TFF 2024: A Retrospective

It is one week since I returned from Texas Furry Fiesta, an anthro animal-themed convention hosted annually in Dallas by Creature Arts, which was my second ever live appearance as an author/bookseller. Having had time to reflect on this whirlwind expedition, I have come to a few conclusions, which I will share in this week’s post.

The first thing I will say is that this event was huge–far bigger than any such event I have ever attended before. I went to Creature Arts’ smaller summer event, Texas Furry Siesta last August as an attendee, but at just shy of 1800 people, it was not even a quarter of the 8001 people who attended this event. While it was fun, the large crowd and venue proved just a tad overwhelming from my perspective. However, to be fair, I came to this event not merely as an attendee, but also as a vendor, and that can color one’s experience significantly.

I was not placed in the primary vendor area known as the Dealer’s Den this time, but rather, entered a table lottery each day of the convention for a spot in the Artist Alley located just outside the Den. In this, I was partially successful, as I won a slot both Saturday and Sunday, but not on Friday–typically the most critical day for sales. Therefore, while I did all right, I by no means did exceptionally well. Coupled with the elevator turmoil that always plagues such conventions as well as various social obligations, my selling time was somewhat less than it could have been. Thus, while not a complete failure, it was not nearly what I had hoped.

However, I have come away from this event much wiser, and lessons learned can be worth far more than cash in hand if properly applied in future. My biggest takeaways were as follows:

•  A book carrier of some sort is an absolute must if you are going to haul any kind of volume to and from your booth, especially on a daily basis as I had to. I availed myself of the hotel carts for this purpose, but in future, having my own wheels would save a great deal of time and expenditure.
• Eye-catching displays are always important, but doubly so at an event based primarily on visual arts. Though well designed, my book covers could not compete with the flashier articles at the tables around me.
• Card readers are an essential tool in the kit of live vendors these days. It is safe to say that over half my sales were made only thanks to a fellow vendor coming to the rescue with his credit card reader (if you’re reading this, thanks Toa!). Hence, I highly recommend having one of these handy little devices if you are planning to do live promotions of your books often.
• Dealer’s Den is the way to go. If there is any live event which differentiates between smaller artist booths and an established vendor area, always apply for the latter first! While the price tends to be higher to set up in a dealer hall, it is, in my opinion, well worth it. Not only do you usually get a bigger table, but you are guaranteed all 3 days of the event to sell, and such areas are usually locked up at night, thus reducing the time spent hauling your stuff to and from your booth each day.

So there you have it: my experience as a seller at TFF ’24. Hopefully these lessons will prove useful to some of you out there who are planning to attend live events to sell your books. I know I will certainly be doing my best to address all of these factors before my next convention this summer.