To Be Clear, I Don't Make Money at Conventions

I am not shy about how hard it is to make a living as a writer. Anyone who follows me on social media, or who reads this blog, likely knows more about how the sausage is made than they ever wanted to at this point. However, this week I wanted to take a second to address something people have been repeatedly saying to me ever since the vaccine came out, and in-person events have become possible once again.

"Maybe once conventions start up again you'll be able to make some money!"

Roll on snare drum. Everyone laughs. Good joke.

Now, I've been going to conventions in a professional capacity for about a decade now. I've been to shows as big as Gen Con in Indianapolis, and as small as Windy Con in Chicago. I've been a panelist, I've held down a signing table, and I've actually had some dealer space. So let me be very clear here.

I have almost never made money at a con. The sheer amount of costs that have to be cut, and the amount of books I would need to sell to make a profit, is outright laughable. And since I just got back from Gamehole Con in Wisconsin, and I have some hard, recent numbers, I figured I'd share for folks who could use a real-time break down.

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Seriously... Making a Profit is a Bastard And a Half

So, for those of you not familiar with Gamehole Con, it's up in Madison Wisconsin. It's been steadily growing, and while attendance was down a little bit, it was pretty comparable with pre-pandemic numbers according to folks who keep track of such things. I was there because some friends of mine who run Gargoyle Forge (an awesome LARP weapon company, whom you should follow on Facebook if you haven't already) had a booth, and they offered me a side table so I could sell books to passerby. They also let me crash with them in their hotel room, and made sure my badge was covered. Keep that in mind going forward.

All right... let's get into the numbers!

Now, I brought 30 or so books with me to this event, including my sci-fi dystopia Old Soldiers, and the two installments in my Hard-Boiled Cat series Marked Territory and Painted Cats. I sold them for $10 each, which is something of a steal considering the Amazon price is usually $13 and change, and that's without taking shipping and handling into account.

By the end of the con, I'd sold 23 books. So far, that's $230 in pure profits. If this story ended here, and I could make a couple C-notes and change in sales even at a small con, I wouldn't be writing this entry. Because now we have to talk about the costs.

Right out of the gate, It took my about $40 round trip in fuel to drive to the event, plus $10 in tolls. That's $50 in costs, which brings us down to $180 in profit. Still, that's not terrible. Of course, with most of my books sold, I had to re-stock. That cost $120. So we're down to $60 in profit for the event.

But what if I had tried to do this on my own without glomming on with my friends? Well, that $60 I hadn't spent likely would have just been my badge fee. Leaving the several hundred dollars in hotel room cost, table cost, and food costs (my friends made sure I was fed, too... seriously, I cannot overstate how much they helped make this show a success for me). So, even selling a majority of the stock I'd brought with me (a stock which I hadn't paid for, mind, as Ring of Fire gave me 10 free copies of every novel that I'd published with them) would have probably resulted in my spending $300-$500 just for the privilege of being at a show.

Cut Costs, Increase Sales

There are probably people out there right now who are thinking of all the things I could do to cut my costs as much as possible. Only go to local shows, or ones where I can crash with someone else instead of paying for a hotel room. Only attend events where I can share a table, and thus pay as little as possible for it. Volunteer for programming to get my badge comped after the show. And so on, and so forth.

These folks aren't wrong, but I chose Gamehole Con and my experience there very specifically to make a point. The point is that I showed up with a free stock of books, didn't pay for a table, didn't pay for hotel, didn't pay for food, managed pretty decent numbers for an independent author, and I still barely made $60 for three days worth of work (and even less once I square away the taxes and such). Work where I wasn't writing new articles, putting out fresh gaming supplements, or polishing off new blog entries.

Pizza's on me this week, I guess.

Even by cutting my costs to the absolute bone, and making a really big profit margin per sale (because even charging $13 for books I have to pay for, thus making them only cheaper than Amazon by cutting shipping and handling charges, I'd be making less per sale), I can barely scrape out ahead at even a small convention. And even if it were technically possible for me to sell more books at an event, I can only afford to buy a certain amount of stock to have on-hand... my margins are too thin for me to drop a few hundred on books I might not sell for months or years when rent is due by the 5th.

So why go to cons at all, then, you might be asking? Especially since, as I write this, I'm gearing up to go to Windy Con in Chicago this weekend?

Well, because conventions are where I get to shake hands, and make fans. It's where I get to stand up on a platform and discuss what I do for a living. It's where I exchange business cards with agents and designers, and where I find work. Attending conventions is how I got an in with my current publisher, and it's how I've pitched several projects directly to editors and creative directors over the years. Cons are also the closest thing I have to a vacation in this capitalist hellscape where I don't get days off, and they're the only real events I get to look forward to.

But for all the great things about conventions, they're not a viable way for me to pay my bills. If I could sell enough books at a convention to not just pay for costs but to turn a profit big enough to cover my rent (something like 200 copies sold in a weekend, by my calculation, or 10 times better than my best performance so far), my fan base would likely be so big that I wouldn't need to do that in order to break even at the end of the month.

So remember that when you're at a show, and you see someone there trying to move copies of their novel. If you're interested, and you have the dosh, get a copy. If you're not, move along, because we're under a lot of pressure to avoid losses, and it takes a lot of energy to have your game face on all day, every day at a show like that.

One More Shout Out For Gargoyle Forge!

Also, because I cannot say enough good things about Gargoyle Forge, check out this video review of their product. They're likely the main reason I'll be at any cons in the future, so give them some love if you can.

Like, Follow, and Stay Tuned!

That's all for this week's Business of Writing!

If you'd like to see more of my work, take a look at my Vocal archive, or at My Amazon Author Page where you can find books like my noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife as well as my recent collection The Rejects!

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