The dust has well and truly settled on Dragonsteel Nexus 2025 and what a week that was indeed! Incidentally enough it was my first convention and it really was incredible (I have been advised that not all conventions are quite up to their standards and I can believe it).
I had largely shied away from conventions as displaying there seemed somewhat pointless as my books are usually sold out soon after pre-order, so I wouldn’t need to drum up any sales on that front. However, as Special Edition publishing has well and truly blown up in the last couple of years I felt it sensible to attend one to try and increase my reach if possible. The books we publish really have to be seen and held to be appreciated and what better place to get in front of SFF book lovers, than a convention focused around these titles?
My first thought was to attend WorldCon in Seattle this year, but unfortunately after making a mental note to attend, I subsequently forgot and by the time I realised it was of course too late. Whoops. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I found a few weeks later that Mr Pierce Brown was attending DSNX 2025 with Lit Escalates. This was rather convenient as I had been working behind the scenes with Pierce and LE for nearly 2 years on publishing the Red Rising special edition to end all special editions (that’s sort of what we do here). With that settled, I made my plans and booked my flights to Salt Lake City in Utah, the home of Sanderson.
It took me just under 21 hours to get from Manchester to my Airbnb in SLC and was greeted by Joel Daniel Phillips and Pierce Brown for some Chinese food and a few drinks followed by collapsing on my bed for some much needed sleep.
Day 0 - Wednesday
We spent the next morning shooting some footage for a couple of things. I have yet to mention that I’m shooting a short documentary on the making of a Curious King title. Well, now you know. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, to really get under the skin of these projects from start to finish. I chose Red Rising to do it on for various reasons and we were able to get some interview footage on the Wednesday as well as a few shots to promote our upcoming edition. Lovely.
Onto to the convention to help set up where I was greeted by Zach Harney from Collectible Book Vault (and good friend of mine). With the booth finished we grabbed some food and a couple of drinks with authors Ryan Cahill and Zach Argyle, both great people indeed and then headed to our evening event the “Howler Games” arranged by Lit Escalates and with Matt Dinniman and Pierce Brown in tow.
What can I say about Pierce’s fans? They’re some of the most dedicated and lively people around. The Howler Games went down ridiculously well, it was carnage in an arcade and a load of fun. This is where I met the first few CK collectors and what a pleasure it was to drink beers and talk books.
Day 1 - Thursday
Sore head and some breakfast consumed it was time for the first day of the convention! We greeted some of the early birds at the booth who were queuing up for their pin and print. Pierce had the first author spotlight slot on the Thursday morning and I snuck off to watch it. The brilliant Maude Garrett was interviewing Pierce and it being their 7th interview together the chemistry on stage was great and the interview went down well. Towards the end it was time to announce the big news! The news that NONE OF YOU had ANY IDEA about. Our upcoming release of Red Rising. Sadly the technology gods were not smiling upon us that day and the first showing of the trailer sadly came without the sound. Which was a shame, because I believe the sound made a huge difference. Luckily it was revisited a few minutes later (with sound!) and got a good few cheers and howls at the end!
Finally, FINALLY I could talk about this poorly kept secret with all and sundry. And that’s exactly what I did for the rest of the day. I had the opportunity to meet dozens of CK owners and collectors and they were all great. There is no way I can remember all the names of the people I enjoyed speaking to, so I’ll name none. No favourites here. Well, I say that. One particular chap known as Michael Riveira had made possibly the greatest T-shirt of all time (seen below). A Charlie Day scene with “Curious King is publishing Red Rising” on it – all before it was officially announced. Incredible work.
I didn’t get up to much on the Thursday evening as I was knackered and I got denied entry to a bar as I only had my driving licence on me and not my passport… For those that don’t know Utah, it is rather strict on, well just about everything. In protest I went home and ate pizza and fell asleep. Take that Keith Richards!
Day 2 - Friday
Friday arrived and it was destined to be a fun-packed day. I manned the booth most of the day with Zach and once again was able to meet several collectors, and also introduce poor, unsuspecting and soon-to-be-empty-walleted members of the public to Curious King. I apologise in advance for any future funds I may have secured after these people touched the goods (books people, books..).
Sadly I missed most of the spotlights and panels on the Friday, but when you get me talking about books it’s quite hard to stop. As the evening rolled around I was invited to an authors meal by Zach Harney. We dined over the road at a rather nice spot and I had the pleasure of spending some time with the likes of Christopher Ruocchio, Zach and Hilary Argyle, Andy Peloquin, Evan Leikam, Bryce O’Connor and Michael Michel to name a few. Again. Constant book-chat. What more could you ask for?
We had to leave pretty sharpish as a few of us had been invited to the Worldhopper Ball prologue by Brandon Sanderson. I’ve no sodding idea why I made the cut for the prologue which was industry and VIP’s only. I did however make up for it by pulling together a last minute truly horrendous outfit. It did not occur to me until the Friday before I left that I needed something smart/interesting to wear at the worldhopper ball. I panicked and bought a ladies green hat, blue cravat and red sunglasses. This was to be paired with a pink suit I wore to a French wedding a couple of years ago. I didn’t dare try it on before I left for the convention and left it up to chance. Well chance did it’s thing and I looked like a camp cowboy John Lennon, which I signed the guestbook with. Pierce spent the night calling me the White Snoop Dogg – which is probably the greatest thing I’ve ever been called.
The ball itself kicked off and was a sight to behold. That’s if you were watching of course. I received a few dirty looks during the moments of dancing/acting as I was deep in conversation with Christopher Ruocchio – you can’t blame me, can you? My voice tends to carry, so it was probably quite rude of me, but you just don’t get these opportunities to chat books with Mr Suneater himself. Well, I don’t.
They put on an incredible show indeed and the set was fantastic. Yet another testament to Brandon’s Dragonsteel team, they really are pro’s in every sense of the word. The moments of acting were only topped by the amazing dancers who mesmerized everyone there. Following the show it was followed by some spirited dancing by the punters including myself. After things started dying down a few of us went off to have a few more drinks elsewhere, and I found myself in Ryan Cahill’s room with Andy Peloquin and Zach Harney talking about cults until well past 3am.
Day 3 - Saturday
Due to my sleep schedule and bodyclock I only got a couple hours of sleep before my brain decided it was time to wake up and face day 3 at the convention. I’ll be honest, my performance on the Saturday was several levels down from the prior two days. I crawled through the day as best I could, utilising the chair as much as possible that day. I thought it might have been quieter on Day 3, but I was wrong. There were just as many eager and interested book fans stopping by the stall, no doubt attracted by the beautiful books displayed on my table. Luckily if anything is going to kick some enthusiasm into me it’s talking about my books and books in general. This definitely got me through until the evening. I may have snuck off after lunch for a nap as well, shhhhh.
Saturday evening was spent at a meal with Christopher R, Pierce, Matt Dinniman, Joel Daniel Phillips, Octavia Escamillia (Dragonsteel phenom) and Matt Sugarman (Brandon’s Lawyer). Very pleasant company and the tonic I needed for my sore head. Am I name-dropping? You bet your arse I’m name dropping, you don’t realise how insane it was for me to spend time with these people, it was the COOLEST thing.
Late night chats followed the meal and plans for world domination discussed in detail. Plans subsequently forgotten it was time to head back for some much needed sleep. I had time in the morning to collect the suitcase of books I had packed up and I made the pilgrimage to SLC Airport for my return journey.
Unfortunately karma decided to rear it’s head and punish me for having so much fun on the trip and caused my plane to be delayed which meant I missed my connection in Paris. They were able to book me on another flight, just 7 hours later than the original flight. So I spent many painful hours in a tiny terminal of Charles De Gaulle airport eating pastries, drinking coffee and doomscrolling.
24 hours of travelling later I arrived in the UK ready for my kids’ bedtime. I haven’t been away from my kids for longer than 2 days before and I found 6 days really hard, even with interesting and amazing book people to keep me occupied. So it was heartwarming to get them ready for bed and read their stories and regale my wife with tales from SLC afterwards. Convention well and truly over.
DSNX 2025
The convention was incredible, really. Packed with publishers, artists, craftspeople, and booklovers. I managed to do a few laps over the course of the weekend and check out what was on offer and it was all book adjacent. There were some incredibly talented people displaying their wares, and it was great to see what the other publishers are putting out in person.
There were events happening all through each day in numerous parts of the convention centre. There were convention games, signing, medieval fighting, panels, water-dunking, everything. This is definitely a convention I would like to go back to, the only issue having it on the run up to Xmas is tricky when you have a young family. I was also unable to do any real work over the week so I’ve been furiously trying to catch up on things since I got back.
The main thing is I came back from the convention feeling energised and excited about Curious King and the future of the press. When you work from home and have your head buried in supply chain, book design, art direction and all the bits that make up my role it quickly feels like you’re in the trenches somewhat.
I made some genuine friends last week and hatched plans with many others to produce beautiful books in some way or other. I suppose I felt appreciated as well. I know how supportive my collectors are and often enjoy reading the groups and chats that involve my books, but to be introduced to a wider world of author/collector/artist/influencer was belting (hah, see what I did there?).
An absolutely massive thank you to Joel Daniel Phillips from Lit Escalates and his team of rockstars, Emily, Molly and Christine. I felt so welcome it was unreal and I was really taken care of. There are not many publishers/companies that I’d ever consider working with on a CK release. I mean, I never thought I would do it, but since working with LE on Red Rising I have found a fantastic partner on this release that I work with so harmoniously. We genuinely make a great team and I can’t wait to launch Red Rising in March!
I will be putting out a specific CK post about Red Rising sometime soon, just to triple clarify how things are going to work for my collectors. The good news is Publishers Rights are being honoured. You didn’t think I’d do RR and not take care of my guys?
Right, I have a mountain to climb before Christmas. To everyone I spent some time with at DSNX whether it be 5 minutes or 5 hours, you have my honest thanks. This community keeps proving to me why it’s the best in the world. Books bring us together. Books make us happy.