There used to be a panel that frequently ran in the Northeast/Ohio Valley convention circuit called “10 Conventions A Year” which explained how an attendee could budget and schedule their way to double-digit shows. Most of my circle of friends thought that there were better things to plan for (like, say, a trip to Japan) so we didn’t pay much attention to it.
Fast forward to 2017, where I’ve been to 12 shows in less than 10 months.
Now granted, all but 1 of those have been while working with Megaroad Toys and the compensation I get for that, combined with my lack of buying tendencies (except for prizes) and benefits at my day job have helped enable my excursions. I also haven’t been presenting at all of these conventions (mostly because I’ve missed submission deadlines; I’ve been fortunate to not be declined for a show I’ve applied to this year) which can keep incidentals down, but it also means I can’t scratch that particular itch.
So what will happen when my next scheduled show after Blurriecon is in the middle of January?
Well, part of that time is going to be taken up by the holiday season. Other parts are going to be me trying to survive work. The rest will be spent honing my craft and, to borrow from politics, attempt to pivot. The long term goal has always been for MP to be a supplemental form of income — there is not enough money in the convention industry to make it a full time job — and one way to help get that income is to bolster my web presence. It’s surprisingly hard to do anything substantial on the web without a domain name so that will be the first goal. Then I can work on being, well, present. It’s still very hard for me to get in the rhythm of posting when I’m not out hustling but maybe if I change how I hustle, I can communicate more with you all.
Another point of emphasis is web content. I have some things that work better short form video than they do as panels so I’ll be working on that. I’ll also plug my at-con work with a few teaser vids, and at some point, I’d like to record one or two of these.
Finally, it’s time to talk about the C-word: crowdfunding. Even if I’m magically become Guest Of Honor at all of the conventions I do in 2017, the amount of compensation I would realistically expect to get likely wouldn’t be enough to cover all of my costs, and since me joining the guest circuit isn’t going to happen anytime soon, I’ll have to look for alternatives. I don’t know which system will work best for me, but I will do my best to research and figure out something that’s palatable to everyone.
That sounds like about 15 weeks or so worth of work. What do you think?
