(cons) RavenCon in Review

[vg_ford]

Yes, I know, it's a week later and I'm finally writing my con review. *sigh* What can I say? Better late than never.



I'm going to do this one a bit differently. I had a lot of fun, but this con was more about looking at marketing and how to promote Dark Moon Seasons next year when it comes out, because honestly, I need to get my butt in gear.

So, I talked to a bunch of people, tried out my first offering at the freebie table, checked out the freebie table every time I walked by and met some new folks. And honestly, that's the best part of a con - the networking.

The Good: Picked up a lot of good ideas. We might try magnets for ConClave, and I'm definitely going to get coffee mugs on the CafePress store I'm setting up.

Also, business cards are a MUST. I have a bunch now, and let me tell you, it really is worth it for networking. I went with a very simple design (thank you, scarlettarcher!!!! - I did go with the white design) that got a lot of compliments from folks. And since it's not book-specific, I can continue to use them for a long time. Very cool, and a good investment.

And the tea bag swag WENT. I think we'll do that again - it's easy, it's unique and it's really kind of cool. They were snapped up at most of my panels (thanks, onyxhawke for the idea of bringing them with me to panels - I never thought of that, but it's brilliant!) and people really thought they were cool. I just need to make the font for the website a bit larger. Next time, definitely doing this. They stood out from the bookmarks/notecards/magnets, which is what I'm looking for.

Also got to meet new people, including Jeri Smith-Ready, who has an awesome new book coming out on May 13 that not only do I have a copy of now (hehehe!), but who will be guest-blogging here on May 14th!!! More on that later, but keep an eye out.

The Bad: Well, I missed ALL the podcasting panels. But, on the other hand, I got to meet and talk to (although not always ABOUT podcasting) quite a few podcasters, including Stuart Jaffe (of The Eclectic Review), of course Tee Morris, of the Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy and Mur Lafferty, of I Should Be Writing, all of which I follow semi-religiously. I also hung around with Rich, who did the podcast of the Livers for Boobies contest, which should be up as soon as it's edited, and I know exactly who I'm calling when I start getting "Dark Magic and Dirty Water" for help. :p

Also, the other downside is that I came back with so many ideas that I had to take a few days to figure out where to start. It's highly frustrating, because I want to do everything NOW, and I can't, because, well, there simply aren't 52.39 hours in every day, and I do have to sleep. So I need to corral all those ideas and put them somewhere where I can access them when the time does come.



Wow, that did and didn't take as long as I thought it would. Look for some more upcoming stuff, including the entries to the t-shirt contest (yep, we got some!) and Jeri's guest-blogging. And I'll be reviewing Wicked Game on May 13th here, but until then, you can check out an excerpt here and pre-order it here.

Comments

[chkngrrl.livejournal.com]

It was very cool to meet you at Raven Con. I think you are my favorite new con friend. Thanks for letting me rant a little on the last night.

[vg-ford.livejournal.com]

No problem - it was cool to meet you too! Thanks for watching out for me. :) And hopefully I'll be back down in the area this summer - and I'm definitely planning on CapClave! (whom I have to email - eep!)