More specifically, I've had this middling interest in setting up a booth and selling books at a con, as an experiment. Just to see if it's worth it. The problem is, I don't know much about the various cons. The only ones I've ever been to much was Dragon*Con, Houston Comic Con, and A-Kon in Dallas.
For transparency's sake (and really, it's not a secret anyway, since anyone going to Createspace's help pages with my page count and book size could figure this stuff out anyway), after shipping, I pay about $6.50 per copy of my book, wholesale price. Amazon takes a hefty cut, so I only make a dollar or so when I sell a book through them, or I'd have the thing priced lower on their website. But when I buy for myself, that's what I pay.
Amazon sells the book for about $12.00 after discounting. I'm not sure of the psychology of selling for that price in a face-to-face cash-transaction environment--but I don't want to cut the price to $10, and $15 seems too high. I was considering charging $20 for the signed copies, since that's around what I charge people anyway. I'd probably figure out some kind of bundle deal if someone bought both books at the same time. Maybe $12 each, or $20 for both, plus an autograph surcharge.
I'd probably also have a display for the music books on one side of the table, but I'm not sure. There's some overlap in the demographics, but not a lot.
Doing the the math, if I were to set up a table at dragon*con ($550 for the cheapest table, $500-ish hotel, 500-ish for flight), I'd have to sell 250+ books to break even (slightly less if signed). That doesn't seem likely, since I'm a relatively unknown guy in the grand scheme of things.
In any case, to get to the point, I don't know much about what cons are going on, or worth going to. I'm looking for something not too crazy to drive to from north virginia, that doesn't run for like 5 freaking days (fri-sun would be fine) to limit my hotel costs, but has decent enough traffic that I might sell some books. If the math on costs works out to where I would only have to sell 30-ish or so books, I think it'd be a worthy risk.
Any of you con-going folks know something that might fit the bill?
For transparency's sake (and really, it's not a secret anyway, since anyone going to Createspace's help pages with my page count and book size could figure this stuff out anyway), after shipping, I pay about $6.50 per copy of my book, wholesale price. Amazon takes a hefty cut, so I only make a dollar or so when I sell a book through them, or I'd have the thing priced lower on their website. But when I buy for myself, that's what I pay.
Amazon sells the book for about $12.00 after discounting. I'm not sure of the psychology of selling for that price in a face-to-face cash-transaction environment--but I don't want to cut the price to $10, and $15 seems too high. I was considering charging $20 for the signed copies, since that's around what I charge people anyway. I'd probably figure out some kind of bundle deal if someone bought both books at the same time. Maybe $12 each, or $20 for both, plus an autograph surcharge.
I'd probably also have a display for the music books on one side of the table, but I'm not sure. There's some overlap in the demographics, but not a lot.
Doing the the math, if I were to set up a table at dragon*con ($550 for the cheapest table, $500-ish hotel, 500-ish for flight), I'd have to sell 250+ books to break even (slightly less if signed). That doesn't seem likely, since I'm a relatively unknown guy in the grand scheme of things.
In any case, to get to the point, I don't know much about what cons are going on, or worth going to. I'm looking for something not too crazy to drive to from north virginia, that doesn't run for like 5 freaking days (fri-sun would be fine) to limit my hotel costs, but has decent enough traffic that I might sell some books. If the math on costs works out to where I would only have to sell 30-ish or so books, I think it'd be a worthy risk.
Any of you con-going folks know something that might fit the bill?
