I published a children’s book about attending large events, during a pandemic where large events have all been cancelled because they can literally kill you. I really didn’t see that one coming.

In case you are just stumbling into this story now, I’m Going to My First Comic Convention is available on Amazon. It’s a children’s picture book all about a little boy attending his first comic con and all the fun things he can see and do. Except nobody is doing any of those things for a while!

I’m trying to not let it get to me, so I thought maybe writing about it would help. I am frustrated. I am disappointed. My book partner and I worked very hard on this project for over a year. We learned to do everything ourselves and both learned a lot along the way. I keep trying to remind myself of the positive aspects.

I felt like we had a foolproof plan – we’d be doing tables at conventions where we’d have a direct connection with our target audience. I was really looking forward to being more involved with comic cons again. And then the conventions were cancelled one by one… And I tried to tell myself it would be over soon and things will go back to normal.

But it’s been so long, there’s no normal anymore. And when this is all gone, or at least gone to manageable degree, what will be left? What will events be like? I keep trying to not let myself fall down that rabbit hole of sad scenarios.

So I try to keep moving forward. I tried Facebook ads, a boosted post and Amazon ads with no luck. At least I didn’t spend much – not enough people are searching for anything like the book so it’s not coming up and therefore I don’t get charged for ads. We published a children’s book about something no child is doing and won’t be for some time. I’d say we might as well have published “I’m Riding My First Unicorn,” but that would probably sell better because at least little girls are still looking for unicorns.

I know conventions will eventually come back. And when they do, well at least the book is done and ready. And it’s not like it’s costing me anything to have it sit on Amazon. And because we did the work ourselves, we didn’t go into any debt publishing it. COVID may have tanked our GoFundMe, but we did succeed in getting enough support to cover some of the initial expenses like purchasing fonts, editing programs, ISBN numbers and the books to fulfill the pre-sale orders and shipping. I am very happy about all that. If I had sunk several thousand dollars into the original publisher that contacted me, I’d be a bit more depressed about the situation. Just typing that stuff out actually made me feel a bit better.

I guess in the end I am still very glad we succeeded in finishing and publishing the book. I am really happy with the way it came out. I am proud that I put it together myself and learned to set up the images and text. It certainly challenged my computer skills and got my brain working. And I know I can do it again when we have a new brilliant book idea. Maybe one about something people can actually do…or maybe not. That unicorn idea is really growing on me LOL. ❤