Category: SDCC

            So, between the Writers Coffeehouse, a doctor’s appointment, the event at Mysterious Galaxy last night with Daniel Price… this week’s been kind of a blur.  I don’t have an actual post for you.  There is nothing to learn about writing this week.

            However…

            I did want to mention my San Diego Comic Con schedule.  This kinda snuck up on me in a couple ways.  I wasn’t sure I was going to be going, and my big plans for the weekend really involved putting together my Lizardman/Seraphon army for Age of Sigmar.  Geek thing, don’t worry if that last sentence made no sense to you.

            Anyway, turns out the folks at Random House had some clever ideas for early Paradox Bound stuff and they asked if I wanted to be part of them, sooooo… the Lizardmen will have to wait.

            Here’s what I’ve got for you…

Thurs 7/20, 1:00-2:00 – I’m doing a signing at the Crown Booth (1515).  It’s going to be cool. If you’re a fan you really don’t want to miss this, okay?  Seriously.  Please be there and hop in line.  It’ll be worth it, honest.

            And that’s all we’re saying about that…

Friday 7/21, 3:00-4:00 – Some random giveaways at the Crown Booth (1515). Odds of being given something increase if you tell them– “The road beckons.”  I’m not officially there, but I’ll probably be informally hanging out/lurking a bit if you had something you wanted me to scribble on. 

            Or if the booth folks handed you something you wanted scribbled in.

Saturday 7/22,  1:00-2:00– There’s a cross-genre panel in room 28DE. I’m up there on stage, but so are a lot of better, classier authors like Sarah Kuhn, Charlie Jane Anders, Vic James, Daryl Gregory, and Pierce Brown.  It’ll definitely be worth it to see all of them.  And one of us may something wise and clever about genre writing.  Or at least funny.

Saturday 7/22, 2:15-3:15—All the folks from that panel are going to be under the sail for a signing (area AA09).  And Mysterious Galaxy will be there with piles of books from all of us, so it’s a great chance to get something scribbled in without having to lug it around for half the day (and to fill in those holes in your collection).

            I don’t have anything official scheduled for Sunday, so—to be horribly honest—I’m not sure I’ll be there or not.  I may try to sneak off with that life sized Spider-Man LEGO sculpture.  We’ll see how that goes…

            Hope to see some of you there.

            Okay, last part of this little trilogy of advice for conventions.  I’ve talked about being a better vendor at a con and also just being a better attendee. So let’s talk about the big one…

            How to be a better guest of a con.

            This is the brass ring, the holy grail, the cake we were promised for so long.  The folks at Hypotheticon are going to pay for me to travel, put me up in a hotel, maybe even let me order room service!  I’ll get panels, maybe signings, a seat in the autograph area, and possibly even invited to one of those cool after parties all the cons have.

            Someday I’ll get invited to one of those parties…

            Anyway… here’s four tips based off a few decades of watching con guests and a few years of being one.
            Bonus—a lot of these points hold for book signings, too.

1) Be yourself

           This can be kind of a tough one.  The first time I was a guest at a con, I was sodetermined to look professional and make a good impression.  I wore a nice shirt and a sports coat and even debated a tie.  I wore nice shoes.  I bought a new messenger bag so I wouldn’t be carrying the ratty, cheap thing I’d had  up until then.

            One of my first panels got recorded.  If you find it (no, I will not link), you can see me fidgeting through the whole thing—tugging at my collar, rolling my shoulders to make the coat sit right.  I didn’t even realize I was doing it. It was just one of those unconscious things we all do when we’re uncomfortable. 

             Fortunately, my pants fit fine…

            The lesson I learned was to just be myself.  If you like wearing dress shirts and blazers, great. If you like jeans and t-shirts, fantastic.  Sun dress, tuxedo, bowling shirt, pink cowboy hat, black trenchcoat—if it’s what I’m comfortable wearing, then I should wear it.  People aren’t coming to the con to meet some stylized, twitchy version of me, they just want to meet me.  The real, relaxed me.

            Plus, I’m a writer. It’s one of the few occupations where you can show up wearing pretty much anything and people will say “oh… must be a writer.”

2) Be grateful 

           Holy crap! Somebody thought I was worth investing in. Somebody thought I was worth being a guest at Hypotheticon!   They paid for my hotel and my flight and they stuck me on panels and maybe gave me table for autographs. It was all that stuff I was hoping for up top and more.

            I’m so thankful for that gift bag of books and freebies—and I make sure the people working the con know. I think it’s fantastic that somebody’s making sure I got lunch—and I make sure the folks working the con know.  They’re nice enough to have someone check on me and see if I need a bottle of water—and I let them know how awesome it is.

            Look, if I get mugged walking to the con and someone shoots off two of my fingers, this is still the best con I’ve been to in the past year. Because these people are making an investment in me and I want them to know I understand and appreciate it.  I mean, jeeeesh, they could’ve gone with Sarah Kuhn or Craig diLouie or Kristi Charish, somebody at least semi-popular, and they picked me.  I’m not going to complain about anything unless I lose at least three fingers, two toes, and an eye.

             If I’m a guest of Hypotheticon, I’m probably going to be on a couple panels, maybe have an autograph session or two.  And I want to be on time for every single one of them.  It’s the absolute easiest way to show a bit of gratitude and respect. 

            This means double-checking and triple-checking to be sure I’m where I’m supposed to be when I’m supposed to be there.  If I’m at a popular, crowded con (especially one of the big ones like SDCC or NYCC), it might take a lot longer to get from point A to point B, and I need to factor that in to my travel times.  Also, it’s not unusual for con schedules to change.  That first email you got might say 1:30, but by the time the con’s up and running the panel’s now at 1:45. or maybe 1:00.

            I know of one panel at NYCC 2015 where the moderator was almost half an hour late because the con schedule changed over the three weeks since he first wrote up his personal itinerary. That guy was a serious jerk.  You don’t want to be like him.

            Like the above point #2, remember how amazing it is that somebody thought it was worth their time and money to have me here.  I at least owe them the common decency of being on time for the places they want me to be.  Yes, even if it means skipping lunch or cutting off my conversation with that editor or producer or really excited fan.  Be polite, apologize, and get where you need to be.

            Okay, simple math problem. I’m on a panel with four other authors (five total) and there are 100 people in the audience.  How many people came to hear me talk?

            Well, there’s a lot of factors there, sure.  I may be stuck on a panel with Stephen King or J.K. Rowling or Andy Weir.  I might be the screenwriter on a panel with Grant Gustin, Melissa Benoist, Stephen Amell,  and Caity Lotz.  But most of the time, I can probably go with simple math and assume about 20% of that audience is here to listen to me.

            Another way to consider this is that 80% of the audience is not here to listen to me.  If they want to hear from Kristi or Craig or Sarah (to use our previous examples), they’re going to be seriously annoyed if I try to dominate every question the moderator throws out. And people who are annoyed at me rarely want to buy my books… at least, in my simple understanding of human psychology.

            I’ve seen this from both sides.  I’ve been on panels where somebody always had to speak first, kept leaping in, kept talking over people.  I’ve been out in the audience when one panelist cut into every response to make their observation or their funny comment.  It’s not fun from either direction.  It’s mildly amusing at first, but after a while you just want that person to shut up and let someone else talk for two minutes.

            And, yeah, that “shut up” also comes from both sides of it.

            It’s tough, because we all want to get noticed.  It’s so freakin’ rare for writers to be in the spotlight, the temptation’s to do pretty much anything we can to keep that focus on us.  Plus, I’ve got such a great follow-up comment to that question and a clever, double-entendre closing remark.

            It’s easy to stay in that spotlight.  But I want it to be a positive focus.  I want people to remember me, but for all the right reasons—not because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut for five minutes.

            Want an easy way to stand out on a panel?  Make sure everyone else gets a chance to speak.  Defer to other speakers.  Make a point of passing off your “turn” to someone else who hasn’t gotten to speak much.  It’s just being polite, and they—and their fans—will remember you for it.

            So there’s that—four easy steps to being a fantastic convention guest.

             D’you see what I did there…?

            So, Emerald City Comic Con was a few weeks back,  Wondercon’s this weekend, and we’re kinda lunging full force into the spring con season (followed by the summer con season, the fall con season…).  I think I may be doing eight or nine cons this year, which may be a new record for me.

            I love cons.  I think I went to my first convention, in Boston, for my thirteenth or fourteenth birthday. I met artist/writer Dave Cockrum (who gave young me some career advice), a few Marvel editors, and Matthew Waterhouse (who played Adric on Doctor Who back in the day).  And we won’t talk much about when that was, but I’m pretty sure Reagan was president at the time…

            Over the past couple of years, though, I’ve been seeing conventions in a whole new way.  I started going as a vendor, hawking my books to whoever I could attract over to my little folding table.  Nowadays I’ve hit the point where more of my con time is panels and signings.  If I happen to be at a table, it’s not quite so much work to get somebody to talk to me.

            Anyway, while my experience isn’t exactly overwhelming, I thought it might be cool to toss out a couple of convention tips I’ve gleaned over my years of con-going, seeing things from a few different angles.  But I thought I’d divide them up a bit.  Today I’ll talk about attending cons as a fan, next week as a vendor, and that last week I’ll talk about the holy grail—being a guest of the con.
            Sound interesting?

            Well, good.  ‘Cause that’s how I’m doing it.

            Let’s start with the basic form of con-attendance—as a fan.

1) Be aware of my surroundings – Soldiers and police have a great term called situational awareness.  Really simply put, it means I’m being constantly aware of what’s going on around me and how it might affect me… or vice-versa.

            This ability can make me a convention ninja, no joke.

            If I’m going to wander around the con for a day, I should at least try to be aware of the other people around me.  At a crowded convention, all it takes is one person who decides to stop in the middle of a busy aisle or intersection.  I don’t want to be the person everyone’s glaring at… or deliberately slamming their shoulder into.

            Another factor here—what have I brought for bags?  We all have something at cons. I generally just have a messenger bag, but lots of folks have whatever big bag they’re handing out with passes.  I’ve even seen a couple folks wearing backpacks that are probably larger than you’d need to spend a summer backpacking in Europe. There’s nothing wrong with any of these, I just need to be aware of how much space they take up. Suddenly those random stops or turns make me a serious menace (and a major annoyance).

            Also, most cons are going to have limited dining facilities.  I really shouldn’t camp out for an extra hour after I’m done eating.  I know this is a tough one, because so many big cons—looking at you, SDCC—have very, very limited places to stop and rest.  Once I actually score a table, there’s a mad desire to hang onto it as long as possible. I just need to remember—everyone else wandering around feels exactly the same way.

2) Be respectful of everyone’s time—Most con events are timed one way or another.  Panels and autograph sessions are rarely more than an hour.  Even vendor interactions don’t last long—they’re generally trying to manage a large area and juggle numerous potential clients at once.

            If I’m spending five minutes at the microphone or in front of a line or even in front of somebody’s booth… that’s a big chunk of time. We’ve all been there when that guy gets up in front of the panel and talks for three minutes before getting to his question.  I’ve seen people argue their case for submitting book manuscripts and art samples at publisher’s booths, no matter how often the random marketing intern has to explain they’re not the person for that.  I’ve watched people stand dead center in front of a booth, talking to the vendor for ten minutes, then admit they don’t have any money.

3) Don’t be creepy—Okay, I know this is a tough one because nobody… okay, most people don’t think they’re being creepy. Just remember—not everybody likes it. No, it doesn’t matter what kind of con it is.  I just really need to be honest with myself when I engage with cosplayers, vendors, professionals, con staff. How am I coming across? 

            No, not in a perfect world, in this world. How are people going to react to what I’m saying or doing?  Is that woman reallygoing to be happy I wrapped myself around her or pinched her ass? Is that vendor really going to be pleased that I stood by his booth breathing heavily for twenty minutes? Is it okay that I keep staring at that woman’s cleavage?

            Yes, a lot of these involve women—go figure!  It’s kinda sad how many times this has to get brought up.  No staring, no touching, no rude comments.  If I’m trying to justify how whatever I’m about to say or do is okay… I’m probably doing something creepy.
             Seriously, don’t be creepy. 

4) Remember, everyone here is human—Yes, even that artist/writer/actor I’ve worshipped as my personal god/dess for the past five/ten/twenty years.  Some people aren’t dealing well with the crowd.   Some need to hydrate.   Some people need a drink of the other variety.  Some folks are just tired—cons can be exhausting.  Maybe they’ve answered that same question I just asked fifty times today.

            If someone seems annoyed or they get a little short with me, I should try to give them the benefit of the doubt before tweeting about what a horrible person they are.  Granted, maybe they are a horrible person—they’re out there, sure—but there’s a good chance they’re just kinda burned out.

            And let’s not also forget that… well, maybe I already messed up one or two of those first three rules.

            So there’s that.  Four simple rules that can make me a lot more popular at  a convention. Or, at the very least, not as annoying.

            Remember them at Wondercon.

            And come back in a couple days for my next pearl of writing wisdom.

            Until then, go write.

I just thought I’d put this here on the off chance anyone wanted it.  Also gives me a centralized location to send folks.

Wednesday night I’m going to be at Comikaze—LibertyStation. It’s a preview night fundraiser for the Kevin Workman Foundation, from 6-9:00PM with drinks, cosplay, and a few familiar folks hanging out. Jonathan Maberry will be there, too, along with V.E. Victoria Schwab, Jason M. Hough, Peter Orullian, Scott Sigler, Greg Van Eekhout, and posibly a few others. This is off-campus and open to everyone—no passes, no reservations, nothing.  Buy books there, bring books, get autographs, hang out, support a good cause.

Thursday I’m wandering the con. If you can find me, you may claim your three wishes.

Friday I think I’m going to do what I’ve done in years past.  I’m going to hang out at Geek & Sundry (aka Petco Park) and have lunch.  There may be other creative-type folks with me.  Please feel free to stop by and chat. I’ll probably be there… let’s say roughly noon-thirty to two.  Maybe a little earlier or later on either end.  Geek & Sundry is another off-campus event thing where you don’t need a ComicCon pass or anything like that to attend.  Just walk in. 

Saturday from noon to one I’m doing a signing at the Crown booth (1515) in Random House alley. They’ll have the paperback version of THE FOLD there, but Mysterious Galaxy (over in booth 1119) has told me they’ll have some other things of mine.  And you can bring anything else you like, of course.

Saturday evening at 6:00 I’m on a panel about worldbuilding and storytelling. That’s in room 23AB.

There may be another signing on Saturday, but I may not know until last minute.

Sunday I may be there for a bit, but there’s a chance I’ll head out early.  If the three wishes have not been claimed by this point, this’ll be your last chance.

Actually, one other thing… Would it bother anyone if I did something like this now and then?  The blog would still be 95% writing advice, but maybe once a month there’d be a post about something else. Still probably related to writing, but in a bit more of a fringe way.  A little bit if self promotion like this, but also some random thoughts on publishing, reviews, Amazon, and other stuff that will probably get me into trouble further down the line?

Let me know.

Hope to see you in San Diego!