Want to Book Con?

Book Conventions: love them or leave them?

When you read a book you love what’s one of the first things you want to do? Talk about it with someone else who loves it too! And that’s how book conventions came to be.

At least in my mind. 

But as an author conventions become more than being a fan, they also become work. If you’re new to the book/author convention world maybe you’re wondering which ones are worth the money. Or maybe you’re wondering which ones will give your shiny new book the most exposure. Or maybe you want to meet other writers who might end up becoming writing buddies, or critique partners, or mentors. 

All of those reasons and more are why attending one might be right for you. But every con is different and you’ll need to research to find out which ones match with your goals. And no matter what goal you’ve got, attending a con will cost you $$. So, let’s take a look at what’s out there!

This list is by no means comprehensive. There are cons of all sizes that cater to all genres. The easiest ones to quickly look up are the ones connected to professional writing groups and associations. SFWA holds the Nebulas. Worldcon has the Hugos. If you’re looking for a fantasy specific con check out FantasyCons.com. They list these smaller conventions by date and show the location.  

If you’re looking for general fiction ones, check out the list The Write Life put together. Select by genre or location, they’re all on the same page. Or maybe you’re looking for something local to do a signing at or rub elbows with authors within driving distance of you. In that case, check out Writer’s Digest’s list of book fairs and festivals. 

There are also plenty of writing conventions aimed at teaching you how to put together a novel, how to format, how to pitch, how to self-publish, etc. Watch out for those. Some have useful information, but sometimes it’s packaged at a steep price or the information could’ve been gleaned by reading some free online resources. Some offer pitch appointments with agents if you're on the traditional publishing pathway, which can be the highlight of attending this type.

Attending a book/author convention can be energizing! Meeting people in the same writing stage as you can be uplifting. And making connections with industry professionals can be beneficial. Weigh your pros and cons after doing your research. Hopefully you’ll find one that’s easy to get to that you’ll enjoy!

Do you have any cons on your wishlist or ones you’ve been to that you’d recommend?

Conference and Convention Love

Cons

I love me some cons. Comicons are my fav. Always have been. Maybe because they were my first experiences. There's nothing quite like wandering through the tables, flipping through someone's boxes of comics with your list nearby, trying to find those runs you're missing while the vendor helps search another box for the single titles you need. "I know I had some of them this morning!" Eventually, I graduated to sharing a table with some friends at a local con so I could unload parts of my own collection so I could focus in on specific artists and writers. 

Then I got to start going to RWA events. Local conferences. My first National conference where I wandered around wide-eyed and lost for most of the time, but I LOVED them. I got to listen to a few of my favorite authors in the world present classes. Thanks to Jeffe, I even got to have drinks with a few of them and to meet authors I'd never have otherwise met. Best of all, I made a bunch of new and great friends. I also trudged away laden with books. SO MANY BOOKS. I should have known I might be in trouble when there was a station set up specifically for conference-goers to ship boxes home. Yes. I did make use of it and still had to pay excess weight fees on my luggage going home. 

Eventually, I graduated to presenting a few classes of my own. And when conferences were local, I made a point of doing my damnedest to go. Still do.

I'm not to a place professionally where I get invited to speak or present at conferences. I'm working on changing it. One step at a time. The local conferences all comp a part of your conference fee if you present workshops and that works for me. If I succeed at rising from the ashes of my own publishing career, maybe I'll come up with a workshop about how to pull off a phoenix stunt of your own. Guess we'll see. 

On another note, if you'd like to enter for a chance to win one of two $25 gift cards, come give a few likes to a couple of PNR, Fantasy, and SFR authors. Yes. Many of them write shifters. So if that's your thing, c'mon down. You might find a new favorite author or three. Or four.

Indies at Cons: You're Welcome as a Reader, Not as an Author

Here at the border to the Midwest, we have a lot of book cons within driving distance. Small ones, huge ones, genre-specific, generalized, library-sponsored, city-sponsored--not publisher or Hollywood sponsored, mind--but if you got an itch, we've got the festival with the book on backscratchers.

The catch for me? I'm a self-published author, which for the sad majority of the conference organizers means I'm not a "real" author. I'm welcome to attend as a reader, but not as a professional. "Thank you for interest, but call us when we can find your books in Target." It makes choosing which cons to attend really simple: if the Con welcomes Indies and treats them equal to trad-published authors, then the odds of me participating vastly improve.

Now, there are Indie-specific cons, but it's an author-beware sitch. Too often, they're akin to MLM trade shows, where you're the prey and the "networking" is with vanity publishers, "PR" spammers, and book "doctors." Also unless it's a genre-specific con, most of the Indie stuff is targeted at non-fiction authors. When it comes to those type of cons, the emphasis is on the "con." You're better served handselling books at a local fair.

Locally, there is an exception to the Unwelcome Indies trend. One part due to the genre to which it caters (hello, Romance) and one part to the tenacity of the organizer who embraces the community as a whole. I'm referring to Lori Foster's Reader & Author Get Together (RAGT) that welcomes trad and indie authors for a weekend of hanging out with readers and an open-to-the-public book sales/signing event. It's a pay-to-play event, with conference revenues going to local charities. It is, in essence, a fundraiser more so than a con. Mad props go to Lori Foster and her team of organizers who persevered through all the lumps and bumps over the years of integrating indie books into the event. (The onsite-bookstore had challenges offering indie books, what with the inability to return unsold stock among other issues. Lori and her team continue to revise solutions while offering ones that work best at the time for all.)