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On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish CollectivismJanuary 20, 2009 I'm just back from a wonderful, exhausting weekend at Arisia, a big SF/F fan convention up in Boston. This was my second year running the green room, and I missed pretty much all the panels and events because I was so wrapped up in keeping my own little fiefdom going. Next year I plan to get out more.At Arisia, instead of a dealer's room, there's a dealer's row: an entire floor of the hotel, where dealers turn their hotel rooms into little stores. It's really wonderful, a little fannish bazaar, and I was glad to wander around it. One of the dealer rooms was rented by a group called Hot Chicks with Books: several female writers who pooled their money and time to create a little temporary collective bookshop selling their work. A couple of the participants have said it was extremely successful and they look forward to doing it again next year and perhaps at other cons. I also walked by the outpost for Worlds Apart, a non-profit co-op game store. I was really intrigued by this, as I've been intrigued by all the other ways that people are banding together into little pockets of ad hoc collectivism in response to capitalism's recent failures. Fundraisers for musician S.J. Tucker and independent publisher Vera Nazarian raised thousands of dollars to help them handle medical bills and stave off foreclosure. When I posted on my personal journal that I was looking for a roommate for Boskone, another Boston convention coming up next month, an acquaintance invited me to stay in a room along with at least half a dozen other people who all snuggle up in order to keep costs down. The conventions themselves are masterpieces of volunteer labor; I worked harder over the past week for free than I usually do for pay. (Don't tell my boss.) None of this is new to fandom--we all help one another out this way because we always have--but it's interesting to watch it evolve as the world changes around us. The success of Hot Chicks with Books makes me wonder what a non-profit co-op genre bookstore would look like. Internet-only? Tables at conventions? Brick and mortar? What would be done with the profits? Would it work? With Borders looking to be going under, it seems well past time for independent bookstores to reinvent themselves. Perhaps this is one way to go about it. Posted by Rose Fox on January 20, 2009 | Comments (11)
January 21, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism Cheryl commented: I'm not sure that there's any mileage in a fannish bookstore as such. Holding stock and distribution are problems, and I can't see a fan group being able to compete with Amazon. A fan group with capital behind it such as NESFA can do publishing very well, but few clubs are in such a position. What fans do very well is connect readers with books, and encourage them to buy. You don't need a store to do that.
January 21, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism DMcCunney commented: Note that Dealer's Row at Arisia was born of necessity. Most conventions like Arisia have a Dealer's Room, and most hotels don't like vendors dealing from rooms. The current Arisia venue doesn't have enough function space for a Dealer's Room on top of everything else the con does, but the hotel is willing to allow the dealers to sell from rooms, and even removes furniture on request to let them better arrange their space. (I have never seen a hotel do that before, and I've been helping run cons for many years.) It works well for Arisia, but it's the exception, not the rule.
January 21, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism DDA commented: Note that Arisia has had a Dealer's Row in the Park Plaza, as well as a Dealer's Room (taking up half of the amazing Park Plaza Ballroom). As for removing the furniture, I *think* the Park Plaza would do that as well and I should point out that the Hyatt charges for that service.
January 22, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism Alana Abbott commented: I hope Worlds Apart had a great showing--they're a wonderful store/co-op, and I'm delighted to get to game with them once a month. They've provided a wonderful central location for me (a CT Shoreliner) and several of my Boston-based friends. Cheers for them! As far as the bookstore goes, I think that's a brilliant idea in a place where you have easy access to a fan base. I think a lot of bloggers are capitalizing on that as well: Deadline Dames, a group of nine urban fantasy novelists, launched just this week, League of Reluctant Adults has a great following, and Fangs Fur Fey, a livejournal community, does a great job of highlighting a huge number of urban fantasy writers and novels for a large base. I think there's a lot to be said for creating communities rather than striking it out on your own, and I think there's a lot of potential just being tapped in that arena. (Apologies if this posts twice; the captcha is giving me trouble.)
January 22, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism Alana Abbott commented: I hope Worlds Apart had a great showing--they're a wonderful store/co-op, and I'm delighted to get to game with them once a month. They've provided a wonderful central location for me (a CT Shoreliner) and several of my Boston-based friends. Cheers for them! As far as the bookstore goes, I think that's a brilliant idea in a place where you have easy access to a fan base. I think a lot of bloggers are capitalizing on that as well: Deadline Dames, a group of nine urban fantasy novelists, launched just this week, League of Reluctant Adults has a great following, and Fangs Fur Fey, a livejournal community, does a great job of highlighting a huge number of urban fantasy writers and novels for a large base. I think there's a lot to be said for creating communities rather than striking it out on your own, and I think there's a lot of potential just being tapped in that arena. (Apologies if this posts twice; the captcha is giving me trouble.)
January 22, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism Katharine E Kimbriel commented: Over twenty writers of SF, fantasy, Romance, Horror, cross-genre and YA have banded together over at www.bookviewcafe.com to offer up free works and "extra value" stuff from the writers, and also to sell electronic books that have been out of print, or are cross-overs NYC didn't know how to market. They have almost all published with big houses -- Ursula K. LeGuin, Vonda McIntyre and Laura Anne Gilman are among the group. It's their thing, more like a co-op -- and they blog at www.blog.bookviewcafe.com. It's attracting a lot of great attention -- including uploads to phones.
January 23, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism Michael Walsh commented: Some 20 plus years ago there were lots of SF specialty stores - now they can be counted using one hand. What happened was, amongst other things, the Internet. It's now possible to get your SF fix quick & easy. And frankly, for the SF specialty presses (like myself), this has been great.
June 21, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism Eremeeff commented: Greatings, Can i get a one small pic from your blog?
June 24, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism Tania commented: Hi, www.publishersweekly.com to GoogleReader!
July 9, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism Nadine commented: Hi,
July 28, 2009
In response to: On the Road: Arisia 2009, and Fannish Collectivism Rufor commented: Everything dynamic and very positively! :)
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