Balticon: Was it worth it?

I’m not a social media person.

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram—all those platforms made me miserable. The way they encouraged me to chase after “likes,” waste my time doomscrolling, curating content to wind me up—it was like an infection.

So I quit them all. And I’ve never looked back.

However, as an indie writer, I do need some way of “putting myself out there,” so to speak. Because how is anyone going to hear about my books?

I don’t have a big publisher backing me with a publicity or PR team eager to put my name out there. I’m doing this solo. (Although—if you talk to some big-publisher authors, most of them will say they don’t get that support either.)

So one of the big challenges is that there are just so many books out there. According to one estimate, there’s more than 7,000 new books coming out on Amazon each day. Which means the chance of people just randomly stumbling across my work is incredibly low.

Thankfully, one of the things I do like to do is talk to people about dorky stuff. Especially the stuff that inspires my stories. Science fiction. Fantasy. Anime. RPGs. Philosophy. Language. Literature.

You know—the fun stuff! But where do you find people who are into all that dorky stuff?

One answer: Fan conventions.

Now, I’ve never thought of myself as a fan convention person. But it turned out that I had another work thing in Bethesda, Maryland at the end of May and I saw that Balticon was being held the weekend before. So I decided to give it a go. Check out the scene. Try to talk to folks. Sit in on some panel discussions. Hopefully meet a few nice people. Try to start networking and building a community the old-fashioned way.

Even though I’m an introverted person, meeting and talking to people IRL sounded way more appealing to me than doing anything on social media.

So I went.

It cost me around a thousand dollars all in. Registration ($80), flight ($180), hotel for four nights ($500), food ($120), printing up some fun business cards ($30).

Was it worth it?

Yes! Absolutely.

I would say if you are an indie writer like me, and anywhere in the Baltimore area, it is worth going. There will be interesting panels and events and things. You will meet nice people. You will experience some nice vibes. You will find fun, new things to read.

You may even come away with some book sales! For example, just from chatting with other authors and handing out my contact info, I got about 4-5 sales. Which, you know, are not big numbers—but like I said, I’m just starting out. No one knows who I am. So this is just from making a connection with people and making a positive enough impression that they were willing to give my books a shot.

After having checked out the “Dealers Rooms,” as they called them, I also came away thinking that in future years, I definitely want to get a table, put together a display, and try my hand at inviting more folks into the world I’ve created. This is how I met Ben Pick and Rod Van Blake and why I picked up copies of their books.

Listening to a panel about genre-mashing (strengths, weaknesses, strategies) is where I heard the award-winning Samantha Mills talk about her work (which was all new to me), and I was so impressed, that I signed up to attend her kaffeeklatsch later at the con—and had the chance to hear her talk some more about her process and her new book.

And one particularly surprising thing: Each morning, before the events kicked off, I was working on my new book and was able to draft chapters that I was very happy with.

This is quite unusual, as I have often found it hard to write away from home. But I think maybe spending all day surrounded by all the SFF vibes and other authors was helpful for getting those creative juices flowing.

So all in all: I thought Balticon was super fun. I am so glad I went. I look forward to going again.

And it seems like connecting the old-fashioned way still works.