Anthony Dobranski Online

Tag: cons

  • A quick hello during a busy season

    I am sorry to have been so silent. In between summer travels with family, all my projects have been in construction phases, and I don’t like vague-posting.
    But, news. I have several author events scheduled for this fall. You can find me at:
    The Fredericksburg Independent Book Festival, Fredericksburg, VA, Sat Sep 23
    YABBAFest, Warrenton, VA, Sat Oct 14
    Quest-Con, Mobile, AL, Fri Oct 20-Sun Oct 22
    Philcon, Cherry Hill, NJ, Fri Nov 10-Sun Nov 12
    I have also begun recording The Demon in Business Class audiobook. People who sign up for my mailing list at Fredericksburg or after will get a free copy of the early session recording of Demon chapter 1.
    Want in on the goodies? Sign up too! 
    The third project is of course my new novel, which I finally have come to admit is not going to be fleshed out from the previous manuscript, but completely rewritten. I have however set myself the semi-impossible goal of debuting it next year at Atlanta’s massive DragonCon, which means that next week I get to writing in a headlong Phildickian rush. Well, maybe not, but I have a lot to do.
    I’ll be posting about the book in a couple of days, since I can actually discuss it now and show some concepts.
    A fourth project … awaits much more solid scheduling. Suffice it to say I am working with great artists.

  • Hello Florida Supercon – goodbye wonderful Raleigh!

    Hope to see you this coming weekend, July 27-30, at Florida Supercon in Fort Lauderdale, FL. I’ll be at the Bard’s Tower booth all four days of the con with Kevin J. Anderson, Josh Vogt, Kevin Ikenberry, Keith DeCandido, and J Scott Savage. I have one scheduled panel, on using real world experiences in fiction, at 3:30pm on Thursday.
    I’m pleased that Florida Supercon is under the same management as last week’s Raleigh Supercon. Raleigh was a tremendous event, well-run and with a welcoming energy. I met many enthusiastic people, and even got to join a panel on Religion and Magic.
    I’m very lucky to have Bard’s Tower as a promotional outlet to the world of fan conventions. Bard’s Tower helps me connect to my audience while working in a collaborative way with fantastic and experienced writers. Speaking as a business, tens of thousands of people with hundreds of options and real-world budgets are a brutal lab for direct marketing. As an artist, it’s an incredible chance to find that certain reader my work really speaks to, live and in-person — an unrivaled source of joy.

  • Hello Connecticon 2017 – and thanks!

    Tonight I fly north to Hartford, CT, to join the Bard’s Tower booth opening Friday at Connecticon. It’s the first of three cons I’m doing in July at Bard’s Tower, with other fantastic writers.
    Cons are intense, by design, and they’re also long days standing on concrete. Three cons in four weekends is a heavy schedule, personally tiring and hard on my family. Still, #livingthedream . These are my last big cons this calendar year. I want to connect with every interested reader during my hours in these big convention halls.
    How immediate these connections can be! People know their tastes, even if naming them with difficulty, but they feel. Once in a while I get a visual clue that a convention-goer might be my audience – cosplaying Sandman‘s Death, or wearing an Unknown Pleasures t-shirt – but more often, the readers find me and click. I’ll see an hour of people glancing away, then a delighted voice reads my title aloud and everything brightens.
    Connecticon 2016 was my first con behind the table, learning to connect with readers in person and find their interests, before my launch in Cincinnati. Seeing how little time one gets in the hugeness of a con convinced me to market overtly to a niche sensibility.
    I am excited to come back with my book – and new trading cards!

  • Hello CapClave – Trading cards now REAL!

    I’m paneling and reading starting today at CapClave in Rockville MD. It’s a very different kind of personal appearance than my work at convention booths, with panel discussions of literary topics, and a half-hour Saturday morning to read my work.
    In celebration, my social media promotion has slipped the surly bounds of cyberspace and achieved card form!
    The nine Demon picture cards
    It’s only the 9 picture cards, not the complete set of 55, which is still being published one a day on my social media: Instagram & Twitter @adobranski, Facebook @adobranskiauthor
    It’s also a small test run of this promotional idea!
    Any intrepid and review-minded readers who buy an Advance Reader Proof from me at CapClave get a card along with the posters I also gave buyers in Cincinnati. (And if you bought a book in Cincinnati, get in touch on Facebook or by email to dobranski outlook com and I’ll send you one!)
    Here’s my CapClave schedule – for full details, see CapClave.org and find me under “Participants.” See you there!
    Fri 6p – Whatever Happened to the Standalone Novel?
    Fri 8p – Who’s the Bad Guy in a World Without Absolutes?
    Fri 11p – How Graphic is Your Novel?
    Sat 10:30-10:55a – Reading
    Sat 11:00-11:25a – Author’s Table
    Sat 4p Politics in Science Fiction and Fantasy
    Sat 5p – Global Climate Change in Science Fiction
     
     

  • Fun with marketing – my convention banner

    I am so pleased to show off my first major marketing tool since the book got its cover – my banner for convention booths and signing tables. Artist Andrea Klores created a fantastic twilit look that complements the book’s edginess and theme. See it below in detail, and the final product at the end of this article – with a 6’4″ human for scale!
    Demon banner detail
    This is not the usual book marketing banner, and I thought it worth discussing.
    My marketing education this summer included a weekend working at my publisher’s booth at Hartford’s Connecticon. (more…)

  • My first interview!

    I got to talk about my upcoming novel The Demon in Business Class with the great guys at B&M Baked Podcast. We discuss the story, the background, the editing process, support from other writers, and even the convention-sales business model.
    My five-minute interview starts at timecode 30:21 – or listen to the whole thing, to hear from many other great authors too!
    http://bandmbakedpodcast.podbean.com/e/ep-376-connecticon-2016/