts up all over their booth. It looked great.
I stuck some laminated copies of my cover art on my booth. Note to self: Get some really cool stuff to decorate my booth with. And lose 100 pounds so I can fit into the black outfit Christy is wearing. And demand that my daughter comes along next time to show some cleavage.
The room is HOT. They don't have the AC turned on. We all gripe about the heat.
Well no one's selling anything because none of the famous authors has shown up yet. We are in a dead end and people keep coming in thinking they can get to another part of the exhibit hall. Then they leave. Christine takes off her spike heels and starts throwing them at people as they are leaving. She's a pretty good shot.
I amuse myself by taking pictures of Tommy, the Swimming Kangaroo, with the other authors. I also send text messages to my daughter telling her that I need her there in a black leather bustier to show some cleavage. I send text messages to my husband telling him how bored I am. I have my laptop with me and would love to set it up but there's no electrical outlet. Darn. Can't even get any work done while I'm sitting there looking at Chuck and Barbara.
I wander over to talk to Christine. She has these really cute large round buttons that have samples of her art on him. Will, the guy who is with her says he bought a button maker on E-Bay and makes them himself. Note to self: Buy button maker on EBay and put future son-in-law to work making buttons.
Christine has a chapbook out so I take one. Jonathan has one as well. He knows someone at Kinko's so he gets printing done there at half price. He says that Kinko's employees get free printing. Note to self: Apply for a job at Kinko's when I get back to Texas. And redesign my chapbooks.
I check to see how much everyone else is selling their books for. Jonathan is selling his for $12. Christine is selling hers ranging from $12 to $17. She's also selling artwork. Barbara and Chuck are selling theirs for $22. Darn! I sell mine for $12 but offer two for $20.
My fellow authors are really getting into the Tommy picture thing. Someone dressed as a StormTrooper walks by so I take a picture of him with Tommy. The Con volunteer notices someone dressed like Xena so I take a picture of her too.
Christine takes a picture of me holding up a sign advertising a new comic book. She says the author is getting pictures of as many chicks as possible to promote the new comic. I haven't been called a chick in a long time.
People continue to wander in, get halfway down the hallway and then turn, realizing they've hit a dead end. Christine starts yelling at them, demanding to know what their problem is.
A cute young couple comes in. They are very shy and very overwhelmed. I talk to them for a while and they just stand there smiling and nodding at me. I start to wonder if they are going to stand there all day and they finally leave.
The first author shows up. however, the Con doesn't announce him. So he sits at the table at the end of the alley all by himself. Nobody wants his signature. I go over to talk to him and give him a bookmark. Jonathan grabs Tommy and tells me I need to take Tommy's picture with the author. Okay. I do.
Christine sells a book. We all cheer. Chuck sells a book. We all cheer. I sell one! Cheer! Jonathan sells one! We are all ecstatic. We're on a roll.
Chuck gives me a copy of his book. Darn! there goes my airplane weight limit again. I give him a copy of one of mine. We're even. Then Jonathan and I exchange copies.
Barabara hears that Kevin Sorbo is over in another area. She goes and gets a picture taken with him. He kisses her on the cheek, and when she tells him that he's even more good looking than he looks on TV, he grabs her and plants another big kiss on her cheek. Barbara plans to use fingerprint powder to lift the lip prints from her face.
Chuck and Barbara take one of Chuck's books to Kevin and offer him a book if he'll give them a signed photo. Success. Everyone looks at me. I grab Tommy, tuck a book under my arm, and off I go.
Kevin is really nice. I tell him that one of my fellow authors had given him a book in exchange for a pic and I wondered if I could give him a book in exchange for him posing for a picture with Tommy. He laughs and agrees. I take his picture and sign his book over to him. He asks me to sign the book "To Kevoin Sorbo, the greatest action hero!" He then asks if the book would make a good movie because he has started his own production company. I tell him that it would make a great movie and that there is a part that is just perfect for him.
I go back to my table and text message Jaala, Frith and Bill about getting Tommy's picture with Kevin Sorbo. Jaala emails back that Gigi from Farscape is there. She begs me to get a picture. I tuck a book under one arm and Tommy under another and head off. Gigi is out to lunch. They don't know when she will be back, but it should be soon. I go back to my table and ask the volunteers why Gigi is allowed to go to lunch and we aren't.
The famous author leaves, not having signed any autographs. A whole slough of authors comes up. I go and take Tommy's picture with every one of them. No one comes to get signatures from them either.
I take a bathroom break and Jonathan's brother watches my booth. I'm the only one there who doesn't have a helper because my daughter wasn't able to come with me. After a while I wander over to see if GiGi is back from lunch. She's not. When I come back, Christine is sitting at my booth. I consider wandering around a little and leaving her there for a while but I go and sit down like a good author. Christine has taken off the 5" heels by now and is walking around barefooted.
A line starts forming for this mega big author. Unfortunately, they are keeping the line out of the Author's Avenue. We all get a little ticked because those people could be standing in Author's Avenue, waiting for the famous author to arrive and buying books from us. The 5 authors leave, not having signed anything.
I go over to check on GiGi. She is back from lunch and she agrees to have her picture taken with Tommy. I give her a book and take her picture. Then I ask if I would be pressing my luck if I asked for an autograph for my daughter. She says she has to charge me $20 for that. Since I have no money, I can't do that. But I've still got a picture of her with Tommy!
They show the mega-author to the table. I get his picture with Tommy and Jonathan, Chuck and Christy get autographs. So do the volunteers. Then they start letting people in.
Now this is okay-- a huge line of people waiting with nothing to do but...listen to a sales pitch. I stand up and start handing out bookmarks. I introduce myswelf and say I'm a semi-famous author. If I sell two more books, I tell them, I'll be a famous author. I describe my books. Bingo! I sell two books. Now I start introducing myself as a famous author and I say I'm famous because Jill up there bought two of my books.
Jonathan cuts in and starts handing out his chapbooks. I snarl at him and tell him to wait his turn. Everyone laughs. I give a sales pitch for Jonathan too. "This is my friend Jonathan and he's a famous author too. He was here last year and they asked him to come back this year. His book is really great, but I can't tell you what it's about because I haven't read it yet. But I've got a copy and I'm going to read it tonight so tomorrow I can tell you all about it."
A couple of people ask me about writing. One wants to know how to develop characters and the other wants to know how to get started writing a book. I talk to them for a while and invite them to join the SK Writers Club. Then another guy comes up and wants to know if it is okay to use the F word in books. I ask him if it's relevant and he says it is but that his mother, who edits his books, makes him take them out. I tell him that's what happens when he lets his mother do his editing.
A woman comes by and I give her my sales pitch. She picks up one of my books and says, "Oh, my sister has these! I recognize the cover!" I'm slightly surprised. The book hasn't been in print for THAT long. I'm wondering where her sister got it from. I tell her that I hope her sister likes it.
Jonathan and I both sell some books. Chuck and Christine sell books. We are all happy.
Mega-famous author leaves. Things are winding down. A couple wanders in and I introduce myself as a famous author. They shake my hand and congratulate me. Jonathan tells me I have to take their picture with Tommy. So I do. I make my sales pitch to them, but they don't buy a book.
Now we're all counting up our totals. I sold seven books. I'm happy. Then some guy who had been there earlier in the day came back and bought books from every single one of us. We are all very happy.
I give each of the volunteers a book. They hug me. They don't realize I'm doing it so I don't have to pay for extra weight on the plane. They think I'm nice.
Finally it's 6:00 and the Exhibit Hall closes. We are all relieved. I bring Tommy, my camera and my laptop back to the hotel and get some dinner. The waiter is very nice. He brings me a bowl of broccoli soup in addition to my meal because he thinks I'm nice. (If all these people only knew me! Maybe I ought to give him a book!) Then he gives me a piece of cheesecake and doesn't charge me for it. Okay, he definitely gets a book.
Finally into the hotel room, which is nice and cool, shower and checking email. I guess I'd better read through Jonathan's book so I can describe it tomorrow when I'm doing my sales pitch for him. And tomorrow I'm taking two bottles of water over there.
Convention Day 2. Although we have more traffic than we did on Day 1, book sales are still sluggish. Christine is dressed in her black bustier and a flouncy black skirt with a red ruflled petticoat. She definitely has the SA but she so nice we don't mind.
Dylan, the 5th author, shows up today for the first time. He didn't bring anything for his display so his booth looks even more pathetic than mine. He pretty much doesn't sell anything all day until the last hour when he sells three books. Jonathan tells him that he needs to get me to do his spiel because I was doing a spiel for Jonathan's books yesterday while people were waiting in line to see the famous author.
We have more famous authors today. Jonathan and I each give all of them copies of our books and I get a picture of each of them with Tommy. I also take pictures of Tommy with people walking around in costume, then I hand them a bookmark and tell them that the photo will be up on the website in about two weeks. After much begging from my daughter, I wait in line AND pay $20 for Gigi Edgley's signature.
Chuck and Barbara have the best booth location, it's right at the front and to the left and people's eyes automatically gravitate to it. They have dragon statues on their booth so people go to look at those. Note to self-- take my unicorn statues or SOMETHING to the next con to display on my table. They are also holding a raffle for their t-shirts. Note to self-- make sure to find something I can raffle off the next time I go to a con.
They are selling their book for twice as much as any of the rest of us-- and they ARE selling rings around the rest of us. But that's their reward for being so much better prepared than the rest of us.
I talk to a lot of people. I sell a few books, I think about as many as I did yesterday. Two guys from magazines come over and ask to review the books so I give them copies. An editor comes over and tries to sign me away from my current publisher. Yeah. Right.
Some people come back from yesterday and buy books. That's nice.
Christine comes back all excited because she got William Katt's signature (From the Greatest American Hero.) She says he's REALLY nice so I grab Tommy, a book and head over to see him. He IS nice, poses with Tommy and gives me a signed photo. His business partner is with him and I offer to bring him a book too but he says no, that he will come over and buy my book because he knows that all of us in Author's Alley are starving authors.
I try various sales pitches. I introduce myself as a famous author. I tell them that I am a famous author because I met my sales goal yesterday, and say that if I meet my sales goal today I'll be a super famous author and that maybe they could be the ones that make it happen. The pitch gets a lot of laughs, but doesn't sell any books. (Yesterday it worked great.)
I stand by my table and introduce myself and hand out bookmarks. This is to try to offset Chuck, whose booth is closer to the entrance than mine and he has a loud voice. "Hi, my name's Chuck and this is my first book! It's all about a D&D scenario I did about 20 years ago when I was in the military, and we just launched the book yesterday."
I'm not quite sure why his pitch works better than mine because mine is funnier. I wonder if they buy the book to get him to stop talking. I tell people that I won't give them my sales pitch unless they beg, then I stand expectantly. Most of them ask for it so I describe my books. I sell some and others say they will come back or they will look for it on the website. I do have a lot of people sign up for our newsletter.
Maybe I need to vary my sales pitch and tell them that I'm going to talk to them until they break down and buy a book. Of course, my books are slightly different because I have one SF and one Fantasy, whereas the other authors are selling books based on games. So the audience is more in tune with their books. Except Christine, who is selling her books and illustrations. But she's got the cleavage factor working for her. And actually, I think I'm second behind Chuck in the number of books sold. Jonathan may have caught up with me today but I don't think so.
Oh well. I think we are all glad when the exhibit hall closes today. I'm exhausted! Tomorrow and Sunday should be busier, and hopefully a lot of the people who say they are just looking will come back to buy. I kind of wait a few minutes after the hall closes because Chuck is still talking to some people who listened to my sales pitch with great interest so I have hopes that they will come back over and buy a book. But I get tired of waiting and finally leave.
As I'm walking back to the hotel, the waiter from the hotel restaurant knocks on the back door window and lets me in the back to save me from having to go all the way around to the front. He says he recognized me and wanted to save me the trip. So I grab a quick bite to eat and then come on up to the room. I'm crashing after I finish this posting.
I think I've sold and given away enough books that I won't need to worry about overweight fees on the airplane (i had to pay overweight fees on the luggage I brought to Indy because of all the books in the suitcases.) I'm not sure if I have enough bookmarks to last through Sunday-- and I might even run out of books-- which is a good thing, even if many of them are give aways. I'm kind of writing this trip off as a publicity trip more than anything-- drumming up publicity for the website.
Day 3 of Convention. We are ALL tired. Christine comes dressed in jeans and a knit shirt. We tell her that she's dressed inappropriately- that she's supposed to be showing some cleavage. She comes back a little later with a much more appropriate shirt that she's wearing as advertising for another booth.
I meet Jean Rabe (famous author) and give her a book. She admires the cover. Turns out she is responsible for setting up the writing workshops for the Con so she grabs me and Jonathan and tells us she wants us to put on a workshop about Independent Publishing next year. Jonathan and I are game.
I take Tommy out to the Klingon jail and he engages in a fierce batle with the Klingon before he manages to escape. On the way I meet Gandalf and take Tommy's picture with him and then I meet somebody else in a cool costume. I saw Bobba Fett but I couldn't get a picture of him dadgummit. I hope he will be back tomorrow. Since I have to watch my booth myself, I can't be away for very long, although everyone else is very nice about watching my booth for me. Jonathan sells one of my books while Tommy and I are at the Klingon jail.
Some people come back from yesterday to buy books, and I make sales throughout the day. People are starting to hear that I'm taking pictures of people in costume to post on our website so they come by to get their picture taken. A guy dressed as Commander Riker comes by and the battery dies in my camera. Darn! Note to self-- be sure to carry extra batteries.
We're all exhausted and getting rather silly. Jonathan and I are making plans for next year. He's going to bring his adorable little niece and she's going to color pictures and he'll give them away free to people who buy his books. I'm bringing my daughter and dressing her in skimpy outfits that show lots of cleavage.
One of the famous authors to whom I qave my book yesterday stops to tell me he read the first three chapters last night and was really enjoying it. That makes my day. Then one of the women who bought one of my books yesterday comes by to tell me she started reading it last night and she's about 2/3 of the way through and is loving it. Wow! There's nothing like that feeling!
Jonathan and I each get stiffed. The way the whole thing works is when people buy our books, we fill out a sales slip that they take to the volunteers at the cash register. The volunteers take the money or credit cards, then mark the pink copy of the slip"paid" and bring it back to us to get their book. In the meantime we autograph their book for them.
Jonathan and I each sell a book to a lady named Michelle. She trots off with the slips, and we autograph our books for her. She never comes back and never pays. We keep the books out all day, hoping she makes it back to pick them up but she doesn't. So tomorrow if someone named Michelle comes by, I've got a hekuva deal for her!
One lovely couple stops by. As I'm describing my book to them, I compare it to Marion Zimmer Bradley's stuff. Turns out that MZB actually performed their wedding ceremony! MZB was an ordained minister. That is so cool- They buy both of my books so obviously they are people of very good taste.
I run out of bookmarks, and I'm happy to say that I don't have very many books left-- so I won't run into that pesky weight allowance when I fly back. We are all glad when the day is over-- we've just got one more day. Hopefully people will be in a buying mood, but I've sold 27 books so I'm pleased with that. I think Chuck is the only one who's sold more than I have.
Day 4. We're all definitely very silly at this point. I get there early because I've checked out of my hotel. I sit in the food court and Chrstine and Will come up and sit down with me. Christine looks absolutely dead (but still sexy and gorgeous.) She says they were at a party last night, and she was dancing in a cage for two hours.
We go into the Exhibit Hall. Dylan comes in. Christine lays down on the floor, and he gives her a massage. Then he gives Will a massage. He asks me if I want one. I say "No" but change my mind later when I turn my neck the wrong way. Dylan comes over and rubs my neck. Ahhhhh!
We're all tired and not trying too hard to sell. Chuck and Barbara both wander off and leave Dylan in charge of their booth. I ask him if he's got Chuck's sales pitch memorized. He replies, "Yeah. Buy a book for $20, get a free t-shirt."
Jonathan and I put our heads together and decide that we should have told people that if they'd buy one of our books for $20, we'd buy them one of Chuck's shirts.
Chuck and Barbara wander back. Barbara shows us the pictures she had taken of her with Kevin Sorbo. We all make fun of Jonathan because he frequently wanders off, leaving his booth in the capable hands of his brother. Today his brother goes off and leaves Jonathan in charge of the booth. The rest of us get up and tell Jonathan he's in charge of EVERYONE'S booth and start to walk off. He kangaroo-naps Tommy. I order him to put the kangaroo down and take a picture to send to his fiance' to let her know what kind of man she is marrying.
We sell some books. The day passes very slowly. Lots of people wander by but they've spent all their money. I am out of bookmarks so I hand them rolodex cards with our URL on it. I continue to take pictures.
Jonathan's brother comes back, and I give him the book I had signed for Michelle yesterday since she never came back. I insert "To Doug who is not Michelle" by her name so he will know it's for him.
Finally it's 4:00 and they clear the Exhibit Hall. All the Exhibitors cheer. We start to pack up our stuff. Mine's easy because I have my roller suitcases so I just stuff everything in there. We all hug and talk about coming back next year. Barbara gives me a canvas bag from their booth.
I've sold 33 or 34 books so I'm happy. Jonathan and I agree to keep in touch and start planning for next year so we can blow Chuck out of the water. I've had a blast and made tons of terrific contacts. Plus, I hope I've generated a lot of traffic for our site.
After four days of incessant contact with other people, constant smiling and pretending to be nice, it is a relief to get to my aunt and uncle's house where I am totally out of contact except through my cell phone. I have two loo-oong slo-ooo-ooow days before I have to come back to the hustle and bustle of the city.
