News

Day 17 of the Tour

World Horror Convention Day 2 Kansas City, MO!

Today we did the “What ever happened to Dracula” Panel. As with most panels, though, it ranged in topic from folk lore, to History, to the writing business. We then had lunch at a Malasian place and fond a new cuisine to add to out list of ethnic foods we like.

After all that, we had the mass autographing. which basically was a room full of authors signing like mad for about an hour. What was most amusing, was that they opened the room to everyone who was only there to get something signed by the other authors, then had everyone who was waiting for Laurell, line up and wait outside.

But this was also my first World Horror. My first World anything Convention. And I was there for business, not pleasure. I’ve been to many a SF&F cons to know what to do and what not to do. I know not to drink anything offered to me by a strange man in a toga, Unless I know him. I know that you should never insult anyone dressed like a Klingon unless they are drunk enough that they can’t run after you. But all that knowledge is worth bupkis at a business Con. Business Cons are all about the deal and making the connections that will get you the deal. I had the strange pleasure of standing around talking with some of the people who make deals happen, and having people approach them, and then wonder if I’m someone that can make a deal happen. It was confusing the first time it happened, but each subsequent instance made it all the more mind boggleing. I was talking with Warren Lapine of DNA Publications, and had several people try to pitch something to both of us. Later I was talking with Ginjer Buchannan, and had someone else try and pitch something to me first. It got more interesting from there.

I guess it comes from the fact that I appeared confident and collect, that I could hold a conversation with them, and have valid input to the conversation, and that I was hanging out with some of the Big Names of the con and feeling right at home. Maybe having Laurell as a spouse is a benefit. I am not intimidated by authors, editors or publishers. They are people just like me, and want to be treated as such. The fact that I was able to converse with a publisher for almost an hour about literature and how no-one reads the classics anymore while having people come up and try to pitch stories to him, all of which were re-hashes of Homer in one way or another, was enlightening.

What I’ve taken away from WHC is that giving the people what they want isn’t the nature of the deal. The nature of the deal is making the people want what you are giving them, and have them pay top dollar for the priveladge of having it.