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[personal profile] zzambrosius_02
Galacticon was a bust, and a mess, and really boring. The background here is, the woman in charge of booking exhibitors and merchants for the con worked her butt off. As a matter of fact, it appears that everyone involved in the event worked their butts off, with one exception: the head cheese. That guy was responsible for, among other things, publicity, which he clearly did not do.

Now think about this: the City of Seattle, its population swelled by new tech businesses, home to huge numbers of geeks, nerds, and fangirls/boys. Really, promising us three thousand through the gates was a seriously lowball number. Considering the number of potential attendees who live within an hour’s drive or bus/train ride of the Space Needle, it might have been possible to bring in ten thousand people.

I doubt there were five hundred Paying Customers on site.

I sold one book and two bags, for a total of $50. Now, I know there are some things I can do better next time, and I’m on that; but really: nothing I can do will substitute for competence in the organization of the con. Particularly in a situation of massive incompetence at the top of a hierarchical organization where evidently even the head cheese’s silent partner did not know how bad things were until two days before the event. That fellow muttered something in Marian’s hearing about perhaps being forced to file for personal bankruptcy as a result of the FUBAR outcome of their partnership.

I could write a whole essay about how this shows the flaws inherent in crony capitalism and hierarchical organization. I’ll pass on that for now, but it may appear at a future time.

I met some cool people, and did a little potentially useful networking. But the sparse attendance limited even that aspect of the event to a few drops in an ocean of wasted time and money.

And I learned stuff. Yes, I did. I now know a few things to look for in terms of non-functioning publicity and/or a con with Slackers In Charge, and those warning signs may well allow me to cut my losses in a future similar situation.

But really? I’m getting a little tired of “Learning Experiences” and “Networking Opportunities”.

Oh well. I knew from the start it would be a long climb for a self-published author, and I am working on being patient and continuing to plug along.

What I want out of a weekend’s mercantile activity is the chance to pitch my novels to people who might ACTUALLY read and enjoy them, and to sell my handicrafts to people who can use them. I’ve gotten such opportunities in the past, at volunteer-run conventions. For a con that started out as a commercial proposition to end up being a huge money loser...well, I already talked about Slacker In Charge.

I guess I better go back out to the landscaping soon, and also consider when I can next pry out a trip to the Word Mines.

Gotta go. See ya!

Date: 2015-08-05 08:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] young-raven.livejournal.com
Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that. That is vastly frustrating.

Date: 2015-08-05 10:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] forrestwoodward.livejournal.com
They didn't actually promise 3000+ attendees did they? If they did you'd have a good case for asking for you vendor fees to be returned.

Date: 2015-08-05 11:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zzambrose.livejournal.com
It was not written, and it was not 'promised', of course. Apparently experienced merchants pay their fees via Paypal, so they can make a claim if the event is not as advertised.

There was really no reason not to believe three thousand...like I said, a decent effort might have drawn a much bigger crowd.

In the future, if I see no significant publicity on such an event, I will think long and hard about bailing out.

Date: 2015-08-06 02:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hrothgar1.livejournal.com
Yep- I'm feeling like with all this growth type experience I should be 10 feet tall!

On the up side, I'm still giggly about Claudia Christian and Gigi Edgley saying my stuff was cool. Would have been even better if they had BOUGHT said cool stuff.... but..

Date: 2015-08-06 02:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zzambrose.livejournal.com
They might well have been counting their ducats, wondering whether they had plane fare to their next gig.

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