I"m pretty flamboyant, but even I wouldn't wear this to the office. I have a party coming up at the end of the week, I might debut it then.
The first thing I actually bought was The World’s Greatest Search and Discover Poster, a 3 foot by 6 foot feast for the eyes and imagination. WGSD is like the ultimate “Where’s Waldo” type puzzle there are dozens of items to find hidden in hundreds of images.
Ostensibly, I got it for my niece to play with when she visits, but I’m already planning to hang it in my writing space for those times when I need a little distraction. My two-year-old nice, came over last week and I broke out the poster. Searching for the items she picked in The World's Greatest Search and Discover Poster held her attention for a good 10 minutes. That's like an hour for a two-year-old.
The best con swag I got was the 21, yep 21, free books I collected from publisher’s row. The major publishing houses all had booths and part of the attraction was hourly signings and book giveaways. Thanks big six, my reading list is full three months or so. I can’t wait to dive in.
The book haul:
- Pariah, Bob Fingerman
- Gardens of the Moon, Steven Erikson
- Under the Never Sky, Veronica Rossi
- Shatter Me, Tahereh Mafi
- Gossip Girl Psycho Killer, Cecily Von Ziegesar
- Awakenings, Edward Lazellari
- The Iron Hunt, Marjorie M. Liu
- Shadow Ops: Control Point, Myke Cole
- Across The Universe, Beth Revis
- All Men of Genius, Lev AC Rosen
- Halo Evolutions Essential Tales of the Halo Universe Vol 1
- Into the Storm, Taylor Anderson
- Planet Tad, Tim Carvell
- The Lost Fleet Dauntless, Jack Campbell
- Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
- The Warded Man, Peter V. Brett
- Working Stiff, Rachel Caine
- The Demon Lover, Juliet Dark
- Cry Wolf, Patricia Briggs
- Lady Lazarus, Michele Lang
- Ripper, Stefan Petrucha
On the work side, I handed out flyers about Spirit Wolf to let people know it’s out there and let them know that Ravening, the novel that continues the story is coming soon. I gave out about 340 of them myself. I had my sister and a couple of costumed adventurers, I met in the line, helping me at various times to give out the other 500 plus. I was nervous at first, but after a while engaging the people became a game. I never knew who would stop and take one of my flyers. I can’t wait to see how many of them take the next step and download Spirit Wolf.
I learned some lessons about working conventions and doing my marketing in general. I had a lot of lead time to get ready for Comic Con. I didn’t use it to my best advantage. I procrastinated, so of course I ended up working down to the wire.
Also, it turned out that I was not able to offer Spirit Wolf for free on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I didn’t know that until I’d printed my free download cards. I scrapped the cards. Stressed, but undaunted I designed a flyer and had it reproduced just before leaving for Comic Con.
Despite, my rocky start, being in the creative soup that was NY Comic Con was exciting, inspiring, and quirky as hell. Artists are out there making everything imaginable, and don’t sleep on the fans. Folks use a writer’s world as a jumping off point for their own creative expression. The weekend left me so energized, I’m already looking ahead to projects for next year.
