The Events Commence!
Well friends, it’s been about two months since my last book event in December, and I have to admit, it’s been a nice vacation. I love going to conventions and book fairs, but the high-octane event extravaganza that was 2023 definitely took a toll. 20 events in one year is a lot, and I promised myself for the sake of my own sanity and productivity I would cut back this year.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t still have a LOT planned, and I am super excited to finally announce my 2024 touring schedule!
As of now, I have eight events lined up for the year, in a healthy mix of returning favorites and exciting new venues. This schedule is by no means final; there are a couple of events I have my eye on that haven’t been finalized yet, so expect to see one or two late additions to the list. For now, though, get hyped for these ones, because I sure am! 
You may notice at a glance that fully half the events for the entire year take place in March. For whatever reason, a lot of the best author events in Ohio just kinda landed there this year. I’m starting my tour in a running start with the much anticipated 2nd annual Indie Author Bash at Pretty Good Books in Ashtabula this Saturday. It’s going to be huge, with people flying in from all over the country to participate. There is simply nowhere else in Ohio any book fans will want to be this weekend. Make your way on over, or miss out on a truly epic experience.
The very next weekend, things are going to get absolutely insane. I am double-booked at BOTH the Akron Book Fest and Cleveland Concoction. Both events were amazing last year, and I wasn’t going to let a silly thing like them happening on the same weekend keep me from coming back for both of them this year. Here’s how this one’s going to work: I’ll be at ConCoction all day on Friday and Sunday, and on Saturday I’ll be at Akron Book Fest, possibly stopping back in at ConCoction in the evening, if there’s time. I will also be participating in several TBA panels at ConCoction, so keep an eye out for that! It’s going to be a whirlwind weekend, but I’m getting really pumped already.
Then, the weekend after that, I’m revisiting an old favorite. That’s right: Pan Yan. My favorite bookstore in Ohio is bringing me back for Otherworldly: a multi-author book signing that might as well have been tailor-made for me. It’s a sci-fi event! Believe it or not, it’s my first time at a book event specifically intended for my primary genre, so I can’t wait to see how that turns out.
There’s plenty more to come after that, so stay tuned, but there’s no doubt that March is going to be my busiest month of the year. I’m getting half my year’s events out of the way now so I can spend the rest of the year concentrating on my writing. My vacation was nice, but it’s time to get back to work. Let’s do this!
2023: A Year of Adventure
Hello and Happy New Year, my friends!
2023 is in the bag, and my gosh that bag is stuffed. It’s hard to believe that my first full year as a published author was only one year. I have crammed so many amazing, challenging, rewarding, and occasionally frustrating experiences into this year I can barely think straight. I started the year a greenhorned newbie with no real idea what I was getting myself into, and I’m rounding out the year a grizzled veteran of the author and convention circuits.
I knew I was taking on a lot when I committed to so many different events this year, though. Nothing really blindsided me. This was always meant to be a learning experience: go out there, meet new people, figure out what events are best for promoting my work, and carry those lessons into the future. I pursued pretty much every opportunity I was made aware of the instant I heard of it, with little concern as to how much actual profit it would make me. I’m glad I did, because there were a lot of surprises along the way. Some of the events that I thought would be huge for book sales ended up being pretty big disappointments, and a few of the ones where I had no expectations whatsoever ended up being some of my best ones of the year. In the end, I achieved what I intended to: I know a lot of the best places for me to go, and I plan to definitely come back next year and the years to come.
Last year I made several New Years resolutions for 2023, and one of them was to attend 10 events throughout the year. I thought that was going to be a pretty big stretch, but in the end, I fully doubled that, attending exactly twenty author fairs and conventions throughout the year.
Another of my goals for 2023 was to attain the much desired 50 Amazon reviews goal for Tantalus Depths. There’s a common belief among indie authors that it takes somewhere between 50 and 100 reviews on Amazon for their algorithm to start favoring your book in their search engine and recommended book categories, so hitting that number is often a major goal for authors. I’m pleased to say that not only did I hit that goal just a couple of weeks ago, but I exceeded it! As of writing this, Tantalus Depths has earned 52 reviews on Amazon alone, and has 68 ratings total, most of them 5 stars! This was a huge achievement, but what’s even more impressive is how many ratings and reviews I’ve managed to get outside of Amazon. Thanks to Audible spotlighting it as their Deal of the Day earlier this year, its ratings on Audible have skyrocketed to 336, with 60 reviews. Goodreads is now up to 176 ratings and 51 reviews, so between those three main sources, Tantalus Depths has been rated 580 times and has 163 reviews so far. And that’s not even counting the book blogs, review sites, and podcasts that have featured Tantalus Depths this year. In just one year, tantalus Depths has made a huge splash for an indie title.
Alright, enough bragging about big numbers that only impress me. I also want to draw attention to another little story of mine that debuted this year to much less fanfare, but no less excitement on my part. My fifth short story in the Calling Void series, Neurophage, debuted earlier this summer in the Passageways: Mythos anthology, and it’s been a huge hit! Mythos has easily been the biggest seller of any anthology collection I’ve contributed to, and I’m going to pretend that has anything whatsoever to do with me and not just the amazing cover Kaytalin Platt made for it. Still, I’m very proud of Neurophage, as it gave me the chance to explore a really grisly horror writing style, introduced another great butt-kicking female protagonist in the form of Grace Mkembe, and allowed me to start setting the stage for some themes and locations I’ll be exploring in my next book: Proteus.
And that subject, unfortunately, is where I fell short this year. I blew my first two goals for 2023 way out of the park with my event appearances and my reviews, but my third major goal was to finish writing Proteus. Sadly, as 2023 closes in just a few hours, I am still very far from that mark.
I did make progress. I wrote a lot of great scenes when I could find the time throughout the year, and the story that is coming together could quite possibly be the best piece of writing I am capable of creating, if everything comes out the way I have it planned. But unfortunately, between my busy day job and filling nearly half the year’s weekends with conventions, I left myself very little time to do the main thing I’m here for: writing. Part of the big experiment of 2023 was finding the right way to balance my time between promoting and writing, since both are vital to an author’s success. I kicked butt promoting myself this year, in a way I never thought I’d manage so well, but it came at a cost to my productivity.
I’m okay with that, for this year. I learned a lot, and I have gained enough experience that I don’t feel the need to be quite so ambitious or adventurous for a while yet when it comes to promotional activities. But for next year, I’m correcting that imbalance.
I’ll be updating my event schedule soon to show my 2024 event schedule, so keep an eye out for that, but expect it to be much smaller than this past year. I’m only setting one specific goal for 2024, and that is the goal I failed for this year: finish Proteus. I’ll be attending a few pretty exciting events, starting out with Pretty Good Books’ Author Spectacular on January 20th, but for the most part, I’ll be spending this year focused on my writing. I didn’t set out to be a one-hit-wonder, after all, and if you thought Tantalus Depths was something, the stuff I have planned next is going to absolutely blow your mind.
Stay tuned, and watch the skies.
An interview with Andi Arndt
Happy birthday, Tantalus Depths!
Can you believe it? My firstborn book child is officially one year old today! It feels so surreal. On the one hand, it’s hard to believe the more than a dozen conventions, book fairs, and author events I’ve been to have all happened in just a year. But on the other hand, the excitement I feel when I think about the fact that I’m a real, fully-published author now is just as fresh as it was the day I stepped up onto that auditorium stage at Kent Trumbull at my launch event to read excerpts to all my friends and supporters.
We’ve come so far since then, selling hundreds of copies (possibly thousands, counting the audiobook), gathering so many glowing reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, making connections with amazingly talented authors from all over the country, and sharing my love of books and writing with crowds of people at convention panels and on podcasts.
I wanted to celebrate Tantalus Depths’s one year anniversary with something special, and it just so happens I’ve been holding on to something for just such an occasion. A year ago, I recorded a one-on-one interview with Andi Arndt, the incredibly talented narrator who recorded the beautiful audiobook of Tantalus Depths. I originally meant to release this during launch week, but due to some technical difficulties (and me being generally way overcommitted with other launch week projects), I wasn’t able to get it out on time. It’s too big of a thing to share just any time, so I’ve been waiting for a special occasion to release it. And what’s more special than my one-year anniversary as a published author?
You can listen to our interview right here:
Thank you all so much for sticking with me through this first year. I promise there’s plenty more to come. October has a lot of spooky fun in store, kicking off with the insane four-day extravaganza of Con on the Cob on the 5th-8th, my return to the wonderful Pan Yan bookstore for their Halloween Spooktacular on the 14th, and the Ohio Author’s Kickback on the 21st.
Here’s to the next year! I promise you, I’m just getting started.
End of Summer Update
*Blows cloud of dust off of blog.*
Oof. Have I seriously gone four months without an update? Yikes. Big yikes. Better fix that right now. In case you were thinking no updates meant nothing was going on…yeah, no. Honestly, I’ve had so much going on in the book world I haven’t had time to write an update until now, so buckle in for a LOT of news.
The first bit of news: I have a new short story out! It’s called Neurophage, and it’s part of Writing Bloc’s new Mythos anthology. I mentioned it in prior updates here and there, but I don’t think I ever actually mentioned it had come out. Well, it’s here now, and it’s amazing, so please give it a look!
Another big bit of news: I’ve already achieved two of my major goals for this year. If you’ll remember back in January, I set some New Year’s writing resolutions. One of them was to get up to 50 ratings for Tantalus Depths on Amazon, and another was to go to at least ten promotional events this year. Well guess what? As of right now, Tantalus Depths is up to 56 ratings on Amazon, and after this weekend’s visit to Akron Geekfest, I’ve been to a total of twelve events this year! And I’m still planning for plenty more of both!
My writing goals aren’t coming along nearly as swiftly, but I have been working at that too. I’ve been making slow but steady progress writing the next book, Proteus. My goal is still to finish it by the end of the year, but I am definitely not able to promise that. I will say, though, I am feeling really good about what I’ve written. Proteus is going to be a very different novel from Tantalus Depths, but I think it’s going to be something really special that you’re all going to love.
Another big thing that happened this summer: I’ve been on two podcasts! I had a great time chatting with the wonderful people at The Worldshapers Podcast and Drinking With Authors about my book, the writing process, other books I love, and all manner of things. You can find both podcasts on all the major podcast platforms, so give them both a listen!
Other than Akron Geekfest this weekend, I took a bit of a book break last month. This was partially to give the creative portions of my brain the chance to rest so I don’t burn myself out, but it was also partially out of necessity. I had very little free time over the past several weeks because I was one of the stars in a stage musical. That was a little gift to myself. I love the theatre, even though I rarely have the time to commit to a production, and I felt like I needed to take some time to devote to another of my passions for a bit. It was a bucket list role in a bucket list play: Nostradamus in Something Rotten, and I had the great honor of performing it a few weeks ago with my friends at Curtain 440. It was a wonderful experience, and I think I made the right choice by devoting some time to that production and letting my writing take a back seat for a few weeks. It set me back a bit in my writing goals, but it also stimulated my creativity and gave me the chance to recharge and refocus. I’m getting back into writing mode now, and I’m feeling fresher than ever.
So that’s where we are now. What can we expect going forward? Well, quite a bit. I may have hit my goal for promotional events this year already, but I still have a bunch more lined up, starting up again next month. As always, you can find an updated schedule of my upcoming appearances on the “Events” page of my website, so hop over there if you want to see what I’m up to next. Obviously, I’m planning to get back to writing, and I’m aiming to make my work writing Proteus my primary focus for the rest of the year. Beyond that, who knows what’s going to happen next? I’ll try to do better about sending updates more frequently, but if you don’t hear from me for a while, it’s probably safe to assume I’m not writing an update because I’m writing a book instead. That sounds like a fair excuse to me.
The Conventions Commence!
I woke up this morning with nowhere to be, and that felt weird as heck.
The last four weekends in a row have been dominated by back-to-back conventions and book fairs all over Ohio, from the shores of Lake Eerie to the West Virginia state border. Let me tell you, it was a rush!
We kicked things off at the Akron Book Fest on March 11th, where I had the great honor of sitting between my friends and fellow authors Cari Dubiel and Kalynn Applewhite. We had a great time and sold a ton of books considering it was only a half day event, and I definitely hope to return next year.
(Incidentally, Kalynn is currently absolutely crushing a Kickstarter for her upcoming novel, Awakening Anne. I’d like to embarrass her with a surplus of support, so if you’re into paranormal historical fiction, go show her some love and back her Kickstarter.)
The next weekend was Cleveland ConCoction, and I have to say, I think this was the most fun for me, even though I sold the fewest books there. ConCoction was unique in that I didn’t have to man my own table for the event; convention staff sold my books for me, giving me total freedom to explore the convention and participate in the event programming. I had the great privilege to sit on three panels with some absolutely brilliant fellow authors, and pretty much any time I wasn’t in an author’s panel, I was watching one. Even though my sales were pretty slim for this event, the networking I was able to do was absolutely invaluable. I built some great new friendships with fellow authors from all over the Midwest, and had the great privilege to learn from their experiences and share my own in kind.
The following weekend was The Big One: the Cleveland Fan Expo. This one rivalled Galaxycon in scale, and probably surpassed it in turnout this year. Once again I had the chance to participate in a panel with a bunch of fellow authors, discussing our writing and answering audience questions. This was part of a pilot program Cleveland Fan Expo just started this year, so attendance and organization was a bit wanting, but that’s to be expected from something like that coming together for the first time at the last minute. I’m still glad I got to participate, and I’m optimistic to see how it goes next year. And yes, I will be back next year, because my sales were quite good at this one! I beat my record for most books sold in one day here, and you really can’t go wrong with that!
The last convention in this stretch was Ratha Con, and let me tell you, that was an endurance test for me. Four conventions in a row is rough under the best of circumstances, but Athens is a three and a half hour drive away, and it started at 10:00 AM. I got up at 4:00 in the morning and hit the road with my soul still asleep, and didn’t get home that night until midnight. But it was worth it! Even though Ratha Con was much smaller than any of the other cons I’ve gon to this year, I sold just as many in that one day as I would expect to sell at any other event, which really goes to show that you should not dismiss the value of smaller venues. I also had a really awesome fan interaction here that I won’t soon forget. Someone bought a copy of Tantalus Depths in the morning, and came back to my table around noon to let me know they had already made it eleven chapters in, and loved it so much they bought two of my short story collections as well! By the end of the day they were 24 chapters in and still loving it. That one interaction would have made the whole event worthwhile even if those were the only three books I sold.
So that brings me to today: my first weekend off in over a month. I definitely needed the rest, and I’m hoping I’ll make some significant progress writing Proteus this weekend. You know, being an actual author, and all. But this is only a brief interlude, because I am jumping back into the convention world right away. Like, literally, next weekend.
That’s right. I wasn’t overcommitted enough with the events I’d already signed up for, so I’ve added five new ones, starting next weekend with Operation Fandom in Wooster! Add these bad boys to the list of coming attractions:
Operation Fandom
April 16, 10-6:00, Wayne County Fair Event Center, Wooster, OH
Local Author Fair
April 22, 1-3:00, Chardon Public Library, Chardon, OH
MARcon
May 26-28, Hyatt Regency, Columbus, OH
50 Book Challenge Author Fair
June 11, 1-3:00, Twinsburg Public Library, Twinsburg, OH
Columbus Book Festival
July 15-16, Columbus Metropolitan Library, Columbus, OH
That brings my 2023 convention schedule up to 12 events, and I’m probably still going to add more later in the year. You’re probably saying “Even, that is too many events.” Yes. Yes it is. I have an underdeveloped preservation instinct, and I’m capitalizing on it. I regret nothing.
Since I have so many events now, it’s getting hard for even me to keep track, so I’ve set up a page on my website conveniently listing all of my upcoming events and linking to their respective websites. I’ll update it as often as possible, so stay tuned for a lot more stuff in the future!
The 2023 Tantalus Depths Book Tour Begins!
Hello everyone! It’s time for our February update, and I have so much exciting news to share with you all!
First up, I’d like to say welcome to all the new followers! For any who don’t know, Audible featured Tantalus Depths as their special deal of the day, which led to an absolutely tremendous influx of people discovering Tantalus Depths, literally overnight. I don’t have exact sales figures for the audiobook, so I’m not sure exactly how many new people downloaded it, but I do know this: before the sale, Tantalus Depths was holding steady at around 40 ratings on Audible. As of the time I’m writing this, though? 238 and still steadily rising! That’s right; in the span of about two weeks, Tantalus Depths’ ratings on Audible have multiplied nearly sixfold, and it’s still holding steady at a highly respectable 4.1 out of five. Nearly half the ratings are five stars!
These new fans of the audiobook have already trickled onto other platforms as well, and our ratings on Goodreads have also climbed a fair bit in that time. We’re still not up to my goal of 50 reviews on Amazon, but I’m really encouraged by the growth we’ve had over the past few weeks.
But enough about ratings and statistics. It’s time for the announcement you guys are all REALLY going to be interested in…
I’m formally announcing my 2023 book tour! I’ve been working hard to get this ready over the past few weeks, and I couldn’t be more stoked to make this announcement. I’m aiming to make a lot of public appearances all over Ohio to promote Tantalus Depths this year, and we are off to a very strong start. Here are the conventions I’m confirmed to appear this year so far!
Akron Book Fest: March 11 at Akron Main Public Library, 60 South High St, Akron OH, 44326
Cleveland ConCoction: March 17-19 at Bertram Inn Hotel and Conference Center, 600 N Aurora Rd, Aurora, OH 44202
The Cleveland Fan Expo: March 24-26 at Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland, 300 Lakeside Ave E, Cleveland, OH 44113
Ratha Con: April 1st at Athens Community Center, 701 E. State St, Athens OH 45701
Pulp Fiction Convention: June 4 Doubletree by Hilton, 1100 Crocker rd. Westlake, OH 44145
Con on the Cob: October 5-8,Quality Inn and Suites, 4742 Brecksville Rd, Richfield, OH 44286
Ohio Authors Kickback: October 21 5441 Westerville Rd., Westerville, OH 43081
Believe it or not, that’s not going to be all. I have several other convention appearances I’m working on scheduling right now, so this list is going to keep growing. But since some of them are coming up in less than a month, I figured now is the time to make an announcement of some of the awesome places you’ll find me this year!
Really looking forward to seeing some of you out there and having all kinds of exciting new experiences this year as I keep building my audience and preparing for the future. 2023 is looking to be quite a wild ride!
Evan Graham
Author
Evan Graham is a worldbuilding addict and connoisseur of dread who moonlights as a science fiction author. His Calling Void anthology series has been featured in multiple short story collections, and his debut novel, Tantalus Depths, available now everywhere books are sold. He has a bachelor’s in Education Studies from Kent State University, and resides in rural northeast Ohio.
