Why You Should Go To Cons (If You're An Aspiring Writer)
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Posted by Colin Harvey May 22, 2009 |
A lot of wannabe writers tell me they don't have the time, the money, or just the inclination to go to cons. Here's one reason you should go.
It's heavily edited for length, and I've taken out all the long silences and "Um's" that make actual conversations far less interesting than fictional dialogue. But it's as accurate as memory permits...
Last September while waiting for friends to pitch up at Fantasycon, I went to the bar. Pint in hand I looked around.
The table at which Ian Whates chatted with four other men I didn't know looked the least unwelcoming, so I joined them. Ian left, so I started talking to the guy next to me. He was a local I'd seen around, but I didn't know who he was.
After some small talk he said, "Are you a fan or a writer?"
"I'm a writer," I said, and gave him a couple of sentences on Winter Song. "So what do you do?"
He said, "I'm a publisher."
I managed not to fall off my seat. Actually, I like to think that I looked dead unimpressed (he'll probably tell you that I started drooling; if he does, his memory's playing him tricks.)
Next day we talked again, ending with his "Send me the first three chapters and synopsis."
I did as I was told, and two weeks later we met again, at NewCon. He said, "When can you let me have the rest?"
To cut the waiting time I sent him the first half of Winter Song polished, and the second half in draft, and --to cut the story short-- Angry Robot will publish it in October, with Damage Time to follow in 2010.
That's why you go to cons. Because you just might --just might-- get lucky and strike up a conversation with a total stranger...