Last weekend I had a booth at a local Halloween Comic Con, held at The Markets on Flinders, in Adelaide CBD. There were local indie authors (who wrote science fiction, fantasy and steampunk), local artists and comic book creators, as well as the usual purveyors of pop culture memorabilia.
I tried not to spend any money. I really did. But…
There was someone selling old books. I fell in love with a book: The Illustrated News Record on the Glorious Reign of Queen Victoria. It had pictures and news articles on Queen Victoria’s coronation, marriage and events up to 1901. Great for research.
We trialed a new set up, with a sunshade to delineate area, a black cloth (it was Halloween, after all) to make the items ‘pop’ and two new display boxes – in keeping with Halloween theme and my ‘branding’ (I do hate that word, however, being consistent in my ‘look’ improves my chances of being recognised among the many other authors and creatives out there.
And it worked! Two attendees mentioned they found me as they recognised my booth (woot!) and two more recognised my covers and wanted the second book. (Double woot!)
There wasn’t as many costumes this year. It could have been the extreme heat on the Saturday (predicted for 30 deg C, after we had been enjoying high teens), followed by another cold day of rain and strong winds (some areas had damage). I did love this mad scientist costume – she put this together herself.
We dressed in our steampunk attire. I wore my ‘new’ upcycled black outfit on Sunday.
Unfortunately one of my books was filched. I thought I was imagining it but, no. When we did the end of the day tally (book stock take, sale tallies and money) there was definitely one missing. This left me disappointed and needing to sell more books on the Sunday, to make up for the money lost.
<insert complaints about how hard it is to make any money anyway.>
Sigh.
Oh, well. Perhaps I should take it as a compliment – someone wanted my book so desperately, they stole it? I just hope they enjoy it and they bloody well better write a review on Goodreads!
On the upside, I caught up with some friends and met new people. I had interesting conversations, chatted with other local indie authors and artists. I made some connections, learnt new things and picked up some useful tips to help with some ideas I have for possible new directions in my work and future events. I also got to chat about steampunk and the fun I have coming up with story ideas and doing research. This definitely outweighed the unfortunate events.
A big hello to my new readers, followers on Facebook and visitors to my pages. I hope to chat to you again soon. Please come and say hello at Supanova.
It’s like that ad:
Research books: $20. Books stolen: $16. Connections and conversations: Priceless.
Art and Photos:©2016 Karen J Carlisle. All Rights Reserved.
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