How to Handle Conventions Like a Boss

Kel McDonald at a convention

Kel McDonald, author of Sorcery 101 and Misfits of Avalon, has posted some wonderful advice on how to prepare for and set up at conventions.

If you’re there for business, not just as a fan, then there are many solid tips in this piece about things to consider, including:

I need to pick which shows I go to. Since convention sales are a big part of my income [it] really comes down to profit margins…. The other side of this is sometimes it means not returning to shows where I can have fun and see a lot of friends. I’m probably never going back to MoCCA because the tables are $450 (last I checked a few years ago) and a plane ticket cross country is $400-600. So it means even if I crash at a friends […] I would need to sales twice as much as Rose City to just break even.

Kel also discusses how to decide how many books to bring (a popular question) as well as what to do if you sell out in order to not disappoint customers and how to effectively display what you have for sale.

I do individual price tags because … People only spend like 30 seconds reading signs. So a giant price list is less likely to be read than an individual price tag.

Kel shares my dislike of the giant wall of prints. It makes the artist look like they’re a coin-operated machine, poking out of a little hole.

Kel McDonald at a convention

Kel McDonald at a convention



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