My Fort Collins Comic Con Experience (as an author/vendor)

In my quest to start doing in-person events as an author, I opted not to go with the traditional book signing at a store, but instead jumped right into a local comic con. I’ve attended several cons before as an attendee (sometimes in costume,) but this was my first time as a vendor.

It was fun – but it was definitely a learning experience.

I bought vendor space for Fort Collins Comic Con (FC3), which is a smaller, 2-day event hosted about 30 minutes away from where I live. They said they had about 3000 attendees this year, which is still a lot of people when you think about it, but nowhere near the numbers of say, FanExpo Denver (which is also local.) I’m glad I started with a small one.

There was a bit of prep work I had to do before I was ready for my table. I had to buy a credit card reader and get that set up, I had to learn about local sales tax collection and how to manage it, and then there was the decor for the table itself. I had no idea how many books I should bring along, and researching that detail didn’t really help me figure it out. So I guessed and hoped it was enough (it was.)

My goal going in was to sell enough books/merchandise to pay for the table, which I did (just barely.) But that’s okay: I learned a lot, I met some other authors, and managed to connect with a local indie bookstore (Old Firehouse Books) that I didn’t know existed. And according to the other authors I talked to, most of the time, they only sold just enough to pay for their table space too, but would see orders trickle in from retailers over the next few weeks.

I offered free bookmarks to anyone who stopped by and wanted one, which was a big draw. I had tons of compliments on my cover artwork (credit goes to Jamie Noble there; he does an amazing job!) And I even had one sale based on the cover alone. The reader wanted to buy Hunted because he knew immediately it was set in Seattle based on the art. That wasn’t something I expected to have happen.

Then, of course, there were the costumes. I asked the two people helping me to take pictures while we were there, but they only came away with a few, and most of them were related to Star Wars… But anyway, there were some really great costumes to see beyond the handful of pictures I have.

It was an incredibly fun weekend, but a lot of work. I didn’t realize how much energy would go into just talking to people, but maybe that’s because I’m not usually very social.

Overall, it was a great weekend, and making connections with potential readers and other authors was invaluable.

Here are a few of the cosplay photos I came away from FC3 with: