DSNX25 Takeaways
Hello dear readers!
This post today is mainly for my fellow writers and convention vendors. I wanted to recap Vendor tips from Dragonsteel Nexus 2025. What went well, what do I wish I had done different, etc.
Check out my tips for vendors from Dragonsteel 2024 or my three biggest takeaways from Dragonsteel 2024.
The booth got quite a glow from last year.
Things that went well that I want to repeat:
A cooler with snacks! We brought carrots, apples, jerky, and nuts to snack on throughout the day. These were easy to get and were light enough that you didn’t feel icky from eating something greasy, heavy, or sugary, which I feel like most convention concessions tend to be.
Laminated cards that show how all our books intertwine in our shared world. This is helpful for explaining the unique aspect of how we as writers work together in a shared world.
Having more than just two people run the booth. This is great if you need a break you can step away and know that the person at the booth won’t be overwhelmed because they’ll still have some backup.
Getting an AirB&B instead of staying at a hotel. For us, this made a lot of sense because we were traveling as a group. If I were to attend a convention by myself I might still book a hotel. But in this case, having a house that we could all hang out in together, cook breakfast and sometimes dinner at was really delightful. It felt much less cramped than a hotel room and really helped us decompress in the evening. It was much quieter than a hotel as well.
We brought plenty of business cards this year, so we didn’t run out! I think I ordered 500 for each of us, so a grand total of 1500 cards. I would say we probably gave away a bit under 750 total.
QR Code for the email sign up list. Much better than trying to read handwriting on a paper sheet.
Wagons, still a Godsend, highly recommend.
Participating in the convention game, but only because we had more help at the booth this year.
This QR Code on our business card takes you to our Linktree where you can get access to everyone’s website, all the books, free downloads, original music for the series, and more. It’s your one-stop-shop for everything!
Now. On to what I would have done differently.
I would have created the text on the banners differently. They don’t actually give enough detail about what we do to be useful. I’m already in the process of revising them.
I packed pretty much all the books in cardboard boxes. The reason being I had them on hand and in my mind I thought we would just collapse them and discard them if we sold an entire box worth of books. Yeeeeah, next time I’m putting everything in Rubbermaid containers. Which leads me to my next point.
I’m bringing way less books next time. I’m also considering shipping most of them ahead of time.
I need to find a way to highlight that we have original music for several of our stories. Not sure how to do this yet, but I’ve got a couple of ideas.
I would like to have some kind of small token or thing for younger kiddos who come by the booth. I could probably do some cool wooden coins on my Glowforge as an example.
Scheduling shifts for people to step away from the booth.
I am going to change up how I do bade ribbons next time. At DSNX25 I had them free with purchase. I want to have some kind of a free option and a purchase option next time.
All the current books in the Galhadria universe as of Dec 2025.
Well friends, there you have it. Some of my bigger lessons learned from Dragonsteel Nexus 2025. I’m looking forward to implementing these changes at my next convention and learning even more lessons!
Till next time, dear reader! <3 Tiff
