Business Post: Con Report - World Fantasy Con 2024

Just came back from World Fantasy Con in Niagara Falls, USA. I have to admit, the main reason I went was because it was in Niagara Falls, and thus a few hours drive away from me. Made it simpler to get to and meant that on Sunday, when I called it a day and drove home, it took me only 2 hours to get back.

That's... bleeding amazing really. Only way it could have been better if it was in Toronto. Then the actual convention itself would have been much simpler to do. We need a fantasy convention in Toronto, damn it! Well, okay, there is one (Augurcon) and hopefully it comes back!

Anyway, Con Report!

World Fantasy 2024

Some things to know about the convention itself.  It's a smaller convention - roughly 600 or so people and as I understand it, that's pretty average. Programming is, of course, smaller to suit the size, so if you went to Worldcon which is much larger, this is not the same thing.

They're generally more expensive for tickets as I understand it, but because of that, there's a lot more food (sponsored, good hospitality suites, etc.) than other conventions. It also is priced higher because the goal is to draw more industry professionals (serious authors, published authors and editors and agents). I ran into quite a few editors myself, though no agents. I'm told that there were fewer editors and agents this year because New York Comic Con was happening on the same weekend, so that detracted from the numbers.

A little annoying, but understandable; and really, not a concern for me.

Programming

So, there were only 3 tracks at any one time and 2 rooms for readings (30 minute readings each time). Which is a significant amount of tracks in some ways, and not that many. The convention programming actually says it runs from Wednesday to Sunday, but realistically, Wednesday was pretty empty except a few workshops and the same with Thursday morning. The actual programming started around 3pm on Thursday I believe and ran all day Friday and Saturday (until 6pm for panels/etc.) before there being minimal programming on Sunday.

Sunday afternoon was the gala and the award ceremony that I skipped, mostly because I wanted to go home and I dislike sitting for long periods. The only time I think I'll ever turn up to one of those is if I (hah!) get nominated. Otherwise, meh.

I was designated for 3 panels - one on Asian Fantasy, two on business (Book Marketing and the Future of Indie Publishing).

My Thoughts on the Panels

So, I showed up to quite a few panels (a lot more than usual when I go do conventions, amusingly enough) partially because there were so few that it was easier to know what I wanted to do. At Dragoncon and Worldcon, I actively have to hunt and look up multiple documents to figure out what I should do, so I often end up missing a lot of panels and lean towards hanging out with friends. Here, I showed up to more just because it was easier to see what panels were running and find the ones that were interesting.

That being said... the quality of the panels and panelists were all over the place. People like P Djeli Clark were amazing on their panels, but they also had some inexperienced panelists on some of those panels who had very little to contribute. Most of the time, the moderators were decent with one glaring exception where the moderator did not prepare or write their questions down, and thus rambled on for 5 minutes before finally finding a question.

Again, reminder - if there are 4 panelists, you should be asking questions as a moderator. NOT making remarks yourself. 

My own panels were fine. Enjoyed the Asian panel (a little academic in the questions, but not a bad thing. Certainly different than the ones I was used to doing). The Book Marketing panel I felt like I was dominating it, partly because I know I had a lot more experience in some of the things asked (Kickstarter, paid advertising, etc.). The biggest problem with that panel? It's such a HUGE topic, with us focusing mostly on promotions that it felt we were rushing all the time. The Future of Indie-Publishing was great, Mark Leslie is a smart man and we played off one another well to discuss the future as we saw it. Which was fun, and I'll probably put my thoughts into a business post by itself later (short form - we're seeing a lot of indie publishing houses becoming small, digital first publishers).

My biggest complain was just the lack of panels talking about anything but Asian fantasy or indie publishing / business stuff. While I'm good at talking on those panels, I'd really prefer to talk about some of the cool things I write about. I'm seeing the same thing happen at Can-Con (two panels, both on indie publishing & career things) so I'm likely going to start specifying that I will NOT be going / doing panels if that's the only thing I get. 

After all, half the reason I go to cons is to expand my reader base and these indie marketing / self pub panels aren't building a reader base, it's just... building an author base. And I'm not exactly selling my services to indie authors. If I wanted to do that, I'd go back into marketing consulting.

Other Thoughts

One thing I noticed was how much easier doing this convention was compared to Montreal World Fantasy in 2021. Part of that was not knowing anyone, part of that was the pandemic. One thing I'd say to those wandering if they should do a convention is that they should (for one thing, I talked to a lot of newcomers and helped / encouraged them); but also, that they should commit to doing a few cons regularly and/or doing multiple cons. 

Breaking that ice the first time is hard. But each con after, as you meet people who come from other conventions, who you meet from the same convention makes it a little easier such that the introvert parts aren't as bad. It's also why I do panels, because then people come up to speak with me... :) 

Two more things stand out at WFC this year. First was the mass autographing session. I ended up coming late so I ended up right at the end with Ai Jiang, who was my ringer and managed to draw people down who wanted her award winning work. That helped a lot, but even then, I ended up selling out of all the books I brought over (not many!) other than the LitRPG. So that went very well.

There was also a consignment section where I sold a few books before the mass autographing and which sold a few more afterwards (books I didn't take to the signing); so that was great. I really should have considered bringing more because of how many went. Overall, I think, these in-person sales events (especially when there's a bookseller taking care of it for me) can help put physical books out in the world. 

I do have to start planning to share rooms more often I think. I mostly do a lot of these conventions and never bother sharing rooms, but considering how many I'm thinking of doing, maybe I should? Then again, having a place for myself is kind of nice... Something to consider.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed doing WFC. It helped a lot that it was so close and I certainly wouldn't do it in 2025 since it's in Brighton. Otherwise, we'll have to look at 2026 and 2027 and where it goes. I know I'm committed to Worldcon next year, but otherwise... we shall see. Catching up with friends is great, meeting new people even better, but the time taken away from words is tough.