IT BEGINS!<\/p>\n
Elizabeth was over eight months pregnant, and we headed down by plane to San Diego, without incident. <\/span>The doctor visit informed us she could pop any minute. <\/span>Our friend, Matt Silady, a talented self-publisher and great salesman at conventions, would be helping us to man our table, in part since Elizabeth wouldn\u2019t be as functional, but especially since she could potentially go into labor at any moment. <\/span>We arrived early, got situated at the hotel, and I left Elizabeth there and went to the convention.<\/p>\n Matt met me there. <\/span>We were hours early for the con. <\/span>Matt and I set up the table, including my brand new, six-foot tall sign of a giant monster, boldly, unapologetically bragging about the names of all the great artists attached to my book. <\/span>We were ready with plenty of time, so we poked around a bit. <\/span>Matt had never been to the con, so we strolled and looked at all the crazy displays, and I showed him the areas I like to frequent \u2013 DC Comics, Darkhorse, Fantagraphics, etc., to speak with editors and try to find work, the artist alley to make connections and network, etc. <\/span>We began bumping into some of our fellow self-publishing friends, setting up, and visited here and there. <\/span>And before we knew it, the convention had begun, for Wednesday night\u2019s Preview Night.<\/p>\n I listened to Matt\u2019s pitch to people, and I think what I learned most is that he has developed a couple catch-phrases that he uses each time, just as hooks to try and get people interested. <\/span>Always beginning with an introduction and hand-shake. <\/span>Even if people look like they\u2019re about to walk right past, he managed to snag a few back by standing up and introducing himself. <\/span>That\u2019s enough to get them to listen through his pitch, and often he winds up selling the books as a result.<\/p>\n He made some suggestions to my pitch. <\/span>He suggested being succinct, but including adjectives, like \u201ccreepy,\u201d and \u201cfun.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n I listened to how he would pitch my book a few times. <\/span>It gave me ideas. <\/span>Partway through the convention, he acknowledged I was doing great, and this with for the most part the same pitching techniques I\u2019ve been using for the last couple years. <\/span>Just refined, refined.<\/p>\n It\u2019s funny, as I began pitching the same line each time, I realized, I would come up with a joke, and use it almost every single time, down to the same smile when I got to the same part, and the same little laugh when I told the punchline. <\/span><\/p>\n After awhile, we learned, if I would tell people about Matt\u2019s book, with such descriptions as, \u201cYou should flip through Matt\u2019s book, the art is amazing,\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s a fun story, be sure to check it out,\u201d people would take the time, if for no other reason than politeness. <\/span>And once they were standing over with him, he could give his own pitch.<\/p>\n Because our books are quite different (His is a romantic comedy, mine is not), often if a couple came over, we would interest one of them with one of our pitches, and the other one would just be standing around but not as interested. <\/span>So then, while one would look at mine and buy it, he could start a conversation with the other, and the other would look at his and buy it. <\/span>It worked out well.<\/p>\n So be sure, next convention, to come on by the table, fans, and give yourselves the opportunity to hear all my newly-learned pitch techniques!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON, July 19-23, 2006 IT BEGINS! Elizabeth was over eight months pregnant, and we headed down by plane to San Diego, without incident. The doctor visit informed us she could pop any minute. Our friend, Matt Silady, a talented self-publisher and great salesman at conventions, would be helping us to man our table, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary-of-a-struggling-comics-artist"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"cwisnia","author_link":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/archives\/author\/cwisnia"},"uagb_comment_info":139,"uagb_excerpt":"SAN DIEGO COMIC-CON, July 19-23, 2006 IT BEGINS! Elizabeth was over eight months pregnant, and we headed down by plane to San Diego, without incident. The doctor visit informed us she could pop any minute. Our friend, Matt Silady, a talented self-publisher and great salesman at conventions, would be helping us to man our table,…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chriswisniaarts.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}LEARNING TO BE A SALESMAN<\/h1>\n