Posted on by

Wondercon wrap up

So this Wondercon, I sold out of my newest book – Encoding Bushido.

That has never happened with any of my books. I also sold out of one of my prints, and sold some of each print I took to the show. That never happens to me either.

Apparently I managed to get into the flow of the moment and was mostly prepared for the wave of people who flocked to the show this year.

I think many artists who do shows like these manage to ride the wave of periodic regularity – one year, you do great, the next, not so much.

I never had a wave, as a matter of fact most shows seem to deliver the same flat results for me no matter what. Breaking even seemed to be a long running theme and this year the ONLY thing I changed was a more vertical display of my products.

One thing I am definitely going to look into is a hotel room – even though I don’t live too far from Wondercon, beating traffic on those first days is just too brutal for me now.

So thanks to everyone who showed up, bought a book or print – there were so many familiar faces this year it was kind of comforting.

This year was the first time I set up before the show started – I usually just register, show up on the day of and set up in a few minutes. My setup is incredibly simple so I didn’t see any benefit to spending more money on another day of parking. It was more for experience points, I guess. But in the future, should I ever expand to a booth, I know a little more what to expect.

Some customers surprised me – there are always new artists earnestly searching for advice or wisdom – which I can provide in the form of stories and warnings from the front lines. I guess you could call that wisdom – but I spoke to a newly minted editor with impostor syndrome, a cartoonist looking for new creator friends, and an aspiring comic artist soon to graduate and possibly making a pivot into concept art. Lots of stories.

My favorite stories I told in a set of tweets:
 
Started the cons with this: