Over the weekend of November 1-3, I attended the Emerald City Steampunk Expo in Wichita. This was its third year; I missed it last year, so this was the second time I'd been here.
As with other cons over the last few years, I bought a table in the dealer room. I sold 29 books this year. That's pretty good for this year. That compares with just 8 books sold back in 2011!
I was looking over the post for the 2011 ECSE; that was the first event that I made up a brochure to hand out to people, whether they bought books or not. I gave out brochures this year with every sale, and I handed out at least a dozen more. I never know if they help get books sold down the road, but it's an inexpensive way to get my name out at cons and other events.
I didn't put in for any panels this time around. The only panel I attended, and that was for a few moments at the start, was one on con horror stories. I had one to share. Nothing terrible happened to me at this con; the story is more "here's the tale of the hotel that this con was held at."
There were familiar faces there, including several I'd just seen at Encounters a few weeks ago. I met some new people as well, which is always fun. I talked up a few other cons to some vendors to give them ideas for places to go for next year. I also talked writing and books. If the con continues I'd be happy to return next year.
As it happens, I don't have any more events scheduled for this year. I plan to be at two cons next year, with more likely. I may also have a signing in Wichita next year. I'll try to do an event wrap-up later in December.
More books will be coming out before the end of the year, and I have two writing posts on deck, so keep coming back!
