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Another Crazy Time at SVScon

Artist Alley SVScon BooksAnother great convention has come and gone and I sit here, completely exhausted, but with a good feeling in my stomach!

This was my second year attending the danish J-pop convention SVScon as an author (Read about last year here). Last year was a great success, with a lot of interest in my debut novel, Resounding Echo, so I was really excited to be there again this year. Even more so because this was the first time the sequel, Silent Sound, was available for purchase.

GASP!

Yes, I said it. The guests at SVScon were the first people able to get their hands on a copy of Silent Sound. It’s finally ready and I enjoyed showing off the brand new paperbacks at my stand in the Artist Alley.

But fear not, Silent Sound will be ready for purchase as both ebook and paperback at Amazon within the month, and as soon as possible as an ebook at every other major retailer. If the stars are with me, it might even be next week!

But let’s get back on track…

This year I could be found at my table both friday and saturday. It’s always fun to be at a J-pop convention. ‘Cause really, who wants to talk to some guy in jeans and a t-shirt, when you can talk to a completely masked person splattered in blood?

…Okay, I admit a couple of those guys terrified me. But really, it’s so much fun to see all the people in costumes. And SVScon, despite being a J-pop convention, has a very wide range. Instead of just focusing on japanese comics and music, there’s a lot of people dressed up as characters from western movies, comics and games.

There was almost an entire Avengers-team (I don’t think anyone invited Bruce Banner, though… Poor green guy), and Batman and Robin ran into the Joker and Harley Quinn as well. There was also a couple of zombies from Left 4 Dead.

What really terrified me, though, was a masked guy who looked like some mutated horror version of Santa Claus. I have NO idea which character he was supposed to be, but he was way more creepy than someone dressed in what looked like a full-body santa hat should possibly be.

Oh, and did I mention that the Grim Reaper stopped by?

Sigh… How come I can never go anywhere without it turning completely insane?

Pictures from SVScon 2013

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Getting Ready to Invade SVScon(Again)

Box of BooksOnce again, I can tell you that I’m going to be at this year’s SVScon in Herning, Denmark! This year, it will be held over the weekend 3.-5. May 2013.

I had an amazing time last year when I had a booth at their Artist Alley-area, and I’m very excited to say that I can be found there both Friday and Saturday this year. I will also come better prepared this time!

Last year, the huge interest in my books took me by surprise and I ended up having sold out of my paper copies long before my time was up. This time, I have ordered home three times as many copies and I dare you to make me run out!

I’m also pleased to say that Silent Sound is almost done and will be ready before May, which means that I will be selling it in print for the first time at this convention. I am so excited about seeing it in print beside Resounding Echo that it’s nearly making me feel sick!

Like last year, I will also be selling posters and I have already ordered prints of my 5 favorite artworks. I would love to hear if you think there’s one I just HAVE to be selling as well. Feel free to look through the artwork page: The Angel’s Voice Series Artwork

My trusty sidekick Hans Christian, also known as Qulr on DeviantART(Last year going by the name Mitizaki), will also be joining me again. If you didn’t know, he is the one who took ZKROX’s amazing artwork and turned it into covers for Resounding Echo and Silent Sound.

If you visit my booth, you will also get a voucher for a free ebook copy of Huntress!

Once again, I will love to hear your opinions on poster choices, or any other ideas to what I should bring to SVScon (Even if you can’t make it to the convention yourself). And I really hope to see just as many amazing people as I did last year!

Rock on!

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A Day at SVScon

As I wrote earlier this week, I could be found in Artist Alley at SVScon this weekend. This was my first author appearance ever and not only was it a great experience, it was quite a weird one too!

I hadn’t really expected my first appearance as an author to involve a guy wearing a trench coat and a horse mask getting butchered with an axe by the Joker. But I guess things never turn out quite as you imagined them…

I was sharing a stand with my friend and cover designer Hans Christian, where I was selling paperback copies of Resounding Echo as well as posters of some of the Angel’s Voice artwork. We had a great table in the middle of the Artist Alley area, and a great atmosphere provided by the Apocalypse Roleplay stand behind us. Nothing like smoke, loud metal music and stray foam bullets flying past you every once in a while!

I had expected to be less than busy, but the interest for my books surpassed my wildest expectations. Not only was it rarely empty in front of our table, I got to talk to a great amount of people about not only my own writing, but about being an indie in general. Ebooks are not that common in Denmark yet, and independent author is not a term even used, so many people found my publishing process interesting.

I had completely underestimated the attention I would gain, and before I knew it, I had run out of books! Even the posters almost got sold out, leaving me with an almost empty table. I will definitely have to prepare myself better for next time!

It has been such a great experience, and I’m already itching for the next time I have the possibility to do something like it again! Seeing sales numbers on a screen or getting a Tweet from a reader feels good, but it’s nothing like speaking about your writing face-to-face with interested people or being able to smile at someone when you hand them a physical copy of your book. It feels great and gives only satisfaction and excitement, without the feelings being followed by constant thoughts on how to market your work to keep the sales up or how you have to go through the next edit of the book. It’s a purely positive feeling that lasts much longer than an increase in your Amazon sales report will ever do.

I hope to repeat the success next year as well, and I’m already looking into if it will be possible for me to be at J-Popcon in February too. I would love to hear from some of the people I talked to, so feel free to leave a comment and share some of your own SVScon-stories!

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Book Signing Jitters

Books, check. Reservations, Check. Nerves… Double check.

To those of you that don’t know, I’m going to be at SVScon this weekend.

And the bad thing about focusing on the ebook market is that this will be the first time meeting my potentiel readers face-to-face. And frankly, I’m scared to death.

Okay, okay, I know I’m being melodramatic, but it’s my blog. I’m allowed to be.

It’s so easy only dealing with people on the internet. You have plenty of time to think about your answers so you might actually sound intelligent(People don’t have to know that you used an hour thinking about the best way to answer if you like the color green…). And I can always choose not to read my reviews.

If people stop at my booth and pick up my book, I have nowhere to run to avoid hearing them say if they love or hate what they read. And I really like having the opportunity to run!

Don’t get me wrong, I love hearing from people who have read my books! But at the same time I fear it.

I think the anticipation is the worst… I have never had problems after hearing someone critisize my writing, but the waiting time before knowing if people are going to say something negative kills me!

I’m definitely in the wrong business. If I ever get successful enough to frequently have my books reviewed, I will die from the stress I put myself through every time I know I have a new review, but can’t bring myself to read it and get it over with.

But back to the book signing… I really can’t just avoid opening my email or block certain people to avoid hearing others’ opinions, can I?

This seemed like such a good idea when I agreed to it…

Well, you can look forward to hearing all about it if I survive the weekend! I will be sure to take pictures for those of you who can’t attend.

I will also be back to blogging about the business of indie publishing after the weekend, so feel free to send me relevant topic or news you would like to discuss in the following week!

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Going to SVScon!

SVScon

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m going to have a booth at this year’s SVScon in Denmark!
Together with the always wonderful Hans Christian(Who will be selling his artwork as well as promoting his webcomic Subrosa) I will be attending the convention in their Artist Alley area.
I’ll will be signing printed copies of Resounding Echo as well as selling posters of the official artwork. I’m really looking forward to talking to other book lovers!

For those of you that don’t know about SVScon, it’s a danish convention that revolves about japanese popular culture. That includes everything from music to movies, and you will be able to find just about everything represented there. Comics, games, books, clothing, art and countless other interesting(And often very weird…) stuff!
It’s being held in Herning, Denmark in the beginning of May and is this year the weekend 11-13th May. You can visit the website here: svscon.dk (The site is in danish, though!)

To everyone going, I look forward to see you! To everyone else, I will be sure to upload pictures of the event!