So, as you probably concluded after reading my five-part report this week, New York’s show is truly becoming the East Coast equivalent of the San Diego Comic Con, which is a good thing, especially for those of us who can’t afford to make the trip West. It’s a place to see and be seen, and to promote your projects—but how well does that work for the average small presser who’s trying to at least make back the cost of their booth? Not so well, in my case.
To be brutally honest, I made less money at this year’s con than in 2011. In fact, sales were only slightly better at NYCC than the previous month’s Brooklyn Book Festival, at which I sold as many copies of Blood Feud in one day as I did in all four days of NYCC.
How could that be, when there were even more people in attendance at NYCC than last year?
Was it the location? The past two years my booth had been close to Artists Alley, which helped to slow the normally frantic pace of the crowds and spill some of the foot traffic in my direction, but this year AA had been moved to the Javits Center’s North Pavilion— a separate building quite a distance from the main show floor—and the small-press area (where The ’Warp’s booth was) was separated from mainstream publishers by the enormous (and loud) gaming islands. Also, unlike 2011, it seemed as though librarians who might order ’Warp titles for their communities were happy to stay over by Publishers Row—where houses like TOR and Pantheon and Hachette were clustered. They didn’t seem to venture past the gaming companies, over to the south side of the hall where The ’Warp was set up.
And trust me, The ’Warp wasn’t the only exhibitor feeling the lack of love in the room. When other small-press creators come around, asking if you’re having as much of a sucky show as they are, or you see a pair of artists who are sharing a booth close up shop early two out of the four days because no one’s buying anything, you know the show’s not quite the big-con experience you were hoping for.
Was it the fact that the second Pandora Zwieback novel, Blood Reign, wasn’t ready in time for the show? No, that wasn’t it. Other than a handful of Pan-atics who stopped by to chat and pick up the limited edition Blood Reign Preview I made available (containing an unedited version of the book’s first chapter), everyone else I’d talked to was either a brand-new fan buying a copy of Blood Feud, or a potential new one considering a digital purchase from Amazon or Barnes & Noble after the con. (And thanks to all those Pan-atics who offered words of encouragement—it makes all the hard work worth the effort!)
Was it the audience? Mainstream comics fans, gaming junkies, and anime/manga devotees were the people I was trying to attract, but I’ve noticed that in the past few years fandom has become extremely compartmentalized—anime fans love anime, gaming fans love gaming, mainstream comic fans love mainstream comics, indie and webcomic fans love indie titles and webcomics. That’s it. There seems to be a severe lack of interest in trying new things, a distinct change from when I was doing con tours in the 1990s and people were willing to experiment with their reading choices.
It is true that anime fans (and there were legions of them in attendance) have little interest in non-anime things (a warning my buddy J. D. Calderon once gave me because he knows the scene), so I wasn’t surprised to see cosplayers literally turning up their noses as I tried to pitch them on Pan’s adventures, or just hand them a promotional bookmark. Not even having the leader of the Japanese vampire clan in the first two novels displayed on the banner helped—and she’s dressed in Elegant & Gothic Lolita fashion. In fact, the last sale of the con was to an anime cosplayer who wanted to know about Pan—but first had to break away from a friend who literally dragged her away from the booth while I was watching! (That girl, BTW, did buy Blood Feud. Victory is mine!)
But blaming the con attendees for poor sales would be like the Yankees blaming the fans and their booing for costing the team the American League Championship in this year’s playoffs against the Detroit Tigers.
Oh, wait, they did blame the booing… 😉
Maybe not enough people knew where to find the booth? A very good possibility. Trying to get the attention of bloggers and genre news sites is almost a full-time occupation—if you’re not a major publisher, few of them will bother to give you any coverage. Often I have to ask superfan Richard Boom and his Boom Art Department to help spread the word about ’Warp projects—he’s got an extensive mailing list—but even that‘s not a guarantee that our press releases will be run. So, yes, lack of press coverage can be a huge part of the problem, and if people don’t know where to find you, sales will of course be adversely affected.
Was it the economy? Were attendees watching their dollars? Doubtful. Con-goers don’t usually think in terms of budgetary limits—they spend money until they’re out of cash. I’m used to hearing excuses from people like “I’d love to buy it right now, but I just spent all my money,” or “I have to get more money, but I’ll be right back” (which, 9 times out of 10, means you’ll never see them again). And in my Day 2 report I told the story of the girl who couldn’t buy a copy of Blood Feud because she’d already planned to spend the majority of her money at the Adventure Time booth… in order to obtain a free bag. (FYI, it’s not free if you have to spend money to get something.) So, fiscal responsibility—not a major concern.
Was it because I was selling books at a comic convention? I wouldn’t think so. True, you’ll never confuse NYCC with the Brooklyn Book Festival, but like San Diego Con, this show is becoming less about comic books and more about… everything. Gaming. Anime. Hollywood. Craftsman Tools had an NYCC booth, for Pete’s sake! (Nice motorcycle, huh?) So did the Hard Rock Café, the New York Times, and Hallmark (although they were selling genre-related Christmas ornaments, so they had an excuse for being there). Chevrolet was displaying cars wrapped in comic book imagery—anyone interested in a car based on the Goon comic? Or Saga? So, it wasn’t the titles I was offering—hell, I’d been promoting the Lorelei graphic novel for four days, two of them alongside one of the book’s artists, and that thing’s just a really thick comic. Besides, you had all those Publishers Row booths, and they were selling books.
So why the reduction in sales? It’s a question I still haven’t found an answer to, even two weeks later. Maybe I need to upgrade to a Publishers Row booth next year, finances permitting, and try to catch those librarians’ attention…
Guess we’ll find out in 2013, huh? 😉
