Tag: LibertyCon

My LibertyCon Schedule

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 1 Comment

LibertOne of my favorite cons of the year is right around the corner.  Chattanooga’s LibertyCon is this coming weekend.  Historically, LC is a great con for writers (which usually means a great con for readers, too) with a great little con suite (did someone say beer?) and a welcoming atmosphere. This year they have me booked pretty tight.  I think that’s a good thing.  We’ll see.  If you’re looking, here’s where and when you’ll find me.

Friday

  • 3pm – The Flutter-by Effect: Time Travel in Literature – We talk paradoxes and explore what other compelling elements time travel has to offer.  I’m moderating this one! [Gallery A]
  • 5pm – Opening Ceremonies – Meet the guests and professionals.  I guess that includes me. [Centennial Theater]
  • 7pm – Autograph Session – Come on by; I’ll sign anything! I prefer to sign my book, of course.  I’ll happily sell you one. [Dealers’ Room]
  • 10pm – Messiest Ways to Kill a Zombie – This one is always a lot of fun.  There’s a rason it’s this late, folks; leave the kiddies at home if they have sensitive ears.  In other words, kiddies should probably leave the grown-ups at home. [Centennial Theater]

Saturday

  • 11am – Urban Fantasies – I’m sure this will be “What are they? What’s new? What’s next?” and all that.  So if you’re interested in urban fantasy, come on by. [Gallery A]
  • 1pm – What’s New in Horror and Dark Fantasy? (Roundtable) – Should be self-explanatory. Lots of people on this one. [Centennial Theater]
  • 8pm – Reading: Scott W. Baker (a.k.a. me) & Mark Wandrey – I’m not sure what I’ll read.  I guess I should probably pick something I wrote… [American Room Train Car]

Sunday

  • 10am – Meet the Locals (Roundtable) – I reckon there are a bunch of us Tennessee-livin’ authors at the con.  With John Ringo moderating us, there’s no telling where the discussion will go. [Centennial Theater]
  • 1pm – Autograph Session – Last chance to come chat and get my autograph.  You can sell it on ebay for…okay, you probably can’t sell it on ebay.  Yet. [Dealers’ Room]

 

All It Was Cracked Up to Be

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

Back from LibertyCon.  It was a great weekend.  Had a few firsts, made a few friends, and generally had fun.

Lets start with the egg-speriment in marketing.  I ended up putting tiny card stock coupons inside gold plastic Easter eggs.  The little paper had the cover pic; QR codes for Smashwords, Kindle, and my blog; web addresses for Kindle and Smashwords; and a coupon code.  The eggs seemed to be a hit.  77 of them were distributed, mostly from the freebie table where you usually find bookmarks, postcards, and black-on-florescent paper flyers.  I think the eggs were just more interesting looking and people grabbed more of them than they did bookmarks.

There a downside to the egg-speriment: so far, I’ve only sold one ebook out of an egg.  Yep, one.  I have a number of folks who have promised they will buy one, and they have a month before the coupon expires, so all is not lost.  We’ll see.

Sunday morning was my first opportunity to do a reading at a con.  I got the 10am time slot, a time hen many folks were bringing luggage to their cars.  I thought it would be the kiss of death.  It wasn’t.  I had an audience of at least a dozen (dare I hope it was a baker’s dozen?).  On top of that, all of them seemed to enjoy themselves.

I started by reading “Faerie Belches”, a middle-grades urban fantasy I originally sold back in 2008.  The crowd response was great.  I had forgotten what a sweet little tale it was, and it worked even better out loud.  The reading convinced me to send the story to PodCastle, an audio podcast market for fantasy.  I sent it today, so we’ll see…

The other story I read was “Call Me Z”, a previously unpublished zombie-culture story.  It was a story I always had faith in but never found a market for.  Again, the crowd seemed to like it.  So I was two for two.  (It helped that I bribed them with donuts — tiny, gas-station-bought donuts.)

Another first for me was being interviewed for a “YouTube show”, effectively a video podcast.  My new pal John Hartness hosts a show called Literate Liquors on which authors describe their works and recommend something to drink while reading them.  It was fun.  I’ll be sure to link to the episode when I find it.  (For what it’s worth, I got to watch guest of honor Brandon Sanderson record an episode even though he doesn’t drink.)

I made quite a few friends — too many to list in fear of missing one — and even better, I think I picked up a few new fans.  Now I need to go write more stuff for those fans to read.  A great weekend that has inspired me to get back to work.

Oh, and one more thing.  There was a general consensus at the con that $2.99 is to cheap for Baker’s Dozen.  So what do I do about it?  I’ll raise the price, but not yet.  No matter what happens, the $1 egg-coupon is good through August 22nd.  But if you’re planning to buy Baker’s Dozen, you might want to act soon!

The Shell Game

~ Scott W. Baker ~ 2 Comments

With LibertyCon just around the corner, I’ve been looking for a good way to market Baker’s Dozen.  I’ve committed to an idea.  Is it good?  Maybe.  Is it great?  I doubt it.

Eggs.

I guess I may be over-committed to my cover art, but I just ordered 100 gold(-ish) Easter eggs.  I plan to fill the eggs with ads/coupons for Baker’s Dozen.  The coupon will be good for Smashwords, but links to both SW and the Kindle Store will be in there.  And maybe cheap candy…I haven’t decided.  I figured a little something to separate mine from the dozens of pieces of paper might translate into a sale or three.  Yes, this means I’ll be carrying around a bag of eggs like a delinquent on Halloween.  If you see me, ask for an egg,

I’ll also do a little trolling for reviewers at LibertyCon.  I want to get a couple people to read and review Baker’s Dozen.  I’m not chasing Locus or anything, just some bloggers with little web traffic and a track record of reviewing stuff that would be willing to share the review on Amazon and Smashwords.  If that describes you and you’d be interested in writing a brief, fair review of my collection, zip me an email.  Reviewers will of course get their digital copy for free from Smashwords.

[Be warned: I will be screening my reviewers prior to dealing out free copies.  Not that I’m looking for favors or bias, but I don’t want to risk exposing myself to illiterate reviews from readers that don’t understand the genre and just wanted something free.  If I can’t find a track record of reviews, I won’t be likely to shell out a free copy.  But asking can’t hut, I guess.]

The Con that keeps on Giving

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

I recently — maybe not so recently — posted my LibertyCon schedule.  Well, it’s growing.

First, they added the Opening Ceremonies (Friday, 5 pm) to my personal schedule.  Okay, I get that.  I am an “also attending” guest so it would be nice to wave to the crowd.  I can do that.

Then they seem to have added a couple autograph sessions (Friday at 6 pm, Saturday at 4 pm Sunday at 1 pm).  I don’t expect much of a line, but it makes sense to have a time when people can expect to find me.  It might make more sense if I didn’t have a panel (Research) conflicting with that Saturday @ 4, but whatever.  Now tht they fixed the timimg of my second autograph session, everything should work out swell. Should. I can go with the flow.

Finally, I have another panel.  And this is one I can definitely contribute to: Whimsy and Satire in SF&F (Saturday at 6 pm).  Whimsy.  That’s what the W in my name stands for.  (Really?  Maybe.)  And it’s currently a panel of 3, so I’ll have plenty of talk time to say something funny.  My typical record is 1 out of every 10 jokes is funny.  That’s why comedy is so hard.

Whew, it’s going to be a busy con.  I need to find some time to buy beers for pros, too.  I can’t wait.

My LibertyCon Schedule

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

It’s about a month to LibertyCon (July 20-22).  Last time I checked the schedule, I didn’t have any panels scheduled.  I was a late-added guest so it wasn’t a big surprise.  When guests drop out, someone has to fill their spots.

I checked the schedule today and found the issue resolved.  I’m sure that things are still subject to change, but right now my schedule includes:

  • Messiest Ways to Kill a Zombie
  • Historical & Science Fiction Research
  • Self Promotion: Increasing Discoverability Through Marketing and Technology
  • Reading – Scott Baker

Yup, I have a reading.  On Sunday morning.  I’m certain it will be well attended.  :-/  I’ve never done a reading before other than reading flash fic to my classes when they beg.  It’ll be good practice.  So I guess I should start picking a piece to read.

Having no novels out or forthcoming, I guess I’ll be reading short fiction.  The obvious thing to do is read something from Baker’s Dozen.  Plenty of good candidates in there.  Not “Leech Run” or “Chasers” since both are Escape Pod stories and have/will have audio presentations that trump whatever I can muster, but I could read “Poison Inside the Walls” if I want something pro-published.  Right now I’m leaning more toward “Call Me Z”, my zombie culture piece; it’s fun but poignant.  Also in the running are “Glow Baby” (urban fantasy; think of Tribbles) and “Secondhand Rush” (dystopian, slight cyberpunk overtones).  Then there’s the option of reading something unpublished, particularly if I finish it between now and then, but I don’t really see the marketing value in that approach.  It may boil down to whichever story I feel like reading to an empty room.

As for the panels, that first one is made of awesome.  To top it off, John Ringo is on that panel with me.  That one may get a touch out of control…I hope.  The research panel is a bit out of my league since I’m not a research nut.  Plus I seem to be on the panel with sciencey-types.   But I research and I’ll have a pearl or three to share, I suppose.  As for the self-promotion panel, I’ve been doing some of that with Baker’s Dozen but not as much as perhaps I should.  I’ll be listening as much as talking there.

All in all, I’ve really come to enjoy Chattanooga cons and I don’t expect this one to be too different.  Still a month away, though.

I hate waiting.

 

Has anyone seen a month lying around? I think I lost one.

~ Scott W. Baker ~ Leave a comment

Time flies for teachers in the summer.  I can’t believe I haven’t posted here in a whole month.  I’ve been camping and fireworking and more camping and generally trying to enjoy the hiatus from that pesky real job.  It’s about time to get things in line for school again.  Yay?  Well, time waits for no man, so yay it is I guess.

Not a lot of action on the writing front, I regret to admit.  I’ve been putting a fair amount of focus on a slow long-shot project and I’ve allowed it to get in the way of more immediate enterprises.  I’ve lost steam on my most recent WIP, but at least I think I know why; I have an extraneous character and it’s making the conflict feel forced.  And the timeline is all wrong.  Sad to say it, but I need to approach this thing from a more Hollywood angle.  (I could see this being adapted as an episode of Eureka.  Hmmm…)  Perhaps I should bring another project to the front of the queue while my subconscious tinkers with the idea a bit more, since we’re looking at a total rewrite and  length change.

I have even less excuse for allowing my submission cycle collapse.  I have between 10 and 12 stories that are submission-ready, yet at one point I only had three out.  That’s up to six now (camping hindered the recovery effort) and that should hit double digits by August.  Yes, that’s still a couple weeks, but there are several slush piles that are closed until then and I’ve exhausted most of my quick-turn options, so it’s wait two weeks or risk missing the window.  Neither choice is great.

In happier news, I spent today at LibertyCon in Chattanooga.  As cons go, this was pretty low key; a Relax-a-con, if you will.  It was nice seeing some old friends and making a couple new ones.  It was just a day trip, alas.  I doubt I even pulled my money’s worth since I spent a lot more time jawing in the lobby than participating in con events.  I tried to eat my value from the nicely-managed ConSuite, but I doubt I pulled it off.  I may show next year, I may not.  We’ll see.  It’s a lot of the same folks as ChattaCon, which I enjoyed more, though that is biased since I stayed for all of that one and merited “guest” status.

So I guess posting’s been slow because writer-Scott has been slow.  Reader-Scott, on the other hand, has had a strong week, finishing GRRM’s A Clash of Kings and the audiobook of Gaiman’s American Gods in close proximity.  What to attack next?  The keyboard, that’s what!