Birmingham ComicCon 2013 is over

Thanks first of all to the NEC parking staff who made sure everyone got to the right unloading area and car park despite the poor signposting.

No thanks second of all to the poorly signposted junctions in the NEC complex which lost me twenty minutes of queueing before I was directed back down the way I came to the hidden exhibitor’s gate. Then I lost time later trying to find the (also unsignposted) exhibitor’s car park. At least if I go again I’ll know, but this part was highly confusing.

Anyway, setup was quick and easy and before I knew it the early entry ticket people were in and I sold my first books just into the second hour! (massive relief)

I had been increasingly nervous in the run up to the event, mainly from uncertainty as this was my first ever Con as a seller, but as it happened I was fine on the day and after a few hours of chatting to people interested enough to stop and ask questions I had no problems grabbing people to look or handing out my voucher bookmarks.

By day two myself and Lyn had our book and sales pitch down pat and were actively engaging anyone who came over. Sales-wise wasn’t as good as Saturday but overall I did just below my expectations, gained a lot of experience, found a few new Twitter followers and digital sales from the vouchers and ended Sunday tired but happy.

Highlights were the massive Storm Trooper parade that went right past my stand at 2pm each day, the huge 40k Space Marine cosplay, the energetic young guy who stopped past my stand and asked me to do a video interview for his YouTube channel (sorry mate I forgot the name of it, give me a shout and I’ll add a link), a female Loki in chains who I overheard saying on her way past as she pointed to my book KILLING GODS: “I’m not sure I like the title of that book”, the helpful lady on the stand to my left who passed on invaluable info about the event and of course the cute sickly meerkat I got to stroke on the Northants Monkey Sanctuary stand the other side of me. Go give those guys a donation btw, Adam had been working overnight between both days to look after the animals as well as driving there and back to man the stand with his colleague Jo, so I could tell they were hugely dedicated to their animals.

And thanks of course to everyone who bought my books for taking a punt on an unknown author just starting out. Much appreciated and I hope you enjoy them!