[Writing Post] ConDFW and Entitlement

Rant Warning Ahead:

It’s Wednesday. It’s a short week for me – taking off Friday for a 4-Day weekend (Monday is a Federal Holiday and the city has it off, YAY!) – that just means more stuff in less time. Yay?

CONDFW…
Let’s talk about ConDFW. It’s a small convention, very literary. I <3 this convention. Always have. Always will. I’m hoping they can keep it together. I like the layout of the new hotel. Plenty of places to hang out and gather and talk. The sleeping/party rooms/consuite was a minor hike but not unpleasant. The hallway outside the panel room could get congested but you knew where ALL the panels were because they were on ONE hall. The restaurant course corrected (I’m told) after being (predictably) understaffed on Friday. [asa]1940699142[/asa] It’s a great convention for meeting up with other writers and recharging creative batteries. In fact, I’m now under a tight deadline because something came up AT THE CONVENTION. We also pre-launched Debris & Detrius to a lovely response. Which leads to the sticking point… Fan Entitlement.
One of the authors was apparently told she failed as a con-goer because she failed to give someone her full attention during a group signing. Um…what? NO. Stop. Halt. Back the Entitlement Truck up. 1) She’s an AUTHOR not a con-goer. She’s there doing a JOB not just hanging out. 2) She’s a HUMAN BEING not a robot. 3) YOU are not the center of the universe, cupcake.

The situation was weird – group signing, no defined system for getting 5-7 people to sign books, so there were crossing paths and people hanging out and like THREE conversations going on at the same time. It was (good) chaos. So if you got your delicate feelings hurt, you have to take some of the responsibility for that. You picked the chaos to approach. And DUDE, by dumping some kind of YOU SUCK on an author struggling to be extroverted when most authors are cave-dwelling introverts? You’ve done a lot more damage than you perceive to have been dumped on you. NOT COOL. ALSO? You may think you’re being all “constructive” but that’s passive-aggressive bull, you don’t know how many POSITIVE comments it takes to undo that kind of damage. ALSO? We are not there for YOU. We’re there for the collective. It’s PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE to give Every. Single. Person. 100% of our attention 100% of the time. Deal.

Also consider other aspects of timing – my Saturday Schedule had me on programming at 10 am, Noon, 2 pm, 4 pm, and 8 pm. But Rhonda, that gives you an hour to be sparkling and shiny to all the fans of the world. NO. No it doesn’t. At some points in there I had to 1) pee, 2) eat lunch and/or dinner, 3) get into formal wear for Redheads, 4) get OUT of formal wear, and 5) SELL BOOKS. I was “on” and performing – with a personal issue in there that we won’t get into – for almost 11 hours straight that day. At one point I thought I’d HALLUCINATED AN EMAIL because it disappeared into another folder, that’s how scattered I was trying to make everyone happy and be the dazzling professional (stop laughing). So before anyone judges anyone else, take a step back, take a breath, and realize 99% of the time, it’s not about you.

Sorry for the rant, but it has to be said. Now… I have a deadline to meet.

Tags: ConDFW, Conventions, deadlines, entitlement, human beings