AggieCon post-mortem

With the debut of Buzzy Mag, I got sidetracked and didn't mention anything about my visit to AggieCon this weekend. I barely spent 24 hours in College Station - I arrived Saturday at 5:30 p.m. and was on the road back to Mount Pleasant by 3 p.m. I had to work a half-day Saturday, which is what led to the late start.

Both panels, the one Saturday night and the one Sunday morning, were enjoyable. I think both had maybe a half dozen people at each. The literary track at this con was pretty insipid, it was obvious the con was geared much more towards fandom. The students running it were nice as could be, but there were only three authors on each panel I was on, and both times Katy Stauber was the second panelist. Tom Knowles was the third on Saturday and Martha Wells on Sunday. The people who attended the panels seemed to enjoy them.

I visited both the ArmadilloCon and Fencon room parties Saturday night. They were also sparsely attended.

There was an authors table at the very back of the dealers' room. Most of the time I was there with only a couple of other people. The dealers' room really showed the focus of the con, I think there was maybe one vendor selling books, his own. I sold and signed a couple of books myself.

For the amount of time I spent, I'm happy. I'm also grateful they comped my room. But they should think about either beefing up the literary track, or dropping it. Word of mouth is not going to encourage authors in the future.