HORROR CON 2026

      Tomorrow is Horror Con 2026, at Assinboine Downs in Winnipeg. This is my first time with a solo dealers table at a major convention. Well, first time with a solo dealers table at all, and first time dealing at a major convention. I’ve decided to jump in. Set up was tonight, and tomorrow morning. I got in about quarter to seven. Anna drove me in, it’s out at Assiniboine downs. I think it’s a good spread. I’ve got about forty titles out. Mostly mine, Scott Ellis’, Eve St. Albert, Ewen Campion-Clarke have two or three each.

     It feels weird. First time I’ve done a table by myself. First (hopefully) big Convention. The other times I’ve done tables have been a literary or fan conventions – Keycon, When Words Collide, Can-Con. Membership a few hundred, and there mostly for other things.

    This one, membership in the thousands I would assume. I have no idea how to estimate – but presumably anywhere from a few thousand to ten or fifteen? And unlike the other conventions – this is literally all about dealers. Everyone coming here is coming to look and buy things. A few other literary types are going to be here – A.P. Fuchs, I.D. Russell, I think I spotted GMB Chomichuk and Chadwick Ginther sharing a table. A.D. McDonald. The horror bookstore people are here, as is at least one used bookseller. I hope it’s going to be a literary crowd.

    Tomorrow, it’ll run from 10:00 am to 11:00 pm. Hopefully, I’ll sell some books. I’m not sure how it will turn out. Like I said, this is my first time at something like this. I can’t have a humongous amount of every single title, so I had to pick and choose. What’s going to sell, what’s not? I figured even the books that I think won’t sell, I want them out there. Show the flag with one or two copies. But what about the ones that sell? Which ones will they be? I’ve tried to guess.

     Either way, by tomorrow, it will be done. I’ll have learned more.

Well, that’s done with. Excuse me for being a bit ragged out. It was a long day, I spent twelve hours table sitting at the Con from 11:00 am to 11:00 pm, nonstop, and that’s just brutal.

    Bottom line – sold 30 books, gave away 4. So almost a whole box. Not bad, except I lugged around three heavy boxes and had a fourth in reserve.

    The big sellers – Squad Thirteen, moved 7 copies, Drunk Slutty Elf and Other Stories moved 6, The Mermaid’s Tale moved 5, and Drunk Slutty Elf and Zombies moved 4, B-Movie Monsters 3, and the remainder were one offs.

    Surprises? The Mermaid’s Tale attracted a lot of interest, setting aside the ones who actually bought it, it was the book that everyone, particularly women seemed to gravitate to, they’d look at it, pick it up, read the back cover, I’d talk about it. The cover definitely seemed to work, surprising that it stood out. It’s a good book, but I’ve had it for a while, so it’s nice to see it still had legs,   Squad Thirteen was not necessarily a surprise, but it was a pleasure. The book has largely flopped on Amazon and other platforms, but actually doing well at the table suggests that the work is the victim of the algorithm and not some inherent flaw. There’s a market for it, if I can find it.  The Drunk Slutty Elf books – not surprised at all. They’re fun.

     As to the rest – the nonfiction stuff didn’t move at all. Not surprised, LEXX has been gone twenty years, Starlost fifty, and Doctor Who has killed off most of its audience with the RTD2 dumpster fire. This was a general audience, not sci fi fannish. The Who books did get some attention, and one guy knew what LEXX was. These books have done better at fan conventions and online where they’re available to esoteric interests.  I had Scott Ellis, Ewen Campion-Clarke and Eve St. Albert titles out – none moved, although the Eve books got some attention.

The Time Traveller books – only moved one. Disappoint, I had hopes there.

     Overall, I had thirty titles out, and most of my sales were concentrated in five. So that’s a lot of extra lugging around. But I’m philosophical. There’s an ego thing for me to just put on display all my work (or as much of it as I can get away with) to fill a table with titles. And I think a full table with a profusion of titles may work better in attracting people. Even if they gravitate to the same books over and over I think having twenty other titles up there helps to lure them – second and third glances rather than a cursory look.

     Apart from that, I think I had a good display set up. Still needs a little bit of fine tuning – but we had a Banner, two big stands, some small stands for back up, and titles laying flat. I dressed the part – top hat and trench coat, and handed out an insane amount of cards.

     Of course, my modest little table was pathetic compared to a lot of the dealers, some of whom literally had their own tents, brought extra tables, displays, stand up banners, you name it. I absolutely couldn’t compete with that – which is why I went with the top hat and mad hatter look. You can’t compete head on with a woman whose table turned into a U shaped booth with walls and standing banners. So you cultivate a personal look. I’m still working on it – I like the glasses, but they may be in the territory of disturbing rather than alluring.

    The rest of the convention itself – well, I didn’t have a head count. My guess is that attendance was in the hundreds. Several hundreds. If it was in the thousands I’d say low thousands, but that’s a guess. Fair number of people walking around in costumes. A lot of vendors, maybe fifty or a hundred – it’s written down somewhere. Filled the room and had a spillover. I was manning a table, save for bathroom breaks and a few walk arounds to stretch my legs so I didn’t see much of the convention, and apart from chatting with Melinda Marshall, A.P. Fuchs and Ian Russell (fellow book vendors) didn’t talk much to the other dealers. It was mostly the assortment of stuff you usually see.

    There was one table, broke my heart – these two girls, looked like teenagers, selling some sort of freeze dried novelty candies. No one came near them. Every time I passed by they looked more forlorn and depressed. Eventually, I couldn’t take it any more, so I gave Anna twenty and sent her over to buy something from their table and chat with them a bit.

    Overall, I have the impression that my fellow book sellers did okay as well, I think most of the vendors did all right. But that’s a guess. I’m not sure I get the whole ‘Con Vendors’ gig, I’m not sure how the economics work, and I have a sneaking suspicion that on an objective basis, the economics don’t work. So it’s all labours of love, mostly, if there’s enough return to give you some cash to take home, that’s validation.

There was an outdoor area with food trucks, a band or shows, some fire jugglers and an inflatable maze. So the Con took advantage of the space, and I think they did all right with the little I saw.

    Other parts – not so great. I’m not going to slag the Convention organizers, although as a first time convention, there were clearly teething problems. There were a lot of volunteers, the volunteers checked up on us to make sure we were doing oky. Everyone seemed dedicated – as I said, this whole thing felt like a labour of love for the organizers, and I’m more than willing to forgive the occasional learning curve flub.

On the other hand – the venue was tough. This was Assiniboia Downs, the Horse Racing track. It’s located on the outskirts of the city. Upside? Shit loads of parking. Downside? Hard to get to, especially by public transit. I suspect remoteness impacted the attendance. I dunno, maybe Wpg Transit might accommodate, or there’s some prospect for a shuttle to the Con that might get more people there. But the remoteness issue is an issue.

    The main room was okay. But the spillover/presentation room was on the third floor. Okay, there were escalators to get you p there. But leaving? You had to take a flight of stairs down to the second floor, in order to get to an elevator to the main floor – or take more stairs. Also, the autograph room was in the basement – again no elevator or escalator, just stairs. It was a curiously laid out room. I’m seeing more and more people with mobility issues, so that’s tough. I hear that the owners spent $10 million to renovate the place a few years ago – not much in evidence. But that’s on them. Not the convention.

     So what’s my bottom line? Well, my banner and my stands and stuff were all paid for, the table cost was paid for, and I made a bit extra. I’m happy with that. I sold some books, got to talk to a lot of people, improved my people skills and talked to some passionate young writers and gave them advice.

     It wasn’t the terrifying humiliating experience I imagined, with thousands of people walking past you refusing to make eye contact. There was some of that, but it wasn’t bothersome.

     On the other hand, I don’t think the economics work. Thirty books – I’d sell that many or much more on Amazon in a month, without doing nearly as much work (before AI). Factor in the printing costs of the books sold, factor in table and transport costs, hours spent at the table – maybe the net is pretty bleak.

     Factor in the costs of all the book purchases (even unsold), it gets worse, although eventually, I’d hope to sell most. Factor in stands, banner, etc. Factor in hours of writing and production? It’s tough. Although arguably, all these costs should be amortized.  The bottom line is that while selling thirty books is not bad, it’s not great either. Sales of an indy book average 300 copies – I’d need to do ten to make that. A Canadian bestseller is 1000 to 2000 copies. I’d need to do as many as 50 conventions like this – and there ain’t fifty in the neighborhood. There’s not even ten.

    So far, this sort of activity hasn’t had any spillover effect in online sales. Back in 2023 or 2024, I did a half conventions across the country, at least 30 panels or presentations, had my face and name in front of several hundred people – the needle never moved. This year, I did When Words Collide, three panels but all hot topics and well attended, handed out a couple of hundred cards. The needle doesn’t move. I handed out a lot of cards this time around, and some people said they’d look for me online. But… I don’t think the needle will move.

So why? Well, it’s actually sort of rewarding in intangible ways I struggle to describe. It gets me out of the apartment and talking to people in a structured environment which actually works for me. There are sales. There is money.

     There’s first hand impromptu market research, watching what people do, how they relate to the work or the titles or covers, seeing who the readers are and what they respond to. There isn’t enough to have any statistical validity – you want a sample size better than thirty. But over several conventions, you might build up some read on audiences.

     And I’m crafting a ‘Maddest Hatter’ persona for tables and sales. It’s niche, but I may be able to use it more widely.

Bottom line – I’m pretty happy I did it. And I’m pretty happy it’s over.