NorEasCon4 - Boston, MA - 1-7 Sept 2004

From: "Jacqueline Lichtenberg" <jl@simegen.com>
To: <simegen-l@simegen.com>, <sgstaff-l@simegen.com>,
    "Writers Guild Workshop" <writers-l@simegen.com>
Subject: [Sgstaff-l] Post-WorldCon Report
Date: Tue, 7 Sep 2004 12:16:30 -0700

Folks:

Oh, a lot happened during a very few days.

Things started out difficult on Thursday -- we had a hard time connecting with some people. Karen in particular was a pivot point in the plans, and her cell phone didn't get signal in some crucial areas of the buildings. Karen had the magic markers and tape for posting the party signs, I had the party signs, and Kaires had the room number to put on the party signs.

On Thursday morning, Karen was also to pick up a ream of S~G advertising flyers made up by Jana (thesandtiger) and ferried to the con by one of her friends. Karen and Balu and Seanara got word of mouth messages that the flyers had been left at the desk, but when Karen dropped by the front desk to pick them up, she was told they'd been delivered, had never arrived, or just weren't there. She kept trying every time there was a desk shift-change.

Finally, when the S~G Party was almost over (near midnight on Friday), the fellow who brought the flyers to the hotel desk turned up wondering how come we weren't passing them out (he noted how hard Jana had worked to get them done -- and believe me she did a dynamite job), heard Karen's tale of woe, and they stormed the desk with enough force to liberate our flyers!

So just as parties were winding down, we began our plan of standing in the hall and handing out these flyers.

We didn't get them all passed out -- but we did continue to distribute them throughout Saturday, Sunday and Monday by hand, at panels and via the freebie rack. I brought a stack home to use at Coppercon, and we have the masters Jana made. I also put some of the lovely colored ones on the Meisha Merlin table where they had their signup for their mailing list.

There were a few hours when we were convinced there wouldn't be a party for lack of signs up. But we finally connected with Karen when she called our room while I just happened to be there though I should have been elsewhere and I walked the printed signs to her room -- and she managed to connect with Kaires. All of this was much harder than it should have been, but it got done.

Kaires got the room number on the party board, and the bunch of good folks got the signs posted which is how the long-time-strayed S~G fans heard about us being there. Kaires also organized the food and the auction and Jean did the door prizes. And I'm sure other people helped that I didn't know about.

Our party even got a quick mention in the party reviews in the newsletter -- simply that when the reviewer passed through, the room was full of people having a good time. And hey, isn't that what a party is for? I know I talked myself into laryngitis again!

Karen's computer, with some help from Kaires, was playing the PowerPoint Presentation "What Is Sime~Gen" -- and Kaires had her computer displaying a large image of the UNITY TRILOGY cover.

As Jean has noted we borrowed Karen's computer which was provided by Ronnie Bob. But all that too was harder than it sounds.

I brought a wireless card for the computer, and Balu (Karen's computer guru) configured the computer onto the two local wireless networks (one in the hotel and another in the convention center). There were many cool hotspots around the hotel and convention center, and where we found the hottest one was in a spot we didn't have time to get to very often. (the fan lounge next to the dealer's room). All of this which should have happened well before Noon on Thursday didn't get working until late on Friday.

After Jean sent her preliminary con report, she found the trick for getting onto the wireless network in the convention center and managed to delete spam, and retrieve a bit of information that Meisha Merlin wanted us to provide right there at the con so they could take it to their business meetings afterwards.

By the time she had finished doing that while I was on programming, I no longer had time to clear my spam -- I got about 200 deleted, and came home to nearly 3,000 more clogging the simegen.com mailboxes. I didn't even have time to drop you all a note about news developing at the con.

We had a very productive and encouraging meeting with the Meisha Merlin folks. They seem more committed than ever to continuing the S~G publishing program, and were talking about marketing various sub-rights and other opportunities that will be opened up for them by their new distributor. If half these ideas work out, Sime~Gen will have a much wider footprint. But right now it's ideas only.

>From WorldCon, the MM folks are headed for a group of business meetings and then back to Atlanta where, based on the results of those meetings, decisions will be made about publishing schedules. So we really don't have anything concrete to report except that Jean and I are feeling very upbeat about potentials. But hey, this isn't just S~G that's being delayed and hanging on every development. There are 20 new titles being held in limbo as they explore the potentials opened up by the new distributor.

As they put it, a book only gets launched once and if it's to be successful it has to be launched right. They don't want to toss the first new S~G title in decades out there, and then discover this or that nifty tool they could have used for boosting the thing into orbit. So they're thinking and planning carefully -- which may frustrate us, but ultimately will be to our advantage.

And it gets better! While Jean was on a panel about the perils of promotion (things writers can do to promote their work) -- a new issue of the daily newsletter was put out naming the Cheslea Award (artists awards) winners for this year, and TODD LOCKWOOD won 2 of the awards. MM had just reassured us that Todd was still onboard for all the S~G covers. I'm hoping to discuss that with him next weekend at CopperCon.

I brought that announcement about Todd's success into the panel and waved the image of the cover around that Jean had with her saying that one effective means of promotion is getting an award winning cover artist -- and got a big round of applause.

And indeed, one of the most important background items for the sales of any book is the reputation of the artist. I know it doesn't really matter all that much to readers -- but to salesmen who have to get books into stores, it matters.

Jean and I did an autographing stint at the SFWA table as well as at the BenBella table (BenBella was right next to MM) and on Sunday, we did the general convention autographing. At that last one, more people turned up who've been fans for years and were dying to meet us. (these are different people than passed through the party) In addition to a couple of stacks of FACES OF SCIENCE FICTION, I autographed a number of first edition copies of our books. And again, people had not heard of the MM reprints. Some went to the dealer's room and bought books for us to sign. With BenBella and MM next to each other, we got quite a mix of books.

For those of you who haven't been at a con where MM has a table -- they have a tall black and red sign with spotlights on it illuminating the words MEISHA MERLIN. Behind they have one of those curved standing wall things and huge reproductions of their current covers. Last year Sime~Gen: The Unity Trilogy was on that wall -- and because of the delay, Unity's cover was there again this year. Double exposure -- not bad.

That MM sign is the most visible navigation point in most WorldCon dealers rooms. And as I've said, BenBella got the prime spot right next to the busiest dealer, Meisha Merlin.

At the end of the con, I passed by MM to say goodbye and their table was very depleted of many of their titles. They said they'd had to restock the pile of Unity Trilogy a few times.

Jean and Anne Pinzow will be going to Scottland for WorldCon next year, and I'll be covering NasFic. We don't know at this time whether TO KISS OR TO KILL will be out by August.

Japan won the WorldCon bid for 2007, so next year we'll find out where the NasFic will be.

So that just hits the high points as I remember them right now.

Live Long and Prosper,
Jacqueline Lichtenberg
http://www.simegen.com/jl/
http://www.simegen.com/writers/simegen/ for availability of new Sime~Gen volumes.