This year, I saw New York Comic Con with fresh eyes. In my 15 years in the publishing business, I’ve worked dozens of fan conventions, from Star Wars Celebration to San Diego Comic-Con. This year I hadn’t planned on attending New York Comic Con, until I received a text from Christine Onarti, a friend and the owner of Word bookstores, who needed an extra pair of bookselling hands at the show. I was happy to oblige, and a day later I was sitting behind a cash register in the Del Rey booth, between the Minecraft and Star Wars books.

It was a great place for me to be as a longtime follower of Del Rey. I love what Del Rey does, and in the years after the PRH merger, we were often neighbors at fan conventions. Go ahead, ask me about Thrawn—I have things to say. In fact, I will readily confess that, early in my career, I felt a healthy rivalry with Del Rey. It published some of the same authors we did at DK Publishing, and it did cool things at the conventions. Fans were lining up for Del Rey signings and knocking each other out to grab its swag.

That hasn’t changed. At this year’s show, Del Rey’s booth rarely had a quiet moment, and fans visited more than once a day. But, as much as they were there for the really good giveaways, they were also there to talk with people who really knew Del Rey’s books and understood their fandom. And that’s exactly what they got.

When an eight-year-old ran over to the Minecraft books, dragging his mom along behind him, he could ask questions directly to the woman who edits those books. I learned right away that she’s not so good at handling the game’s creeper enemies—and the kids loved that detail. They loved that she understood their world and understood their love of Minecraft. It was such an authentic connection.

A fellow came to me and confessed that he’d seen all the Star Wars films but never read a Star Wars book. Where to begin? I was able to pass him along to an editor who was the exact right person to answer the question.

Del Rey sets the bar very high, yes. Still, I think publishers should think really hard about the staff they’re sending to shows like New York Comic Con. As I walked the floor, I saw a lot of staffers talking more to each other than to the fans. And when they did talk to the fans, it wasn’t always with the sort of focus and attention that consumers deserve at a convention. Yes, an attendee might be dressed like a dragon, but he or she is a human being and a potential customer all the same.

For me, that means sending more people to fan shows who have an easy rapport with the type of people who attend those shows. The team a brand sends to ALA or the Miami Book Festival is not the same team it should send to Wizard World. Send the editors who can have a 15-minute discussion about the science behind the time travel in a particular novel. Send the art director who has a personal interest in fandom, and the salesperson who always wears a Doctor Who T-shirt.

Instead of focusing on the roles individuals hold, brands should be thinking about the connections they’ll make with the fans who encounter their product in an overcrowded exhibit hall. Who has the patience to talk to the excited but anxious teen with autism? Who will coax a shy little girl into talking about her love of Princess Leia? Fan conventions bring together an incredibly diverse group of people who can potentially become lifelong fans of a brand—if they have good experiences standing in front of its 10’ × 10’ booth.

Conventions are expensive and labor intensive, but they’re also a powerful opportunity to make deep, lasting connections between readers and a brand’s books and authors. If a brand is going to go through the effort of attending, it should do it right. Right?

Rachel Kempster Barry is the owner of Tuesday Magic Marketing, a publicity and marketing firm.