Sunday, November 15, 2009

So, how'd that signing go?



I never reported back on how the signing went a couple of weeks ago. Short version: it was a lot of fun and we sold more books in one day than we did during all of FallCon. I'm assuming that the increase in sales was because we were only competing with the New Comics rack instead of hundreds of other live creators, but there were also people who came in specifically to see us, either because they knew us or because they'd seen the announcement in the store's newsletter and wanted to support local creators.

I noticed that Matt Maxwell (Strangeways) was also significantly more successful at his recent in-store appearance than at an earlier convention. There are significant differences in our stories (for one thing, he was at Borders and we were at a comics specialty shop), but even if Matt's observations about that experience don't directly apply to this event, he makes an interesting point that I want to explore some more. Namely, that people coming into a general book store were not at all resistant to checking out and spending money on comics. Much less resistant, oddly, than people at an actual comics show. As Matt puts it, "Perhaps that audience that everyone has been waiting for is actually out there."

Matt's quick to acknowledge that this isn't at all a scientific examination, but it does open a couple of mental doors that I hadn't even considered checking to see if they were locked. I'm not sure a short comic like Cownt Tales is the right one to experiment on, but when I eventually have an appropriate book, I'd be foolish not to explore some appearances at local bookstores as well as comics boutiques.

Anyway, back to the signing, we had a couple of people from this blog stop by to say hello and pick up copies, so that was a treat. My Mom also came by with a mutual friend of ours and that was cool too. Especially when the two of them spent almost an hour shopping around the rest of the store. The Source has a pretty diverse clientele, but you still don't typically see a lot of the women-over-60 crowd there.

I also have to single out Grant Gould, a) because he's awesome, and b) because he took the picture above.

Thanks again to everyone who came out. It was great seeing you again and I hope you liked the book.

4 comments:

Cal's Canadian Cave of Coolness said...

Livin' the dream boss, livin' the dream. Hope you have a world of sucess ahead of you.

Jay said...

Hey! I was there! Glad I got a chance to chat with you Michael. And I hope you get a chance to develop your pulp idea--it sounds awesome. So here's at least one customer lining up!

Michael May said...

Thanks, Jay. It was great seeing you again too. :)

Michael May said...

Oh, sweet avatar, by the way!

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