Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to reveal my plans for 2017. Some of you are wondering what exactly is planned for Sunnyville Stories, my other creations and myself in the coming year. Well, sit back, relax, get a cold drink (and maybe something to eat) and allow me to tell you what’s happening.
First and foremost, three conventions are lined up. I will be selling Sunnyville Stories books at Fargo-Moorhead Comicon in February, Corecon in June and Valleycon in October. As this blog post goes live, I’ve just mailed out applications to Comicon and Valleycon. I’ll be contacting Corecon later today to find out about registration. I don’t know if Anime Fargo will be a place I can sell; as I reported before, I failed to get into their artist alley this year. We’ll keep you posted on further developments.
Besides the usual conventions, there’s other venues I’m looking into for sales. It was the advice of A.P. Fuchs that got me thinking about doing events at bookstores. At the time of this writing, I’m negotiating with a few local bookstores to see if they’re willing to host me for an event. I’ll also be casting out my net wider to see if bookstores in Minnesota and South Dakota may be interested too.
While I was at Valleycon, someone recommended selling at book fairs and craft shows. That is an option I’m strongly considering. A possible lead I have is something called Pride of Dakota. Pride of Dakota is an initiative by the state of North Dakota to promote products, businesses and services produced and processed in this state. As I am a resident of North Dakota and Sunnyville’s publishing company is organized here, it’s my aim to join the Pride of Dakota around the start of 2017. There’s a number of benefits to joining Pride of Dakota, such as using their network, their resources, their logo, their point-of-sale items and so on. Most importantly, that would give me access to their events. Pride of Dakota shows are held in the bigger cities (Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, etc) where members can sell their wares. This is an option that appeals to me.
Three more items left on the agenda for this discussion: first, my Kickstarter launches in January. Stay tuned to the blog, Twitter and Facebook for more news.
Second, I’m working on another side project that may involve crossovers with Sunnyville. I’ll have more info on that soon.
Third, I plan to start taking on private commissions on January 1, 2017. Those are done on a case-by-case basis – anyone interested should contact me.
The coming year is going to be a good one for me and for Sunnyville Stories. I can feel it.
Sign up for the Sunnyville Stories mailing list if you haven’t yet. Stop over to DriveThru Comics for digital copies of Sunnyville Stories. Copies of Sunnyville Stories Volume 1 are still for sale on Amazon, both in print and Kindle formats! While you’re there, be sure to pick up Sunnyville Stories Volume 2 and (if you love Gothic horror)Von Herling, Vampire Hunter! And now available is the latest installment of the saga, Sunnyville Stories Volume 3. Get them today!
Copies of all the above titles are available to the library trade via Brodart Company and to retailers from Ingram and Baker & Taylor (via BCH Distribution). Copies are also available direct from the publisher. For ordering information, contact maxwestart(at)gmail(dot)com or write to:
Different Mousetrap Press LLC, 1100 19th Avenue N, #108, Unit J, Fargo ND 58102-2269 USA
