I just returned from my first Comicon and now I finally understand all the excitement, all the hype.  What a great time!  From life-sized R2D2 robots roaming the aisles to thousands of fans dressed in every imaginable costume, to television stars and well-known authors, there is so much to see and do at comicon it was more than a little overwhelming.

I missed a lot of the fan-focused events and sights of comicon because I went as a vendor.  I volunteered at the booth of Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert along with my daughter Kate and several other volunteers.  They were promoting both their big new books published through Tor (Mentats of Dune as well as Hellhole Awakening) as well as the many titles they are now releasing through Wordfire Press (Clockwork Angels, Hair Raising, The Dragon Business, and more).

It proved to be a great opportunity to not only associate with these great authors but also to see how a successful vendor booth is set up and managed during an event like Comicon.  Peter J Wacks, author of Bloodletting, oversaw the entire effort and openly shared his wisdom gained through years of working conventions as a comic book vendor.  I learned a ton through the experience, including among the other things:

• Wear comfortable shoes.  By the end of each day, my feet were killing me even though I was wearing pretty good shoes.
• Don’t ever think you’ve seen the best, or worst, costume yet.  You will be proven wrong.
• A well-designed booth makes a huge difference, particularly for those of us who are not so well known that fans come hunting us down.
• There’s a lot more art to presentation of a good booth than I ever imagined.  Take a look at our booth to get an idea of how a good one is set up. 
• Make sure any technology, like credit card processing Squares or tablets to collect email addresses are charged and functioning.  Those last-minute scrambles to deal with the glitches that will surely arise can make for a lot of unnecessary stress.  We ended up having to use my phone to process the credit cards since the devices brought for that purpose all had problems.
• Use the minions.  That’s what they’re around for.  And honestly, it’s just plain fun to have someone around to do your bidding (forget the fact that they were really around for Kevin and Brian, the perks still bled over to the rest of us).
• Something will always go wrong.  This year glitches included placement of the booth in an unexpected spot, issues with the credit card square, and problems with the distribution of free ebook cards to fans.  Roll with the problems, and solutions generally present themselves.  Having a heart attack over a problem is not going to help.

We’re already talking about how to make next year’s booth even better, and I’m definitely planning to go again, hopefully with some of my own novels on the table for fans to pick up and enjoy.