Whither Conventions?

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

(Oooh.  How well that sounds.  I confess I always wanted to title something “Whither something or other” because it makes one seem so important, grown up and particularly well informed.)

Lately science fiction conventions have become a topic of discussion in my circles.  In fact, I haven’t discussed cons and which cons are worth while so much since I was, myself, a raw beginner.

To begin with let me point out that I didn’t grow up with con-culture.  While I was a fan, I was a fan in Portugal, which meant the only contact I had with other fans were while waiting in line to buy that month’s release from Argonauta which was (except for certain fly by night, appallingly proof-read and probably pirated editions) the only science fiction imprint in Portugal.

Since I had no clue science fiction conventions happened, I managed to live in the South Eastern US for eight years and never even know there were about a dozen every summer within easy driving distance.  (Remember, children, this was before internet.)  I first found out about conventions my very last year in the South (at the time in Columbia, SC) and it was academic for me at that point, because we had a small infant, I was very ill and we were beyond broke.  Oh, yeah, and I found out they existed only because I discovered Locus magazine on a magazine rack in Columbia (and then subscribed.)  I was so disconnected from US fandom I didn’t even know of Locus and/or SF Age.

I think I first saw science fiction cons in some sitcom, which made fun of them, of course, and pictured everyone there as rabid gamers and/or media fans.  Now, I have nothing against Star Trek, (DO NOT ask me about Star Wars) but my love of science fiction existed before Star Trek, and continued after it, and also I have the sort of mind that has trouble remembering world details, (even my own.  If Gentleman Takes A Chance EVER has another edition, there are things to clean up) so I can’t get into those fascinating “in episode 25, the ten seconds that show the Romulan base” conversations.  So I thought that while these were science fiction cons, they had nothing to say to me.

And then I sold my first book, fired my first agent, and needed to find a second.  Kris Rusch suggested I go to World Fantasy on a shopping expedition.  And that’s when I discovered conventions weren’t necessarily all media or all fan.

Oh, sure, fans attend conventions – though there are fewer fans at World Fantasy than the other major cons.  Or rather, there’s a higher ratio of writer to fan than anywhere else except the Nebulas – and most of the stuff is directed at them.  But if you are a pro you attend for completely different reasons.

Because I started so late, the only con I ever attended strictly as a fan was Discworld Con, and it was a blast.  The rest of the time, cons for me are working time.

Oh, sure, they’re fun too, but in a different way.  Working in a field where my colleagues can live all over the world (let alone all over the country), I’ve formed alliances and even close friendships with people I’ll never see in the normal course of life.  However, there are cons at which we all gather by accident or design.

You can usually tell pro writers at cons, because they’re a little better dressed, they rarely attend panels, though they often come in near the end and wait for the panelists to finish speaking then go up and greet them.  That’s another way you can tell pros: someone a little too well dressed and a little too old to be squeeing “I haven’t seen you in ages!” and hugging a friend.

Our first two years of attending cons, Dan happened to be in a very well paying job (now referred to as “when we were rich”) which was a victim of the mini-slump after 9/11 (mini compared to now.)  So we attended all the major cons: Nebs, World Con and World Fantasy.

Of the three, as I said, the Nebs had the highest rate of pros to fans, with world fantasy second and world con third.  However, when it came to cutting our traveling for economic reasons, and we tallied the cons where we “did business” we found that World Fantasy paid for itself every year, while the Nebula Awards didn’t.  (This is possibly because the Nebs had MUCH bigger names than I.)  In Worldcon we did no business whatsoever, though it was a lots and lots of fun.  Also, being a minimum five day con it was too “expensive” in time, particularly for a couple with young kids.  So, we decided to do only world fantasy.

This calculus has changed somewhat.  The last two world fantasies I attended I did no business at all.  Part of this might be the pivot in my career (as what I’m becoming known for is MOSTLY science fiction or fantasy with Baen – and Baen doesn’t really have a presence at WFC) and part of it I think are the changes we’re seeing.  On the other hand, Worldcon is coming online as “a good place to make contact with fans who aren’t local” and money permitting I’m going to try to attend at least every other year.

The last time I attended the Nebulas four? Five? Years ago, it was more sparsely attended than I remember, the attendees were more from the Prestige side of the field, and there were only a couple of editors in attendance.  So unless I or someone in whose work I’m interested is nominated, I will probably not bother.  Or unless I hear reports that they are changed again.

And that brings us to the topic of this – yes, WHITHER cons? – and the fact that we pros (and wanna bes) have been talking behind y’all’s backs again.

The topic, quite specifically is “cons to do business in” and there don’t seem to be any.  I mean, none like World Fantasy where an editor was likely to come up to you and go “Sarah” well, if your name is Sarah, natch.  “We’re starting a new imprint and we really liked your Shakespeare books.  Do you think you can….”   These days editors are just as likely to poke you via LinkedIn or to send you a Face Book email.  Ditto for most of your interaction with colleagues.

So, in terms of cons, which ones are still worth it if you’re an established pro?  The ones where you commune with your fans and can meet most of your far-flung circle.  To me that’s boiling down to World Con, though I understand Dragoncon is bigger and better (and I mean to try it, if ever I’m not QUITE so pinched.)

But what if you’re a wanna-be?  Well, it didn’t hit me that things had changed for you guys (since I was never a wanna be at cons) till a friend said “I used to come as a wanna be and hear the names in the field, and the recently published people, to figure out how to do it.  But now it’s 90% self published people on panels, and who wants to see that?”

He has a point, unless, of course, the panel is on self-publishing.  The other reason for a wanna-be or new pro to come to a con was to meet editors.  With the state the publishing field is in, this hardly seems worth it.  Also, according to my friends in the East, where you got more editors at the local cons, there are fewer and fewer of these personages attending cons and the ones that are there mingle less.  I know this is true for world fantasy and world con.  They have meals with their writers, and they make nice, but they’re not as available as they once were and it’s harder for a newby to just bump into them.

So, I’d say if you’re a wanna be and if – like me – you hate most cons (my exception is Liberty con, which is very relaxed and laid back.  It’s not that I hate the cons, actually.  I just hate being out in public.) don’t go.  Stay home and write and work on getting your work out and getting well known.

Does this mean that I think cons will vanish?  No.  At least not most of them.  Some MIGHT vanish, what I call “prestige cons” attended mostly by pros, but even that is doubtful.  There still needs to be a Nebulas Award ceremony, at least as long as the award exists.  So the con might shrink, but it won’t vanish.  Ditto for World Fantasy where, at any rate, a lot of pros meet just to see their friends.  (And I might go now and then just for that, money permitting.)

But cons will CHANGE.  In these pinched times, I expect – if I’m right about what I’m seeing – that smaller local cons will actually grow, particularly if they have a genuinely popular guest of honor.  This is because they allow fans to see their local authors.  They allow authors to socialize with their local friends.  They allow local self-published authors to promote.  They allow local fans to discover local self-published authors.  Honestly, I think these cons, or most of them, would benefit greatly from having an “Indie track” where they put authors who are mostly or exclusively indie.  Not because they should be segregated in a ghetto, but because they’ll attract their own audience, more interested in what they’re saying than in what the traditionals have to say, and also because we avoid those panels where half the panelists sound like they come from a different world from the other half, with yours truly caught in the middle.

Local cons will grow and flourish if they cultivate the sort of atmosphere Liberty con cultivates, where it’s all relaxed and laid back, everyone knows everyone else, and fans and pros are very permeable groups.  (And yes, I’m still trying to figure out how to go to Liberty con.  If I can get a few more indie properties up, and if the front end of my car doesn’t cost me in the many many thousands, there’s a chance I can make it.)  Liberty con is particularly good at providing a place for the younger ones in sf/f to socialize, and if you think your kids don’t desperately need a place where they’re not considered odd, think again.  However, those local cons who insist on being “Too good for the likes of you” will run into some issues.
The bigger cons might shrink, at least if what I’m hearing about gas/flight prices is true, but it depends on how BIG they are.  They might be big enough they’re worth the price to meet THAT many of your fans and to see THAT many of your friends at once.

The hard-hit ones will be the medium ones, particularly in a region that has small cons also.  Those cons have charged a little more and been a little more upscale, but they also bring in bigger guests, and sometimes editors.  This has been failing for some time, and they’ll lose attendants, as the brought in guests are diluted by a flood of indies and as the prices make people balk.  On the other hand, there are tons of things they can do, like… establish an indie track.  Get one or two of the self-published or even the editors of small presses (or the tech people of small presses) to do workshops on how to put your book on line and the pros and cons of various outlets. Take a page from RWA Nationals and open your doors to the local public for a soiree or books give away (particularly good for small presses and traditionals) – ie. Have local people pay a small ticket price and come in to get books signed by the visiting authors and to get books the houses sent to give away (I don’t suggest one does this on the scale of RWA, but perhaps a raffle.)  In other words – get creative.

Also, try not to have the same authors in the same panels every year.  If I’m put on another Heinlein panel where I’m the ONLY one who comes to praise Heinlein, not to bury him, for instance, and where I KNOW what every panelist is going to say ahead of time, there’s going to be blood.  And while that might attract the audience, it’s not fun for the local CSI, mmkay?  Seriously – even the panels I DO enjoy I get tired of saying the same things every year.  I suspect so does the audience particularly at small local cons get tired of listening to us.

While I HATE some of the experiments, like “Speed date an author” that Mile Hi has engaged in, a lot of experiments NEED to be tried, to keep the mid size cons (and some of the smaller ones) worthwhile.

Again, make sure you don’t have “too good for the likes of you” issues.  As a midlister, I’ve often run into cons that had no idea I was “still” publishing after my first series or where the program person didn’t read my bio and assumed I was ONLY writing historical/literary fantasy.  Look, I don’t mind Shakespeare panels, but while I studied him in college and am interested in him, I’ve spent the last nine years writing non-related things.  The research I did for those books is NOT foremost in my mind.  And when what I have coming out that year is an urban fantasy and a Space Opera, offering me a forum to promote my – out of print – series not only is not useful, it doesn’t exactly make me feel like you give a flying fig for my presence.  So when I become pinched, or am on deadline (when am I not?) OR even if the kids want to go to some event that day, I’m likely to send regrets and not go.

Now, I realize most of the time (There are the odd con where my fans all gather) I am not a great loss.  But when you lose ten of fifteen people like me, you’re losing serious pull.  Get your mind out of the “one big blockbuster guest.”  The future is indie and local, and even blockbusters (unless you’re booking Rawling or Meyers) are not what they used to be.  Think “small local divinities” instead of the great pantheon.  By all means, have the guest of honor, but look, you really have no excuse not to KNOW what local midlisters are doing – not in the age of Internet you don’t – there’s wikipedia and, failing that, there’s Amazon.  Five minutes per midlister will have them feeling cherished and important.  We don’t require much.  We’re used to being second-class-citizens.  But when you don’t even bother, we feel like you think you’re too good for us.  And why would you want to do that?  To attract a higher-grade of attendee?  Good luck with that in the era of the long-tail and divided marketing trends.  You’re not in the seventies or eighties.  Not everyone agrees on what prestige is.  Cultivate loyalty, instead.

Given a minimum effort, the future of cons is better than their past.  Whither cons?  Wherever they very well please.  As with publishing houses, things are changing, but it’s not the end of the world.  You get to choose whether that glow over the horizon is Ragnarok or the bright dawn of a new day.

UNRELATED ANNOUNCEMENT:  For those who are interested, May You Write Interesting Books, edited and collated should be up at Amazon and Barnes And Noble within hours.  Smashwords is failing my file.  (I’m not amused.)

23 thoughts on “Whither Conventions?”

  1. I find this very interesting, Sarah, as I’m about to attend my first con, at the age of 35. I plan to just go to this one and watch, and see if there’s a reason to do it again. I’m going to one later this summer, but that’s a family reunion. As a wanna-be, the con has no relevance for me. I plan to self-publish, so meeting editors and agents is not on my to-do list. I’m curious, that’s all.

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  2. Hunh – at my first glance I read the title of this post as Wither Cons and anticipated an analysis of how cons were fading out as the markets and economics changed … and I did get that, albeit indirectly. And you only sideswiped the element I anticipated would most interest you, cons as a place for Indie Authors to promote and build their audience. More interestingly, you have confirmed what I have long suspected: there are cons within cons where activities unknown to we fans take place. Well, that certainly explains those dark-robed folk with the wavery-bladed knives slinking about.

    Baenophiles ought make sure to identify themselves in the Barfly Suite which seems a feature of all SE cons, even if you haven’t been active in Baen’s Bar or FB versions of that (once) august site.

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      1. The ConVent series now must have WhitherCon – often misspelled – as one of the books. The dark-robed folk with the blades aren’t dangerous. It’s the random dimensional portals and the demons you need to watch out for.

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          1. I’m not sure they’d fit in the hotels without major interdimensional rifts, but what the heck? Everything else is in the series.

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            1. Didn’t you know Kate, some Dragons can take human form and even fit into the average hotel room in dragon form if they want to.

              Mind you, a ten foot tall dragon does draw the eye even at a SF/F Con. [Wink]

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  3. Cons in Germany are different, totally different.
    They developed out of the Pen&Paper gaming scene (also miniature wargaming and LARP). They do not take place in hotels, rather a school or parts of a university gets taken over for a weekend. Other popular venues include youth hostels, festival halls, churches, …

    Since the main topic is gaming authors are not so much in demand as it seems to be the case at US cons. The usual VIP author does a reading and Q&A session – 1 hour total, get out of the room, the next one is waiting. Maybe another one the next day if he or she has more than one current book/series. Panels? Very few and mostly gaming related.

    Some authors are regular guests, both because they are popular and for other reasons. Here is a sequence often rehearsed in the last 10+ years:

    Friday morning
    Travel, check in at the hotel.
    Meet with your local, long time beta readers who stashed their children with the grandparents.
    Barbecue at their house, then go a club, party hard, then party some more.

    Saturday morning
    Go to the con site, check in as VIP.
    See what is going on that the Con.
    Do your reading and Q&A.
    Do some more Q&A with the more persistent fans in the hallway or a more convenient place.
    Do a bit more sight seeing at the con with your local beta readers, talk about stuff. If really necessary repair to the hotel to do some real beta reader work with them.

    Saturday late evening
    Dinner with the usual 20+ suspects at the usual place. (No editors, no publishers.)

    Sunday
    Another reading and Q&A in a different genre, a bit more sightseeing at the con, more beta reader work, then travel back.
    Meanwhile the betas are fetching the children from the grandparents on time lest they won’t take them next year. ;)

    Seems to be much much more party and sight seeing content than at a US Con. And yes, for this author the con is a convenient excuse to get paid for meeting some long time beta readers. (The kind were even the cat got red-shirted long ago.)

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  4. Funny. I’ve been reading spec fic for fifty years, writing it for forty-plus, but have never been to a con. Jack Chalker used to ding me about the local one here in August, at which he was a frequent pro GOH, but I never made it. Now that I’m older, not into going out in public — or traveling much — I may not ever get to one.

    M

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  5. This past weekend was CapriCon in Chicago, and believe me, Sarah, if you’d attended you’d have been more than welcome. In fact, I heard your name cited several times as an example of an author who’d gone at least partially indie.

    I mostly attended writer panels. No agents or editors seemed to be there, but that’s okay. I knew ahead of time CapriCon is primarily a con for fen of anime. Not that you cannot get anime here in Chicago almost anywhere. Back in the day, however, you couldn’t (I think my first Capri was maybe #8 — this year’s is #32), so the anime film room with its badly subtitled Japanese offerings was very, very welcome.

    I agree that these midlist cons need to refocus a bit. Cory Doctorow was our GoH and man! his panels were terrific, but I must confess he’s so smart he made my brain hurt.

    And is the writing community ever going to realize that POD does not inherently mean self-published?
    Sheesh.

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  6. I only *wish* the local cons had Indies with interesting things to say. I was audiencing at a panel, last Arisia, where the panelists thought Smashwords shipped to Amazon. (Instead of only *wanting* to ship to Amazon.) I was rather peeved that the whole lot of them were a bunch of… Well, indie comics people, really. Nothing against Indy Comics, but dangit, I wanted to see if there was anything about what was in the *panel description* and there wasn’t.

    I suspect I’m going to be on a panel next year. Probably “Learn to Love the Meatgrinder” or something like that, since I actually mostly get along with the thing so far. Or, y’know, SOMETHING besides all these… Words fail me. (A traditionally-only-published author, a couple of authors with small-press epublishers, an indie comics guy… All of them whining about how it was soooooo haaaaaaaard to self publish and there were no eeeeeeditors (look, if David Dalglish can make money, the bar for editing is Very Low) and no gaaaaaatekeepers. THIS IS NOT A PANEL ON SELF-PUBLISHING, PEOPLE!)

    Um. Apologies about the rant.

    The panels I found most useful were world-building ones, ostensibly aimed at role-playing game GMs. And the kid got to play with other kidfen, and we caught up with friends, and went shopping and looked at art, and marveled at the life-sized Stormtrooper made of cake.

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    1. (As a note, Mr. Daglish sorely needed an editor in the books of his I read — but his stuff was pretty fluffily, bloodily entertaining. I would’ve kept buying, but he raised the price of subsequent books higher than I was willing to pay for the lack of editing. I’m pedantic that way — grammar and punctuation abuse (primarily the latter) does indeed get in the way of an otherwise entertaining yarn. People who do not have my quirk and who are fond of epic hack-and-slash may wish to sample some of his books, ’cause, well… I got price-sensitive about his books, not reading-time sensitive, if you see the nuance.)

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  7. I’ve never attended a convention “as a writer” (apart from attending several panels related to writing or my favorite author). For awhile, several of my friends were either trying or had contracts in graphic novels of some stamp and I was considering the idea too. And most of my friends (+ me) are artists, so the conventions I went to were related to those aspects of conventions.

    I’ve been to: San Diego ComiCon, Anime-Expo, Dragon*Con, Momocon, and AVCon (in Australia).

    Of them all, Dragon*Con is by far my favorite. I’ve sold my art at two of those conventions (Momocon and AVCon). But the reason I’ll have to have a rather big name to bother with trying to sell at Dragon*Con is because I’m still having too much fun attending as a fan. There’s so much there that if I’m burned out on one of my hobbies or interests, there’s always something that can replace it. I generally end up with a schedule that is double and triple booked and I end up going to whichever panel is what I’m in the mood for at the moment when the appropriate hour rolls by. Not every day I get to decide between a panel on mad scientists and this year’s plan to take over the world/destroy the world (I always choose this) and a sword fighting demonstration and a panel on YA novels and sexual identity. And that’s just the panels I’m interested in. (I’ve always been so active during the day that I’ve not yet been able to last to an evening party. Hopefully next time we can stay IN one of the hotels so I can take a nap for a few hours and go party after.)

    There’s also a relatively insane amount of competition. If your table isn’t eye-catching or you don’t have a loyal fanbase to go looking for you, you’re going to be one of the tables with stacks of books and the politely crazed look of the extremely bored person who’s sitting there calculating how much it cost them to attend versus how much they’ve sold and how little time they’ve actually been able to spend talking to people about their works… >_>

    But, then again, I have no hard data or even second-hand information on authors at D*C – just observations in the rare cases I saw an author outside of a writing panel. Before you make the investment as a business decision, I’d ask around for those who’ve done it. If you’re going to go for fun, I’d book as soon as you know you can afford the money and time to go – because it is oh-so worth it. I’m just sad I haven’t been able to swing it recently because of the mentioned trip to Australia.

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  8. Ugh. Someone signed me up for one of those “speed date an author” things a few years back at one con or another. I about blew a gasket, which was a bit of an overreaction on my part.

    I’ve been wondering about the authors to fan ratios at some of the cons lately. Last year, it seemed (to me, at least) that the ratio at a small con I went to was two fans for everyone one author. Are there less fans attending these and more authors, or do you think my perceptions are skewed by my choice of cons?

    Or perhaps a little bit of both?

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    1. No. There are a lot more “authors” who have put ONE short story up on Amazon. Nothing wrong with that, except that for them to share their experience as “authors” is risible. I think we need to develop gradations somehow. You know “Is regularly selling at least $100 a month on Amazon” or something (And yes, I barely qualify but meh.)

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  9. Eh, as a wanna-be, I don’t go to cons for business purposes. I just go to have fun, attend interesting panels, and catch up with friends. I have favorite authors, but I refuse to be a stalker.

    I’ll be going to Worldcon this year because it’s in my backyard (I have a biiiig backyard ;) ) so if anyone wants to meet up and skewer political correctness, laugh at literary pretensions, and debate the burning issue of whether or not libertarians and social conservatives can get along, please drop me a line.

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  10. I started going to cons in 2011, and my first one was ConDFW. I also attended All-Con, YuleCon, and The Difference Engine (steampunk con). I really enjoyed attending the panels, and meeting other writers and fans as well as artists and musicians. I was fortunate to be a guest author at LibertyCon last year, along with a bunch of other authors who had stories published in the shared world anthology Lawyers in Hell, that Janet Morris and Chris Morris edited. The book had just been published in June so we had a launch party for it at LibertyCon. We made it a gathering for all of us who had collaborated on the book online for many months. Most of us had never met in person until that weekend. I was invited to submit stories to anthologies that some of the other writers I met were planning, so meeting them in person definitly paid off. It was the first time in over twenty years that Janet and Chris had attended a science fiction/fantasy literary con, and they had a lot of fans eager to have them sign books. One guy had a whole suitcase full of their backlist novels. Being a guest panelist at LC24 gave me the bug for doing more, and so I began aggressively networking with other convention directors to try to get on panels for cons in 2012. I must have done something right because I am scheduled to be on panels at five cons so far this year. I return to ConDFW this weekend as a panelist, not a patron. What a difference a year makes. I will also be at All-Con, AggieCon, The Nightmare Machine 2012 (a steampunk/paranormal themed con) and LibertyCon this year. It should be a fun and busy year.

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    1. Of course the convention programmers should damned well know about you. If they put you on a panel, and they don’t have a clue what you’d done, the ConCom should be, well, something painful.

      Wayne

      PS: Been ConCom, been panelist. It should be fun. If it isn’t, someone messed up.

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