Origins Game Fair 2010 Blurb

ORIGINS GAME FAIR 2010

This past weekend Benjamin Rogers, author of FAITH & THE UNDEAD, and myself, publicist, attended Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio as an exhibitor for 3 days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Friday’s arrival was a bit chaotic, but Steve Verdoliva held his promise and our badges were ready for us when we got there.  Michael Stackpool was walking by at the time and helped us with locating the table and setting up.  The Library was the area we were set up in, it had a couch and several tables on the sides, including a head table for the authors to sign at.  This is sort of when things fell apart on us.  The other authors were not staying the entire weekend.  They would pop in for a half hour and leave, bringing nothing to sell, just signing what people brought them.  Ben was the only author there the entire time, and was stuck in a corner with several empty tables.

The day dragged and bringing people into the area to meet Ben was worse than fighting off hordes of zombies.  So late in the day I decided we were moving.  We took the table and set up near the front of the library, on the edge of the aisle, right at the intersection, where instantly the contact with the crowd improved by 100%. 

Doc was most generous to send us supplies, so we had the Library of the Living Dead banners hanging in front and behind our table.  The table had business cards for Doc, Ben, and Grunge Bob Camo Pants as well as the other things promoting Ben’s book.  Overall we left the day feeling let down and treated poorly.

Saturday we decided we were going in and going to knock the crowds out, we were determined to have a better day.  Ben was selling his first book within the first half hour the doors were opened.  We stopped everyone and talked to them, it didn’t matter what they wanted to discuss, we discussed it.  Patrick showed up early in the day and was a wonderful addition to our area.  He brought business cards and a pamphlet he made up about his book because it was not in yet.  We included these in every sale we made.  He is an awesome guy and I was tickled meeting him. 

When the other authors stepped in to do their signings, they were watching us as we wooed the crowds.  It felt as if the big authors forgot what it was like to be small time and their envy became apparent when they would shout from the back of the area, “Hey!” to people passing by.  Whereas Ben, Patrick, and myself would step around the table and into the aisles talking to people, bringing them back to our table and having full on discussions about fast and slow zombies, military, and other topics related to the book.

I finally got to meet Andy who is the man in charge of Con on the Cob  in Hudson, Ohio in October.  I cannot say enough about Andy and his team.  They are wonderful people, we spent much time together over the weekend and Ben is signed up to be at their convention.  Between Andy and Curtis, there wasn’t anytime that went by were we were not joking around and having fun.  They made this convention really turn around for us. 

I also was put in touch with another author who had a vending area, Nick Valentino, who wrote the steam punk novel Thomas Riley.  He was wonderful to talk to and is working with me to set up other conventions as well.  We also had individual book stores and other people come up and want to set Ben up for signings, which is all in the works as you read this.

I arranged for Ben to do a reading that afternoon for one hour.  The three of us left the table and went upstairs, the worst fear happened, no one was there despite all the interest we had that morning.  We set up the video camera and the table for him to read and stood outside the door anyway.  We had one person show up and Ben put on his game face and did the reading.  In the middle of the hour, two others came in and joined us.  It was a great experience and they all bought his book in the end. 

We made friends with the two tables nearest us who were selling zombie games, Uber Goober Games and Battle Bunker Games.  The people were wonderful and we dubbed our area Zombie Corner.  We exchanged materials and assisted each other out by promoting Zombie Corner, which helped all three of our booths immensely.  I also found out about the media room, which was a new program for the convention.  I set up a time slot for Ben to be interviewed Sunday morning between two major media events. 

 

Sunday we were prepared for the typical final day of a convention which is normally very slow.  Ben and I barely got time to take restroom breaks we were so busy.  During his time in the media room, he sold a book to Erica, the lady in charge of the media program even.  People we had talked to all weekend came back and bought his books and took more cards.  We were swarmed and loving every minute of it.  It was his biggest sale day yet.  I confirmed the solid connections we made. We went home having sold 20 books and made many new networking connections.  It was a success!!! 

Thank you to all those that supported us through this time, we cannot say that enough.  Every fan, every connection, every friend, thank you very much.  We could not have done this without each and every one of you.

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