Stupidly Late

[billroper]

This is a stupidly late hour to be up at on a work night. On the other hand, I had several things that I really needed to take care of and they're done, so...

It turns out that sales at Worldcon were worse than we thought, because ISFiC Press actually sold more than $1000 worth of books at retail. Good for ISFiC Press, not so good for us. :)

Comments

[blueeyedtigress.livejournal.com]

I hear ya. Laundry, blarg. Sometimes it's tempting to go to work naked, and see if anyone notices ....

[billroper]

Folks would notice. They fail to notice many things, but they'd manage to catch that one...

[hms42]

In that case... Do you do mail order on some tapes??

Harold

[billroper]

You know, tapes I can actually find. :)

What are you looking for?

[hms42]

I'll contact you via email.

Harold

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

While I'm sorry you guys didn't do more business, the ISFiC Warehouse (now preparing for its next influx of books) is mighty happy.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you said Worldcon sales were slow. I wonder why?

[billroper]

Several factors:

1) We're not a West Coast filk dealer, so locals would have a tendency to visit the folks they normally see (Eric and the Creaseys).

2) We didn't have a great table location. However, neither was it terrible and it turned out to be extremely convenient that we were next to Amy's table, as it allowed us to split it with her and flog books for ISFiC Press. But there's definite advantage in being the first filk dealer that you're likely to run into. In this case, that was Eric.

3) It seemed like a lot of the West Coast filk community wasn't at the con. This depresses sales in two ways. First, they aren't there and buying. Second, they aren't there playing, so folks don't walk up and say, "I heard this cool song last night. Is it on a CD?"

4) I think (but don't know for sure) that the actual attendance at the con was substantially lower than the announced attendance because a lot of folks who had memberships didn't show up for whatever reason. Many Worldcons give total attendance and a "warm body count" of people who actually picked up badges, but I haven't seen the latter for LACon this time around. Also, it was deep into the con before they started printing attendance figures at all in the daily newszine. Make of it what you will.

[celticmom1967.livejournal.com]

According to the chair of LACon IV, here are the numbers he is aware of:

Here are the final numbers - give or take 1 or 2 - for LACON

6832 total membership

5913 warm bodies

919 no show

418 of the warm bodies were tasters

[billroper]

Thanks! I hadn't seen any of those numbers in print, but I may well have not looked in any of the right places.

So about 5500, which I think is a bit small for an L.A. Worldcon.

[celticmom1967.livejournal.com]

No problem. 5500 seems big to me. How big was the last WorldCon in LA? How many attendees did ConJose have?

[jeff-duntemann.livejournal.com]

There are a number of people who are very happy that ISFiC did so well at Worldcon. I've heard from three people who bought my book there and liked it, including David Gerrold.

[billroper]

Cool!

[chaoticgoodchic.livejournal.com]

I wonder if Comicon had anything to do with that? cadhla made Comicon sound so fun that I'm planning on attending next year.

[msminlr.livejournal.com]

For what it is worth, Russ Ault reported that he DID sell most of the "Never annoy a Filker for they are not at all subtle and people remember funny songs" shirts, which Lee FedExed to him after the flap following your discovery of the "people who are only on filk-related programming aren't Real Program Particpants" problem.

[ifics.livejournal.com]

I am a west coast filker, and the guy who sat behind the soundboard for a lot of the con. I made it a point to visit your table. You have stock that Dag and Random Factors does not stock. (Like Wild Mercy), and did not know that Tales From the White Hart was there till Sunday Morning. They had the The German CD IV-A View to a Filk.

I also noticed at the concerts, that many of the local filkers who were at the con were not at many of the concerts. I was enjoying all the filkers from the midwest and back east. I rarely get out of the area, so it was cool to see Bill, Gary, and others.

[hms42]

As an east coast person, I had 2 other commitments during the con (Art Show and Photography staff). I ended up hanging out in the filk lounge and meeting a lot of people.

All 4 dealers had unique stock and I dropped money at all of them. I think Bill sold me 2-3 tapes and about 4-5 CDs. (Definately got both Wild Mercy CDs from Bill and a rare tape that I had never seen.) I think Eric Gerds got the lightest pile (3 CDs).

Thank you for running the sound board. It sounded great on the 2 concerts I actually did make.

Harold S.

Harold S.