Make a Nerdy Living

by Alex Langley

  WORDS FROM WORKING NERDS

  Tony Kim, CEO of the Hero Within clothing line, “a fashion brand that blends sophisticated style with pop culture”23

  [Hero Within] grew as a progression of cosplay. In 2013 and ’14, I would take the Comic-Con swag bags and convert them into costumes. I had a blazer one year and a jacket another, and it got a great response from Warner Bros. So working on a third year, myself and my design partner, we were about to do another jacket and I was like “I wonder if, instead of just doing another costume, we could take this idea and turn it into something more legitimate.”

  So instead of going to do a third year of cosplay, I did something that could turn into a ready-to-wear piece, which was a prototype of a Superman blazer. It wasn’t refined, but it was a conversation piece. I shared it on my blog, which is great because my trip to Comic-Con became a focus group, and I realized this was something people might actually respond to. So the following year we made the decision to start the company and really go for it. It went from cosplay to trying something out at a Comic-Con and has turned into a company since then.

  People ask me all the time what it’s like to be an entrepreneur. There’s a lot of focus and emphasis on a great idea that’s unique, that tells a story, but people fail to think about the need for a great, knowledgeable, experienced, passionate team. The focus has really been on gathering a great team together who can really take this product and bring it to life. Thankfully, I have an amazing team. I’ve got one guy who’s got a lot of experience in manufacturing and production, another guy who’s great at partnerships, another who’s great at social media, another who’s great at operations, and we’ve got some part-time helpers as well.

  How would you describe your job and daily life?

  I say it’s eight days a week, twenty-five hours a day, burning the candle on all three ends. If it’s something that excites you and it’s something you can get behind, do it, but this isn’t for the faint of heart. That said, it’s so rewarding. Nothing’s better than getting an e-mail or phone call or seeing someone in person who has been looking for a Batman blazer their whole life, and they get into their own story with Hero Within, and they get into their own journey. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s been an exciting ride.

  How long does it take for a design to go from idea to finished product?

  Normally from pencil-on-paper to actually delivering an entire stock of inventory, that’s about six months, and that’s being pretty aggressive. It takes a couple of months to do the design and research the iteration process. The first month is designing and the second month is sampling. It’s one thing to make a product that looks cool, and it’s another to make that same thing a thousand times over. Anyone can make a costume piece that looks awesome, but then it has to be manufactured in a timely and affordable way, so that all happens in the second month, and then it takes about three to four months to produce and deliver.

  What would you say the challenges are of creating nerdy products?

  Any company based on inventory is always challenging because it’s a lot of manufacturing and fulfillment and warehousing and shipping and whatnot, so there’s a ton of challenges along every step of the way.

  As far as real “emotional work” challenges, recently we launched our Wonder Woman jacket, and it was really fascinating to see the spectrum of responses we got. We got men who were resistant to it, who felt like it was effeminate or emasculating and gave homophobic responses. What was interesting was how lots of fans embraced it and defended it by supporting it and buying/wearing it and posting about it. My vision the whole time has been that I don’t want to make clothes that everyone’s seen before. I want to make something new but also provoke thought and push the conversation forward. I love the fact that we’ll be at a show and a couple will walk up. The guy will be like, “I don’t know if I should wear Wonder Woman.” And the girl will say, “I’ve been wearing Batman and Superman for years. How come you can’t wear Wonder Woman?” And this encourages the guys to think about things in a new way.

  What tips would you give to newcomers?

  Don’t do it! (laughs) If there’s an easier way, go for it.

  It’s a roller coaster ride. What tipped me over the edge to do this was that I had a dream to do this, and then my life kind of kicked in, so this was something I had to develop over nights and weekends. And there was a point where I thought if I was ever going to do this, I had to throw myself into it, even though it was a risk when I had a pretty safe, pretty stable life. As luck would have it, in 2016 I lost my job, so I found myself in this place where I was like “Okay this is it; it’s now or never.” So I jumped in with both feet on this crazy roller coaster ride and spent all of 2016 waking up every day thinking “This is never going to work.” I had that torturous thought every day of that year, and somehow it worked! Now I’m only thinking it every other day.

  CONVENTIONS: BEHIND THE TABLE LIES A LAND OF WONDER AND HARD PLASTIC SEATS

  If you want a career that’s nerdy, you’re probably going to be spending a lot of time at fan conventions. Shows such as San Diego Comic-Con, Wizard World, Dragon Con, and Golden Girls-A-Palooza are great ways for creators to connect with the people who enjoy their work. Though fan conventions may seem like impenetrable beasts for those who have never attended one, they’re not nearly as scary as you’ve been led to believe. With a little knowledge and experience, you should have no problem getting out there to make money and meet people.

  SUPER-ELITE SECRET ULTIMATE TIPS FOR BIG-TIME ULTRA SUCCESS AT BEING A CONVENTION EXHIBITOR

  Plan your costs ahead of time. Hotels, parking passes, and the like cost cash. Find people to split the price with, and you’ll breathe much easier.

  Bring your own table cover. Convention tables don’t always come with quality covers (or covers at all), so if you want your booth to look presentable, with room to hang signage, bring your own cover.

  Get a banner. A banner should be colorful, retractable, and tall enough to be seen without being unmanageable. As a frequent con-goer, I can always spot the professionals versus the newbies, amateurs, and goobers wasting their money—the pros bring banners, backdrops, and fancy things for their booths. The newbies have signs they printed out using Microsoft Notepad, with their names written in ten-point type. Occasionally you’ll get someone legit who lets their booth stay buck-naked with no decorations; these folks generate far less business than the people who look professional, inviting, and like they enjoy being there.

  Be attentive to pre-show details. Pay promptly so you don’t lose your spot, pay close attention to deadlines, and reach out to the people running the show if you need clarification.

  Work up a good pitch. You will only have a handful of seconds to get the interest of those passing by your table. Think up some clever, friendly ways of greeting people to intrigue them into stopping by and maybe making a purchase. Try many different greetings to see which ones work best.

  Learn how to chat with people. It’s really highly recommended you have two people at your booth so that, when one of you gets locked into conversation, the other can still keep customers moving. Talking to people at cons is about connecting; find a way to connect what they’re saying to what your message is . . . unless they’re being a creep, in which case send ’em packing.

  Learn who will or won’t be interested in talking. People who are more likely to stop and buy something are those people who are responsive and chatty, people who are looking at your booth from three or fewer feet away, and people actively perusing your wares. People you’re not likely to get to stop and buy something are folks on their phones, people glancing casually at your booth while walking quickly, people looking at your booth from more than three feet away, and elves.

  Bring some stands. Book stands, print stands, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Stands . . . If it’ll help your merch stand out, bring it.

  Find the food. Food is a serious limiting factor at a lot of conventions. If yo
u go to the same shows year after year, you’ll learn where the good eateries are. For shows you’ve never been to, or shows set in weird towns where there’s nowhere good to freaking eat, plan ahead. Bring food with you—full meals if possible. Also, know that hotel breakfast buffet is a godly bonus at a convention; a nice big breakfast can make it easier to power through a long day that will later offer nothing but off-brand Mountain Dew and off-off-brand Twinkies that taste of leather. If you don’t have good food options or a convention buddy to go grab food while you work the booth, you’ll need to eat the best you can when the opportunity presents itself.

  Learn about each convention. Talk to other people who regularly work booths at shows to see what their experiences have been.

  Keep your stuff charged. Plugging in at night should be among your top priorities, and snagging a portable charger is a good idea.

  Stay off your phone and out of your work. You’re at the convention to sell your wonderful products and have a go at making a nerdy living, so stay the hell off your phone! Force yourself to look up and chat with people or you’re never going to make any sales.

  Plan and practice your answers. This varies a bit depending on what exactly you’re selling at a con. For many occupations, you’re going to get the same questions repeatedly. “What’s this book about?” “Why’d you decide to make this?” “How did you get live Ewoks through customs?” Figure out smooth stock answers to the questions you want to answer, and evasive answering-without-really-answering statements for the questions you don’t want to answer.

  Get a good signature that’s not the same one you use for legal documents. You don’t want to sign an autograph the same way you sign important legal documents unless you really want to find yourself footing the bill for a wily identity thief’s good time.

  Bring extra writing utensils and extra cash to make change. Pens and markers aren’t always reliable, and sometimes people will use that old-school currency called “cash” and will need you to make change.

  Bring hand sanitizer. Convention Crud: the creeping illness that seems to make its way around every convention and infect attendees after they’ve gone home. Keeping a few bottles of hand sanitizer tucked discreetly away to use after handshakes will help keep the Con Crud down to a minimum.

  Learn what each convention day is like. Most fan conventions run for three days—Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Fridays are slower days for business, as the convention attendees are all mentally mapping out the booths and their wallets to see how much they want to spend. Saturdays are the big day, as the attendance is highest and most con-goers have figured out how much they’re willing to spend. Sundays are a bit of a mystery day; at some shows, Sundays are walking dead with sparse attendance. Other shows will have a steady crowd on Sunday. Others still will have focused programming or discount deals for Sundays that will bring in particular types of crowds like, say, free admission for kids on Sundays.*

  Pay attention to the particulars of each convention. Shows run by a blanket company, like Wizard World, have a (mostly) uniform way of doing things. Even so, most places are going to do things a little differently, meaning you’ll need to pay attention to the con agreement when you sign up. What hours do they expect you to be there? What are the rules for sales tax? Will you have access to an electrical outlet at your booth? Will there be bright lights and loud sounds nearby to distract people away from your clever and welcoming sales pitch?

  Have a way to make purchases with a credit card. Whether it’s through an app, a phone add-on, or an old-fashioned credit card machine, don’t miss out on those sweet, sweet card sales. People are a lot looser with intangible money than cash.

  Use the hotel workout room, whatever it may be. Conventions are tiring experiences, despite the fact that working at one often involves a lot of sitting throughout the day. At night, even though you’ll probably be tired, try to hop into the workout room for a quick bit of exercise. You’ll sleep better, and your long-term health will thank you for it.

  Make yourself valuable so you can sell your stuff for free. If you know how to put together great panels, you can net your party valuable convention passes and table space at no cost.

  Don’t be afraid to discount. If you’ve got customers who are on the fence about a purchase, offer them a discount or a special deal. You may not want to advertise said special deal up-front, though, so you can exercise it as a special weapon rather than the standard sales protocol.

  Figure out what to sell, how to arrange your materials, etc. I’ve been at conventions where people passed my books by for hours only to have the floodgates of sales open up when I rearranged the way the books are spread out. Pay attention to your layouts and the amount of sales you’re getting. Rearrange your goods once in a while if things are slow.

  Know your rights as an exhibitor. Most people working shows are nice, hardworking folks. Every once in a while, however, you’ll get someone who doesn’t mind screwing over their fellow nerds. Maybe they’re spilling their merch onto your table a bit, maybe they swapped your sweet corner table for their less-than-ideal location and blamed it on the convention organizers, or maybe they’re being loud assholes whose lack of social skills is driving away customers. Whatever the issue may be, be firm but polite in discussing it with them. If they won’t be reasonable, report them to the convention organizers. The people running conventions are inclined toward keeping the peace and are usually quick to jump on rule-breakers and misery-makers.

  Set boundaries with the public. Sometimes people will hang out in front of your booth to make a phone call and block it for a while, or set a drink down on your table, or let their sticky-handed kid paw at your fragile merchandise. Again, firmly and politely inform the offending party to knock it off.

  Check out the show a bit while you’re there. Even after you’ve been to dozens of fan conventions, you’ll still find they’re all a little different. Wander the floor to check out the wares, chat with people, and give your body a break from sitting still all day.

  No matter what you’re building, few things are as satisfying as completing a finished product. For some of you, though, the thought of making things may sound enticing but you want to make something a little different. Something communal, something interactive, something bound by rules and dice and computer programming. If that’s the case, perhaps you should consider entering the magical, mysterious world of game design.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  GAMING

  We all play games,* and yet so few among us understand what makes a good game. This chapter will dive into the nitty-gritty of crafting a good gaming experience for players of any medium. In the days of yore, only a select few were allowed to ascend into the hallowed halls of the game-making industry. Now, with the advent of crowdfunding, all it takes to produce a game is the raw determination to get it made.

  A (SELECTED) HISTORY OF HOME-BREWED GAMES: 8-BITS, TWENTY SIDES, AND SIXTY-FOUR COMMODORES

  As a child, Gary Gygax would often dream up new types of games to play with his friends, creating rules and roles for the players to craft a unique experience in every session. As a teen, he was obsessed with fantasy, fiction, and board games. As an adult, his love of games expanded even as real-life worries encroached on all sides. Through determination and imagination, he and fellow game enthusiast Dave Arneson created a project with the working title The Fantasy Game, better known by its published name: Dungeons & Dragons.

  Scott Cawthon has created video games since childhood; as an adult, he made several ill-received games that reviewers described as disturbing, citing the stiff animations and lifeless characters as having an accidentally eerie quality to them. Rather than let this discouragement stop him, Cawthon took it to heart and let it serve as the inspiration for his next game, a horror title about animatronics that came to life in a children’s entertainment facility—and thus Five Nights at Freddy’s was born. Since then, the franchise has boomed into countless other games, merchandise, and a book series,
and it was optioned for a film adaptation within a year of its initial release.

  Markus “Notch” Persson developed the game Minecraft while working a day job as a computer programmer. The game unofficially released in 2009, and as of 2018, Persson’s estimated worth is $1.5 billion.*

  Composer/game designer Toby Fox created the critically acclaimed Undertale using his experience creating a reprogrammed ROM hack of the game EarthBound and writing music for the multimedia webcomic Homestuck. Fox was in high school when creating his music and ROM hacks, and in college when he developed Undertale. Undertale released in 2015 when Fox, despite being just twenty-four years old, already had years of game-development experience.

  Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone graduated from college with a computer-science degree. Unable to find a full-time job, he worked as an usher at a movie theater while dreaming up and developing his own game, Stardew Valley, a pleasantly addictive farming game which has gone on to sell millions of copies.

  Matthew Inman created the webcomic/humor site The Oatmeal and leveraged that success to crowdfund a card game, Exploding Kittens, through Kickstarter. Exploding Kittens earned $8.7 million from its crowdfunding campaign alone.

  A group of high school friends—Josh Dillon, Daniel Dranove, Eli Halpern, Ben Hantoot, David Munk, David Pinsof, Max Temkin, and Eliot Weinstein—worked together to crowdfund Cards Against Humanity, which earned over $15,000 through Kickstarter and has gone on to become the number-one selling game on Amazon, earning over $12 million in sales.24