Sunday morning came too early, but the kids and I, made our way back, this time with more mcmuffins. I asked Kitty if she wanted to come, but she was not interested. Attendance, as is typical for Sunday morning was low. So none of my games went off that morning. More time in the arcade, playing pinball. By the time 11 came rolling in, I packed my stuff and went around with the kids, shopping, talking to other writers. Letting them show me what they thought was coolest.
The next one was on Urban Fantasy, a topic I know Jojo is interested in because she reads a lot of it. As a writer, is there a better way to learn about these things? The panel and I share the opinion that defining these sub-genre is difficult. I have difficulty keeping track of them, mostly because I'm not big on them myself, so they blend into "Teens with magic somehow", but the panel sorted out a few things. I left knowing a little more. It's still not my thing but if I wanted to write for it, I have a few leads.
The next panel was one I was part of, "Selling books without being annoying". Now I must've been off for that panel. Entertaining, but off. I thought this was selling yourself/ your brand. So some of my topics may have been odd. Still I am lucky I attended this one because I learned a few good tricks I will use going forward. Now I am not a salesman. I can be, but it is not something that is natural to me. I'll get back to this later.
After that, we had an hour to pass and we attended a panel on Villanous. I thought this would be a guide to being a villain. Which it kinda was. A guy cosplaying as the main character in the show, introduced us to that show. It was funny, and he did not break character which made the presentation funnier. The kids liked it a lot.
Then I had my final panel: Gamer Shark Tank. As it was the end of the con this one did not go off, but I spoke with a pair of teachers from Davidson County schools (that's Nashville's county) about organizing a D&D club at the school. I would be willing to donate some FOE material to schools starting/ running a program for the kids. Contact me with details.
Lessons & Resolutions
I was glad to offer FOE products for the Charity Auction. I know they sold, but I wasn't able to know how much they went for. In addition to the books, I offered to run a game for the winners and run a special game for them that would have some elements that would bind the setting.
I think next year, I may opt to get a Booth or Table and only run games during the evening. This would keep in line with the "Focus on my business" resolution. With Akhamet being out now, I now feel like I have enough of a variety of products to offer different things to potential customer, more than "just" a game experience. With any luck, I may get more players than I expected for my games, create more of a buzz.
My father and my brother are natural salesmen and they are awesome at it. Me? Not so much. I hate to bother people and that is what I feel I am doing. People at cons see what we are doing, the quality of our products. How it improved like crazy from our first products in October of 2013. I grew a lot myself since that time, as a person, as a writer, as a publisher.
So Hypericon was a great success for FOE. Maybe not in the sales dept, but in the realm of learning and opening my eyes to additional avenues of expanding my business.
The kids really loved the Cosplayers and the variety of them.
I will return next year for sure.
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