1. America is the home to countless conventions and any hard core con attendee can tell you that finding the right accommodation with the right people, if one is traveling alone, can be a tedious usually maddening task. I for one have not been in such a situation, but I can imagine how aggravating organization can be with few resources and just Google by your side. Worry not, for Ryan L. Kopf has the solution just one click away. Without further telemarketing antics I present to you UpcomingCons.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New Convention Website Connects Fans With Conventions And Roommates
July 5, 2009
Summary: A new website, UpcomingCons.com, lists hundreds of anime, game, comics, and science fiction conventions, and also allows users to sign up to find hotel roommates.
We are proud to announce to creation of a new fan convention resource, focused on anime, comics, gaming, and sci-fi, to help fans in a whole new way. Not only are over two hundred upcoming conventions listed with links to official websites, but users can use the website to find convention roommates, absolutely free!
Ryan Kopf, a board member for the fan organization Mindbridge Foundation, began working on UpcomingCons.com and developing features in late June 2009. Kopf wanted to create a resource that would enhance fandom over multiple genres, but especially help anime fans.
“I think convention attendees have always needed a good, reliable place to find upcoming conventions,” said Kopf. “Game, Comic, and Sci-Fi conventions had seemed the most neglected.”
UpcomingCons.com lists conventions around the world, although most are focused in North America
The most unique feature of UpcomingCons.com is easily the convention roommate system. Every year thousands of convention attendees look for people to share rooms with, to help offset the typically high cost of having a room at a convention hotel for three nights. Any fan can register for an account, go to the page of their favorite convention, and sign up to find hotel space, or to offer their hotel space for others. Other users who does the same thing will have a chance to see who else will be going to the same convention.
“We help connect the people together who might want to share rooms, but they do the communication and arrangements themselves,” said Kopf. “The listing of people attending a convention links to their profile, which contains general contact information for the person. They have to get in touch themselves and see if the potential roommates are the kind of individuals they want.”
ABOUT UPCOMINGCONS.COM: UpcomingCons.com was started in 2009 as a resource for fans across the world, helping them find conventions, find convention roommates, and meet other fans. They also provide convention reviews, photo galleries, and news.
2. Self-publishing as a new development in the publishing industry has been gauging my interest as of late. And I am not only referring to the event itself, but also the public opinion thereof and techniques to make achieve success through this unconventional means. Not long ago self-published author Roland Cheek contacted me with the request to showcase his 52 week long installment series on building a successful author career through self-publishing. For those interested installments are posted on the lower left portion of Roland’s site under the title “ROLAND'S RULES OF FOUR - A WINNER'S GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL SELF-PUBLISHING”. But here is more about the series and the idea behind it from the author himself.
While it’s true anyone can publish their own book and eat a loss, even two (I know one individual who actually self-published three books at considerable economic loss before throwing in the towel), but to successfully self-publish any books, one must turn a profit. I did. Twelve times.
My decision for releasing this compendium as blogs instead of in its originally intended book form is based on the present torpor of an entire publishing industry in denial; an industry suffering laser strikes from the twin Furies of desktop publishing and internet distribution; a shrinking industry who leaves little opportunity for oncoming writing talent. In short, with major publishers disserving the reading public and headed for cutbacks and bankruptcy as a consequence, self-publishing might, for aspiring writers, be the only viable game in town—provided it’s correctly accomplished.
3. Last but not least I have a fun contest, from which one very lucky participant will cash in on 100 dollars. Author JC De La Torre has put a fun and easy Amazon contest in order to promote his latest novel ‘Rise of the Ancients’. This is what I would refer to as a winning marketing strategy. But here are the details provided by the author:
I'm running a little contest I'm calling the Tag Your It Contest. Contestants will be entered into a drawing to win $100 USD. I would love to have your readers to get the opportunity to enter.
Basically, it works like this - go to JC two novels listed on Amazon -
Rise of the Ancients Annuna -
http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Ancients-Annuna-JC-Torre/dp/0978527232/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_2
Ancient Rising -
http://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Rising-Rise-Ancients-Book/dp/0978527216/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1
Scoll down to the section called "Tags Customers Associate with This Product"
Click everything you see.
Once completed, take a screenshot of your amazon page. (go here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/tips/screenshot.mspx if you're not sure how to do this).
Email the screenshot to contestATdltatlantispub.com (replace AT with @)
At the end of the month, a random drawing will be held from the entries and someone will win $100 bucks for just 10 seconds of their time.
Absolutely no purchase is necessary, you just need an amazon account to participate.
This will be the first in a series of contests celebrating the launch of Rise of the Ancients - Annuna on July 31st.
2 comments:
Great link reco. I hadn't heard of upcomingcons, but they only had one con listed in Colorado. I had to add COSine for them. Not sure if I should go to the other one... we'll see.
It's still new I guess, so it means that there will be some missed ones. Anyways great that you investigated. If I had lived in the states, I would have used it.
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