Con Planning

Several people have asked me what I do at conventions/conferences. Some blink and say, you don't go just to hang out and meet people? Well, that's part of why I go but not all of why I go to cons.

Let's reference a recent guest post I did for AAD – wherein I touch on the differences in types of cons I attend (Day Job vs. Anime vs. Literary Cons)

http://authorsafterdark.blogspot.com/2011/04/authors-after-dark-on-con-schedule.html

Obviously there's big differences between each of them and the driving force behind why attend is particular to each individual. There's one thing I do for all of them though, and that's plan ahead.

On speaking…

I've spoken at day job conferences for years, to audiences as small as a dozen to as large as hundreds. I'll be on panels for literary cons this year -> Steampunk World Fair, Authors After Dark, possibly AlbaCon, ConText and PhilCon. All of them required sign up, forms filled out or some other contact/info as early as January of this year. Heck, I had filled out forms to be considered for panels at Romantic Times Booklover's Convention in July/August for the con in April of this year.

I'm not kidding when I say speaking at a con means finding the appropriate contacts and filling out the appropriate forms as early as 8 to 10 months in advance of the actual con.

If you want to be a featured author, panelist, workshop lead or whatever, plan far in advance.

On networking…

I do research on who is going and whether I'm scheduled for formal pitch sessions. Sometimes, I'm looking forward to meeting my publishers or my editors – the face to face time really gives us a chance to get to know each other. In other cases, I'm hoping to make a connection with a new editor or agent. I might be looking to meet authors so we can team up our efforts and cross promote. Maybe someone has a fantastic new creative project and they want partners to make it happen or maybe I have an interesting idea and want to grab a few collaborators.

For any of these interactions, I'm hoping to make new friends, enjoy their company and have a great time. After all, be they editor or agent or publisher or author or reader, they are people and I have fun meeting new people.

But I do plan out my con schedule to make time for very important meetings.  There might be a publisher sponsored cocktail hour or a tweet-up. A specific agent/editor/publisher may want to sit down with me for a specific reason. I need to know my schedule so that when these things come up, I'm not a manic mess. I know when I can meet and relax knowing I won't miss anything. Hopefully.

So what does that tell you?

My con attendance is planned out a minimum of 6 months to a year in advance. No kidding. That includes travel, accommodations and registration.
I usually have a printed schedule marked up with highlighters or pen on me at all times.
I work hard to ensure that I can play hard without dropping the ball

Above and beyond all of that, I hope to meet readers. After all, how awesome is it to be able to thank a reader in person for reading my work? (*squee!*)
In the next couple of weeks, you'll be able to find me at Otakon and Authors After Dark Philly. Hope to see you there!