Things I learned from being a trader at a comic con

So reached a milestone and had my first comic con table last weekend and here is a few things I learned while managing to sell a good copies of Tale of Return (click here if you are in the UK or Ireland and would like copy)

1. Be early to set up other wish you will have to walk a longer distance. I was wise enough to get there in plenty of time but seen a few traders come late and then have to cart there stuff round the long way because the loading bays were shut off.

2. Make friends with your neighbours. Usually you will be beside another indie creator of some kind and it was always good to make friends with them because A. They could be someone you could collaborate with in the future and B. They will encourage people to buy off you after they have been at their stall and I would suggest returning the favour and it is always good to make friends at these things.

3. More is more in this case. I only had one book to sell and at the start of the day I had a table design which left a lot of unused space and I wasn't doing that well but luckily my wife who was with me suggested we fill the table up and then we started doing a little better. 

4. If you planning to go to a Q&A panel then choose wisely. My wife was with me at this one and she went to go see the James Marsters panel, this turned out to be out busiest time (Around 2-3 on the Sunday) so this left me run off my feet by the end so just be sure if your are going to leave your panel for a table that it is definitely for someone you really want to see.

5. Try not to lose patients with time wasters. This was the hardest part form me. At comic cons you do get the people who come ask questions then leave with buying anything and these can be proper infuriating. I would suggest that you don't lose patients with these people as I got lucky as one of these people who I thought wasted my time then came back at the end of the weekend and bought 1 copy of my comic for him and 4 for his mates who couldn't make  the comic con.

Overall though the experience was fantastic and can't wait to do another comic con soon.