Connecting with your fans.

I have to give credit to Sarah Allen for the idea to do this blog post.  Originally I intended to today's blog to be brief as I am almost finished with the first draft of Guardian.  I have about 5k words left to go by wrapping up the final chapter and epilogue.  So if I disappear from the blog world for a week, it will be from being out of town editing.

So lets talk about connecting with your fans for a minute.  I have not made it a secret that I am a gamer.  I play World of Warcraft, I watch the GSL and decades of pen and paper games have influenced my taste in books and movies.  This last weekend was Blizzcon.  I watched the convention online and it was awesome on a whole new level.  Attending Blizzcon is now one of my goals.  As cool as the announcement of the new World of Warcraft expansion was, or what changes Heart of the Swarm for Starcraft 2 is bringing and even better than Diablo 3.  None of these were as epic as the October GSL finals held at the end of the first day.  HOLY CRAP!

First off Blizzard is an anomaly in the video game world.  Every game they have made is pure gold and they are making bank from it.  They are not the gold standard, they are far past that, the Hope Diamond standard in the industry.  One of the main reasons for this is their connection with their fans.  I have been to CES in Vegas.  The hacker con DefCon for 6 years and seen the Star Trek conventions and others.  What I saw that Friday night was pure insanity.

The GSL or Global Starcraft 2 League is based out of South Korea.  Starcraft has been their national sport for more than a decade.  These kids play for prizes of up to $85,000 for first place each month.  I can hear some of the snickering stop after that.  Yes, some punk kid in Korea just won more money than you make in a year or two years from a single video game tournament.  Blizzcon this year was the first time that the GSL finals were played outside of Korea.  This is big, huge, and insane.  What if the Superbowl was played in Ireland this year?  And what if, more people from Ireland went to watch the Superbowl than any other Superbowl in history.  You will have to watch it, there is just no other way to describe it.

Back on topic, Blizzard has gone out of their way to connect with their fans.  As authors we try to spread the word about our books.  Most of us use social media like Blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.  Its simple numbers as these mediums allow us to reach the most people possible with the smallest and cheapest efforts.  The downside to this is that even though you can interact with your fans, it's distant, and impersonal.  It becomes like a TV commercial.  I am not suggesting that we abandon these, but you need to connect with your fans.  I have seen comments of mine deleted from peoples blogs.  Other blogs only allow comments after their approval.  This really bugs me and I have stopped following blogs and forums because of it.  It's hard to explain why, but as my own career  moves forward, my time becomes more valuable and scarce and I have no choice but to spend it where I feel welcome and appreciated.

So with that, I encourage you to watch the GSL October finals, even if it's only the first ten minutes when they introduce the players, or the last ten minutes when John the Translator almost breaks down and cries because of the crowd reactions.  This is connecting with your fans.  What have you done to connect with your fans?

The value of attending a conference and other musings.

I got home last night after a long drive from Las Vegas.  The DefCon 19 hacker security conference as always is a three day party.  This was my sixth year attending and every year its gotten bigger and bigger.  So what does this all have to do with writing and being an author?  Simple, go to where your audience is.

The people in this picture not only are into computers at some level, but they also want to stand in the 100+ degree Vegas heat to watch other nerds take hot beer that's been sitting out there, and watch them run it through some home made contraption to try and cool it down to a drinkable temperature.  These people are into everything besides computers.  I have never seen so many guys in kilts, and steampunk getup outside Maker Faire.

I have read several articles about the value in attending conferences.  Joe Konrath says there is no value in them.  Sure you have the opportunity to meet other writers, agents etc.  But for the non superstar author, in the end its going to cost you lot of money.  I think whats missing from the Konrath rant is that from a non superstar authors point of view, attending a writer/agent/publisher conference or awards show is that your CUSTOMER is missing.  Now if we come back to DefCon you would think that Microsoft or Adobe would want to set up a booth.  Well... no they would get tarred and feathered.  But the vendors that sell lock picking sets and smart ass tee shirts sell out quick.

I did not go to DefCon this year with the intention of selling books.  I did not have a vendor booth or do a book signing.  I took a small handful of books with me just in case the luck factor hit.  Every time I met someone and when they asked what I do for a living, I told them that I was a steampunk science fiction writer.  First, everyone knew what steampunk was, second everyone was thrilled to talk about something other than the latest exploit or vulnerability of Google.  It didn't take me long to realize that there was an unusually high concentration of my customer here.  It would have been nothing to sit at a vendor table and sell books all day long.  So in conclusion, if the conference has your customer, then its worth going to.

There is a lot of thinking time on the road to and from Vegas.  I can see the monetary value of attending the correct conference.  DefCon 20 is less than a year away.  If the trilogy is complete and enough time to secure a vendor table can be had.  That could be a very break out moment.  And Comi-Con, Maker Faire, San Japan, all could be excellent events to attend.  So while it would be neat or even an honor to attend something like the Milford SF Writers Conference, it would simply cost me money.  Everyone there is my competition or someone wanting to make money from my work, not my customer.  So my closing question to you is this.  Think about your work and where can you see being an absolute ideal place to have a lemonade stand set up to sell your book at?

Book signing results, becoming a salesman and DefCon 19.

First I would like to thank Rachna's Scriptorium for giving me The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award.  This was a nice surprise and set the tone for my whole book signing weekend.  Thank you again Rachna.


The book signing went very well.  The local paper did a nice write up in their community events page that came out Friday.  But the bigger surprise was the Sunday paper.  It wasn't big, but my book signing was printed on the front page of the paper!  How cool is that!  First my blog wins an award and two days later I'm front page news.


Once the signing started, I was a little nervous.  It's been almost two years since I last did any public speaking of any sorts.  It didn't take very long before the nerves settled and I had a lot of fun.  The part that stood out the most was a couple of ladies came in and one of them gave me a fresh cut rose.

In all I sold and signed 12 books.  For three hours on Saturday and three on Sunday it lands as a success in my book.  There have been several questions people have asked me over the last few days so I will repeat them here.


What kind of marketing did you or the cafe do?
It was setup about 2 weeks in advance, I sent a press release to the local news paper, I tweeted, set up an event on Facebook and plugged it about 4 times.  I told a lot of people in person, and I posted it on the events for our towns craigslist.


Would you be able to give us an idea of the overhead costs, revenue, and profits?
Right now I am still in the red overall for out of pocket expenses to what has come in.  However the book sold for $15 and it costs me $6.30 or so to have it made,  So each one made me about $8.  I made money doing this event, but not when you factor in all of the costs to produce a book.  This is my first book and it has only been on sale since June 20 and I only had paperbacks now for a couple of weeks.


Any weird/awkward/memorable moments?
The fresh cut rose bit stood out.


Any idea if you'll be doing more in the future?
I am working on getting one at the local Barnes and Nobles.  My sister works there but they have changed a lot of things lately.  The big thing is they won't order in POD/Non returnable books anymore w/o headquarter approval.  But what they will do is let you bring in your own books, run them through the register and they end up with a negative inventory.  The store then orders that many copies and gives them back to you and you get paid through your print distributor.


This upcoming weekend I will be attending DefCon19 in Las Vegas.  This will be my 6th year attending the conference.  They moved it from the Riviera to the Rio so it will be a new experience.  One of the ideas that I have is to get a custom tee shirt made that advertises my book.  I am going to take half a dozen copies with me and see if any of them sell.  Also I have some small cards made up that have the necessary information if they want to pick it up from Amazon or B&N.




Looking back, the book signing was everything I expected and hoped it would be.  If I could do anything different, it would have been to practice with friends or family.  Write out a script so when people ask, "What is the book about," or "How did you get it published," and other general questions, I would have had an easy answer for them instead of stopping and having to think of something on the spot.  Also if I had ten or more one liners to use other than "Thank You" or "Enjoy The Read" to write to people.  After the 4th book or so, I didn't know what to write down anymore.


I would like to hear about anyone else's experiences with book signings or if you haven't done one yet any experience that stands out with your book.