A Fan! A Fan! My Worldcon for a fan!
26. Oct, 2009 
5 Comments
The minions over at TLTSNBN are in a posting uproar following Mike Resnick’s, ummm, polemic?, over at Baen’s Universe, in which Mike castigates WSFS and shows favoritism towards (shudder) commercial cons over fannish cons.
The commentary by the (suspected, rumored and not self-appointed) lords of creation runs the gamut from simple outrage over the fact that one of their own should turn on them (Resnick is an SF author of some note and a long time fan as well), to statements of contentment (don’t want non-fans at Worldcon, could care less about Twighlighters) to statistical analysis that shows, alternatively that Worldcon is in decline, is actually stagnant, don’t use stagnant, say “equilibrium” or is doing A-OK, considering the size of the cities it is held in/what the economy is doing/how we’re looking at the numbers) to-
theories as to why attendance is down
theories as to how to increase attendance
market the con and all the rest that has been seen before, with little or no follow-through on most, if not all of the good suggestions, let alone the marginal ones. (Of course, ‘good’ is relative, but still….)
The one thing that has struck me about the discussion this time around is the dawning realization that we are all wrong in our assumptions about the differences between FANS and those who seemingly prefer to attend commercial conventions.
Heretofore, I and others like me have disparaged these fans by identifying them as folks who prefer other media over reading, kids who don’t read, idiots who think that the Twilight series is the height of literature (a special level of contempt seems reserved for Twees – with everyone pointing to the poor quality of the writing as justification for their ire), folks who would much rather stare at starlet boobs or listen to some actor talk about on-set pranks they’ve pulled on their co-stars.
Gamers seems to be in purgatory; they’re ‘ok’ as a group, but they take a lot of hardware to support.
And on and on it goes, as the marginalized seek to marginalize and grope for an answer to the question ‘why can’t they be like us/why don’t they come to our convention?’
A key to marketing and sales success is properly identifying your target audience. Trufans, I think, are missing the mark in this regard.
The thousands who attend SD Comic Con and its ilk do read; they do like science fiction; they like fantasy tv shows and vampire romance novels; they probably have attention spans that are at least long enough to see them through to the final level/chapter of the latest HALO release.
What they are not, I think, are ‘doers’.
FANS are ‘doers’. When a couple of them thought it would be a great idea for similarly minded folks to get together all in one place at the same time (1939), they didn’t sit around waiting for someone else to organize it, they put it together themselves.
When there was a need for more and better communication (in days before the internet), they didn’t wait for some publisher to put together their dream magazine, they invented fanzines and started publishing.
When they saw a need to recognize and celebrate the things they liked, they didn’t hope that the Pullitzer committee would add genre fiction to their awards, they created the HUGOs.
The core audience of true fandom (read – those who think attending a Worldcon is a cool idea – maybe even volunteering to work on one would be even cooler) is an audience that prefers reading (doing) to watching (receiving); that doesn’t mean they don’t watch, but chances are that reading trumps watching by at least a small percentage.
These are folks who like to organize, rather than being organized. A trufan stares in horror at a long line waiting to get into an event: this is not good organizing. None of these people can do while standing there. A new fan thinks nothing of it. Standing in line, waiting to see some 21 year old ‘rising young star’ and get her autograph is part of the experience. That nothing really significant happened (to our minds) is not the point. That fan will go home and squeel for months over what a delicious wait it was. The anticipation was killer. The people in line were ‘just as big fans of’ as she is.
You, me and everyone else who cares about Worldcon would be more apt to be spending our time in line figuring out more and better ways to eliminate the line – and we’d be entirely missing the point. We’d be gutting the experience and robbing it of its build up.
This new crowd are every bit as engaged and enthusiastic as we are. The difference is that we get a sense of ownership by doing, they get a sense of ownership by having something done for them.
SF conventions, by and large, are sink-or-swim affairs for the neophyte. If you came from a ‘do to you’ convention environment, you’d be entirely lost. Where’s the line for the book signing? Ummm, there really isn’t one, but I just saw so-and-so in the lobby, maybe you can catch him there. Where’s the program track devoted entirely to my favorite author’s favorite series? Ummm, there isn’t one – but this panel here compares and contrasts a bunch of writers who write the same stuff, and this one here covers the history of the genre. Where’s the screenings of the new movies/tv shows? Ummmm, there isn’t one, but we all get together at the room parties tonight and put whatever on the TV.
If you are going to have a good time at Worldcon, you’ve got to be marginally self-sufficient and capable of making up your own fun. Hit the dealers room. Booth babes enticing you to buy? Not. Lots of tables with lots of books though. Piles you’ll have to sort through for yourself to find what you’re looking for. (Rather than having one title by one author shoved into your face.)
Want an autograph or some face time with a celeb? Most likely you’ll have to find them yourself (at the very least show up at the right place at the right time) and in most cases it isn’t going to be a choreographed two-minute limit. You might have to speak and think semi-intelligently to the object of your affection.
The so-called commercial cons (a term I use myself in full disparagement) make sure to keep that arms length distance between the attendees and the goings on. MOST people are much more comfortable with that. They don’t want to be part of the show, they want the show delivered to them in an easily digestable manner.
Preferring to receive their experience in this manner doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re stupid (jury is still out on that one), but it does mean that any activity that requires more energy than picking up a joystick is going to be a hard sell.
Morphing Worldcon into something that the fans (small letters) will want to go to means looking further afield than ways to attract younger readers, making costs more attractive, changing the manner in which events are scheduled. It means creating events that have experiences at them, ones that participants can attend without doing anything more complex than asking directions for the line for whatever.
It means premiering previews of the next greatest thing, with an intro by the director; it means having actors on hand to sign headshots; it means awards who’s categories are tweaked to reflect current fads.
At this point I’m pretty well convinced that no amount of appeals to the younger generation are going to work unless they include a shift from an emphasis on self-actualized fandom to one that delivers pre-cooked meals.
I’m a bit more sympathetic on the media tie in crowd since a lot of fans and some good SF writers started there themselves.
I will however admit to a be more leeriness about gamers, especially when I recall some years back the couple of times I checked out the local SF society and all they did each time was play RPGs. And over the years I’ve seen the local SF bookstore convert to almost entirely RPG events, etc. I know there’s money and enthusiasm there on the part of the gamers – but dang it some of us are here for the SF!
Petrea,
my experience with attendees at what I refer to as commercial cons goes back decades.
Yes, I was using a broad brushstroke – no two fans are alike – but I don’t think it is all that far off the mark.
In fact, the alternative you offer – the stars – is a part of the symptom I was was discussing. I’d put just about anyone who gushes over actors and makes that the focus of their con-going activity into the class of folks who want to experience, rather than do.
I don’t go to conventions to “meet the authors or the artists” I go to hang out with my friends in a relaxed environment. Some of my friends happen to be fans with a long and venerable history in fandom; others happen to be authors and artists of varying stature, and still others are just average, everyday jo-phans. They are interested in the same things I am, they explore their world and bring back interesting things that they find and they are at least marginally capable of articulating their experiences.
Wanting to meet or listen the the “stars” is so foreign a desire to me that I can barely comprehend it. They may be good actors, but I’m much more interested in the people who put the words into their mouths. The “stars” don’t do anything except appear in front of the camera (and the green screen).
I don’t want to come across as being mean-spirited or dismissive in my response to you. I’ve spent a good portion of this past year trying to get to know the kinds of folks you are describing because I want to find effective ways to reach out to them – but if the only answer is for an SF con to bring in actors, I strongly suspect that the divide is far too wide and deep a gap to bridge.
Yes, we know traditional SF cons have a way to go towards effective marketing, but on the other hand, I suspect the younger crowd of having more and better online contacts than I and more and better uber googling skills than I. Typing “science fiction convention” into the search bar brings up a wealth of information, including multiple regularly maintained lists.
But then looking for a “real” convention is one of those ‘do’ things I was talking about in the piece. There’s just no way for me to visit each and every potential fan in person with a hand-engraved invitation.
The one thing that I wish to pass on to you, in all seriousness, is that you are more than welcome to your fun and your friends and doing what interests you – far be it for me to say you shouldn’t be enjoying the things you decide to spend your money on. But don’t fall into the trap of believing that what your are participating in is in someway “fandom”; it isn’t. It is a commercialized and heavily marketed popularized version of fandom. The real loss, I believe, is that the substitute is being mistaken for the real thing.
Don’t get mad at that statement. What you are doing at your cons is just as valid as anything else. All I’m doing is making a distinction about what your activity is called. In decades past there was a very hard and fast line between “real” cons and commercial cons. These days, the lines have been deliberately blurred, so that the commercialized cons can draw on the history and appeal to folks who might be looking for a convention but aren’t really sure what one is. Sorry. A Toyota is not a Ferrari. They both are automobiles, and share many things in common, but they just aren’t the same thing.
I hope I explained that without pushing any of your buttons. If I have, please come back and let me know.
Richard, I hear where you are coming from.
My own personal feelings are that ‘fandom’ is getting lost in the hype (ooo, lot’s of people like this genre stuff, let’s roll out the cookie cutters for – clothing, movies, music, websites, toys, conventions…) and I don’t want to see that happen.
I don’t have the resources to cut through red tape or finance an alternative (would love to, even if it was a ’show em how it’s done’ venture). I regret the loss of history and shared community that goes along with what I know as fandom – and a big part of that is conventions run the “right” way (no real commercial interest).
I know that Worldcon can become what it ought to be; the problem with accomplishing that seems to be, mostly, the very nature of fandom itself.
My real fear over the long term is that anything and everything about fandom will be run and “controlled” by the money interests, which win most of the time anyways. I don’t want to see that happen.
These days (say, 1995-2009), there are an awful lot (that’s a specific scientific technical term) of people treat conventions as they do concerts. Buy a ticket, go watch, listen, get a souvenir, go home. They no more think about doing than you or I would of helping set up the stage and equipment for a music act. That’s somebody else’s job, right?
The thing is, there’s not (here comes the blasphemy) anything wrong with that, as long as someone DOES want to organize, plan, volunteer and do the detail work, of which there’s a ton. There’s a successful model for commercial conventions, but it’s unlikely to work for fan-based cons because commercial cons cost a lot of money and they expect profit and… you know the rest.
The smaller the con, the easier it is to put together and run, and – if can eliminate the self-importance gene from it’s DNA – the more fun for everyone it is. It’s when a group says “we want to be big, popular, respected and give prestigious awards” that things get problematic.
I’m just visiting here via someone else’s link, so forgive me an impertinent question: How much of this analysis is based on actual experience of attending media conventions or Dragon*Con? If you’ve actually met attendees who see things this way, then okay, I will respect your data points. But I’ve been to a variety of media-oriented cons over the years, and I really wouldn’t say the other fans I meet there are looking for a pre-packaged experience.
Sure, they’re willing to wait in line for 2 hours. That doesn’t mean they like waiting in line for 2 hours. It just means there’s something they’re willing to make that tradeoff for. They’ll make the best of it by getting in line as a group with their friends or bringing something to do, but that doesn’t mean that they wouldn’t really prefer, in an ideal world, to spend those 2 hours some other way and then still get into whatever event they were waiting for. They know what they like and are perfectly capable of reading the pocket program and finding it. It’s just that a huge percentage of the convention often wants to go to the same thing.
The #1 reason people go to media conventions is for the big-name stars. That’s the point of a media convention. However, I submit that the #1 reason the proto-fans who also read don’t go to anything but media conventions is that they don’t know Worldcon or its regional bretheren exist. Heck, at the really big ones, a lot of people coming in from out of town don’t even know that their own local media convention exists.