Where do we go from here?

Supanova Sydney is finally done and dusted.

This is my first convention as a vendor, and I chose this one for two reasons. I knew it because I had been going for years, but also I think my books would speak to this crowd. I was in a familiar place so that helped calm those virgin jitters a little. I found that having a friend there also helped because we could lean on each other when we needed that on-site support.

You can find Sarah's writing here amazon.com/author/sarahjhilder

We had a slow start on Friday. A few chats and only a couple of books sold between us. We were trying to stay hopeful, but we were both a little deflated. Saturday was the busiest day of the convention, and we had the most sales that day. I was aiming for twelve and doubled that so I was pleased.

The final day of the convention was better than day one, so we ended on a good feeling. We also sold a handful of badges, did some networking and found two more conventions coming up soon in Sydney. Plans and expansions are coming!

So the numbers. I sold 43 books in total over the weekend. I made enough money to cover the cost of the stall and the paper stuff (business cards, posters, and flyers) Unfortunately, I can not keep my flyers because I used the word Supanova on them. Live and learn I guess.

There were two real highlights with customers that I will forever remember fondly.

On Saturday, a woman approached the stall (Her name was Jennifer as well!), and we did the usual introduction - Hello, do you like to read? - And started introducing the books. Each book, she got more and more excited. When we got to the end, she struggled to decide on a purchase. I mean, she seemed to struggle and eventually gave in and bought them all after we offered her a free set of badges. That was fun for me as an author to watch someone struggle with a choice.

The second happened today. A man came over, grabbed Analogue and the conversation went like this. "sell me this book." "ok. $20." "sold." As I was signing the book, he told me he saw the book when he first walked in, and it was the first thing he focused on when he walked in, and he couldn't leave without it. He even said that he came looking for it, so effort on his part to buy the book. I suppose it has nothing to do with my writing but all the love to Catie McClean who worked on the cover art.

This is where you can find her https://catiem.carbonmade.com/

I found her a pleasure to work with and a great artistic eye. She took my basic idea and made it into something worth obsessing about apparently.

Overall, I think I did better than expected. I always know I could do better, but for our first convention - great response.

#supanova #writing #analogue #thankyou