Vending In Stone Mountain 6/15, Huntsville 6/30
A Stone Mountain show 6/15 and an Alabama show 6/30. Also an update on THE WALKING WORM
I typically don’t go to out of state events, since hotels and mileage eat substantially into my profit margins. So unless I have friends or relatives I can crash with, I typically stick close to Atlanta, which has lots and lots of events anyway.
However, I also welcome the opportunity to build up my fan-base outside of Georgia and if I can do that without driving too far or paying for lodging, excellent. To that end, I have signed up for the one-day HuntsvilleCon, which I went to last year. Although mileage proved substantial, according to my Substack statistics a full 6% of my subscribers now come from Alabama. Furthermore, I suspect some subscribers from Arkansas and Missouri signed up there as well. I’m interested in expanding my mailing list beyond the Georgia core, especially with my planned Kickstarter for The Walking Worm coming soon.
(More on that later.)
For those interested in coming, it’s on Sunday June 30 from 10 AM to 5 PM at the Embassy Suites Hotel on Monroe Street. I will be bringing The Thing in the Woods (and stickers based on its cover), The Atlanta Incursion, Battle for the Wastelands, “Son of Grendel,” Serpent Sword, “Little People, Big Guns,” and Flashing Steel Flashing Fire. This time around, I will be making sure to do more two-for-one sales and other discounts and I’ve also got Thing book cover stickers.
(I was also planning on vending at AugustaCon 10 AM to 5 PM today, but I had an important family function. Fortunately fellow Atlanta Horror Writers Association members Marlena Frank and Kelley Frank were able to take over my spot. Definitely check them out if you’re in the area. I’ve already signed up for the September 22 Georgia Horror-Fest in Augusta, so I’ll definitely be back in Augusta this year.)
For those of you in Atlanta, I’m also selling 6/15 at Charlie’s Collectibles in Stone Mountain. Here’s the Facebook event link for more information. The event is more focused on toys, games, and collectibles, but I’ve had success at those events before. The event will run from 10 AM to 6 PM.
The Walking Worm Progress Report
I had dedicated later March, April, and May to working on The Walking Worm with the hopes of finishing it over the summer and funding the production costs with a Kickstarter. How is it going so far?
Well let’s see…
Chapters 1-11 are completed and have been reviewed by my critique group. Ch. 12 is done, but I don’t anticipate having that (and hopefully Ch. 13 and even Ch. 14) critiqued by the group until July. There are a total of eighteen chapters and an epilogue (although I might cut it because other books don’t have an epilogue and it’ll likely end on a cliffhanger); big chunks of the later chapters have already been written so finishing them should take less time than starting them from scratch.
I’ve begun setting up the Kickstarter, which has proven more complicated than I’d thought. I’m thinking the crossword puzzle I’d mentioned in the first Kickstarter email will be an “add-on” one can attach to existing reward tiers rather than a reward tier by itself. That will make things somewhat simpler. The “Tuckerization” top reward (i.e. having a character based on you) will also be somewhat cheaper. Total production costs look to be around $800. When taxes and Kickstarter fees are taken into account, that means my fundraising goal is $1,000.
Given how much independently publishing a book relies on other people (editors, designers, etc) and Kickstarter requires an estimated date of reward receipt (right now it’s October 2024), I don’t anticipate actually running it until later in the summer or fall. I want to have the book reviewed by my writing group in full (and since I’ll be missing all the June meetings, that means I won’t get started again until sometime in July), revised again, and then receive a professional edit. The cover art is already done. So by the time I actually get the promotion going, all that should be left is cover design and e-book/print layout, which shouldn’t take more than a couple weeks.