June was amazing: I had three events scheduled and successfully completed. I also managed to get halfway through writing chapter 2 of the 3rd book in the Cyborg Dreams trilogy. Things are looking pretty good from where I sit. Two books published in 2018 already, and we're only halfway through the year! Yay!

The three events (Half Price Books Signing, Brick & Mortar Books Indie Author Night, and ACE Comic Con) each had their pros and cons. I learned a lot from all of them.

Half Price Books Signing:
 Pros:
Very easy set-up. Little prep needed. No cost. Good advertising/PR. Sold a few books.
 Cons:
I was tucked away from main traffic. Sat right next to another author of a very different genre.

I would do that event again in a heart-beat, and might next year or at another Half Price Books in the local area. However, next time I will try and sit alone and get more visibility (closer to door).


Brick & Mortar Books Indie Author Night:
 Pros:
Great visibility (hundreds more Twitter followers). Meeting other authors is fun and great connections. Sold a few books.
 Cons:
For how much time it took and how many people were there I expected to sell more books. I looked around and only a few other authors out of the 17 total authors had anyone come up and get their book signed. So, not a lot of book sales per author overall. The venue took 40% of the profit, which is a bit steep for their contribution.

I would do this again, just have much lower expectations as far as book sales and maybe negotiate a lowered fee for the venue.



ACE Comic Con:
 Pros:
So fun!!! Getting to see everyone in costume was amazing. There was a Cinder-Hela and a Rambo-Bright as well as many Marvel comic favs like Loki, Thor and Captain America. My husband and sister both helped out and dressed up. One little girl actually said she was in love with my husband (she loved Vegeta from DragonBallZ) and kind of stalked him a bit, it was cute. I sold a ton of books! Much more than expected though I didn't sell out. Based on my research I expected to sell between 33-100 books over the weekend, and much closer to the lower end because it was my first Comic Con and because I am not that well known yet. I sold 48 books! I also met a few vendors that were amazing and a guy named Shawn Lance who gave me tons of tips, especially on booth barnacles. I met other authors and have almost 50 new people signed up to receive news about Cyborg Dreams.
 Cons:
It was expensive, especially when you count how much we spent on artwork ourselves (it was hard to resist!).

I would love to do this again! I learned so much. Some of the items I worked on worked out well and some did not. The t-shirts ended up not coming in time from Zazzle even though I paid for expedited shipping. They reimbursed me, but I didn't have them for the Comic Con so I won't know how those do. I had read ahead of time that giving out fliers to get people to come to your booth would work, but only one person all weekend came back with a flier. Having a sign-up sheet to give away prizes and engaging with passerby's did work-out very well.


So, what is next? The book launch party for the second book, of course!!! :D I created an Eventbrite and Facebook event and updated my Amazon Author Page and Goodreads Author Page with the event details. Save the date! August 5th, 5-7pm in Lynnwood, WA at SubSpace Comics. :D