Diana Rowland has been to the Romantic Times Convention in New York and has come away enthused by the idea of encouraging the general public to take an interest in your books. Sadly, short of Kevin or I winning a lottery and being able to afford to run Worldcon again, I can’t see this ever happening. Between fiscal conservatism and the “not part of our community” crowd, Worldcon seems doomed to stay in its ghetto.
But at least I can report on what happens.
The subtle revolution of shared thoughts might get us somewhere. I know I came away from a hacker con I went to weekend before last and a folk festival I went to this past weekend with a head full of new ideas. I don’t look at events the same way anymore…that definitely changed after I started teching sf cons in ’03 but on a whole other scale it has since I started working on Worldcon. Makes you an organizational thinker, too…
Here are the fees for Romantic Times convention: http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Fees.aspx?e=b9e5bab5-c13d-4395-9cfd-ce2f6b441271
Michael:
Thanks for posting that. Someone on SMOFs will doubtless claim that the $25 rate for the “promotion alley” requires RT to charge much more for memberships to the main convention, but somehow I doubt that’s true. I suspect that being in NYC has a lot more to do with it. Knowing RT they probably pay some of their speakers too.
Comparing the RT conference with Worldcon … well, first of all RT bills itself as “book industry convention” which says to me that it’s aimed more at those in the industry.
This: http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Invitation.aspx?e=b9e5bab5-c13d-4395-9cfd-ce2f6b441271 indicates the conference is in Orlando. Perhaps the online/toll free stuff is located in NYC, which almost certainly does add to the overhead.
That said, I suspect that there are things worth looking at by con runners.
Diana’s arguments for promotion alley and exhibits-only access seem to me to be most powerful in support of wannabe professionals seeking out readers. This is only one, and at that a fairly minor, aspect of the SF conventions I know about, where there are considerations around historical expectations (which may include elements of wishing to serve a known community), site-usage and resource allocation that come into play when planning your convention. I have discussed these issues and similar proposals over the past twenty-five years for cons of all sizes. Typically we offer day memberships (rather than exhibits-only memberships) and do not seek to to provide large quantities of freebies because we desire to encourage active participation in the convention, and hope to attract potential participants rather than passive consumers. It seems to me that Diana’s arguments may be becoming more powerful than they used to be as commercial realities change. But I never never heard anyone reject the earlier versions of her arguments for reasons of social exclusivity.
Michael:
Sorry, you are right, it does seem to be in Orlando. I think I am developing a bad tendency to assume that everything Ron Hogan tweets from is in NYC.
Coth:
The trouble with the “we hope to attract potential participants” argument is that it assumes that fans spring fully formed from the brow of Roscoe. They don’t, they need to be encouraged and nurtured. If you turn away everyone who doesn’t already fit your definition of “fan”, how will you ever grow the community?