Leveling Up

Or Holy S#*! Book Events are Fun!

I am, as you might have surmised by this point, something of a newb. While no longer in my rookie year as an author I am still pretty new to the whole Author Life(tm) if you will. I started getting serious about being published and managed to get published back in ‘21. Which is when I discovered cons. And so, on the advice of Hillbilly over at Three Ravens Publishing, I enlisted in the LibertyCon Ticket Hunger Games and procured two tickets.¹

At that LibertyCon I learned what it was to be an attending pro. I was on a couple panels and learned a thing or two about the pro author life.² This led to me attending my first MarsCon—which takes place about 18 minutes from my house each year. I was on more panels, learned about Author/Artist Alley and selling books from a table.³

Way leads on to way and I attended two more MarsCons and now two separate book events at a local brewery. One in December, one a little more than a week ago. And now I’m scheduled for one in March and another in April!

All of this to say I feel like I am starting to level up as an author. When I started this adventure I thought that writing a story good enough people would spend money to read it was the hard part. It turns out that was the easy bit. I’m passionate about storytelling. Hell I’m downright obsessed.

Sales, marketing, engaging with people, being at cons, being on panels, moderating panels, networking with fellow authors and local business owners. Those are just a few of the things that any author needs to do if they plan on paying bills with their storytelling. And I am not obsessed or passionate about most of those things. Hell, I didn’t know some of those things existed four years ago.

I will say this though. I really enjoy being at Cons and dong local book events. Those are super fun. If you happen to be in South-East Virginia on March 15th or April 18th swing by Sojourn Fermentory out in beautiful Suffolk Virginia you can pick up signed copies of my books and or we can have a beer and talk nerdy.

1. Yes the odds were in my favor. No, no authors were harmed in the aforementioned procurement.

2. Chief among which was that much happens after hours and over drinks and or in the winding down of the Kaffeeklatsch (something else I’d no experience with until my first Con)

3. I am, by nature, an extrovert and still I struggled with selling. More on this at a later date.