Tag Archives: nerd party

Nerd Party 2023!

Last year’s Nerd Party was my first-ever book signing event, so the annual mini-fair has a special place in my heart. It initially surprised me how many people showed up and wandered through the shops and displays. This year looked to be even bigger. There were more artists, more authors, added special guests, and still the same displays that were such a draw last time. Even with the pending inclement weather, it did not disappoint.

I did not get an opportunity to wander around the different stores, so I can only tell you about and share pictures from my little area. I was between two other local authors I have had the pleasure of booth-buddying with previously: J. P. Barnett and Maria Giakoumatos. We work well together as we are all in the fantasy realm, but fit into different sub-niches to suit any fantasy book tastes. The former has a series about two college girls hunting monsters instead of going to class. The latter has a spooky fantasy series involving vampires, demons, and other occult themes.

Mr. J. P. Barnett took to calling our area in the back of the comic shop the “author and artist cave” because, with the three of us, there were two artists as well (Maria has art in addition to her books too!). You can see their info in the picture here to check out their work.

Tori drew the frog (I love frogs!) while at the event.

How did I do? Well, I exceeded my goal for the evening. I think most people attended early, as it slowed down after the first couple of hours. The threat of snow kept some visitors away this year, but we heard they are shifting the Nerd Party to a warmer month in 2024. Hopefully, more people will be able to attend then. To anyone reading this who bought something from one of us in the author and artist cave, thank you for your support!

I’m now off to the Sounders’ season openers, so…until next year, fellow nerds!

Signing Event of the Century

…and by that, I mean my first signing event ever, and we are in a century. If you follow me on Facebook, you may have noticed the event I set up this morning for an official book signing! 

The broader event is called the “Meeker Street Nerd Party,” and is organized by a group of businesses located on Meeker Street in Kent. 

The Nerd Party promotes downtown local, small businesses by highlighting nerd culture in a street-wide event.  Small businesses between 2nd & 4th Ave on W. Meeker will host local makers, artists, and authors who specialize in nerd culture, science fiction, fantasy, horror — books, games, toys, and more.

– from the Nerd Party event page

With my paperback released—and looking amazing—I reached out to the event organizers and asked if they had any spots left I could fill. The answer was a resounding “well, all the good spots are taken, so you will probably be in an out of the way location.”

I jumped all over that. I’m calling it a “find Tiffany” scavenger hunt. As a prize, you can have a bookmark or wax seal, both of which I have ordered supplies to create these giveaways. I will also have copies of the paperback for sale if you have not already ordered yours from Amazon. 

If you are in the Seattle-Tacoma area on the evening of February 26th, 2022, then come to Kent and visit me in my corner of the bookstore! More information on the Party is here, and on my signing is here. I hope to see some of you there!

(Related note: If you received my newsletter on 1/15/22, you still have until the end of January to reply with your entry to try to win the signed paperback giveaway!)

Advertising

Also this week, I took the “5-day Author Ad Profit Challenge.” It is a free course via videos and social media put on by the Ad School. I’m only recently starting my advertising journey, so I thought a crash course was a great idea and signed up. 

I watched the videos during my lunch break and worked on the homework assignments in the evenings. The class focuses on creating Amazon Ads via their website and writing better ad copy (the hook lines you see on ads). I found the latter most helpful because I had already explored the ad website to some extent, but the tips for using the different types of ads Amazon offers were also beneficial.

Time will tell if the class can help turn my advertising profitable instead of what I’m calling a loss-leader. Overall, if you are interested in learning about Amazon ads and writing better copy, then I would recommend the free class, but make sure you have enough time to put into the assignments. As for the paid class, I am still undecided. Probably not this year, but I might consider it part of next year’s growth and training after Hidden Sanctuary is released on time. 

Happy Saturday all!