Games Workshop GamesDay - BaltimoreMay 13, 2006I am sitting in the airport as I type up my report for the 2006 Baltimore GamesDay, and all I can say is, "Wow." Considering most of my day consisted of simply sitting at the Black Library table and signing copies of my books, this was one the best convention experiences of my life. First of all, GamesDay is a concentrated crowd of Games Workshop fans, so the sales of my two Kal Jerico books, Blood Royal and Cardinal Crimson greatly exceeded my expectations. Vince Rospond of GW U.S. had huge stacks of books set out for me when I arrived a 9 a.m. He said later that he had ordered 30 of each title, but there were eight tall stacks set out with at least ten books per stack, so I'm pretty sure there were 80 or more books in ftont of me at 9 a.m. I wish I had counted them, but I in no way expected to get through all those books in a single day. Boy, was I wrong. Even before the convention hall opened at 10 a.m., I had already signed and sold ten books. These were going to staff members, many of whom had GW stores back in their home district. I assumed at least some of these were going to be re-sold. What I never expected was the feeding frenzy that would start at 10 a.m. and not let up until after the sales area closed at 5 p.m. These GW fans were buying anything and everything all day long, dropping hundreds of dollars without even a second thought. Stocks of Black Library books, t-shirts, art prints, pendants, and keychains were flying off the tables all around me. And my stacks of books just kept dwinding in front of me as I signed and signed and signed. It was amazing and gratifying. Even more gratifying was that this concentrated audience knew my work. Numerous times throughout the day, people came up to purchase a signed copy of Cardinal Crimson because they had already read Blod Royal - and enjoyed it so much they had to read my next book. My ego swelled throughout the day as people complimented my work. One lady in came up to me in the afternoon (I mistook her for one of the many mom's who stood in line with their teenage sons as nothing more than a walking credit card). But she saw the sign advertsing my autograph session and said, "You just made my day." She had read Blood Royal and wanted a signed copy of Cardinal Crimson. As I signed her book, I said, "You made my day, too." Now, I've been to a lot of SF conventions over the past few years and I have developed a small and loyal following amongst mainstream SFF readers, but this was the first time I ever felt like a celebrity, and all I have to say is that Games Workshop and Black Library fans are simply the greatest. The other thing that made this day so enjoyable and such a success for me was the other author in attendance. I had never met Mike Lee and I haven't read his work yet, but based on the strong fan support he had while his books lasted, I would guess that he's a pretty darn good writer. His first two Black Library novels, BLANK and BLANK, are part of a planned five-book series. His third book, BLANK, is due out in July. Mike outsold me all morning long and would have signed as many if not more books that I did if his supplies had come in. As it was, he went through around 30 books in just a couple of hours and was done signing before lunch. And Mike, like so many SF authors I have met over the past four years, is a wonderfully nice guy. We instantly hit it off and talked about our families, the vaguaries of the writing business, dealing with writer's block, and the amazing feeding frenzy of the GW fans streaming past us. Mike told me about a media and game tie-in writer's association he belongs to and a wonderful opportunity with Black Library that I had missed (I hope to tell more about this if I can get my foot in the door soon). Again, like just about every other SFF author I have met, there was no professional jealousy nor guarding of opportunities. We all share the pie and try to help bring more people to the table to eat. That's just the way this community acts - like a community. By 4 p.m. I was out of books to sign as well. If my estimate of 80 books at the outset was correct, I signed over 10 per hour; more as I was ouot of the booth for an hour during the middle of the day for a seminar about the upcoming books from Black Library. By then I should have been tired, but I was so wired from the energy of the day that I decided to get up and walk around. And while there were still huge crowds in the vendor area, the gaming tables were equally packed. I know I had seen these people filing through the line all day long, but watching them gather around the dozens of terrain-laden tables truly brought it home: Tabletop Wargaming is alive and strong in America. I had always thought this was much more of a British pasttime than an American one. GW is a British Company. But to see thousands of people all coming together with their tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of hand-painted miniatures splayed out on some of the most elaborate terrains I have ever seen, drove the point home like nothing else had (not even the 80 books I had signed and sold in a single day): fantasy and science fiction wargaming is a major force in American gaming today, and I am happy to be a small part of it. To top the day off, Vince and his family treated Mike and me to a wonderful dinner at Bertha's Mussels, a somewhat historic restaurant near the inner harbor of Baltimore. We had a fantastic meal, made all the sweeter by the record-breaking day that Black Libraries enjoyed at the 2006 Baltimore GamesDay. All in all, it was a great day for all of us and all I can say is that I hope to do more GamesDays in the future. |
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