Selling when things are shit
I won’t lie, two weeks ago, we wrapped up Ignite Denver a few days before social distancing was the order the day (we were about two days before the venue decided to close up). I thought, “You know this sucks, but things will continue like normal, more or less. It’ll just be inconvenient for a while.” I couldn’t have been more wrong. We’re now in week two of social isolation and self-quarantine. Everything is closed except grocery stores, pharmacies and (here in CO) dispensaries. 180,000 people in CO filed for unemployment last week. Things are shit. People (rightfully so, I mean tomorrow is scary, four months might as well be four years from now) aren’t thinking about conferences. They’re not buying tickets, not signing up to speak. Sponsors are waiting…
A Year and Decade in Review
Welp, we’ve passed the Winter Solstice, and in just a few hours we’ll be saying goodbye not just to 2019, but to the 2010’s. I’ve never been a resolution maker but I do like to look back on what I’ve done, what I wanted to do etc. So where are we (the royal we)? The 2010’s saw the birth of my professional writing career. Technically I’ve been paid for my writing for years, as a copy and tech writer, a resume writer, etc. But fiction, that’s new. Plus I stopped selling my non-fiction writing services years ago. If you’d asked me ten years ago if I thought I’d be a writer that makes money I’d have laughed. If you’d asked if I thought I could ever make a living as…
In Person Events
I decided around mid-year to start putting myself out there as an author, like in person, in front of other people, outside my house. On top of looking for opportunities, I said yes to any that came along. To date, I’ve had: A two-hour spot at MileHiCon (see here. They’re not written off, but close) A booth (two days) at Rocky Mtn Con Three 2 hour blocks at the CO Country Christmas Gift Show at the Denver Merchandise Mart. This was via CAL Who had a large co-op booth. A local Author happy hour at my local (and excellent) indie bookstore, BookBar. The Events It’s been a mixed bag to be sure. MileHiCon was a bust. But it was only for two hours. During Rocky Mtn Con, there were a…
My First Con(vention) Experience
So this past weekend participated in MileHiCon. It was… Just ok. I don’t put any blame on the organizing team per se. It sounds like last year they went really big (50th Anniversary), and this year the programming chair took ill and ignored (Probably rightly if they were ill) email starting in April (Not sure why they didn’t say something sooner, shrug) I had a 2 hour slot in the Author Co-Op, a shared table space next to Author’s Row. I also had a seat on a panel. I ended up paying for an extra ticket (I bought a ticket for nicole and myself at the end of September) but that’s ok, it wasn’t a lot, and the volunteers didn’t seem to have a ton of information (even those assigned…
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