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Weekend Update Is Having Second Thoughts
Aug. 18th, 2018 07:36 amI really wanted to enjoy Worldcon this year. Maybe it's because I'm a bit tired and cranky and we were going to a huge convention literally the next day after we got off the plane from London...but I don't think so. Maybe I'm finding some of the con crowds irritating. Sure, I'm still a bit irritated that I was pretty much passed over for being on panels because I'm a lowly self-published author with no known name...but I don't think that's entirely it either. I think it's a number of things.
I've come to the conclusion that Worldcon might be fast becoming the SFF version of the San Diego Comic Con, at least in terms of Big Names and ridiculously high attendance. On the one hand that's cool, but on the other hand, in the two days we've gone, we've missed out on at least four panels due to overcapacity. I just can't justify paying money to go to a convention when that happens. Maybe the hosting cities need to realize they need a HUGE convention center to rent out and BIG rooms to ensure more people get in.
And while I may well have been on a few panels when I went to it in Boston in 2004 had I been at my current writing/publishing level then, now I'm really starting to get the feeling that I have to either be much higher up on the food chain or know someone to get on one Worldcon panel. More than once I've heard panelists the last few days casually mention how much they love Worldcon because it helped them get an audience when they were nobody, but in my experience it's starting to get harder and harder to do that. I kind of feel that a glass ceiling is being erected, and only the invited few can get in. I just can't justify paying money to go to a convention as a writer when I can only rise to fan level.
[Noted: I'm not angry at the people chosen for the dedicated LGBT/minority/etc tracks at all. They need this push more than I do.]
That said...I'm thinking we might be skipping out on Sunday and Monday, as we're both tired and irritable and not having nearly as much fun as we'd hoped. We haven't even been able to track down any of our writer friends, save one due to a chance encounter during dinner outside the con. I don't mind that Worldcon is bringing popularity to the genre at all, because I think that's kind of cool -- it's just that I think it's stopped being fun or accessible to me over the past few years.
And that said...we are definitely going to continue with the other local cons like BayCon and FogCon, and maybe expanding to other smaller cons both here and elsewhere.
I've come to the conclusion that Worldcon might be fast becoming the SFF version of the San Diego Comic Con, at least in terms of Big Names and ridiculously high attendance. On the one hand that's cool, but on the other hand, in the two days we've gone, we've missed out on at least four panels due to overcapacity. I just can't justify paying money to go to a convention when that happens. Maybe the hosting cities need to realize they need a HUGE convention center to rent out and BIG rooms to ensure more people get in.
And while I may well have been on a few panels when I went to it in Boston in 2004 had I been at my current writing/publishing level then, now I'm really starting to get the feeling that I have to either be much higher up on the food chain or know someone to get on one Worldcon panel. More than once I've heard panelists the last few days casually mention how much they love Worldcon because it helped them get an audience when they were nobody, but in my experience it's starting to get harder and harder to do that. I kind of feel that a glass ceiling is being erected, and only the invited few can get in. I just can't justify paying money to go to a convention as a writer when I can only rise to fan level.
[Noted: I'm not angry at the people chosen for the dedicated LGBT/minority/etc tracks at all. They need this push more than I do.]
That said...I'm thinking we might be skipping out on Sunday and Monday, as we're both tired and irritable and not having nearly as much fun as we'd hoped. We haven't even been able to track down any of our writer friends, save one due to a chance encounter during dinner outside the con. I don't mind that Worldcon is bringing popularity to the genre at all, because I think that's kind of cool -- it's just that I think it's stopped being fun or accessible to me over the past few years.
And that said...we are definitely going to continue with the other local cons like BayCon and FogCon, and maybe expanding to other smaller cons both here and elsewhere.
