Florida Supercon
Posted on | August 24, 2009 | Comments Off
The second annual Florida Supercon was held in Miami on June 15, 2009.
The main attraction was Bruce Campbell, probably the number one B-movie star in existence today. He got his start in the 80’s playing Ash in the classic horror movies Dawn of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead II, and Army of Darknes. He then went on to play various other roles, including Autolycus (”the King of Thieves”) from Xena, the Warrior Princess, and the starring role in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
These are B roles played by the king of the B movies. For me, B level stars are more fun. They have to be. They know the value of marketing because they don’t have massive media conglomerates with colossal PR firms doing everything for them. They, along with musicians who make their living through live performances, are the original guerrilla marketers when it comes to entertainment. They don’t just sell the movie, they sell themselves.
So, Bruce was the star attraction. He may be a B movie actor, but he brought his A game. He completely blew me away. When he spoke, everyone in the entire event basically stopped what they were doing and listened to him. I asked Bruce what his user name on Twitter was [side note - Sean's Twitter name is marsupius], and he spent about five minutes making fun of me for using Twitter. But because it was Bruce Cambell, I thought it was awesome. If it were any other celebrity, I would have been like “F*$k you, you a#&hole,” and rushed the stage. But not Bruce. Well, maybe Harlowe Ellison could have done that too and gotten away with it, but only because he’s a crazy old man.
This is in contrast to the person who I first saw when I got to Supercon, who was, compared to Bruce, quite boring. This contrast between a decent writer, just starting out, and the master of the self promoting B movie actors, led to a revelation: it doesn’t matter how good your story is. To sell your book, you also have to sell yourself.
When I first arrived at Supercon, I went to see a presentation by an author who will remain nameless because I am using him as an example of what not to do. He had recently published his first book. The subject of his talk was “real science in science fiction.” Since I am a total nerd, I totally wanted to see that. The subject matter was quite interesting – for a nerd like me – so I had to go. Unfortunately, the author himself was not quite as interesting as the subject matter.
That’s not to say he was boring. But he didn’t stick out, either. He was just kind of there. This didn’t surprise me so much because he’s a writer. He’s in the business of writing stories that are interesting to read. So, I wasn’t too critical. In fact, when he mentioned the part in his novel where the Chinese Government argues against the Treaty on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies in an attempt to avoid the treaty and claim sovereignty over the moon, I had to raise my hand in giddy excitement.
Me: Did you say the Moon Treaty?
Author: Yes, it’s a treaty where countries-
Me: Aren’t allowed to claim the moon or other celestial bodies as their territory, yes I know, but…
(at this point, my wife was squeezing my hand in that secret husband-wife language – the one that’s so secret that usually only the wife understands it – that said “honey, stop being a jerk. Just let it go. I know you’re a lawyer, and a nerdy one at that, and proud to be a total nerd sci fi geek-lawyer, but the fact that I know it should be enough. You don’t have to convince everyone else”). So the exchange continued, but I was a bit more cautious:
Author: Yes, so, um, in my book, China argues that the treaty doesn’t apply to them
Me: Well, considering that China never signed the treaty — Ouch, hey!
That “ouch” was me reacting to my wife’s follow-up-hand-squeazing-secret-code, which by now she REALLY was trying to use to say something along the lines of SHUT THE HELL UP and STOP RUINING IT FOR EVERYONE ELSE, YOU SPACE-LAWYER NERD. So I went ahead and shut myself up, and stopped ruining it for everyone. The subject matter was pretty interesting (for a nerd like me), and the book sounded like it might be a good read, so I stayed quiet and listened patiently.
But – and here I am finally getting back to my original point – the problem is that when you go to a convention, you have only a limited amount of money to spend on stuff. And there are a LOT of things you want to buy, which makes sense because one of the points of the convention is to get the stuff you otherwise couldn’t find (and if you can distract your wife, you can spend more money than you originally planned, which is awesome, until the credit card bill comes in. So, there is that to consider).
The point is that it’s really hard to market your book (or artwork or your genuinely fake reproductions of the Millenium Falcon) at a convention because there’s a lot of competition. But it’s also a potential gold mine because these people are your target audience and they came to spend their money!
So, I listened with interest to the science behind the science fiction guy, and made a mental note to buy his book if I got around to his table later on when I was planning on walking the convention floor. And that is what a lot of other people did. Nobody jumped up right then and there and bought the book outright, even though he had a huge pile of them stacked right next to himself screaming at us to be bought.
Now let me contrast that with Bruce Campbell. I’ll show you a clip I recorded of Bruce Campbell, and you’ll see the dynamic personality of a guy who could insult me to my face and make me love every minute of it. Watch him promote his book (which isn’t even out yet):
Admittedly, he’s an actor, so he has a huge advantage in the charisma department. Also, he was the main attaction of the convention, so a bunch of people in the room would buy his saliva if it were for sale, not to mention his next book. But even considering that, contrast the way these two men promote their books.
The newly published science fiction author: sits quietly and explains the plot and gets geeks like me to consider buying his book.
Bruce Campbell: gets on stage, dominates the place with his personality, and basically takes over the entire room, and then off-handedly mentions he’s got a book coming out in a few years after egging on the crowd so they cheer for him like a rock star.
If you knew nothing about these two guys, but you saw them in person at a convention, or a book signing, and you could buy one guy’s book but not both, which would you choose? Bruce? You don’t even know what his book is about. But I’ll bet you would choose Bruce.
So that got me thinking. Bruce is a good writer, but probably not even close to the writing level of this new sci fi author. But for getting a bunch of people to get excited and buy his book, Bruce wins, hands down. I was thinking about that when I had my epiphany (it could have been the Filk band in the corner, but I swear angels were singing): What if I could combine both worlds? What if I could be a dynamic, interesting person when promoting my book (assuming I get off my lazy behind and actually finish it), and take over the place with my charisma, which in turn makes you want to buy my book? But on top of that, what if I ALSO had really cool writing style so that you just can’t put my books down once you’ve picked them up?
This realization hit me like a ton of bricks. Actually, it wasn’t much like a ton of bricks. It was more like a wet diaper, because the idea lingered. So, this idea hit me like a wet diaper. It was one of those watershed moments. I told my wife about my idea. She said, in a tone of voice that was so dry it made my eyeballs itchy, “If you did that, we wouldn’t have to drive a Toyota Echo anymore.”
I nodded in triumph. She believes in me. Then, she added, “But that will take forever. Come back to Earth so we can decide where to have lunch.”
Comments
