A few weekends ago, I attened ConCoction, an SF con just south of Cleveland. This is a very good small-writer's convention. Among other things, they have a room set aside for indie/small press books. They do the selling for you and send you the money.

For obvious reasons lots of indie authors and a few small-press publishers flock to it so there's lots of cross talk, comparing publishers, techniques for getting your books to potential readers, and stuff like that.

I keep a box of books in my car, just in case someone wants to buy one. As I was packing for the con, it occurred to me that the box was getting a little light, so I added a few more copies of Promised Rewards.

I wouldn't need them, but it never hurts to be prepared.

I read one of the Bard & Sigurd short stories on Saturday and sold two copies of Promised Rewards just because folks liked the humor. Then a couple more folks bought books, and I ran to my room to grab the extras I'd tossed into the box at the last minute.

Packing extra books was a much cleverer move than I'd expected.

In the end, I sold all the Promised Rewards I'd brought and a couple of the anthologies I've got stories in. The last PR sale came as I was packing my books getting ready to head home.

I was on a panel about critique groups where only the panelists showed up. We ended up pulling the chairs into a circle and just chatting about writing, people we know, tricks for getting a good critique or working with people, and barely mentioned critique groups, except to say "Shouldn't we be talking about critique groups?" -- Look at empty room - "None of the audience members are complaining..."

Some of the best panels I've been on were the ones where nobody else showed up.