Book Con Survival Guide

A book convention can feel like the best day of your reading life or an expensive lesson you don’t want to repeat. We’re breaking down what we’ve learned from attending multiple romance book conventions and fantasy romance events, including what we wish we’d known before we ever stepped onto a crowded con floor with empty tote bags and big dreams.

We talk through how to research a con realistically (without getting fooled by stock-photo vibes), how ticket pricing and “ticketed authors” change the whole experience, and why buying early can be smarter than waiting for a perfect lineup. We also get into the practical travel stuff that makes or breaks your weekend: picking the right hotel, checking restaurant hours, planning for weather, and deciding whether staying onsite is worth the cost.

Then we go full tactical with book convention prep. We cover Baventi preorders for special editions, packing essentials like water, snacks, chargers, and a luggage scale for flying, plus our strong feelings about book carts and why swivel wheels matter. On the floor, we share etiquette and accessibility reminders, how to protect your social battery, and simple signing tricks like using Post-it notes for names and inscriptions. If buying every book isn’t in the budget, we also shout out creative alternatives for collecting signatures that still feel meaningful.

If you’re planning your first book con (or trying to level up your next one), hit play, take notes, and share this with a con buddy. Subscribe, leave a review, and tell us on Instagram or TikTok @OfSwordsandSoulmates: what’s your number one must-have for a book convention?

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Transcript

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Welcome And Book Con Basics

Mari 0:00

The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the hosts. All creative works discussed or reviewed are the intellectual property of the creators of said stories and are being used under the fair use doctrine. Hello and welcome to Of Swords and Soulmates, a podcast we read, watch, and discuss fantasy and sci-fi stories spiced with romance and ask, Is this a kissing book? I'm one of your hosts, Mari, and with me I have Kelly.

Kelly 0:33

Hey everyone, it's Kelly. We also have Ashley.

Ashley 0:35

Hey guys, it's Ashley. We also have Jonathan.

Jonathan 0:38

What's good, everybody? It's JP.

Ashley 0:40

JP.

Mari 0:41

We're going to be discussing book conventions. A little bit of a revisiting the topic and doing new advice and new things we've learned and what we would recommend to you if you're thinking about doing a book convention, maybe your first one, or if you haven't done one in a while. So if you don't know what a book convention is, it's like any convention. It's just a gathering of people, whether it's, you know, with some sort of common interest, whether it's like a fandom thing, a professional interest, like an industry or a job thing. But book conventions specifically usually involve authors and readers. A lot of times you'll have other literary professionals like maybe publishers, maybe narrators, maybe the artists that do like the covers and things, and like book merchandise people. I'd say those are the main groups of people that are at these events, right?

Ashley 1:28

Yeah.

Mari 1:28

And then as far as activities, what you can kind of expect out of a book convention, there's usually obviously book sales. There's usually panels either by the authors or um maybe by fans or readers or whatever. There's book signings, there's workshops sometimes, and there's book-related merch you can buy. And then usually there's some sort of like a networking type party or ball or um event um in the evening of most days of these events. Um so at this point we've all been to several book cons. What uh what all book consists? We've been to Romanacy was our first book con in Florida as a as a group. I think it was everybody's first book con, right?

Jonathan 2:13

Yeah.

Mari 2:14

Um and then we also did Alexia also in Florida. We did that together as a group. Um and as a group, we've recently did Villains and Vixens when it was held in Florida. And then individually, I've done Dragon Con, which isn't specifically a book con, but it's got a lot of book things in it. Um and then Monsterotica book con as well. I think that's all the book cons we've done, right? As a group?

Jonathan 2:41

Yeah, yeah. We've done we've done a couple iterations of romances bookcons. How many romanticy book cons have we done? Two, three, two.

Mari 2:47

I think this year will be our third, won't it?

Jonathan 2:50

Yeah, absolutely.

Mari 2:52

So we've got a little bit of experience now under our belt, a little bit more idea of what we would recommend, it wouldn't recommend, and things to look out

Which Cons We’ve Tried

Mari 3:00

for. So I think we're gonna break this up like we did before, where it's like things to do or to think about before your event, during your event, and then after your event. Um I think the first thing obviously is deciding whether or not you're gonna go, you know, the research you want to do about the event. You know, whether that's hearing about it from somebody else who's gone, maybe looking at the website, looking at, you know, other people who have gone, maybe reading about their experiences or if they do videos on it or whatever, or you see pictures and everything, getting a vibe for what kind of event it is, and maybe hearing from other authors or vendors that have been at the event, what kind of experience they had. So it gives you an idea of what kind of event it is, if it's the event for you, you know, if it's what you're looking for.

Jonathan 3:47

So I think I think take that with a grain of salt though, too, because if you looking at last year's events and how they went, you could probably capture about 80% of the vibe from the previous year in most cases, I think. But the attendance is dynamic and variable. So and they always seem to want to improve and tweak. There might be more popular authors, authors that were maybe in a general listed in a general capacity, could have been elevated to a ticketed capacity as well. So like keeping those things in mind. And also, maybe don't judge off of last year's negatives because they could have improved.

Mari 4:32

Yeah. Also, I think taking account like any review situation, you know, generally the people who are going to talk about the ones who had a really great experience and a really bad experience. So it's like Yelp reviews or anything else. Just realize that the the probably the majority of the people had an experience somewhere in between the positives and the negatives.

Misleading Marketing And Ticket Prices

Jonathan 4:55

Do you think we've had like a truly negative book on experience?

Ashley 5:00

Yes.

Jonathan 5:01

Oh, tell me more. I don't I don't remember this unless I blocked it out.

Ashley 5:05

Yeah, because Alexia sucked.

Jonathan 5:07

Oh, okay.

Ashley 5:08

So it was not what we were expecting, that's for sure.

Jonathan 5:12

Yeah, it was a different type of event.

Ashley 5:14

I think the stock photos were very misleading. Yeah.

Jonathan 5:19

I agree. I agree, I agree.

Ashley 5:21

But in hindsight, the price that we paid was maybe, maybe in line.

Jonathan 5:26

Yeah. Okay.

Ashley 5:28

But no, I think Alexia was quite disappointing. I think we were misled. I think I think I read about it quite a bit, but there wasn't enough the historical context to do a deep dive. And for the cost, you know, I think we paid what, like 30 bucks a person?

Mari 5:43

Yeah, it was really affordable.

Ashley 5:45

Yeah. Okay. Um, so we weren't out the money, but I think we were vastly disappointed, especially compared to fabled fantasy events.

Jonathan 5:54

So like dollar for dollar, though. Like did you have $30 worth of fun?

Ashley 5:58

I think we left early. No.

Jonathan 6:01

That is interesting. What is hey, I'm I don't remember because I don't pay for these things. What was the sorry, what's the cost of Fabled Fantasy?

Ashley 6:10

Fabled Fantasy is about Yeah, I was gonna say it's about 75 bucks a day per person. So I think we're all in around 150, 125.

Jonathan 6:18

Are you saying the other one was just $30?

Ashley 6:20

A day?

Jonathan 6:21

Oh, $30 a day.

Ashley 6:22

So am I wrong, Mari? Do you know I think that's about right. We just went the one day, yeah. Oh, I think it ran the next day. We just go.

Mari 6:28

Oh, I don't remember. We only did like the day stuff. So I don't remember if the $30 included the event. And we have nothing to say about the event at night, whatever they have like a ball type situation, and and we didn't we didn't experience that. So we don't have any, you know, whatever our opinion is does not reflect that part of Alexia. Also with RomanticyCon, we we didn't do the the we've never done a body. We don't we haven't done that.

Jonathan 7:00

And how about uh villains and vixens? How much was that ticket?

Ashley 7:03

That was comparable to Romanacy BookCon.

Jonathan 7:06

Uh so roughly about 150.

Ashley 7:07

So I think I feel like Romanacy BookCon started out a little bit cheaper. If anybody remembers, please correct me. I thought it was maybe like 125 for two days from the first year?

Mari 7:17

Yeah, yeah, I think so.

Ashley 7:19

And then I think it's it's inched up, and I think we're right about 150, 160 now for two days.

Jonathan 7:24

We had to pay for for Rebecca to come out.

Ashley 7:28

Yeah, but it wasn't a severe increase last year. I just think it's inched up, which you know, economically I'm not necessarily opposed to.

Mari 7:35

Yeah.

Jonathan 7:36

So overall, I felt like the one the the the the less costly one was a it it it was a diet price and it felt maybe like a diet event, but it it doesn't mean that that event was mature. Does that make sense? Like it could still grow into something.

Mari 7:58

Yeah, it anything could change, anything could become letter better for sure. But I think that the way that they represented themselves with photos of what the event would be like, etc., made it seem like it was a different type of event than what it was. I think that's what gate left a bad taste in the mouth to me about it with the misrepresentation. I don't think what I felt was misrepresent misrepresentation.

Ashley 8:23

I wouldn't trust it again, right? And and to be fair, and not that I've done any research, I do think that they have revamped whatever they do. Like I think it is more event slash ball related the last time I saw something go out under that name, and less convention related. Yeah. If I'm and maybe it was like workshops, but I don't think it was like the floor stuff.

Jonathan 8:47

So maybe instead of just relying on what could because I I feel a lot of these sites or a lot of these um events have they don't have strong strong, unless they're bigger events, they don't have really strong websites built out. So maybe just search the hashtag associated with the event

Research Hashtags And Ticketed Authors

Jonathan 9:05

from the previous year.

Mari 9:06

Or look at their social media. So like even if it's because not yet all of them even have a good hashtag associated with it, to be honest. But if you like, for example, generally if you go to their website, they'll have like their social media profile. So you can make sure you're looking at the official social media profile, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and then look through there and look at the the you know, the prior pictures as far as like what was announced, you know, pictures of the actual event, what actually happened. And then also, yes, you know, do research on maybe other people that were there that like posted pictures about it or talked about it, um, and see what their take on the event was.

Jonathan 9:46

Absolutely.

Mari 9:47

Um you mentioned earlier ticketed authors. So for those who've never been to a book convention, what a ticketed author is is generally you're gonna have like, I'm not gonna say tiers of authors, but it's gonna be based on the what they think the popularity of an author is gonna be. So if they think that an author is gonna have a lot of people wanting to get things autographed, then they're gonna put them into a ticketed structure where you either sign up for tickets or you sign up on a on a site or you sign up ahead of time, just depending on what structure they do. And then you get like a uh a placeholder basically in line to be able to have X amount of people be assigned to be, you know, to have autographs, for example, with that person. And so generally, if you don't, if it's a ticketed author and you don't have a ticket, you're you should not have the expectation that you're going to get to talk to or get an autograph from that particular author. Other people, sure, but likely not from that author. It's still possible. Because I know I think at Fable Fantasy, Ash, you guys got a ticketed author like the same day last year, didn't you?

Ashley 10:56

Uh I think it was Aaron Craig.

Mari 10:57

Yeah.

Jonathan 10:59

Correct. Yeah. And then uh at one point, Murray, you ended up on the elevator with a ticketed authority.

Mari 11:04

I did with Sarah Beth Dirce, who was super sweet.

Jonathan 11:06

I'm sure if you would have handed her a book, she would have signed it.

Mari 11:09

She probably would have. But also I would not do that because when these authors are away from the table, they're also taking their break and living their life. And we need to not like um we need to be real careful to not harass the talent, so to speak, so that they want to come back to these events.

Jonathan 11:31

Yeah, like like um what do they is it know the audience or like uh what do they what do they say about like look at like read the room? That's that's the phrase. So like I think uh the only reason I say that she probably would have signed that book is because I think after she got off the elevator, she even stopped to uh share a few words with us afterwards. Like I wasn't on the elevator, but when she got off the elevator, I thought she like cruised by the table. I might I might be inventing that in my own mind.

Mari 11:56

No, I think she did. I think she was really nice, yeah. Yeah.

Jonathan 11:59

Um, but I don't think like you wouldn't get that from Rebecca Yarros. Not that Rebecca Yarros is uh lesser in any sense of that. Rebecca just has signing limitations for health reasons, her and also probably security, to be honest.

Ashley 12:15

I was thinking like big dumbheads.

Jonathan 12:17

She definitely had security.

Mari 12:18

Yeah. The whole ticketed author thing. The thing with most book conventions, I would say, is usually you have to decide whether or not you're gonna go to this convention based off of what the prior year was like and based off the the subject matter of the convention. You usually can't wait until specific authors or big authors are announced because a lot of times stuff sells out too fast and you're not, you're gonna lose your opportunity. So you kind of have to trust that you're gonna go to this event and you know, like for example, Monster Rotica book con that I went to. I didn't know anybody who was going at the time that I bought the ticket, but the tickets sold out in like five minutes. So if I'd waited to figure out who was going, I would have never gotten the opportunity to go. I was just like, well, it's monster romance. That sounds like an interesting topic. You know, I like monster romance books, let's do it. So sometimes you do have to kind of trust the at the event runners, you know, are gonna have are gonna provide you with people that that you're gonna be interested to in their work or interested to get to know them if you hadn't, you know, seen their work before. Which is where one of the things comes in that you can do research ahead of time, even if, for example, Masterotica BookCon that I went to, that was an inaugural event. That was the first time that that happened. So there wasn't prior years information for me to look at. So at that point I had to look at the person that was doing the event. Had they done stuff before? What was their reputation for other things that they had run in the past? Because generally people who have a reputation for, I'm not gonna say running an event poorly on purpose, because I do think that most people who have failed events, it's not a thing where they're trying to get people's money. I do feel like it's a people get in over their head if they don't have the proper experience, is what tends to happen. So if you look at this, the person who was running that event, for example, they had had experience of doing things before. So I felt pretty confident that it wasn't gonna be a horrible situation. And I ended up going for it and it ended up working out for me. So that's something else you can do, you know, in addition to other people's experiences. You know, look up what other things that company or that group of people or person who's running that event, what else have they done? And what have those events been like?

Jonathan 14:35

I I would also say, and correct me if you if I'm if you think I'm wrong here with this one, but is it uh it's easy, in my opinion, from what I can see looking at the forums and all the different um like groups, it's easier to sell a ticket that you don't want than it is to find a ticket that you want.

Mari 14:58

Absolutely.

Jonathan 14:59

So get in the queue, buy the ticket if you get within a reasonable uh a reasonable amount of time and you say, like, hey, nobody's here that I want to go see, or this has just become something's popped up. You could probably sell that ticket using whatever provided mechanisms the um the promoter has to offer much more easily than it would be for you to capture a ticket should you have missed out.

Mari 15:29

I agree. I agree. So if you can afford it to to do go ahead and do it and then just know that you, you know, you'll get your money back later if you change your mind, that's definitely a a good strategy to do. Other things to look into, in addition to like, you know, the people who've been before and the event people is where the event's gonna be held. Because, for example, the Mostarotica one for me, I was going by myself and it was in Baltimore. And for me, I was like, well, what's the worst that can happen? If the event is horrible, I'll go Baltimore's a big city, I'll go do things in the big city. I'm sure there's a museum I'm in, I'm interested in. I'm sure there's, you know, some touristy things to do. And I also had a friend who was close by that I was able to hang out with. So I was like, worst case scenario, I'll get a trip to this city out of it. So look into where the event's being held. See how you feel about that. Look into the weather of the area. You know, maybe going to like New England area in the middle of winter is not what you want to do. Or going to Florida in the middle of summer is not what you want to do. You know, you know your limitations, you know what you're willing to put up with. Those are other things to factor into whether or not you're wanting to do a particular event.

Jonathan 16:38

Agreed.

Mari 16:39

So

Travel Lodging And Restaurant Strategy

Mari 16:40

once you've decided that this is the event you want to do, then you have to get into the details of everything you need to do beforehand. Obviously, first thing is buy the ticket. And whether that means deciding you want to go to an event and then you want to put it, if you know that the tickets are going to go on sale on such and such a date, you put that in your calendar. You make yourself available so you don't miss out on ticket sales. Because some of them do sell out really fast. Or at least maybe the tier that you're interested in might sell out really fast. That's another thing that happens too. So you want to get your ticket. And like Jonathan, like you were saying earlier, if you end up not doing, you know, deciding not to do it, there are legitimate ways to get your money back and sell the ticket to somebody else. Um all the ones I've done have been through Discord, but I know some places will do it through like an official Facebook group. There's different ways that you can officially sell things. So like you're getting your money back, and then the person who's getting the ticket knows that they're getting an uh an official ticket, you know. Other stuff is your to to start booking, it would be your travel, you know, whether you're flying in, whether you're driving in, you know, get yourself sorted for that in terms of like airplane tickets, etc. Lodging, you know, if you're gonna stay at the at the host hotel, like wherever the event's being held, if there's a particular hotel that's that it's being held at or that is connected with the convention center where it's being held at, are you gonna get a room there or are you gonna get an adjoining room, you know, or a room in another hotel? And there's pros and cons of all of it.

Ashley 18:11

Research the event hotel.

Mari 18:14

Yeah.

Ashley 18:15

Research that bad boy.

Mari 18:17

Yeah. They're not all I mean, there's there's the great bonus of not having to travel anywhere else if you decide to stay at the at the hotel where the event's being held. But they may not be what you want it to be, or they may not be you're getting the value out of it for the price that it is. Because, you know, just because a place or a hotel has really good convention services doesn't mean they may be the place that you might want to stay as a guest. I think last one we went to the Vixens and Villains one, you guys stayed on site and we and I like stayed off-site and drove in, which had its own, you know, downsides, but also it was nice to kind of get away from the con stuff and be able to just completely turn off, you know. Um, so those are choices you need to make here for yourself when you're you're planning your trip. And then reservations, like you talked about, Jonathan, like, you know, a lot of times we'll do dinner reservations. And so you want to get that stuff ahead of time. If there is a particular place you're wanting to have like a dinner or whatever, one or both of the nights that you're gonna be at these events.

Ashley 19:19

Another thing to consider is are there restaurants in the hotel where you're staying? Do you want to schedule lunch or dinner around that as well? Because I don't think that's anything we ever thought of before.

Mari 19:30

And also pay attention to the hours of these restaurants, because there were correct like three or four restaurants at that hotel, but only one was open for lunch.

Ashley 19:38

Yeah, only one inside was. I think the pool bar was open outside, but nobody was going outside in July.

Mari 19:44

Right

Preorders Special Editions With Baventi

Mari 19:45

in Florida, yeah, yeah. The other thing that I have started to do at book conventions now that I didn't used to do is going ahead and going on Viventi. So is a service where authors will go to you can you can follow an event, like you can follow Villains and Vixens, you can follow Romancycon, whatever, and then you can see the authors who are gonna be there, and then the authors will put on their what their their special orders or their pre-order things. So you can kind of do your pre-shopping. And if there's something you want to order ahead, you know, you can have a whole list and different authors will close their pre-orders a certain amount of weeks before the event. So it's a good way to see what's gonna be there. It's a good way to like figure out what you might want to buy and not buy, maybe like start reading stuff ahead of time and decide whether or not you want to buy it, if you can get it done, you know, before the the closing date, or just get a vibe for, you know, it's one thing to see a big list of names on a website or on an Instagram post of authors, but if you don't know who they are, it's cumbersome to like have to look each one up individually and figure out, oh, okay, well, this is a dark romance author and they do this and this. Oh, and this is a romantic author, and they do this and this. Versus in Biventi, you can just click on them and see, you're not gonna be able to see everything that author has done because they're not gonna have everything they've done for sale, but you can see what they're highlighting at the what they are choosing to highlight at this particular event. And so there's some pretty special editions. You can get a feel for things, read stuff ahead of time, and decide, you know, what might be something you might want to focus on. And it's really cool because when you do pre-order, you can then when you go to the event, you can just have this page of like the things that you are you have a list that will pop up on your Baventi app. And so you can just, okay, I need to go this booth and and and pick up my pre-order. And then I need to go to this booth and pick up my pre-order. It also spreads out the uh financial pain. So everything's not just on one weekend.

Jonathan 21:46

What's Baventi?

Ashley 21:48

It's it's a site where it's a it's a pathway to pre buy books from authors that are going to be at the event that you're attending. It's like pre ordering books to pick up while you're there.

Mari 21:59

Yeah, they're slow.

Jonathan 22:02

Is it uh something that's available for all book conventions, regardless?

Ashley 22:07

I was gonna say, I think it's a newer concept in the last year. Please correct me if I'm wrong. I don't remember that our first book con. I don't remember it last book con, but I thought they had something. And it was definitely a thing for villains and vixen.

Mari 22:19

Yeah, I think at least the past two years, if not more, it's been around. Because I know when I went to Monster Rodica the first time, which would be two years ago now, people were talking about having done Baventi pre-orders. And I'm like, what are you talking about? So I know it's at least existed for two or three years, but you can go on Baventi, you can create an account or not. It's B-E-V-E-N-T-I, and you can explore events. You can like, you know, just look for events in the area, or you can follow authors on Baventi. So let's say you're interested in Sarah Beth Durst. You can like follow her, and then every time she signs up that she's going to be at an event, you can get an you'll get an alert. And that might be a way to like get keyed into events that you, you know, might be interested in going, or you can just go ahead and and and say you're attending a particular event, and then you'd be able to see all the authors that are on Baventi for that event. It's pretty handy. I really I like the structure of it. I like that it creates kind of a list for you and you're able to to to get an idea for a lot of the authors. Like I said, in an easier way than just this giant list of authors that you sometimes get on on Instagram posts or on websites.

Ashley 23:27

That's fair, because I'm not great about authors in general. Like that's probably not something I did prior to this um podcast, you know, track by the author, which sounds silly saying out loud, you know what I mean? I was more of a vibe reader and a you know, just kind of pick it up and go as I go along.

Mari 23:45

Yeah. I mean, not necessarily, because like some authors have a more consistent voice than others. And so there's some authors that I'm like, okay, I'm pretty sure everything I've read by Sarah Beth Durst, I know what I'm getting into, for example. But like T. Kingfisher, I love T. Kingfisher, but her fantasy and and fairy tale retellings and and fantasy romance stuff is very different voice than her horror stuff. And so you may not necessarily like everything an author has done. But this is just a good way to like get a an easier overview than having to like look up every single author, you know, by typing it in from a list.

Ashley 24:21

So I'm so excited. He's looking it up right now. Maybe it'll save me a few bucks.

Jonathan 24:26

Oh, I don't know. This uh I I'm gonna be honest here. Um this site does not do it's a good start, but I don't think this site is as user-friendly as it could be.

Mari 24:38

No, I have it as a as a uh uh app on my phone is how I use it. So I don't I don't think I've ever used it on an actual like computer. So I don't have any reference to that.

Jonathan 24:49

I'm not sure. If Viventi is listening, I like the concept. I as a way to connect authors uh with readers and readers with authors. I think what it may be missing here is clarity. I when I when I land here, I don't quite understand what the purpose of the site is, and it requires somebody to tell me more.

Ashley 25:13

We should look up the app, see if it's any more user-friendly. Sometimes it's like that.

Jonathan 25:17

Yeah. I I I'll I I will. I'll go deeper. If it was just me and I was and I stumbled across it, I don't know if I would dig deeper. And I think that's a glaring uh that's a it's not glaring, it's a gap. Let's say we've uh if there's a book service line or a book uh like a writing industry that I could just speak to a group of people, we've identified a gap. It's your websites. Yeah we've got to fix them.

Mari 25:44

Yeah. Oh, I just know that when I went to Monster Rodica, people were like picking up all these pre-orders and all these really pretty special editions that were not available, you know, to just buy because it was you know, these authors have to, you know, when they're especially when they're flying in or when they have to buy their stuff, they have to figure out how much of a of a of a certain product they're gonna. Yeah. Yeah. And so like they did they don't bring very many extra on these special editions or whatever, then what has already been pre-ordered. So like I would see people with editions, and I was like, how did you get this? How did you know there's a pre-order? And that's why I was like, oh, everyone's using this Baventi thing.

Ashley 26:18

Dang, girl, I didn't even think about the the special editions. I was just thinking about buying books in advance, and I was like, I don't need that temptation in my life. I need romantic book con to tell me what I need to buy. But I didn't think about the special editions. Dang.

Mari 26:34

If you're going to your first book convention, see if the event is on Biventi or some of the authors who are going to be there on Biventi, and that way you get a vibe for things ahead of time that they may have, and you may get access to buying special editions if that's something you're interested in, for example. Or

Packing Book Carts Water And Chargers

Mari 26:50

like omnibus or bind-ups or whatever. After you've done all that, then you get into the fun aspect of packing and that fine line of packing for an event but not overpacking, and also how you pack for an event that you're going to get to drive to versus an event that you have to fly to. Because there's a huge difference. You know, obviously you want to pack like your comfy clothes, comfy shoes, but also maybe costume stuff or fancy stuff if you're planning to do a night the night event, or if you're wanting to do some costume cosplay, which some events do. You have to figure out how to pack all that. I would say, unless you just really, really want to carry around a bunch of books in your hand or in your totes on your tote bags on your shoulder, you're gonna want to get a book cart of some kind. Book cart. That's where it's at. So do your research on your book carts. Um, standard sizes, what an event will allow. My biggest suggestion that I tell everybody for book carts is don't waste your money on the ones that don't have 360 swivel wheels because you will be kicking yourself. You want to have that ability to be flexible and swivel when you're, you know, tired and trying to get around people and all that stuff.

Jonathan 28:02

Book carts, we've identified our second gap. If there is a gap analysis, this is this is gap two for me. It's a book cart. I think um I don't know what the market looks like, right? So if I said, who uses these book carts? Everybody who reads a book and goes to book conventions and buys more books than they can carry at one time, is their target audience, their target market. And there's definitely variations of this. So you have the old standard uh Office Depot version, which is the tilt and pull. And we saw that backfire on a friend of ours who thought that they had four wheels, but they only had two. Yeah. And they were like, dang, there's a whole bunch of friction with this cart. It's like, well, you maybe you should just tilt it. And they were like, What do you mean? And they looked and they were like, Oh god, I've been shoving this thing around. It was it was like it was a it was a comical, a comically light moment at that time. But but yeah, having the swivel thing. And then but the wheels aren't big enough. Like I think they need to like if there was a way to convert it to three-inch wheels instead of the one and a half to two inch wheels that these carts come with, that would be key to me. Um there's room, there's lots of room for improvement, and then there's the entire accessory line that you can get with. And if you're a book convention host, I feel like it would behoove you to invest in some bait, just a basic colorway. Maybe it's cream, maybe it's gray or grayish. Book carts, a handful of them.

Ashley 29:46

I'm not saying selling book carts at these things. We'd be billionaires, you guys.

Jonathan 29:50

You don't sell them, you rent them.

Ashley 29:52

That's what I was thinking.

Mari 29:52

Rent them. Yes, a service.

Jonathan 29:55

Never fails. Somebody shows up and they want one because they it's their first book con, but nobody told them.

Ashley 30:02

I mean, that was us our first time. Yeah, yeah. We didn't we didn't know.

Mari 30:06

We got we gotta get on this, Kelly and guys. We gotta do this.

Ashley 30:10

I don't know any boys. I mean, I guess it could be ladies too. Yeah.

Jonathan 30:14

Oh, for sure it could be ladies.

Mari 30:15

Yeah, we just hard muscle. That just needs to be answered.

Kelly 30:18

Either a we carry your books for you or you signal for them, they come over and say, Can I take these back and hold them at the main table for you?

Mari 30:27

Yeah.

Jonathan 30:27

That, Kelly, is the answer because nothing would make me feel more powerful than for me to raise my hands into the air and hail. We can have like little visual over. We'd be assigned a yes, I'll be purchasing this book here. Would you please make sure that it ends up with uh with my with the rest of my purchases? Yeah. Bonsoir.

Kelly 30:50

I mean, that's why people love Ashley. That's why people love staying. One of the big selling points for staying at the property hotels at Disney and Universal and all that stuff is because you can buy merchandise and have it delivered to your room. You don't have to carry it around.

Jonathan 31:04

And we are a sucker for a valet, aren't we?

Ashley 31:06

Yes. We will pay for convenience. It's a problem. How pretentious do we just sound?

Mari 31:13

No, but here's the thing: you are at an event where you have finite energy and you want to see everything, you want to talk to everybody. If you're doing a night event, you want to have energy for the night. So if you're not having to haul around pounds of books, you know what? Save that energy for like enjoying the event.

Kelly 31:32

Because I think the problem too is the book carts are a great idea, but a lot of people clog up the aisles and the walkways with their book carts too, because they don't put them in front of them or directly behind them, they carry them to the side, which is like taking up space of another person. So a lot of people, I don't know that book carts are the answer for everyone.

Mari 31:52

Yeah, this would be a great service, guys.

Ashley 31:56

Stamp it now, trademark it. We gotta get on that.

Mari 31:59

In addition to the book cart, water bottle and snacks. Because you're gonna be go-going, and there's no guarantee you're gonna be able to have water andor snacks when you want them because you're gonna want to do all the things all the time.

Kelly 32:15

Um I don't know why there aren't people walking around selling bottled water in the merchandise aisles.

Ashley 32:24

So I do think that's something that Villains and Vixens did really well that I don't remember Romanticy BookCon doing at all. I agree. Is that Villains and Vixens had their volunteers, which was, you know, staffing separate than the volunteers that the authors brought, right? And those guys were going up and down the aisles with just trays of of water, and there were water uh stations along the sides of the of the room, multiple, and they were always full. And you could get I think you could get it hot, couldn't you? Um I don't know if it was ice cold, but I think it was just regular. So villains and vixens did a really good job at like making sure that hydration was available, yeah, uh, as well as accessible, especially for the authors.

Mari 33:11

Yeah, yeah. They were like carrying it around like like weight staff, they were bringing it to you. Absolutely. That was a really good idea.

Ashley 33:17

It was very impressive.

Mari 33:19

The other thing I would say is bring your chargers, portable battery, whatever, because you're gonna be looking stuff up on your phone, you're gonna be taking pictures, you're gonna be, you know, making lists on your phone, whatever. You're gonna be running down your battery. So make sure you you have the ability to, you know, have your devices for as long as you need them, you know, all day or until you get into the room or whatever you need to do. Make sure you bring that. The other thing that I've started to do, and this is for when you fly to an event, doesn't so much matter when you're driving, but if you fly to an event, don't forget to bring uh one of those like little scales, little portable bag scales to weigh your luggage. Because just because you can fit everything in your bag doesn't mean your bag is gonna be underweight. And they charge you a ton when your bag is overweight. So if you can weigh your bag, you can distribute your stuff better so that you don't have one bag that's overweight, which I've run into having to redistribute my stuff every time I've been to Monster Rodican that I fly to.

Kelly 34:19

But I'm just saying right now you can buy in bulk single-use phone recharger packs. A pack of 10 is $60 if you resold that for $10. Hey, you need to charge your phone ten dollars, and here's this little battery that'll get your phone back up to you know at least 50% if it's dead.

Mari 34:41

Quick charge. Yeah. Have a little almost like a uh corner shop where we would provide all these services.

Kelly 34:48

Just need a uh you're just selling recharge, you're recharging water, recharging batteries, recharging food, all that stuff. Exactly.

Ashley 34:57

Something that villains and vixens had that I don't think I've seen at BookCon was um the shipping service.

Mari 35:03

That was a really cool idea. Yeah.

Ashley 35:05

I don't know what the costs were with that. We're fortunate enough that you know, we could haul you know, drive our haul home. But those guys were busy. And I heard really positive reviews on the service and you know, whoever was running the service. Um, I saw a lot of chatter about that in those chats, and everybody was really, really happy and grateful for for that um for that service.

Kelly 35:32

That's an easy thing to do if you're already a UPS store franchisee or a FedEx Express franchisee, because you can do all of that remotely. Like that's one of the business models for the UPS store franchisees going to events and doing that service.

Mari 35:48

Yeah. And for all I know, that's what these people are. I I don't know if we we had no idea.

Ashley 35:53

But they were right outside of the convention and there was a FedEx on site at the hotel.

Kelly 35:59

A lot of the big yeah, a lot of big hotels have a FedEx or UPS store in them.

Mari 36:04

It's nice to have the little extra options. And or maybe someone who is going to maybe hopefully take care of your books.

Kelly 36:11

Yeah, because let's be real, if you buy a bunch of books and you flew into this book convention, you're not gonna read them before you get back home.

Mari 36:20

Right.

Kelly 36:20

And it's gonna be much more expensive to try and get them in and you go overweight on your luggage at the airline.

Mari 36:26

Absolutely.

Ashley 36:27

Yeah, I thought it was a great idea. And like I said, I heard really positive things about the service and the owners, whoever was running it. So kudos to them. And I don't I just don't think I've seen that at Romantic SeabookCon.

Mari 36:40

Yeah, I haven't seen it anywhere else. Um other than the any other packing

Fast Signing Prep With Post-Its

Mari 36:45

type stuff you guys would recommend to people?

Jonathan 36:47

Yeah, I for your book carts, just as a heads up, I recommend that you pick up one of those accordion bookends, like the adjustable bookends, so that way your books don't fall over. Because you may show up with five or six books in your cart. It's a lot of empty space, and you'll want to keep them condensed and upright. There are probably great ways to do it, but those collapsible or adjustable bookends will help secure your treasured belonging.

Mari 37:18

Yeah, so they don't get dinged in all. And for those that don't know, so like Jonathan, what you're referring to, it's like, okay, so let's say that an author you like that you maybe already have several of their books is gonna be at this event. Well, it's not just the books that you buy at the event that you can get signed by these authors, you can bring your own books from home and get them signed by the author. Every book adventure I've went to I've gone to lets you do that. There are limits, maybe it's three per author or whatever. So you want to check to see, but you are able to bring books from home. So you, in addition to the books you're gonna buy, you're gonna allow yourself the ability to carry around the books you're gonna bring with you to have signed as well.

Jonathan 37:54

Correct. And uh pro tip, this isn't this isn't something I self-discovered, uh, but it is something that uh I read somewhere and it works out. If you take a post-it note and you just put it, you write, you write the author's name at the top of the post-it note and any kind of inscription you want. So if they want it to you, you can write your, you know, to you know, JP, to Ashley, and uh, and then you put it on the at the top of the page with the the majority, you know, like put it upside down on the top of the page where you want that author to sign, and then you put that in your book card. Then you can just look down at your books, read the post-it note, and if you have it in like an alphabetical order or something like that, you'll be able to find it, hand it to the author. When they open to the page that that post-it note is on, they'll see the spelling of your name. Right. They'll see, you know, that uh the the those that type of information and it saves maybe some time and some awkward questions.

Mari 38:52

I agree. I agree. But you know, depending on how many people are waiting to get autographs, you may not get a lot of time with the each of these authors. Some you may, some you may be able to see multiple times or chat with, but um, some of the the usually it's the ticketed authors, you're gonna have a very finite amount of time with them. So you want to make the most use of that time possible. Okay, so moving on, if you've done that, you want to kind of prepare yourself ahead of time. So you want to kind of have a plan of attack or prioritize what you're wanting to get out of the event. So that may mean if there's an app that's related to the event, you want to download it ahead of time. So you have a way of knowing what's going on and getting up-to-date information on any changes because these events always have changes. Things are gonna happen. You know, they're gonna have to disseminate information to people. That's just human nature. And then they'll have maps and things where you can kind of see, oh, okay, well, I want to make sure that I hit up these authors first because I have items I want to pick up from them. Or I want to make sure I try and go to this author because I couldn't pre-order, but I want to see if they have such and such a book before they run out. Or if you want to focus on a ticketed author. Some cons don't do the ticketed process through apps and all. Some of them you have to like physically go to that author's booth and get a ticket. You should pay attention to what you're wanting to prioritize at that event so you get the most out of it for what your goals are. Um, and then other things I would say would be don't wear brand new shoes. Like break in your shoes, wear shoes in a brand new book.

Ashley 40:24

Don't wear untested shoes.

Mari 40:25

Yeah, good and tested shoes. Also, if this is a a more than one-day event, like if it's a two-day event, probably don't wear the same pair of shoes both days. Like your feet will thank you if you have two good pairs of shoes that you can alternate between day to day. Also, if you're able to get your your vaccines and your shots and things ahead of time, get it, get them ahead of time so that you're not sick and you're not getting other people sick. And get it in enough time that you are allowing the immunization time to build up in your system. So don't get a flu shot the day before the event. You know, get it like two weeks before the event, for example, if you have if it's, you know, depending on the time of year that it is. Also treat yourself well physically. Treat yourself. Yeah, leading up to the event. Meaning get enough sleep to allow your immune system to be like, you know, 100%. Eat and drink well, whatever that means for you. You know, make sure you're hydrated and then eating whatever that means for you. If it's lots of fruit and vegetables, if it's lots of high protein, whatever works good for your body, give yourself the best shot at like having a good time at this event and not being sick or tired or getting over something, because you're gonna be around a lot of people and a lot of germs that you are not used to being around. So give your give your body the the benefit of of hopefully not getting yourself sick at or from this event. Any other stuff before the event you guys would bring up?

Jonathan 41:52

Before the event? Hmm. You know, I think I think uh for lack of a better term, prepare yourself, prepare to give yourself to the event. You should disconnect if you have the opportunity, you should disconnect from that outside life and lean into the event, because there is a lot going on at that event, and if you find yourself distracted, you may miss something. So if you have the opportunity, I'm not saying like, hey, if you have kids, ignore your kids. I mean, maybe you want to, right? But like if you can if you took the day off from work, leave the work phone at home.

Mari 42:32

Yeah.

Jonathan 42:33

You know, lean into the event.

Mari 42:35

Be present. Absolutely. You paid to be there, you plan to be there. Enjoy being there. Yeah.

Ashley 42:40

I was gonna say if you're like a crafter who likes to share their trinkets and stuff, that's a like a prepare. I'm not a crafter, I don't have the gene. Oh yeah. But I there are a lot of people at these events that like to do trades. Sometimes they'll just give it away, you know, without requesting a trade. But if that's something that you're interested in, like don't go in there expecting, you know, not to not to trade for something. So if you're if you're somebody who who wants to dive into that game, make sure that you also come prepared.

Jonathan 43:13

And and I think uh, and just for clarity, I don't know if you were if it was that clear, the uh are like the little beaded uh bracelets or yeah, like friendship bracelets, trinkets, things like that. People trade bookmarks, they'll trade things along the way just to build community and like, hey, how are you? I'm from Idaho and you're from Alaska, so perfect. I have these uh earrings that I made from shrinky dinks. Yeah. Oh, awesome, cool. Thanks for sharing this time with us.

Mari 43:41

It's like an icebreaker thing, too. You know, to be able to like talk to people, especially if you have you know social anxiety or you feel awkward talking to people. You know, the whole idea of like trading things, which this is in no way required. If you're not a crafty person, don't feel like you have to do anything. But if if that's something That appeals to you, that's something you can definitely do at these events and have it be kind of a trading thing. Now, you want to look at the rules of the events, generally just use common sense. Like, you don't want to make something to to trade that's gonna be like something that's being sold on the table, you know. I mean, so like if they're selling I don't I don't know what a good example of this would be, but like if they're selling um um a knitted thing, whatever, a knitted little teddy bear, if that's something that the that the the the vet some of the vendors who are gonna be there are known for, don't make knitted little teddy bears to give out to people, you know what I mean? So like be careful what you're doing, but for the most part, the things that are gonna be sold are going to be not the same type of things that you're gonna be trading.

Jonathan 44:45

So that's interesting. Um I think because I think some of the things that I make uh or will be crafting, there's a possibility that they could have a vendor could be selling something similar. And I don't know that I would wish to obey that. Like it's just two different things. Right?

Ashley 45:03

Like they're it it's I mean, it's not like copyrighted stuff.

Jonathan 45:07

Yeah, yeah. Uh but I d I think that would be you don't want to take a sale from somebody. Right. But also if you're gifting something that's hard, like if if somebody walked over to me and said, Hey, the thing that you made, stop giving that away. I would probably tell them, Hey, like pound salt. Like that's if I chose to gift books away, that's which they do. People do I mean it's it's maybe like a we gave a we bought a book and then gave it away, but um but they do like give yeah. I mean, I also left with two books that I found that were scavenger hunt. Yeah, the scavenger hunt that were hidden.

Mari 45:45

I think it's just a matter of like a common sense thing. So like, you know, some the vendors have to pay for their table and they have to pay to be there, and they are selling a thing. So, for example, there I I can't remember people's names, so I'm sorry if I'm gonna say this wrong. But like there's a company that makes cock-shaped bookmarks. I think it's called cock marks. Yeah, cock marks. So, like, don't then print out a bunch of cock-shaped bookmarks and give it to people as a trinket trader thing at an event where you know that that brand is gonna be there. You see what I mean? If they're selling them, don't give it away for free.

Jonathan 46:21

You're saying so I so and for clarity, it's not that you couldn't give away bookmarks or you couldn't give away spicy bookmarks.

Ashley 46:28

Right.

Jonathan 46:29

Don't take the one thing that identifies.

Ashley 46:30

Don't make a dupe and then give it away.

Jonathan 46:32

Right, it's interesting because I think I still fall into that category.

Ashley 46:36

What are you talking about?

Jonathan 46:37

I'm gonna give I'm gonna I'm silicone molding giving away earcuffs.

Ashley 46:41

Oh, yeah.

Jonathan 46:41

And uh, there was that 3D printed earcuff.

Ashley 46:44

I don't know that they'll be at this event though.

Jonathan 46:45

Yeah, I I'm gonna be asked, I don't care.

Ashley 46:48

But it is a like it so first of all, there's no I don't think it's exact designs or colors. Like I think you're doing your own thing. I think it's something very generic that you found on you know the craft store with silicone mold. So it's not I don't know that we're talking about the same things.

Jonathan 47:06

I mean it's close enough. It's close enough. Like a cock-shaped bookmark. Yeah.

Ashley 47:10

So you didn't 3D print it.

Jonathan 47:11

It is no, no, no. I didn't 3D print it. I didn't take their design, and I have been uh an advocate of bookmarks at these I'm sorry, not bookmarks, an advocate of earcuffs for a while now. Book conventions for a few years.

Etiquette Accessibility And Social Battery

Jonathan 47:25

And this was the very first.

Mari 47:27

So during the event, you're gonna get there, you're gonna register. Always do that first. Well, I guess if you're gonna drive there, make sure you know the rules of parking. You know, sometimes you have to get a certain like ticket to get a cheaper price on parking or whatever. Make sure you have your parking situation sorted. And then first thing you're gonna do after that is registration. That's how you're gonna get your badge, that's how you're gonna get maybe the schedule or whatever for the day, access to maybe start doing the ticketed authors on the app, depending on what's going on, and if they have any sort of like a goodie bag, grab bag situation. Um, that's the first, generally the first thing you're gonna do when you get there. And then I would say depending on your social battery, you may wanna, you may be there with friends already who, you know, are book friends, um, or you may be, you know, wanting to get to know people there. So if you're standing in line with people, like maybe chat them up, maybe ask people what they're excited about if this is their first, you know, time going to an event, if they've read such and such a book. The people who are there probably have similar interests as you. That's the point of these events. So that would be a a way to socialize, but also pace yourself because you don't want to wear yourself out with that, you know, depending on you know what your social battery is.

Ashley 48:46

Don't forget your pain med of I forgot my ibuprofen this time. I had to go to the hotel store, and that that was expensive.

Mari 48:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you got it, it's gonna be expensive, right?

Ashley 49:01

Your compression socks.

Mari 49:02

Yeah. Whatever you need to get through that day, you know, whether whether that's ibuprofen, whether that's you know, your regular medication, you know, your your AIDS, whether it's compression socks, if you have a cane, if you, you know, use another mobility device, whatever you have and you need, you know, set yourself up for for the best situation you possibly can. Also be aware that not everybody around you has the same abilities and experiences as you. So if you see somebody who is using a visible aid of some kind, like a cane, you know, or crutches or what's it called? The rollator or like a wheelchair, it's gonna be a lot easier for you to get out of their way than for them to get out of yours. So be aware of what's around you, you know, treat people like you'd want to be treated. Um and if there's something you see that's not working, if there's a way that you can speak up to make it better, speak up, or if you don't feel comfortable doing that, then go to the the people who are running the event. They usually have like a registration or somewhere. For example, like if there's people using the elevator and they're not letting people with wheelchairs on as like the you know, priority, then then maybe that's something that needs to be brought to the cons attention. You know, maybe that's something they can fix, things like that. But also be aware that not everyone's limitations are visible. So just give everyone the benefit of the doubt, you know. I would also say remember that the authors and the people who are there, just because someone is an author, maybe even a well-known author, maybe even an author that you feel like you connect with their world building and their writing style and really well. That doesn't mean that that author, who is also a person, doesn't have social anxiety, may not just be having a bad day themselves, may have had been given bad news recently, like whatever. So just know that oftentimes you're gonna have awkward interactions, and that's fine. It's not anything personal. It doesn't mean that that author's a bad person, it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with you. Just give people grace. Um, because just because someone's an author doesn't mean that they're a people person. What else would you guys say as far as like at the actual event?

Jonathan 51:21

Be prepared. I always think of like, you know, when you go shopping, when you go into when you're in a retail space, there's like on Christmas Eve, there's a three-foot rule where people feel better, like if there's space between someone. So you're gonna be close to people. So spatial awareness when we're excited and we're seeing things, I think that's something to keep in mind so we don't make people uncomfortable in those spaces and and feel hurried.

Mari 51:49

If you are going to cosplay or bound or have a costume, think about your costume in terms of the space it takes up. So maybe if you're gonna be walking around looking at things during the day on the on the con floor, it's not the best time to do like a three-foot wings. You know, maybe save those for like the ball in the night where you have space to like spread them out. I would say also when you're moving around, the same rules that apply to like traffic generally apply. So if you need to stop and get something out of your bag, maybe step to the side and do it. Don't just stop in the middle of the walkway and and assume that everybody lined up behind you is just gonna stop and wait for you because it's not comfortable for you and it's not gonna be comfortable for them. You know, also if you need to turn around, just kind of look around, make sure you're not like stepping into somebody.

Ashley 52:40

Something interesting that I've seen at the last few book events was not everybody has the means or the capacity to buy all the books, right? And so there were a few event um attendees who had different options for collecting signatures. Like there was a lady last year at Romanticy Book Con who created this beautiful scrapbook, and it had all of the authors attending and pictures of the books and stickers and stuff, and they left a little space for the author to sign. And I just I remember being floored. Like, if something had like that had existed to purchase, I would have.

Mari 53:19

Yeah.

Ashley 53:19

It was just such a stunning piece, and it probably made a really great like coffee book or like trophy book for her bookshelf. And then at Villains and Vixens, there were uh a couple of young ladies, I think, who had it was kind of like a keepsake box that you can get from Michaels, and it was plain, just like the bare wood or whatever material it is, and they were just having the authors sign that, you know, throughout the piece. So, you know, don't stress yourself out or your bank if you can't buy all the books because the authors are very likely to sign whatever you have, and sometimes that's just stickers that people, you know, will protect and put in the books that they can buy later, kind of thing. So, you know, do some research on different options of what they can, you know, what you want to have signed, stickers, scrapbooks, whatever the case is.

Mari 54:15

The other thing I've seen people sign in addition to those is uh like tote bags, tote bags, and like jackets or shirts, and you know, those like matting on frames that they have, like for like wedding pictures or fancy pictures, graduation pictures, like with the wide matting, you can have authors sign the matting and then you could have like put a picture in there of of the event or whatever.

Ashley 54:36

Yeah, there were some really creative things. The last couple of events I was very impressed and kind of like jealous of, honestly. So there are some really good ideas out there. I'm not in the creative headspace to think of some of those things on my own. So that might be something to research, is kind of where I was going with

After-Con Recovery And Follow-Through

Ashley 54:55

that.

Mari 54:55

That's a great idea. So after your event, things that you might want to do would be like reflect on it and decide whether or not it was worth it, whether what you expected out of the event is what you actually got out of it. And that way you would know whether to maybe go back to this event or go to a different kind of event or if book conventions are are your thing or not, you know, whether it was worth it for you. Um, and that way you can, you know, have better advice for other people who may be asking you about whether or not they should go to that event next year. Also do feedback like to the people who are putting on the event, you know, maybe to the authors, if there's something that you were gonna talk to them about or whatever. Um, if there's a some events have like official surveys and things that they'll send you after the event. Whatever, whatever, however, method it is to get feedback, give them feedback. Whether it's that you enjoyed everything and it was great, or that, you know, maybe such and such a thing could be done differently, or because they're human. They cannot possibly know everything that's going on at the event. You know, there may be things that that didn't run as smoothly that they may not be as aware of. Always be nice, you know, be honest, but be nice and tactful in in terms of how you are wording feedback. You don't want to assume that anybody is operating from a from a place of like wanting to screw people over or to like be mean or whatever. Most of the time it's ignorance, you know, unaware of like how it affected another person kind of thing. But like give the feedback so that maybe for the next person or next time it might be a better experience, even if you're not gonna be going back to it. And then also would be, you know, however you decide to organize your memories and your your things from the event, whether that's a you know, a scrapbook that you're doing, whether it's posting your photos on social media, whether you like to do journaling, you know, but get together your experience while it's still fresh, and that way you'll have it to look back on so you can enjoy it, but also you can make decisions as to whether or not you want to do it again or whether you want to do it in a different way next time, you know, that sort of thing. Any other oh, and oh yeah, uh networking stuff. Like if you said you were going to get back with such and such a person, or you were gonna send them this book recommendation or send them this link or you know, whatever, try and remember to do all that. Because in the moment you're excited, you're at the event, you're not gonna remember everything. But afterwards, try your best to like anything you said you were gonna do or give or you know, reach out to a person for, you know, that's the time to sit down and like take care of that stuff. Any other after-event stuff?

Jonathan 57:25

Recovery, yeah. Sleep. You're there's you're definitely gonna come down off this uh off of what feels like a high. And so I think the morning after the event, this last time, I I would also say when we were leaving the event, the morning after we were going to the car, you know, keep your head on a swivel because that's when I found those uh two hidden books.

Ashley 57:53

Yeah. Special editions.

Jonathan 57:54

Special editions. I forget which ones they were. I have them somewhere around here.

Ashley 57:58

Scavenger hunts are definitely a thing, I think, at the last few events. They'll post about it and whatever their communication tool is. So if that's your jam, keep your eye out for that. We happen to find something that was not found the night before, I think. On our way out the next morning.

Jonathan 58:14

Yeah. Uh the bonds that break us and the blood that binds us is what I what I found. Special edition hardcover signed painted edges. Um Aaron Maynard wrote them. Yeah. Uh so you know, you just you never know, even though the event is over, the magic may not be over for you.

Mari 58:33

I agree. Also, my general travel tool is the best way to get over the crash from one event and the you know, kind of the depression that comes from from the event being over is to plan your next event. So you have something to look forward to. So that's my advice. Think about plan about what you might want to do. It might be a year out. You know, that's fine. It's still something to look forward to. So all right. Any other advice before I wrap this up?

Ashley 59:01

No, I feel good about this.

Mari 59:03

Okay. So thanks for listening to Abswords and Soulmates. Before we go, make sure to check out the show notes, rate, review, and subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice. It helps others to find us. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Of Swords and Soulmates. Check us out on our website of Swords and Soulmates. If you'd like to offer suggestions for a future episode, book recommendation, or discussion topic, feel free to reach out to us on the DMs of any of those options. If you want to read along with us as we prep for a new episode and get chapter by chapter occasionally unhinged interaction, join our Fable app Book Club by searching for the Of Swords and Soulmates Book Club. And last but not least, we hope you'll join us in two weeks for the next episode when we will be discussing When the Tides Held the Moon by Vanessa Tita Kelly.