# The Economics of Con Life with Todd Fahnestock - #336

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-indy-author-podcast-1109171/the-economics-of-con-life-with-todd-fahnestock-336
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-indy-author-podcast-1109171/the-economics-of-con-life-with-todd-fahnestock-336.md
Podcast: [The Indy Author Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-indy-author-podcast-1109171)
Published: 2026-05-19T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://theindyauthor.libsyn.com/the-economics-of-con-life-with-todd-fahnestock-336
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/theindyauthor/TIAP_336_Todd_Fahnestock_Episode_LIBSYN.mp3?dest-id=386964
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-indy-author-podcast-1109171/episodes/the-economics-of-con-life-with-todd-fahnestock-336
Duration seconds: 2904

## Resource

Matty Dalrymple talks with Todd Fahnestock about THE ECONOMICS OF CON LIFE, including the real costs and revenue thresholds of selling books at cons, why five books is the minimum for a viable booth, how selling sets instead of singles and leaning into cover art and merch changed his income, the break-even math that determines whether a con is worth attending, how face-to-face interactions at cons became the foundation of a 4,000-person email list, and how that list became the launchpad for a Patreon that monetizes the work he's already doing. Interview video at https://www.youtube.com/@TheIndyAuthorPodcast/podcasts Show notes, including extensive summary and transcript, at https://www.theindyauthor.com/episodes-all If you find the information in this video useful, please consider supporting The Indy Author! https://www.patreon.com/theindyauthor https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattydalrymple Todd Fahnestock is an award-winning, #1 bestselling author of fantasy for all ages and winner of the New York Public Library's Books for the Teen Age Award. Threadweavers and The Whisper Prince Trilogy are two of his bestselling epic fantasy series. He is a founder of Eldros Legacy—a multi-author, shared-world mega-epic fantasy series—three-time winner of the Colorado Authors League Award for Writing Excellence, and two-time finalist for the Colorado Book Award for Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy (2021) and Khyven the Unkillable (2022). His passions are great stories and his quirky, fun-loving family. When he's not writing, he travels the country meeting fans, talks philosophy with his son, plays board games with his wife, dissects movies with his daughter, and plays to the point of bruises with Galahad the Weimaraner. Visit Todd at toddfahnestock.com Matty Dalrymple is the a…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-indy-author-podcast-1109171/episodes/the-economics-of-con-life-with-todd-fahnestock-336/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-indy-author-podcast-1109171/the-economics-of-con-life-with-todd-fahnestock-336.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.