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I was just looking at a live feed from an author where she was at Apollycon a book signing convention. Has anyone ever done these before either as a guest or an attendee? How was the experience?

RL,

We did go to the IAN meeting in Denver one year and it did give us a lot of information, this was years ago when we first started out as an independent publisher.

We hired a publicist for one of our first books, it was expensive but we also learned a lot. The publicist suggested that meetings are really good to go to and said the Romance Writers of America meeting was one of the best and although it may not be your genre, it was a good meeting to go to just for general helpful information.

I also had a friend who went to a book convention in the late 80's, his booth was right next to John Grisham and they exchanged books. My friend did not do as well as Grisham, but a few years ago he needed money and sold his autographed first edition of a Time to Kill for $1000.

Thanks so much for sharing. I'm currently looking into them I think it may be fun to get involved.

My son was signed by a publisher and part of the contract was he would have to go to these convention. I think they must be fun- especially Comiccon.
I regularly put our book in the other fairs and conventions like the Bologna or China Book Fairs. I did a few this year here- they are coming up- one, I think is in Chicago- but I can't remember the name.

I'm considering the NEA convention in Boston, as my book is set in a school. Do you suppose and education convention is based solely on educational books, or is there space for fiction?

I'm sure there are spots for fiction- But call them and ask to be sure.

I've not done a book signing convention since my first book fair, but I have done other conventions where there were a significant amount of authors selling their books.

Overall, despite some conventions being a complete flop in sales, I always strive to have a good time in other ways like seeing other people's works, making new friends (both on the creator and consumer sides), goofing off and joking around with current friends. So even if I'm not selling anything at all, my experiences of conventions are generally favorable.

My biggest convention yet has been Emerald City Comicon in which I shared a table with a friend. Sales didn't pick up until the last day of the con, but they did pick up, and it made my already good experience better.

No but I want to. I've heard even when people don't know you since your an indie author that if you have a good enough book that some will check out your booth because they are interested. My only issue would be how much does a booth cost and how much does setup cost at these things. Otherwise I'd totally want to try it.

I'm not sure but there is a Romance writer one coming up that i wanted to try and go too. The price between the two conventions ranged from 200-500 but came with a ton of stuff including meals etc and you get to be on panels. These are readers, Authors and book only conventions though

Maybe sometime in the future we can coordinate and do a NavIndieWorld group at a convention. Let's keep the conversation going.

My wheels are turning with that very idea lol

Vegas, baby!

Lmao yaaas!

Yay! Vegas!

Hard eight!

NavIndieWorld yes yes yes!

Sounds like a great idea!

Yes please! Vegas is probably the closest to me that I have found! I have looked for conventions closer but sigh! Besides the huge comicon in San Diego (which romance books don't really qualify for lol) there isn't much that I have found!

I'm planning to go to Geek Girl Con in Seattle this October. I'm a member of Broad Universe and they should have a table there that I can sit at. If it goes well I may try Emerald City Comic Con, which I always attend anyway...

My cousin doesn't sell his books on Amazon or anything, he sells exclusively at Cons and seems satisfied with that.

I attend scifi/fantasy conventions. My favorite is BayCon which is coming up next month in California. There's all fandoms but a huge portion of it is folks who love books.

I'm pretty biased about BayCon though because I give out an award there every year. I can't tell you if it's a great place to meet an agent or a publisher because that's never happened to me but it's definitely a great place to meet other like-minded fans.

Oh and talking on panels is a great way to put yourself out there. You just approach them the year before and select through topics you can chat about. Since I'm a disabled combat veteran I sign up for a lot of the hidden disability panels, coping through art and creativity and military related panels.

These are great ways to publicize your books.

Carole wrote: "Vegas, baby!"

But if we go to Vegas, won't we have to stay in Vegas?

I'm all for Vegas - it's cheap!

It's my happy place!

I got a table at SoonerCon this year. June 23-25. It is in Midwest City, a suburb of Oklahoma City. It will be my first big convention. I had to wait until someone cancelled to get my table.

I was at a small convention in Denton, Texas last week. It boosted my pages read on Amazon by 2000+ pages. I can't wait to see what SoonerCon does. And, oh yes, I sold some books too. :-)

Good luck!! Sounds like fun.

Anyone know of any conventions in Boston or in Rhode Island? I'm from the area and would love to attend one but I don't really know where to look. I feel they'd be fun to be a part of and attend.

I attend Orycon (Portland) and Radcon (Tri-cities) annually, and I'm hitting Fourth Street Fantasy in MN this year, though that's a writer convention, not a fan/book convention. Most straight 'book' conventions in my area are very literary focused, which is not what I write, so I attend the scifi/fantasy fan cons.

Boston has Readercon, I think.

I just applied for a booth at the Vegas Valley Book Festival.
Not sure I will get it. Is anyone else interested in this festival? Does anybody have any information about this festival they would like to share?

http://www.vegasvalleybookfestival.or...

Love Vegas- where is it going to be at the Thomas and Mack Center or downtown. I wish I could go.

Dennis, when is the Festival? I looked at the website but didn't see a date.

http://www.vegasvalleybookfestival.org/
October 21st, 2017

Historic 5th Street School
401 S. 4th Street
Las Vegas, NV 89101