Zombie Ranch

WonderCon 2024 has come and gone and we’re left to wonder about the results of our experiment with packing up and moving to a smaller but potentially more lucrative space. For many years we’d exhibited in the Small Press area of the convention as various floor plans came and went, but sometime prior to COVID the show solidified into a layout that — well, not to sugarcoat it, really sucked for Small Press. The way things are set up, the attendees all get their badges and enter the convention floor from the far Southwest side (Hall D). WonderCon isn’t quite as large as San Diego but still spans several of the center’s Halls, which can be opened up to be contiguous but there are still solid blocks that give a feeling of partitioning. Small Press ended up in Hall A, past about three of those partitioning walls, and despite feedback from us and other exhibitors there to this day is no signage for Small Press or even a “MORE THIS WAY —>” prompt that I’ve seen other shows do. We wanted to believe it wouldn’t hurt, but it does. Sure, on the program map “Small Press” shows up but what does that mean to the average convention visitor? To go by commentary from the people who made it there, not much, with a common refrain being “Oh wow, I didn’t know this was here!” often coupled with “I love your stuff but I already spent all my money.” Conversely, Artist’s Alley for WonderCon is positioned right smack at the main entrance where everyone tends to come in, and while not everyone does great there and the space is more cramped, it doesn’t feel like as much of a ghost town as the far boonies. This is what we did this year, abandoning our usual Lab Reject Studios space in Small Press in favor of a more Dawn-centric setup in AA, to see if the reports we’d been getting and our own gut feelings matched the reality. And while I won’t say our sales were astronomical, they were certainly improved and there were at least a lot more eyeballs checking out what we had on offer. This is why exhibitors throw fits when being stuck behind pillars or exiled to a basement. Positioning really matters. Sometimes people come find you using your social media posts and the maps and such, but the vast majority still are just wandering by and something catches their eye, and you can gussy up your space as much as you’re able but it still isn’t going to make much difference if there aren’t eyes to catch. Small Press in SDCC feels a lot different because there’s at least one main thoroughfare in and out of the exhibit hall right next to it, as well as a big SMALL PRESS sign hanging overhead. But it seems like Comic-Con International only has one of those and WonderCon can’t borrow it. It’s hard to make a floor plan that pleases everyone, but WonderCon definitely has a traffic flow issue with their current setup that for whatever reason has been going on for years and shows no signs of being addressed. So for us it was either pull up stakes and try the more crowded “neighborhood” or just give up the Con entirely as our yearly revenue kept dropping at the same time all the other costs are going up. Anyhow, the change of position was promising, and it was nice to still have at least one local, comparatively low cost show to meet and greet at. We’ll see how the perspective changes in 2025.