I wasn’t originally planning on attending this year’s Discworld Convention (the first since 2018, after 2020 was first postponed and then cancelled). But then Mike, who runs the trade hall contacted me asking if I would be interested in having a stand in the trade hall and appearing on a panel. It took a little bit of persuading from my wife and daughter to get me to go, but go I did, and I’m very glad I did, because I had a great time.

I should point out at this point that my reluctance had everything to do with me and nothing to do with the convention. If there is any one convention to sell books at, it’s DWCon. Having sold books there on three occasions that I recall (I had a stall in 2008, 2016, and 2018) I’ve learned that I can expect to sell around four times as many books as at an equivalent SFF / fantasy convention. I’d twice sold in the 90s, but hadn’t managed to break the 100 barrier.

To avoid a pointlessly long story, this time I did.

Sales at DWCon 2022

I was helped by the fact that unlike in previous years, there was no Waterstones to hoover up book-buying pounds. And I was also helped that on the Saturday night I’d appeared on a panel… and that was the other thing that was great about the weekend.

This was the panel.

It goes without saying that it was very cool to be alongside those three other authors, especially Jodi Taylor and Ben Aaronovitch. I was pretty nervous beforehand, especially when I found out that we would be in the Lancre Castle, a.k.a. “the big room”. To show you what I mean, this is Ben’s tweet from the next from a subsequent panel showing the room – and for the Saturday night panel it was a lot fuller than this!

But the panel went well. We were very well moderated by John Hicks, and I think I did okay. And moreover, I got a lot of really nice comments, from people who came to my stand on Sunday (usually a quiet day) to buy some books having enjoyed what I’d said the previous night), and from fellow author Marc Burrows, who having written a biography of Sir Terry Pratchett was one of the convention’s guests. It’s a good book by the way!

I eventually left a little early on Monday, at around 1 pm, having sold out of Game Night and If Pigs Could Fly. It’s the first time I’ve ever left a DWCon early, but then again, it’s the first time I’ve ever sold out.

So all in all, I’m very glad I went. It’s really given me a shot in the arm. I feel a bit more like a proper writer again, and having done my first panel for several years, and my biggest panel ever, it’s definitely something that I’d like to do more of in the future.

So thank you to Mike for inviting me, to John Hicks for running the panel so well and being such an all round great guy, to everyone involved in the Discworld Convention, and to everyone of you who bought some of my books. I really appreciate it.