IRL promotion: Cons

There really isn't anything near me personally for a Con that I could attend. Living in Saskatchewan is sometimes difficult in that regard, although it is getting better. Having already had a very successful sit com filmed in the province (Corner Gas, Little Mosque on the Prairie) and another on the way, plus an independent film (Dungeon Crawl), as well as having a very active arts community, writer community (Saskatchewan Writers Guild, Saskatchewan Publishers Group). I did notice PrairieCon in your list. That's in Brandon, Manitoba, which isn't that far to drive. It'd be like me making a trip from Outlook (where I live) to Weyburn in the south east corner of the province. It's still a really long clip to drive, though. PrairieCon is also mostly for gamers, as the site states that it's intent was to reach out to the Manitoba gaming community. I think there's one in Calgary, but can't remember off hand.

Lyn, thank you for the list - a great resource.

We should start up that flyer exchange thing, where we send flyer pdf files to whoever's going to a con and can print them up and post/distribute them. We need not only to advertise our individual works but the very concept of weblit. I was saying in an email to someone else that people don't know you can get quality fiction reading on the net, just fanfic and personal blogs and so on.

Hey Tim, I didn't know you were Canadian! I live in Muskoka -- about 2 1/2 hours drive north of Toronto.

Karen,

I love your sig line! Thanks, and I think the flyer exchange is a great idea.

Karen and Tim,

More than just attending the cons, I'm working on a polite little letter asking them to display my flyers or put them in their swag bags, and if they have ad space in their programs (even the smallest college cons sometimes do)

Tim,

I think gaming cons are a GREAT place to get new readers! After all, I'm living proof (and look at my audience) that gamers read weblit. The fantasy market is wide, and, especially for the cost of some flyers, there's no need to limit ourselves

~Lyn, far too perky this early in the morning.

My sig line: ironic, isn't it? (Note in case I change it: When Lyn wrote, it read: "I used to think my writing was horribly perverse, and now I worry that it's not perverse enough for the Internet.")

The flyer exchange was not my idea, just to be clear.

Another possible con advertising venue -- their websites. Those reach people who won't make the con, and there's also the advantage that they can click right from the ad to your site, and find themselves irrecoverably hooked, in the same sitting...

Aah, good idea! Or a simple link exchange!

I've drafted my letter-to-cons and will begin sending it tonight. I'll let you know what my responses are like.

~Lyn

Could definitely do the flyer thing. It helps that I work for a weekly newspaper and a print shop. Plus, I found out I have an old friend that I used to work with in radio in Dauphin, Manitoba that's involved in the Prairiecon. I might shoot him the stuff and see where it goes. Plus, I've heard rumblings that there's interest in starting a comic con/gamer con in Saskatoon.

Karen
YES! I was born and bred in Saskatchewan. Born in Invermay and eventually moved to the small farming town of Conquest (just outside of Outlook). Did a tour of radio stations for ten years across Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan before realizing that there's no money in it, took graphic design classes and moved back to the town I graduated high school in to work at the weekly newspaper. So I guess it's true, home is where the heart is.

Update:

The cons that I've contacted so far have been very friendly and very responsive. The list has grown - http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/78923.html - and will continue to grow for a while.

I am sending out flyers to cons happening this coming weekend, and have ordered some bookmarks for later cons. I'll let you know what happens.

~Lyn

Thanks, that's an awesome list. We should probably work some of those into a category in the resources, huh? What would that category be called?

Conventions & Meet-ups? Or focusing on the marketing angle, Promotional Events?

There was one in Regina?!?!

Hmm, guess that shows my researching talents need an update. Granted, I was busy that weekend with family business. Maybe I'll have to see about next year. Have to see if I can make PrairieCon in June, though.

Sharon and I did this last year at VCon here in Vancouver. Not sure how much traffic we got out of it. We had flyers & business cards, and shared a table with a friend who does comics. It was fun!

I can't sit a table at this year's VCon, but I could probably drop off flyers, or persuade said friend to put a few on her table. Last year our flyers also had the list of DN authors, perhaps could we do a selection of weblit authors?

Update the second:

My flyers hit their first cons the weekend of May 1-2. My Project Wonderful stats showed no real bump (they go up and down a lot, but the "up" was no higher than an up the week before) from the flyers.

This coming weekend my new bookmarks will be at King-Con in Kingston and Montreal Toy Con in, well, Montreal. I have more faith in the bookmarks than in the flyers... and they have a little mini-story on the back, which, to finish, you must visit a secret URL.

Ooooo! Bookmarks! I like that idea.

Bookmarks work well. People actually like them. I put out a pile at the cafe I frequent. They've disappeared--slowly, but people are apparently picking them up.

There's a couple of places in Saskatoon I can most likely leave bookmarks at. 8th Street Books and Comics, Dragons Den (THE gaming store in Saskatoon, and by gaming I mean pen and paper and CCGs), and at Amazing Stories which focuses on comics and anime mostly.

The bonus is I work for a print shop, and can get pretty good deals on printing costs (plus, I can design the bookmark myself).