Canister X – A.P. FuchsWriter, Artist, Creator
This will mark my third year in a row appearing at the Kids Fringe Festival here in Winnipeg.
I’ll be there July 24 from 3-7pm and will be bringing books, with, I think, superheroes and zombies being the orders of the day.
Come downtown to the Exchange and visit awhile. Bring your family.
Convention Basics: Five Tips to Make Your Book Stand Out
Convention Basics: Five Tips to Make Your Book Stand Out
This article was originally published January 7, 2016 on the Operation Awesome Blog.
With so many writers these days focusing all their marketing efforts on-line, they’re putting themselves in a corner and limiting their exposure. Off-line sales are where the bread and butter is at if you play your cards right.
I’m talking conventions, which are basically glorified book signings.
Since 2007, I’ve been tabling at Central Canada Comic Con here in Winnipeg, a giant comic book convention. This show is also a big part of my paycheck, and my books fit right in because I write nerdy stuff like monster stories, superhero fiction and sci-fi.
A lot has been learned about having a successful show over the years. Here are some convention basics to get you and your book(s) started:
1. Display
Have an eye-catching display. When competing against so many other booths and tables, you need to stand out. Bring a tablecloth because not all shows provide them. Use signage, big ones, like 11”x17” set up on stands so folks catch sight of your book’s cover or what the deal of the day is. Want to really stand out? Get a big banner printed up, one you can put behind you. This can display your name and what you do. It can feature your book covers, a web address. Lots of options.
By all means, lay your books flat if you want, but if you prop them up on book stands, all the better. It raises them above the table and draws the eye. Simple picture frame stands work fine. I use iPad ones because they compact better for transport.
Have a series? Lay them out in order of reading.
Write in multiple genres? Organize them as such on the table. Makes it easier to direct the customer to what’s what.
2. Pricing
Big sales point. Offer convention-only pricing. I do ten dollars a novel, five bucks a novella. I make sure the customer knows the convention is the only place to get the deal. Get my stuff at a store or on-line and you’ll pay more. Everyone likes saving money.
You can also bundle your books. Have a series? Instead of three books at ten beans each, how about three for twenty-five? You can also do a buy-two-get-one-free thing. Whatever works for you provided you come out in the black all things considered.
3. Book Stock
Better to bring more books than necessary. Nothing worse than selling out and having someone want something. With time and experience, you’ll learn your top sellers and will stock up accordingly. For a first-time show, I recommend at least fifteen copies of each title. If you only have one book out, bring at least twenty.
4. Miscellaneous Items
Scatter bookmarks and business cards around your table. If someone doesn’t buy something, at least you can send them off with a card for a potential after sale.
5. You
Be courteous, be nice, give the customer the time of day. Don’t be a fake. Answer their questions honestly. Be active. Don’t squirrel yourself away behind your table. Say hi to people as they walk past. Smile. And, please, don’t do the lonely-author thing where you sit there staring at folks, the look in your eyes saying, “Please come talk to me.” Just be cool. Relax. With time and experience, you’ll find what works for you in your personable approach. Ultimately, be yourself. This isn’t a show.
There’s so much to expand on regarding the above, but space doesn’t allow it. Why not sound off in the comments below and exchange tips and tricks with your fellow authors? I’ll tune in when I can and do the same.
Just got off the phone with Coles Bookstore in Kildonan Place here in Winnipeg and locked down a signing for June 18, 1-3pm. It’s a Saturday.
I’ll be signing copies of Mech Apocalypse and, if I have all my ducks in a row, my new zombie diary book, Zomtropolis.
Come one, come all.
See you there.
On May 7 from 10 – 5pm I’ll be at Galaxy Comics here in Winnipeg as part of their annual local creator showcase that takes place on Free Comic Book Day. This will be the third year they’re doing it and a third time for me.
Some local creator friends will also be there, but I don’t have the final list so can’t share, unfortunately. Regardless, it’ll be a good time. It’s a nice intimate setting. I was told maybe 8-10 tables, so a mini-con, in a way. We’ll be on the upstairs level of the store.
Join me.
Today I committed to appearing at C4’s Winnipeg Pop Culture event on April 9th and 10th at the RBC Convention Centre. This will be the first time in two years C4 has hosted a spring two-day event. The last two-day event was in 2013, and in 2014 and 2015 they held a couple of one-day events–one in the spring, one in early fall–before the big show toward the end of the year.
I’m looking forward to it and getting my geek on. My plan is to bring the whole catalogue just like I did for Horror Con. I still have a small amount of free copies of A Stranger Dead available so these will be given away with each purchase. Offer good while supplies last, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. Not getting anymore in because that book is long out-of-print.
Look forward to seeing you there.
On February 13th and 14th I’ll be at C4’s first St. Valentine’s Day Horror Con at the RBC Convention Centre here in Winnipeg. I’m looking forward to it because I have a ton of monster fiction and it’ll be a good chance to connect with readers who will be there looking for that sort of material. I’m excited to see how it goes. As a bonus, I still have some copies of A Stranger Dead available and will be giving those away with each purchase. (Good while supplies last.)
Stop by and tell me about your favorite monster.
Hope to see you there.
Show hours run:
Friday – 2pm – 9pm
Saturday – 9am – 7pm
Sunday – 10am – 5pm
I plan on being there from open until close each day. If, by chance, you come by my table and I’m not there, it means I’ve stepped out for a few minutes to stretch my legs but will be back shortly. Just hang tight. Likewise, if you have any books you’d like signed, bring them down and I’d be happy to sign them for you.
See you then.
This is the official website of Canadian author and cartoonist A.P. Fuchs.
I’m the author of over 30 books with more being created all the time. I write from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and am in the midst of a ton of deadlines, which is why this website will be quiet for a while. My main conduits to the outside world are Twitter and my newsletter, which is sent out weekly. To keep up-to-date with me, those two are your best options. I do pop in on Facebook once in a while, but will be scaling that back as I work off-line to finish a couple manuscripts and start some new ones.
I bid you all well. Keep warm this winter.
Can You Just Start A Publishing Company?
Can You Just Start A Publishing Company?
This entry was prompted because I’ve come across it more than once. Three times, to be exact, so I figure it’s worth blogging about.
Authors and starting their own publishing company.
This is the approach to publishing I strongly advocate in Getting Down and Digital: How to Self-publish Your Book. It’s my opinion that taking the time to set up a publishing business the proper way opens doors to taking your self-publishing career in multiple positive directions, on-line and off-.
But can you just start a publishing company? On three separate occasions I’ve seen authors simply “start companies,” that is, just making up a business name and start and/or plan to publish under it without registering it through the proper channels.
While the nuances of business start-up rules vary country to country, state to state, province to province, if a person wants to start a company, there is a certain way to go about it because each industry functions on different rules of trade and sales depending on where you live.
When I started Coscom Entertainment and any if its imprints, I had to go to the Companies Office downtown, fill out paperwork, explain what my business was and pay a fee. This was in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
I know from speaking with other Canadian and US publishers that they, too, had to go through a formal procedure to get their company up and running.
But I have also seen authors pull a company out of thin air and aim to start using it. I don’t know if this is simply because they don’t know any better or if it’s because of all the Kindle talk that people think all areas of publishing are free and one can do whatever they want when it comes to it. Or maybe, like most writers and artists, money is hard to come by so they want to do things as cheaply as possible and free is about as cheap as it gets. Perhaps it’s the Internet mentality because a lot of people view the Web as a “place to get stuff free” so why not start up a company for free, too? The problem with this kind of free is it’s unethical. Why create the groundwork of your career on something that’s wrong? It’ll only lead to problems down the road.
The publishing industry is changing, this is true, and things are not what they used to be–and this extends past the whole eBook thing–but other things have remained, and that is the need to properly start a business if setting up a publishing house is part of your self-publishing plan.
If you’re not sure what to do, pull out your phone book and look up your local Companies Office. Tell them what you plan on doing–publish books–and they’ll let you know what you need to do so that if your business is ever looked into, you can produce the proper paperwork that states you are allowed to run your business whether out of your home or an outside office. Likewise, when it comes tax time and you claim your writing income, claiming it under a company might work to your advantage in terms of write-offs. Talk to an accountant about this as the rules vary place to place.
In the end, if you wish to self-publish via your own imprint, part of the deal is registering that imprint with the proper authorities.
Start your career on the right foot. It can only payoff in the end.
As per my last post, the project right now is to reread The Axiom-man Saga thus far. It took a few days to get going, but now I’m in the midst of reading the first book. It’s strange reading it as just a reader versus going over it for edits. I admit that the editor side of my brain is looking at ways to tweak this or change that, but then I remember that I’m reading it for the joy of reading it and also to take notes, no other reason. A writer’s work is never done, it seems. The book was also written by a different guy some eight years ago. I was a different man back then with a different writing style.
It is cool, however, to see the character in his infancy, to see him stumble along as he tries to figure out this whole superhero thing. At the time the story takes place, he’s only been at it four months, a time frame that isn’t long enough for someone to be truly adept at being a hero. It’s also neat considering I know where the story goes and is going, and I’m looking at Axiom-man thinking, Man, you have no idea of the scope of things ahead of you, how your universe and the reason for your existence is this huge thing and here you are still getting used to wearing a costume beneath your clothes.
Like the picture shows, I’ve been taking notes, little things that I want to mention in the upcoming four-book arc or things simply for me to keep in mind while writing it. The main points I’m after are mythology-related and certain items that foreshadow where I’m ultimately leading everybody. I want to make sure I don’t leave anything out because the upcoming storyline is meant to wrap up everything that’s come before.
After reading this first book, it’s onto First Night Out, which takes place between the “Four months earlier . . .” segments of Axiom-man and the novel’s main story.
Like last entry, I’m asking for those who’ve read the series to come forward and write reviews. Reviews help spread the word and I’m hoping to grow The Axiom-man Saga in the coming year into something more prominent in the superhero fiction market.
On a side note, I’m tabling at the Winnipeg Comic and Toy Expo this Sunday at the Viscount Gort Hotel in Winnipeg. Hope those in town can come out, say hi, and talk superheroes with me.
Until next time . . .
