My Twenty

[Frank Creed]

According to the 80-20 rule of marketing, 80% of successful efforts come from 20% of your efforts and assets. Everyone pursues that 20%, and it can come from the weirdest places. My high action fiction appeals to paintballers and a specific type of video-gamer, the first-person shooter.

When real-life pain gets to me, I open up a mod (variation) of an older game called Quake III and vent some frustrations with full-auto machine gun fire. When not socializing behind phrases like Say allo to my little friend!, one can use a med-kit to heal team-members. Playing a combat medic under the name frankcreed.com has turned a total waste of time into real-life hits on my dot-com.

In an effort to maximize this wacky advertising, I started a Shoutlife group called the *First-Person-Shooter Medics*

Perhaps I'll soon have a SWAT team of frankcreed.com guys gunning and healing online servers . . .

As you look for your twenty, expect the unexpected.

[Caprice]

Yeah, like screaming at the top of your lungs to passers-by with self-deprecating humor (or attempt at such), i.e. selling my book as a doorstop. Cost me a sore butt and completely spent vocal cords on top of the 12 hour drive and motel bill, but 16 books in 16 hours is my personal best.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, and are actually curious, see my blog on Shoutlife under Booksigning at Arizona Renaissance Festival www.shoutlife.com/profile_view.cfm?uid=4757&blog_id=189878&view_mode=blog. There's a little slideshow there too. Don't worry: no pictures of sore butt.

[cyn]

And, a fine slideshow it is!

By the way, if you want to know how to do embedded links, it is easy.
Highlight the term, say [glow=red,2,300]RenFaire slide show[/glow]
click on the hyperlink button and it will put [ url ]RenFaire slide show[ /url ] around it;
insert = and the url
RenFaire slideshow [ /url ] (I added in spaces)

[Caprice]

Thanks, Cyn. I tried to embed it, but it wasn't intuitive and I couldn't find any instructions. I can write html but this message board language is new to me.

Shoutlife link which includes travelogue (but you have to have a free Shoutlife account to access)
Slideshow only link (which is open to anyone, but has no commentary)

If you choose the latter because you don't want to sign up for shoutlife, but you want to read the blog entry/travelogue, send me an email or PM and I'd be happy to email it.

[M. C. Pearson]

Oh yes! I totally intend to do the Ren Fair and Faerie Festivals when my book is finally published. Such a great way to get like minds interested. Ya gotta love fantasy to do Ren Fairs!!!

[cyn]

Your book signing event at the RenFaire was very successful by booksigning standards!

I would have to surmise that you picked the perfect venue for it: the RenFaire complemented the Renaissance/ medievel setting of your book.

There are RenFaires held all over the place, right? Is it possible to attend on a regular basis? Seems like you have a built-in audience at these affairs.

c

[Caprice]

Apr 21, 2008 23:22:36 GMT -5 cyn said:

There are RenFaires held all over the place, right? Is it possible to attend on a regular basis? Seems like you have a built-in audience at these affairs.

There are lots of fairs held all over the place, yes. However, there are several reasons this particular Faire worked so much better than the other ones, for me. (Yes, I did try booksigning at a different Faire once before. It was an utter disaster.)

• Location, location, location. My first RenFaire signing, I was stuck in a guild yard in an obscure corner where they hid all the pirate groups. Nothing against pirates; MaryLu would have done great there. But people were expecting my book to be about pirates and it isn't.
  
• Vendor or invitation? If you want to sell at a Faire, you usually have to buy a booth, and they are NOT cheap. Now if you befriend one of the vendors who already has a booth, then that saves you big bucks. However, it's only fair to share some of your profit with the vendor if you are using his booth, just as a bookstore would get a cut when selling books at your signing. If you don't know another vendor, you may be just completely out of luck, because not all fairs are going to give up prime "real estate" that could generate income if rented to a vendor, just to let you set up a table. The Arizona Renaissance Festival INVITED me to come and sit in the booth they have set aside for "featured" authors. I didn't have to pay to be there and I didn't have to share profits, which meant I could sell at the lowest possible price.
  
• Location again. Relevancy is important, but traffic is too. If there's no traffic, can you do anything about it? Do you have someone who will hawk for you (go out where the traffic is and yell your pitch), or do you have the voice to do it yourself? In that first instance, all the screaming in the world would not have done me any good because when the patrons were there, I was competing with pirate fights (scimitars, pistols, even fake cannons) and even if I could have made myself heard, the pirates don't take kindly to being upstaged.
  
  At AZRF, they not only didn't mind me hawking myself, but they ASSIGNED me other staff to help direct patrons to the booth. They wanted me to succeed even if it didn't make them any money. Note: It is infinitely easier to sell a book to a woman that has just been charmed to the nth degree, escorted by Lord Debonair who kisses her hand and whispers some suave poetry, then leaves her standing right in front of my table than it is to try to beg the pirate-show-lovers to take time out and approach some book-lady who is obviously out-of-place. Even had I dressed as a pirate, I think that would have been a "bait and switch", because my book wasn't piratey at all.

Personally, I can't have a lot of other signings at Faires because I just don't have anyone to babysit for me. If AZRF will invite me back next year, I will make arrangements to leave little Mr. Adventure with some relatives. If I give them four months notice and only ask for one 3-day weekend (I'm praying for President's Day), then I just might have a chance they'll take him. Much more than that though, and it'll never happen. But that's just me and just now. He'll eventually grow up (or so I've been told). Then I could look at doing more Faires.

[M. C. Pearson]

Really a great idea for promo of fantasy.

And, yes, the kiddo will grow up way faster than you could believe possible.

[Frank Creed]

RPGers gaming-conventions are another good crossover market.
Two of the LGG's events are Gen-Con and Origins.

Faith,
f

[Caprice]

Apr 23, 2008 20:48:43 GMT -5 M. C. Pearson said:

And, yes, the kiddo will grow up way faster than you could believe possible.

This is getting off topic, but I couldn't help sharing the insanity I'm in for this fall.

In September of 2008, I will have four students in my house:

• 1) College junior. Age 21. Has own vehicle, thank God. Living at home still, because it's utterly impossible for young people to get an apartment unless they are doctors already.
  
• 2) High school sophomore. Age 16. Has not completed driver's ed yet, so I still have to drive. She takes some of her classes at a charter school, some at home, and is active in church and drama. Thinks I am her personal chauffeur.
  
• 3)Junior high/middle schooler. Age 14. Homeschooled. Low car needs. Too bad he's the only one.
  
• 4)Kindergartener. Age 5. First kid I've ever put in public Kindergarten, but he's a handful and I can't keep up with him. We'll see how this works. Oh, and he has to be taken and picked up because the school has no bus and is not in walking distance. I suppose gas will be $5 a gallon by fall, so we can all stop eating to pay for gasoline.