Real World Adventures

Authors and conventions

I’ve been avoiding writing this post for the last few days. Now I’m glad I didn’t write anything straight away as there’s been so much negativity out there that very fine people are getting upset.

I don’t want to add to that.

I went to both CONvergence and Worldcon this year and had vastly different experiences at both. I was thinking about comparing and contrasting, looking at why certain things delighted me and why other things made me stressed and upset but you know what? I don’t think that matters any more.

What matters is how we go forward – and by we, I mean writers as part of the SFF community.

Yes, I have a tonne of thoughts about how I think things could be done better but I don’t feel I have a right to moan because I don’t organise events. I can’t imagine how stressful it all is, how much time it takes and then for it all to result in lots of people complaining? Soul destroying springs to mind. Whilst it’s good to feedback, I don’t have anything new to add on that front.

So, what I’m going to do instead is outline why I feel going to conventions is important, speaking from the only perspective I can: my own, as a writer at the beginning of my career. Then I’m going to have a bit of a mull about what I do at them, and then I’m going to ask some important questions.

I am nervous as hell about doing this, in light of how heated and, quite frankly, personal things have got over the past week and I’m afraid I’ll only make things worse without realising it. Please know that is not my intention.

Why I need to go to conventions

Firstly, these are the events where I feel I am amongst my tribe. I can geek out without people giving me strange looks. I can make jokes and pop culture references that everyone around me understands. I can have conversations about stuff I’m passionate about, rather than having to either feel utterly detached or trying to be polite about stuff lots of other people are into but I’m not.

In short, it’s my cultural home.

But I can’t ignore the fact that this is part of my job now. I’m a professional writer, so I need to be out there, visible, and hopefully encouraging people to read my books. In no sense do I go to these events actively shilling my work – heavens, no! – but there is always the hope that if I say something on panels that resonates, people will check out my work.

I feel dirty just writing that, but I have to tell the truth here. Otherwise I’d be better off working on my next book.

As an extension to that, I want to be around for anyone who has already discovered my work and wants to ask questions, or for me to sign books or just to see if I’m mad – whatever reason. This is when I can be social with readers in person and many have gone on to become friends.

These events are also important in two other ways. One: it gives me the chance to hang out with other authors. Believe me, having friends who are also published has been such a help to me. They know exactly what this constant fear is like. They understand all the weird neuroses. I’ve taken to saying that the collective noun for us is a moan of writers (affectionate, of course) but in all seriousness, we give each other a safe space in which to worry and grumble on common ground. Just like anyone else in any job. Conventions and similar events are the only time we get to do this in person and with alcohol.

The other thing is meeting other people in the industry, such as editors, agents, publicists, screenwriters, whatever – other professionals with whom we might end up working in the near or far future. I met my current editor in a bar after a friend’s book launch. It wasn’t the reason he went on to acquire my books, but it triggered a series of events that meant I was published by Angry Robot several years earlier than I had dared hope for.

I know of many, many people who have had their manuscripts fast-tracked out of the slush-pile thanks to meeting someone at a convention. Note: their book still had to be great.

Where things can get difficult

I pay for conventions out of my own pocket, just like any other attendee. This year I have been to so many I am worn out, but could only do so because three of my books are coming out in one year. Next year I will have to be very careful about which ones I go to as there simply isn’t as much cash in that pot. I made a decision to go to so many this year because I wanted to give those books the best shot I could, as well as all the other reasons outlined above.

Investment isn’t only in money but in time. For me personally, big events like trips to the States for Worldcon aren’t just the 5 days of the con, but several days of travel, jet lag, anxiety and sleepless nights before leaving and illness afterwards. It can disrupt my writing for three weeks instead of one. No-one’s fault but my own, I’m just laying it all out here. It’s another reason why I have to pick my conventions carefully next year; I can’t lose the writing time.

Now, that financial outlay (in the case of the US cons just the flights alone are almost a grand – hence only possible because of book deal lump sums) means that on some level, I want a lot more from a convention than it’s necessarily fair to expect. CONvergence was everything I wished for and more, but I can’t expect every convention to be like that. Why? Because I am one of many, many authors and conventions aren’t just for us. Also: they are run by volunteers who have lives. I know other conventions are different, but I’ve only attended fan-run ones so far. (Apart from the sci-fi weekender, but that’s something else in my mind.)

That being said, I consider my job at these events is to entertain people. To add to debates, to make people laugh, to provide another perspective. I’d like to think that what I can bring doesn’t necessarily conflict with the reasons readers and fans (as opposed to writers who are also fans too) go to these events.

Even as I write this I’m worried there’s an “us and them” thing emerging – I’m just trying to outline how the convention experience is different for a writer as opposed to someone who doesn’t write. Even when I went to conventions before my book deal I was aspiring to be published – I had differing needs and hopes from a convention to someone who has no desire to be published.

Which leads me on to the next bit…

What authors do at conventions

Generally, this falls into the following programme item types:
Panels / games like Just a Minute
Readings
Workshops
Kaffeklatches
Signings
Talks on specialist subjects

I have been on quite a few panels now. I’ve given a few readings and signing sessions, I’ve given two workshops and intend to deliver more. I’ve never put myself forwards for a Kaffeklatch because I’m a newbie on the scene and feared no-one would sign up. Those are for people who are far more established than I.

There are also interview slots for Guests of Honour, but not for the rest of the programme participants.

Panels can sometimes be great, sometimes they are awful and all places in between. Readings entirely depend on the number of people who turn up and thankfully, I’ve never had so few people that I’ve wanted to cry. That will happen at some point. Both of the workshops I ran were full, which was a huge relief.

As an aside, I think panels need to be better – they all need to be as good as the best ones are now. We need consistently good moderators, we need panellists who put the needs of the audience before their own, we need questions at the end, not five minute long comments. Why? Because then everyone gets a chance to shine and everyone gets their questions answered.

The non-programmable items

There are room parties and bars in which everyone can mix. There are private parties too, of course, but there are lots of opportunities to socialise. One thing I’ve read post-Worldcon that made me sad was that an attendee felt the hotel bar was unwelcoming as it was constantly packed out with pros in groups. It was. We need this, as I mentioned before, but it breaks my heart to feel we excluded people. Can this be handled better? I don’t know. At some conventions the hotel bar has been so expensive only those with company subsidence and budgets for socialising could afford to buy drinks – with us poor authors grateful recipients, so it’s not just a social thing sometimes, it can be financial.

There’s just being spotted in the corridor, there are the times you pop over to your publisher’s booth/table or the people selling your books in the dealer room and people meet you there. There’s the time after panels when the conversation extends into the corridor and on the way to the next item.

Extras

I ran a Split Worlds game at Nine Worlds this year involving puzzles and LARPing. It wasn’t part of the programme but was fully supported by the organisers who were kind enough to give us a room over the whole weekend to run the game from. However, it took a HUGE amount of work, wouldn’t have been possible to do without my husband, best friend and two other friends which makes it impossible to roll out on the same scale at other cons and is not something that everyone would want to do.

I also plan to run a live “Tea and Jeopardy” at a future event. That would be pure entertainment – something more akin to a performance than the usual programming. Authors/guests would be interviewed, so it would give as many people exposure as a panel would in an equivalent time slot.

But is this enough and is this what fans and readers want?

I was on a panel at Worldcon at which only myself and the moderator turned up. As it was about social media and the moderator, Karen Anderson, was a gracious and generous expert, she decided to effectively interview me and sprinkle in her own advice along the way. It was an amazing opportunity – thank you Karen! – and made me appreciate that interviews can be great in a way I hadn’t before. It enabled more dialogue with the audience and the atmosphere was fantastic. I’d like to see pairings of authors (or other type of professional) where one interviews the other and then switch half-way through. I know this is usually reserved for Guests of Honour, but I do think they could be just as enjoyable when featuring other authors/artists etc.

A downside is that it gives only 2 people a crack per hour, so I’d like to see them alongside panel stuff too. (Says the woman who’s never organised one – again – I’m trying to be positive and look forwards.)

So, here are the questions – for convention goers or people considering it:

Are you satisfied with the things we authors do at events?
Is there something else you’d like to see authors do?
Is there something we do that’s just become a tradition that no longer feels relevant?

And on a more personal note, if you’re reading this because you like my books and my other work (e.g. Tea and Jeopardy), is there something else you would like me to do at conventions you’re attending?

I ask because whilst I don’t have any solutions for the problems that have been expressed by many others, I do have control over what I can personally offer to the programming people or alongside programming, depending on what you want.

Thanks for reading all of this. And for what it’s worth, thanks to all the people who give up their time and resources – be they creative or financial – to give authors like me the chance to meet readers and fans and friends.