Report on Necronomicon 2023

We got home from Necronomicon about 7 PM on Sunday. We left everything in the car to be unloaded in the morning, because we were tired. (We aren’t spring chickens any more!) But I’m counting the convention a success!

We left about 8:15 AM on Friday to pick up Mark, who was going with us. His house is about an hour from our home, and the convention hotel was a little more than an hour from his house. Being old and intimidated by our smart phones, we tend to print the route we need to take by using mapquest or google maps on our desk computers. It worked well for this trip except at the end, where the instructions said things like, turn right and go 387 feet, make a u-turn and go 219 feet, turn right and go 121 feet. How are we supposed to measure feet when we’re in a car? Anyway, I told my hubby to make a u-turn at the first intersection, only to realize that intersection led to the parking lot of the hotel we wanted! By the time I realized that, he had made the u-turn and was at the lights where we had originally turned right. Eventually, we turned around and got to the hotel.

It was a little after 11 AM, and my table was supposed to be set up by noon, so we decided to get a luggage cart to take my 5 boxes of books to my table. But we actually unloaded everything onto the luggage cart and I went inside to see if we could check in for our hotel room. Yes, we could! So John and Mark took the boxes to my table, where John started unpacking the books; Mark took the luggage to our hotel room; and I got us all registered for the con. Then I went back to the table, handed out badges and program books, and finished setting up the table. Now I could settle in for the rest of the day, talking to the other authors in the Author Alley and trying to be friendly to potential customers that walked by.

John and Mark sometimes sat with me at the table, studying the schedule, reading the program book and talking about whatever was on their mind. At times one or both would wander away to check out a panel or activity, the art show, the dealer’s room. I made a fast walk around the dealer’s room, but never got to the art show. I tried to talk to the other authors, but on Friday, the tables to the left of me and directly across from me were empty. And after a couple of hours, the table across from me and to the left was suddenly empty too. There had been an author there, with his book, but now he was gone, and nobody saw him pack up and go.

The con had an activity called ‘Cthulu Crafts’ all 3 days of the con, which John went to see what it involved, looking for something that Klingons might be able to use. He talked to the host and mentioned that Klingons had an activity they did called ‘Paint and Take’. Later on Saturday, the young man in charge of scheduling stopped John in the hall and asked if might be interested in doing a ‘Paint and Take’ at the next con. So John and Mark started talking about finding other Klingons to come with them next year and what they might be able to do besides a Paint & Take. I wonder what customers would say if I manned my table as a Klingon for a day at next year’s con.

John and I had 2 panels to do. The first was on Saturday at 11:15 AM, and it was on ‘What Inspired Me to Write’. I had come up with 7 questions to help keep the conversation going. With 6 panelists, we filled up the hour and didn’t get too repetitive, so I was feeling pretty good. We also had an author there who was one of the con’s Guests of Honor, and he sometimes put in his 2 cents worth, which was also an ego boost for me.

Our 2^nd panel was Sunday at 11 AM, and this one was about “How I Write.” Again, 4 other authors joined us, and only 1 was a repeat from the day before. I had 9 questions to ask, and the answers were diverse, pointing out that there is no one ‘correct’ way to right, er, I mean write.

Two people approached me during the convention. One was an editor who was looking for free-lance work. It is very hard to edit your own books, so I may be looking her up. The other woman was a free lance graphic artist. I may soon have work for her, too.

At 8 PM on Saturday, there was a panel on self-publishing that I wanted to go to, so John and I took down the table about 6:30 so I could get supper, since I hadn’t gotten any lunch. The restaurant was quick at getting our food to us, and I had some time to spare before the panel, so I went up to the con suite, and had some chips, a glass of cola, and some pop corn before I went to the panel.

Now, self-publishing is a big subject to cover in 1 hour. And when the hour was over, Brenda (only 1 panelist showed up) decided to take us to Salon G, which was supposed to be empty for the next hour. But when we got there, another group had been given the room to use, so a few of us die-hards who wanted to know more gathered around an empty table in Author Alley and talked for another 1 ½ hours. By then I was the only one left listening. Brenda gave me her personal email address, in case I had more questions, and promised to introduce me to Kevin on Sunday, who could give me more information on email lists.

Sure enough, as soon as I got my table set up on Sunday, Brenda was there with 2 men to talk to me; Kevin about email lists, and Robert of Westerfield Studios. So I had a talk with Kevin about email lists and bookfunnel. And then I had a nice talk with Robert about multi-media and how he could help me get the word out about our books. He mentioned some things that I knew existed but didn’t have a clue how to do.

And everybody told me to start getting our books made into audible books!

I considered it a very productive convention for me, having made those contacts and had those conversations.

And the cherry on top of the whole convention was that I sold 4 books! That’s the biggest sales I’ve had at any convention. My sales actually covered the cost of the table for once!

Two of the books were John’s ‘The Stone Builders’, which you can download for free at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/565000. In it, Humans and Wassarans have co-colonized a planet, and now they discovered it was colonized once before by a race who built everything out of stone. But the Stone Builders had abandoned their colony in a hurry. Why? And was the threat still here?

The third book was John’s ‘The Waste Gun’, where a scientist has found a way to get rid of radioactive waste permanently. But an eco-terrorist sees it as poisoning the Earth and is determined to stop him. This one isn’t available as an e-book right now, as I flubbed up the formatting of the manuscript before I got it published as an e-book, but I’ll let you know when it is published.

The final book was an anthology of short stories about vampires called ‘These Vampires Don’t Sparkle’. This one wasn’t published by me, but I have a story in it, on page 155. I don’t know if it was ever published as an e-book, but the hard copy was put out 9 years ago by Sky Warrior Book Publishing. There is a 2^nd volume called ‘These Vampires Still Don’t Sparkle’. I just checked with Amazon, which said volume 1 was out of print, and they only have 1 used paperback of volume 2 for sale. So my chances of getting any more of either one of them are pretty slim.

I look forward to going back to Necronomicon in 2024.

What Takes so Long?

What takes so long from an editor accepting a manuscript for publication and the book appearing in book stores? The process can take months or even years with a ‘Big Boy’ publisher.

Yet, there are exceptions: Books about some political scandal can appear days after the scandal comes to light; Biographies of a celebrity can be bought within a week of their death. So it can be done faster. Why isn’t it?

Small press and self-publishing don’t take that much time. How do they do it?

Editing. Every manuscript needs an editor. It may be the rare exception that only needs one comma added and one numeral (like 9) spelled out (into nine), but no publisher knows that until an edit is done. With the Big Boys, sometimes the editor who decides which manuscript to purchase is also expected to edit those manuscripts. Obviously, an established author’s manuscript will be edited before those by new authors. Small presses don’t publish as many books, and often use free lance editors, who fit their assignment into their schedule in order to meet their deadline. In my case, I ask for a month (and occasionally wish I had two).

Cover Art. This is, apparently, the next step for the Big Boys, because nothing else can happen without the pretty picture for the front. Of course this takes time, from concept through several renditions until it is ‘just right’. And then, it’s sent to somebody else to put the type (title, author, etc.) on it, and that may take several attempts before it is deemed ‘acceptable’. Remember, the Big Boys have many of these being done at the same time. Small presses, again, may work with free lance artists, who may even put the type on. Or they might use a stock photo, which takes even less time.

Reviews. I never paid attention to these myself, so I was surprised at how much emphasis is placed on getting them. In the past, reviewers expected to receive a printed book, complete with cover art, that they could read. This would be months before the book was officially published. Some still want it done this way, but others accept e-files of the book. Some small presses don’t get reviews early enough to quote them on the back of the book, so that cuts some time off the process.

Sales Materials. This seems to be a long, drawn-out ordeal for the Big Boys. Each book must get added to their catalog, the sales teams must be trained in how to best pitch it to the book stores... Many small presses don’t pitch to book stores, because the book stores won’t carry them. Therefore, their efforts for one book are simply added to the marketing of all the others they have available. Add it to their catalog and website, mention it in the newsletter and their social media comments. They might create fliers to send to gatherings of likely readers.

A typical Big Boy book stays on the shelf about 6 weeks. A small press may never ‘discontinue’ a book.

Is being published by a Big Boy worth wasting all that time? What do you think?

Monopoly Money

Once upon a time, there was a young man who wanted to sell books. He created a website and negotiated deals with the big publishers to put their books in his warehouse. It took him a few years, but he built up his business to the point where he was the first place people thought of going when they wanted a book.

Meanwhile, more than one national chain of book stores went out of business.

At some point, this young man realized changes had occurred in the book market. People also bought electronic books. The big publishers were resisting going electronic, considering it a fad, but lots of small publishing companies had sprung up. Some authors were their own publishers. These small companies and individuals not only embraced e-publishing, they were also able to create paper books by using POD printing.

The young man thought, “People are spending money on e-books and POD books. If individual authors can set these things up, then I can, too.” So he became not only a book seller, but a not-so-small publisher of e-books and POD books. His company grew even bigger.

The big publishers finally, reluctantly produced e-books, but they charged virtually the same amount for the ebook version as they did for the paper version, despite the much lower cost of production. When the young man saw that, he demanded that they lower their e-book prices. Or else! Some did, but one did not, and he punished them terribly, by not selling pre-orders for them, and by letting their orders languish for weeks before they were sent out to the customers.

Some authors and small presses thought, “I’m all for lower prices on e-books, but this guy is throwing his weight around.”

One day, the young man thought; Since he had the capabilities to POD print, a warehouse, and people to mail books to customers, it only made sense that he do all the POD printing. He ‘negotiated’ with the various POD companies, making arrangements for them to ship their printing jobs to him (and pay him) to print.

Upon hearing of this, some who had been ready to use his POD/e-book services thought, “Whoa! Now he’s trying to put POD companies out of business? He wants exclusive rights to sell your e-book for at least 3 months? This guy is not only a bully, he wants a monopoly!”

In a round-about way, I’m trying to explain the reason why I (and MoonPhaze Publishing) will not be working with Amazon. Even though not being listed on their site is likely to make it harder to sell our own books, we cannot condone their practices.

Since we don’t know which POD publishers are still independent, or how long they can hold out, we’ll have to have a number of books printed and store those we haven’t yet sold. And we need to get a move on, because we have a book due out in January.

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