| Hey all. Sorry for the radio silence—things have been busy on my end (ain’t no rest for the wicked, et cetera). One of those things has been preparing for my trip in nine days time, where I will be flying to Los Angeles to attend the World Science Fiction Convention, aka, WorldCon. I attended Seattle’s convention last year and had a blast, and this one is shaping up to be pretty awesome, too. I’m doing a slew of signings and panels at the convention site over in Anaheim, but I’m also partaking in a fabulous mass signing event over at the Barnes and Nobles, Outlets at Orange, on Thursday the 27th of August. With me will be Scott Lynch, Elizabeth Bear, Alex Shvartsman, Michael Michel, MJ Kuhn, Evan Leikam and Ai Jiang.  It looks like it’s gonna be one helluva party. If you are in the area or attending Worldcon, it would be awesome to see you there. All of our books will be available in-store, but we’ve all agreed not to limit any pre-purchased items. Meaning that even if you’ve already bought our books elsewhere, years ago, we’ll still sign them. Because we are classy like that. Here is my full WorldCon schedule below. Except for the two B&N signings, all events will take place at the actual convention site.  I know that quite a number of you are in Los Angeles, or attend WorldCon regularly, so if you’re around, it would be great to see you or catch up! Don’t be shy about approaching me. I don’t bite. Mostly. Between these aforementioned times, I will be lurking at the bar, visiting the dealer’s room, and attending the Hugo Award ceremony. While I have you all . . . I do have some thoughts about these events and conventions in general that I wanted to share. I love attending these things. And while I, like all other authors, enjoy the commerce of selling books and making money, realistically, these events aren’t huge envelope pushers for traditionally published authors. During my visit to LA, I may sell a ballpark figure of 50-75 copies of my books. And while that sounds like a very high number (and it is an almost unrealistically high number), in the scheme of things it actually isn’t, whether it’s compared to total copies sold, or the difference it makes on the balance sheet. When trad authors release a book, we typically get a very large sales boost, for our back catalogue and our latest release. That can mean hundreds or even thousands of additional copies sold to what we’d perennially sell. And that’s without doing conventions, etc. Don’t get me wrong: every copy counts, and events certainly do help to move the needle. But when you look at the expenses of travelling, hotels, airfares, plus the time away from actually writing . . . it makes little sense in terms of raw sales. Which is why, when I attend these things, my primary goal is not moving copies. It’s interacting with my fellow creatives. Exchanging ideas. Meeting new people. Networking. Meeting my favourite authors and getting my own copies of their books signed. One of my best memories of Seattle Worldcon was getting a one on one session in a bar with Scott Lynch over 3-4 hours and as a result we’ve become good friends. I always come away from these events inspired and reinvigorated, and come back to my desk determined to create something even more badass than before. Writing is a terribly lonely business, and having that creative solidarity is a necessity. Anyway. That’s enough from me – I have work to do before my flight takes off! I hope to see you in Los Angeles! |
LA Worldcon schedule!