Bronycon 2019/Bookstore · 12:58am Aug 11th, 2019
There was really only one way to get around:
Other people have blogged about the experience in far more detail than I’m gonna, ‘cause by now, y’all probably don’t want to read a five thousand word epic about how the weekend went. I can sum it up with a couple of quick themes, in fact.
First, lines. I’ve never been to a proper linecon, but this was it. In years past, I’ve arrived a day early, and once I got settled, moseyed on over to the registration hall, waited in a short line, got my badge, and that was that. This year, Shachza and I got in the line that went into the reg hall, which fed into the holding line, which then fed across the hall into the actual line. Something like two hours to get badges, it was.
Second, shortages. We ate at Jimmy Johns one night, and they ran out of bread. My one shift at the bookstore, the woman at the booth across from us--which was stripped bare of any merch--was finishing up a Lyra/Bon Bon cat/dog plush (the two-heads one, not the two tails one that I’ve seen pics of). When I started my shift, she had a mane left to install, and then when I looked up again, she’d sold it.
I’d wanted another little beanbag shoulder pony--I love those--but I never saw any for sale. Turns out they were all gone Thursday.
As were many of the books at the bookstore. Aquaman’s got a great post on that.
So here’s some highlights!
I spent much of Wednesday moving things around. I had the honor of transporting all ROBCakeran’s typewriters to Pastel Pastures--Quills and Sofas was contained therein--and I’d also carried Out Of Work Derpy’s merch with me. As well as my own books. And Admiral Biscuit shirts.
After the aforementioned Linecon, I met up with Present Perfect, and then it was Thursday.
The merch hall was madness. I’d wanted to go in early, but there was a line that stretched from the entrance, through the hall, outside, and then back around again. The bookstore ran into its first stockouts, and there were calls to get more books down there as quickly as possible, at least for the popular authors.
Now, I’d been planning ahead. I had reserve copies of my books stashed at Out Of Work Derpy’s booth, and it was good that I did, since the security wasn’t letting people through to bring more books in.
It was about this time that Silver Quill messaged me and said that Bronycon wasn’t providing water to the merchants, and people were dying there, and he knew I had a wagon, so could I loan it to them to bring in bottled water?
I did them one better, and took it to CVS with them, and we loaded it up with five cases of water. He and I can’t remember who else, both of who had vendor badges, made their way through security, me following with the wagon, and that was how I got into the vendor hall on Thursday.
I got all the comic books I wanted, chatted with a couple of people, and then went back to Quills and Sofas.
Friday, I think it was, the call went out to get all remaining stock down to the merch hall . . . it might have been late Thursday night, I don’t remember. Applejinks and GAPJaxie went back to my hotel room, and I packed up all the books in three identical duffel bags, as one does. Present Perfect showed up, so Jaxie headed back to the con, and the other three of us carried those bags into the hall, once again unstopped by security, yay!
After that, things were saner in the merch hall, and restockings and such went on at a more sedate pace.
Saturday, we had the writer’s dinner, and also Saturday (I’m reasonably sure), Olden Brony said that he had something to show me. He lifted up his Rarity shirt, and underneath, he was wearing this:
TheRedBrony had had them made for me, which is amazingly awesome, and inflated my ego, ‘cause how many other writers have parody merch?
I asked him if he had one that would fit me, and he said that it was already in my hotel room, and sure enough, it was, hanging up in the closet with all the normal shirts. I didn’t ask too many questions about that.
Sunday was my Birthday, so I wore a party hat and my “not horse famous” shirt, and everybody sang me happy birthday and it was awesome.
I’d told some people that I was going to celebrate my birthday in Baltimore with 6,000 of my friends . . . well, it turned out to be 11,000. 
I’m not gonna list all the people I met and hung out with, ‘cause I’ll forget someone, and there were a lot of people! Plus I’m terrible with names.
And then the con was over, and we packed up and went home.
Sometimes when I’d leave Quills and Sofas, I’d leave my hat behind. (Once I also left my laptop behind and had to retrieve it from Lost and Found.) I came back one time to find this:
I don’t know who thought of it, but I was quite amused.
Now on to the bookstore stuff.
Before the con, authors were talking number of books that they were bringing, and I’d always planned to aim high, and then I found out how many tickets had gotten sold, and decided to order more, having them shipped directly to the hotel.
RBDash47 and I were joking that by Sunday, the bookstore would only have Admiral Biscuit books, and I said people would have to buy them then. And it turns out that that wasn’t far from the truth.
My initial order gave me a total of 47 of each title to sell. I purchased another fifteen of each, and at the end of con was left with 3 copies of The Haunting, 32 of Sam and Rose, and 23 Fanfare for the Common Mare. Or, put another way, I sold a total of 128 books, at least if I did my math right.
Once I figure out the best way to do it, I’ll sort out how I want to sell the remaining stock I’ve got in my possession, and I’ll also be selling through Lulu. I haven’t gotten the exact details down yet--I’d like to go through the ones that’ll be sold on Lulu one more time and make sure there aren’t any major typos or other errors (I already know of a few). Y’all will have to stay tuned for that; as soon as I get caught up on a few other things, I’ll post up a blog about how it’s gonna work.
Anyway, come to Trotcon!
Source
Also, for completeness:
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Source
(kinda sad)
Was great seeing you
5103600
Awww! I can get a bag of oats and a crate of apples!
It was super seeing you again! I hope you get to come to Everfree and I might try TrotCon next year, too.
Good seeing you there, although I was a bit frustrated with the lines and the book store being decimated. In hindsight it seems obvious but I don't think most of us expected that level of crowd even knowing the numbers going in. Happy belated! I actually forgot about Sam and Rose... I'll be looking into that shortly.
As soon as I saw this blog I knew... I knew there would be something good in it.
cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/255766744172331008/609898857345712130/not_horse_famous.jpg
You know, it was totally worth the $whatever I paid for those shirts. And hunting down that stupid font and making the letters all exactly match the original, and then harassing the T shirt guy who waited 3 weeks to make the shirts and didn't get them done until literally the last day. All just to see the smile on your hairy-ass face.
#wasworth
It was a hoot! I was somewhat amused that ROBCakeran didn't seem to know that that was your birthday, y'all have been friends for how many years now?
I so desperately wanted to see Bronycon one last time, and I missed Trotcon this year. But next year, baby. Now that the big fish (and chronologically closest con) is done, maybe Trotcon will be even bigger and better than ever. See you there.
Want 'Fanfare'
I am zero (or one??) for three for the official author dinner. I always seem to be hanging around with some other authors I've never heard of, we get to chatting, they didn't get an official invite either, I'm too hungry to wait, and we go eat. And then something erases my brain and I can't remember NAMES sigh. But they always seem to enjoy it, so I'm happy.
I take no credit for the Admiral Biscuit Memorial. Although I did encourage the unnamed person doing it.
And I brought 5 too many Traveling Tutors, and about 10 too few of all the rest. I think Aquaman is going to hand the leftover Tutors out on the DC subway for the early morning commuters for me. "Hello, have you ever read a story about romantic horses? Well, here you go."
Im so old, that my first thought on seeing the first picture, because I mistook it for Scootaloo, was that famous quote by Raymond Baxter.
She flies, she flies.
I never saw that memorial, that's great. XD
Your mention of crowds brought this to mind
We need to start talking about next year. At this point I'm fairly certain I owe you something on the order of a weekend and a half of dedicated shitposting. ;P
It was great to see you again, Admiral!
I did not realize your birthday had been coming up, so happy birthday!
Daedalus Aegle and I were commiserating on vastly underestimating the insane demand for books! It sounds like there were five rabid buyers for every person who checked "might be interested" on Aquaman's survey. Your prognostication was exemplary!
well it good to see you got there ( we met at everfree)
honestly, hearing this, i'm kinda glad I didn't go. I don't like crowds at all and it sounds like I wouldn't be have had a good time. So while I never managed to go to bronycon, at least my experience with it wasn't bad. To me, that would have been worse than not going.
Aha. I remember walking out of CVS right when you were coming in with the wagon. I had been wondering what that was about. No water for the merchants? In the immortal words of Applejinx, BronyCon gonna BronyCon.
5103600
I resemble that remark. It's been a long time since I was an organizer for any con, forget pony... Or acted as a consultant for that fact.
Just vendor and security these days.
So, when I was first propositioned by theRedBrony, I wasn't sure how deep into this rabbit hole I wanted to go. Even so, on Saturday afternoon I had him pass me a couple shirts while waiting in line for autographs, with the idea that I would get in front of Lauren Faust, wearing a Biscuit shirt, and pass her a faux Biscuit shirt. Well, that didn't happen because I wouldn't have made the Writer's Dinner.
It was a very tough call, but I figured I could try again Sunday.
I'm glad I had that extra time to think about it. I mean, it would have been a pretty... I dunno', "jackhole" kinda' thing to do. Dragging Lauren into the punchline of a stupid (but fairly awesome) joke? When I've got no more than a few seconds of her time? No. Maybe if I'd somehow been able to chat with her a bit - get to know each other and really do a more friendly job of explaining who, what, and why, to see if she was at all okay with this.
So I went back the second time with a regular Biscuit shirt ("Hey, got any larges left?"). Was almost no chance of getting her autograph on Sunday though.
I really wish I coulda' shared that pic, or even just story, with you. "Hey, Biscuit! Guess who's got your shirt?"
So that's what an Admiral Biscuit shirt looks like. Still wondering about the original.
Fluttering could probably just ask.
Happy late birthday.!!
I might get to Everfree. Dunno yet. I don't plan that far ahead.
Hell, I don't even buy green bananas.
TrotCon is a possibility...…. need a job first.
I claim ownership of the idea and execution of the AB Memorial! I was sitting with Georg at the table next to your stuff and you weren't there! You were gone! With only your hat and type writer to remind us of your Greatness! Inspiration struck! I could not let future generations come and go without paying you the credence you deserved. So, I grabbed paper and pen and created the memorial to remind all that you had been!
If I remember correctly, I believe at least two people came up, saw it, and freaked saying "Oh, no! What happened to him?" Georg and I then died laughing. Then we explained.
5103606
Thanks! Good to see you, too!
5103611
I’m sure she’d appreciate that.
Yeah, same here! Thanks for modelling the knockoff AB shirt.
I do intend to go to Trotcon and EFNW again next year, and I might pick up another nearby con such as Ciderfest or if they’ve still got the one in Chicago (Whinny City, I think).
5103614
Yeah, that was kind of disappointing. But not entirely surprising.
Thanks!
Hope you enjoy!
5103621
The really funny thing about it is that I don’t know what font those are . . . like, I’m sure you didn’t ask me ‘cause I might wonder what was going on, but if you had, I would have had no idea. I just told the woman who makes the shirts the concept of what I wanted, and she designed the logo.
5103626
I don’t know if I’ve ever told him, and he doesn’t really keep up with technology enough to realize that Facebook would have told him. If he’s even on Facebook ever . . .
That’s okay, though, I’ve been friends with Zyrian for five or six years, and we hang out in person, and it was only last fall that he finally learned what my name actually is. :P
5103634
Well, the Crowne Plaza’s already sold out for the weekend, which suggests it willbe bigger than ever.
5103640
Soon . . .
I gotta get my ducks in a row still with the books. Been playing catchup with IRL stuff for part of the month, and also have been generally lazy as well (hence there being a two week delay in replies to this blog post.
5103648
I thought you were there in 2018, but I might be misremembering.
Who has now confessed to his crimes.
One issue I had with Travelling Tutor was that it looked very similar to some other book, and kept getting confused for the other book--or maybe that was just me.
I recall being disappointed that I couldn’t buy it, but I have a copy in my possession, so obviously I did . . . or else Aquaman slipped one in my bag.
5103651
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5103660
I’m honored my friends respect me so much.
5103682
That’s a great song.
Every now and then at work when something breaks, I do say “another one rides the bus,” much to my manager’s confusion.
5103696
For Trotcon at least, you may have to make a decision quickly . . . they apparently have already already sold all the rooms at the hotel the con’s at, and are on to their backup hotel, which is apparently a five minute drive away.
I’d say EFNW is a better choice, but they’ve changed hotels for next year and I’ll be honest, I’m not entirely sure where they’ll be. (It’s on their website, but I’m too lazy to look at the moment.)
We do often just pass by at cons, don’t we?
5103699
Same here!
It was . . . I now feel older but no wiser. Ah well.
5103724
Yeah, when there’s a line to get in the line to buy a book . . . still, proof that lots of us can make a go of it. Aquaman’s already trying to figure out things for next time around, if the bookstore is something we want to have at cons going forward. It’s certainly something we can make a go of, that much is obvious.
Speaking of which, I still need to send you copies of the books. I’ve been catching up on IRL stuff and also kinda lazy this last month.
5103729
Yes, I remember meeting up with you at EFNW . . . are you coming next year?
5103735
Honestly, the only really bad thing about the crowds were if you wanted to wait in line for stuff.
Lately, I’ve decided that I already know most of what I want to know about writing, so I don’t need to attend panels, and mostly stand around at the con talking to people I know, and there weren’t many crowds for that, at least. Well, except when we got kicked out of Quills and Sofas ‘cause they were doing some sort of artsy panel in the room. . . .
But yeah, if you really aren’t a fan of big crowds, this was not the con to come to.
5103765
Yup, that’s what we were there for.
I hear through the grapevine that they aren’t the best at con management, at least when it comes to the little stuff like providing water. Dunno how that got to be an oversight, but apparently it did.
At least it got me past the huge line, so that’s a win in my book.
5111546 lol. You're right, I didn't ask.
5103862
Hey, vendor and security is good, too. Often important roles.
Just don’t try and stop Canni.
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5111543
I knew you'd like the idea of the shirt and told TheRedBrony that I would show it to you.
I was just looking at TrotCon's site earlier and was really surprised to see all the rooms sold out already! I guess I'll have to make plans much earlier than I thought! I already have my registration for Everfree and I'm thinking I'd better get my hotel taken care of soon, too!
I'd like to go to Ciderfest or MLP:MSP, too. Much is going to depend on my family situation at the time. If things work out, I may be moving to Seattle within a year or so (I hope!).
5103905
That’s the thing with the big lines and stuff for autographs--like, if you want to explain the joke to her and all that, it takes up time you could have better spent with more productive things (or, for that matter, time other people might have had for the autographs . . . I’ve never been in the autograph lines, so I don’t know how much time they give you to spend with the celeb).
Still would have been awesome if you’d managed to get her one, though--real or fake.
I bet there are other ways to make it happen without all the insanity of BC. I don’t expect she’ll be at another pony con, but there might be other ways. I think she’s working on another project with Larson, and I could probably get him a shirt to get to her . . . he’s already got a real AB shirt.
Also, now that BC’s dead, we gotta find some other con to hang out at.
5103949
Exactly the same, but without the “Not Horse Famous” above the “since 1977.”
One of these days, I’m gonna make a merch store, so y’all can buy my
toysstuff.5103952
Thank you!
5104338
Heh, I hardly ever do, either.
5105166
A job is good. Depending on where you are, geographically, TrotCon, Whinny City (Chicago, IIRC), Ciderfest (Milwaukee, I think), and whatever con it is in Dallas might all be reasonable. I think there is or was on in St. Louis, too, but I can’t remember what it’s called.