This past weekend, we attended the Paranormal Expo in Little Rock to do a little simulated promotion. This was the first time both of us came together at an event to talk about the book, what it is all about, and see people’s reactions. It was also the first time we showed people sample artwork from the book, since Sean has been working hard and has finished all the pencil sketches! I’ve added some of those pages to the sample artwork and pages gallery so you can check them out too.  Since we are aiming to have the book complete by next year, we figured it was high time to see how we would work together as a team to promote this new form of outreach.

Now, you can imagine as an archeologist, walking in to a Paranormal Expo is not exactly what I thought I would be doing with my Saturday and Sunday, and I was worried about the questions I would get about giants, aliens, and their associations with the mounds and earthworks in the southeastern United States. But, I’m pleased to say that I got no such questions! I do not know if this is because Little Rock is so close (about a 30 minute drive) from Plum Bayou Mounds and a lot of people already know they were built by Indigenous peoples, or if they had bigger concerns on their hands (e.g., the Bigfoot calling competition, the many vendors selling books and other novelties, or the talks on cryptids and hauntings). Nonetheless, it was an incredibly successful event, and Sean and I talked to around 150 people about the book. I showed off some artifacts and gave away pamphlets about the Indigenous peoples of Arkansas, plus we sat on a podcast and discussed our approach to this graphic nonfiction.

For us this event really illustrated we need to refine our pitch to people to really grab their attention. Simply presenting the book as being about “archeology” and “Plum Bayou Mounds” did not seem to be enough.  As the day went on, Sean and I experimented with different phrases like “demystifying archeology” and seeing that people really gravitated towards these more intriguing expressions than our original more “blah” description of the book. Also, physically handing them the book of sample artwork got some great reactions. Some people seemed to shut down as soon as you said “nonfiction book” and “history”, but as soon as they saw the art and noticed it was a graphic novel format, they opened up and got incredibly excited. This kind of physical media is something much more accessible to a wider group of people than a typical history book, combining art with text to create a more immersive experience, which is the very reason we wanted to do this project in the first place. One thing people really held on to this weekend was that the  art is hand drawn and watercolored – something not typical of graphic novels – and a lot of the locals loved to see their town (Scott, Arkansas) sketched in the pages.

Needless to say, we have some workshopping to do on our pitch, but the hype was there! We gave out a lot of cards, taught people about archeology, and told people to follow us for updates. Plus, Sean and I make a pretty good team once we worked out some of the kinks, and as we move forward we will not only keep chugging along on the art and eventually inserting the book’s text, we will also work on our presentation and marketing so this project reaches as many people as possible.

Thanks to the Paranormal Expo for hosting us, and all of the lovely folks who stopped by to ask questions and hang out!