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The GCLS conference is a combination industry conference and reader/fan convention for the lesbian publishing industry. I’d been vaguely aware of the organization previously since it turned up in my background research when I was considering publishers for Daughter of Mystery. (I figured that producing award-winning books was a good criterion to consider when submitting and the “Goldies” are a Big Deal in lesbian fiction.) But it wasn’t an event I’d considered attending until I actually had a book out. This was a good choice because it’s the sort of event where I would have been lost and miserable without a “job” to keep me focused.
The parallels and contrasts with a science-fiction convention are interesting. GCLS is a bit more skewed towards industry professionals (as opposed to readers/fans) than a typical SF con and the logistics remind me more of business conferences in being designed to keep people socializing as a group (e.g., box lunches, single focal social events for evening programming). This set the conference fee more at worldcon levels in contrast with the size of the event being more like a small regional con (ca. 300 members).
Like SF fandom, GCLS perceives itself to be very open, friendly, and welcoming to newcomers; and like SF fandom it can very easily give the impression of being a collection of closed circles who all already know each other. (I think of this as the contrast between "we're like a family reunion" and "it's like attending someone else's family reunion.") Out of the 300 attendees, I had previously met 4 face-to-face (not counting my girlfriend, who joined me for the event): my publisher, a couple who live in the Bay Area and had come to one of my readings (in fact, who had recommended me to the bookstore that held the reading), and a woman for whom I’d done historic name consultations ages ago that I’d recently reconnected with (and discovered to my delight that the book I’d helped with is published now).
Programming was quite similar to sf cons: panel discussions of writing-related topics, readings, meet-the-author and signing sessions, keynote speeches, and an awards ceremony (at which I got to represent one of the absent award-winners, which was fun). But there didn't seem to be as much casual book/writing-related discussion outside of programming. I volunteered for programming and got included in one of the reading sessions. (Each author got a 5-minute slot, so sort of like the Broad Universe rapid-fire readings.)
Since I'd taken the option of selling my own books from my publisher's dealer’s table (rather than having the common bookseller carry them) I spent an hour or two each day behind the table and sold 6 copies (plus one strategic gift). That seems to be reasonably good sales for the event -- and at least twice that many people mentioned to me that they had already bought/read it. I’d included a chapbook of my previously-unpublished Alpennian short story “Three Nights at the Opera” in the freebie-bags and had hoped that would entice a few more interactions. (I think I only signed three or four.) But the chapbook was mostly intended to see if I could hook some new readers long-term. My genre niche isn’t particularly well populated in the lesbian fiction world and I’m having to be as creative in getting those readers to give me a try as I am getting traditional fantasy readers to look past the whole lesbian press thing.
It was great to meet some of my fellow Bella Books authors, as well as meeting my editor, Katherine V. Forrest, in person for the first time. (Though I didn’t manage more than a bare introduction -- she was a bit too busy to actually have time to chat.) I had a very productive business discussion with Bella’s aquisitions editor Karin Kallmaker covering various topics that were a bit complex to discuss in e-mail. And my fan-girl highlight of the event was -- by pure chance -- being seated next to Ann Bannon at the mass autographing session and having a chance to chat long enought that I got up my courage to ask if she’d accept a copy of Daughter of Mystery as a gift. (She did.) Don’t know if she’ll read it, but I can always dream that she’ll say nice things about it to other people.
I didn’t go to GCLS with the expectation of making new friends -- I know myself better than that. I’ve fit faces to a number of the names I’ve been seeing on social media and book covers, and next year there will be a larger number of people where I’ll be starting from “have met in person previously.” I had three lovely dinner conversations: two with people I’d met before the conference and one the very first evening (before Lauri arrived) when it seemed all my efforts to avoid dining alone were going to fail and I’d gotten as far as ordering dinner before being invited to join another table. The final brunch on Sunday also turned up a delightful conversation, including a couple from Australia who’d been road-tripping for a while before the conference.
Casual socializing, though, was not a high point in general. Providing box lunches to eat in the main social/vendors space should have been a useful social lubricant, but it was a nut I couldn’t crack. Standing there with lunchbox in hand and scanning the room hopefully for open seats failed to procure any invitations to join existing groups. Outside of meals, interactions with people mostly happened when I was sitting behind the dealer’s table and could put on my Salesperson Mask and accost shoppers. Without that context, most people didn’t seem interested in talking to people they didn’t already know.
GCLS 2015 in New Orleans is already on my calendar and I have hopes of being able to contribute more substantially to the programming (as well as hopes of doing the nail-biting at the awards ceremony for my own book and not just by proxy).
The parallels and contrasts with a science-fiction convention are interesting. GCLS is a bit more skewed towards industry professionals (as opposed to readers/fans) than a typical SF con and the logistics remind me more of business conferences in being designed to keep people socializing as a group (e.g., box lunches, single focal social events for evening programming). This set the conference fee more at worldcon levels in contrast with the size of the event being more like a small regional con (ca. 300 members).
Like SF fandom, GCLS perceives itself to be very open, friendly, and welcoming to newcomers; and like SF fandom it can very easily give the impression of being a collection of closed circles who all already know each other. (I think of this as the contrast between "we're like a family reunion" and "it's like attending someone else's family reunion.") Out of the 300 attendees, I had previously met 4 face-to-face (not counting my girlfriend, who joined me for the event): my publisher, a couple who live in the Bay Area and had come to one of my readings (in fact, who had recommended me to the bookstore that held the reading), and a woman for whom I’d done historic name consultations ages ago that I’d recently reconnected with (and discovered to my delight that the book I’d helped with is published now).
Programming was quite similar to sf cons: panel discussions of writing-related topics, readings, meet-the-author and signing sessions, keynote speeches, and an awards ceremony (at which I got to represent one of the absent award-winners, which was fun). But there didn't seem to be as much casual book/writing-related discussion outside of programming. I volunteered for programming and got included in one of the reading sessions. (Each author got a 5-minute slot, so sort of like the Broad Universe rapid-fire readings.)
Since I'd taken the option of selling my own books from my publisher's dealer’s table (rather than having the common bookseller carry them) I spent an hour or two each day behind the table and sold 6 copies (plus one strategic gift). That seems to be reasonably good sales for the event -- and at least twice that many people mentioned to me that they had already bought/read it. I’d included a chapbook of my previously-unpublished Alpennian short story “Three Nights at the Opera” in the freebie-bags and had hoped that would entice a few more interactions. (I think I only signed three or four.) But the chapbook was mostly intended to see if I could hook some new readers long-term. My genre niche isn’t particularly well populated in the lesbian fiction world and I’m having to be as creative in getting those readers to give me a try as I am getting traditional fantasy readers to look past the whole lesbian press thing.
It was great to meet some of my fellow Bella Books authors, as well as meeting my editor, Katherine V. Forrest, in person for the first time. (Though I didn’t manage more than a bare introduction -- she was a bit too busy to actually have time to chat.) I had a very productive business discussion with Bella’s aquisitions editor Karin Kallmaker covering various topics that were a bit complex to discuss in e-mail. And my fan-girl highlight of the event was -- by pure chance -- being seated next to Ann Bannon at the mass autographing session and having a chance to chat long enought that I got up my courage to ask if she’d accept a copy of Daughter of Mystery as a gift. (She did.) Don’t know if she’ll read it, but I can always dream that she’ll say nice things about it to other people.
I didn’t go to GCLS with the expectation of making new friends -- I know myself better than that. I’ve fit faces to a number of the names I’ve been seeing on social media and book covers, and next year there will be a larger number of people where I’ll be starting from “have met in person previously.” I had three lovely dinner conversations: two with people I’d met before the conference and one the very first evening (before Lauri arrived) when it seemed all my efforts to avoid dining alone were going to fail and I’d gotten as far as ordering dinner before being invited to join another table. The final brunch on Sunday also turned up a delightful conversation, including a couple from Australia who’d been road-tripping for a while before the conference.
Casual socializing, though, was not a high point in general. Providing box lunches to eat in the main social/vendors space should have been a useful social lubricant, but it was a nut I couldn’t crack. Standing there with lunchbox in hand and scanning the room hopefully for open seats failed to procure any invitations to join existing groups. Outside of meals, interactions with people mostly happened when I was sitting behind the dealer’s table and could put on my Salesperson Mask and accost shoppers. Without that context, most people didn’t seem interested in talking to people they didn’t already know.
GCLS 2015 in New Orleans is already on my calendar and I have hopes of being able to contribute more substantially to the programming (as well as hopes of doing the nail-biting at the awards ceremony for my own book and not just by proxy).
