FantaSci 9

On Saturday I attended FantaSci 9, a mini-convention held at the Chesapeake Library.  I'd guess 300 people participated: vendors from comic shops, authors, members of Star Wars, Star Trek and Resident Evil fan clubs, a couple of zombies, and people wandering in. Some of the people looked a bit silly, but some of them were pretty impressive. There was a tall thin black guy who, as Josh put it, did "Sith" very well; the Umbrella Corporation security team looked good and there was an excellent zombie.
There were three tracks of programs and I was there for the writing, so I sat in on "Worldbuilding" and "Craft, Publishing and Promotion"; the "Grab Your Reader on the First Page" one didn't grab me. The Worldbuilding one  was pleasant; Leona Wisoker was cheerful and organized, with handouts, and I enjoyed getting into the worldbuilding mode for a while.
The Craft, Publishing and Promotion panel also had some information. One of the authors said that his sales were at 2000 for the month of April; went to 17,000 in May, when his publisher made that title available as a Kindle download; and was at 18,500 in June. If you have a series, you can put the first ebook at 99 cents, and the rest of them at $2.99. All three authors on the panel said that you have to sell your own books; the publisher may help some but you can't just hand them the manuscript and expect that they'll do all the heavy lifting. I asked about promoting your books, "what did you discover that you had to do, that you hadn't expected when you got started?", and the answers were, basically, "be outgoing." Leona said that she learned to smile at everyone, including kids; Marshall Thomas said that he found that any time someone walks by your table, you talk to them, hand them something, get their attention. If people meet you at a con and like you, they'll be a lot more likely to read your books. They may not buy them while they're at the con, but they'll download them later.
I have to finish this post now so I can read the first chapter of Secret of the Sands.