Thoughts on Apollocon

The Dealers Room

Authors Alley

Well, now that Apollocon is in the past and I've had a little more time to cogitate on it...not to mention let my hands settle down...I have a few thoughts on the matter.

1. The average age of the attendee was much older than I expected. This was not like the conventions of old, with teenage and college age kids dominating the demographic, while the occasional oldster was usually found to be behind a dealers table or sitting on a panel. I'm betting if you averaged all the ages of the attendees this weekend, you would end up with a number north of forty.Even a quick peek into the gamers room showed a population that I would blend in with better now than my younger days.

2. I did okay, sold a few books, and my table partner, Cherri Galbiati, did well too. Now the interesting thing here is that she is a mystery writer, and this was a scifi convention, yet she did good for herself. It would be interesting to ask her later what she remembers of the demographics of her customers. Mine were primarily male, and in their thirties. There was an exception or two, but I knew them so I'm not sure that counts.

3. I saw no kindles or other e-readers, although a couple of people professed to have them elsewhere.

4. Word was the panel of authors views on ereaders was surprisingly negative. I notice though that a couple of authors on that panel were New York published. I wonder if there is a relationship? Probably so since I can't picture small press authors bemoaning the effects of ereaders on hardbacks.That's hardly a consideration in my calculus, that's for sure.

5. I also have a few thougthts on cost, but I'll save that for another post.

Overall, the most interesting part of this convention was sitting on the other side of the authors table. When I first attended conventions, back in the eighties, I thought authors were those people who descended from their places on high to sit on panels and benevolently share their lofty opinions on things with us little people. Then they graciously showed up in the dealers room afterwards so we could bask in their glory and get an autographed copy of their latest masterpiece.

Now I've learned it ain't exaclty like that. Oh well, that's what happens when you actually chase a dream and catch it. It turns into real life. But that's okay. It's still all good.