So, in the beginning of this month I attended my first con as an author. The convention was Fredrikstad SciFi Festival and we were there for two days, Friday and Saturday, for roughly 8-9 hours each day. I had my little table in the artists’ alley stocked with regular books, special editions, bookmarks, buttons, bookish bracelets and stickers.

All my merch showed up on time for the convention, I had my books, the vibe was good and I was sitting next to two really talented and very nice comic book artists and book illustrators, Sara and Kim.

The audience and participants at the festival were a little younger that expected, which I think affected my sales somewhat. So over the two days we were there I had a total of 25 sales – only 6 of those were books (and 2 of those were to my stand neighbors lol). But every time someone was interested in buying the book, I managed to upsell them the special edition which was slightly more expensive. More monies for treats for me!

Three sales were bookish bracelets and the rest were stickers and buttons. The bookmarks didn’t do too great, and one of the stickers – the little lion man – didn’t sell at all. I’ve updated that sticker since, hopefully that will help sell it at the next con. Bookmarks are more of a marketing tool, so that’s fine. Moneywise I broke more or less even, which I’m pretty happy about.

All in all it was a very educational experience and a pretty good first con. The Fredrikstad SciFi Festival is quite inexpensive as far as cons in Norway go, which makes it more accessible to smaller vendors and people who are just starting out.