Otakufest- Results

Total dollar amount sold before taxes– $192

 

Overall, I feel like Otakufest went really well. I got to have some awesome conversations with several people and I sold 25 copies in person and 2 ebooks. I even got to meet some other artists and authors and do a few book swaps while I was there. After the con, I also went and got some signed copies stocked in Books and Books.

What went well– I was able to talk to some amazing people and really make meaningful connections with so many. The booth setup attracted a lot of people between the free candy, bookmarks, large popup banner, and bright blue tablecloth. I was able to meet and make friends with several other authors and artists and do a few book swaps.

Mistakes– I mostly messed up with the newsletter. I’m still learning when it comes to email lists, so I ended up unintentionally scaring off some people by sending too many emails at the beginning. I wasn’t fully comfortable with the automated email function for the newsletter service yet, so I had to send them the welcome email with my reader magnet (a free short story) after an email about opting in for author blog updates. A huge chunk of people bounced the blog email and never got to receive the welcome email which left me feeling frustrated and disappointed.

Solutions– I’m hoping to remedy this problem for the next convention by having an online newsletter form instead of a paper to avoid issues with harder to read email addresses and so people can do opt-ins and exclusions when they’re at the convention. I’m also going to work out an issues with the settings for the automated messages to minimize future negative responses.

I plan to come back to add some pictures to this article and total sales later, but that’s all for now.