Authors boycott non-paying festivals

[Jo Zebedee]

You are absolutely right. But where nobody else is getting paid then it's a different matter.

On the other hand, I wouldn't personally do panels at a convention where I wasn't at least getting two weekend memberships out of it. We all have our limits when it comes to what we will do without any recompense at all.

Whereas I'm happy to pay the membership on the spec of a panel place I might not get (to be fair, I have a lot planned for the weekend, including meeting some of the military sf guys who've been supportive - and I'm listed as a British author of note in a new book for military sf, so that was lovely news over the weekend - and some Chronners, so I'm going for more than just exposure.)

Your top or bottom line is affected by where you're at, career wise, I think.

 

[E.Maree]

I used to do a lot of events for "exposure", and lost a lot of time, energy and money in the process. I wasn't employed back then, and didn't really put a price on my time. These days, with a full-time day job, I'm not going to a commercial event unless it can match how much money I'd lose by taking the time off work. (The Society of Authors guideline rates are great for this.)

If it's a not-for-profit event like conventions that I'm already going to, I'm fine to go for no payment. Same with libraries in areas with heavy budget cuts, and local schools without a strong budget for guests.

 

[Boneman]

Great article by Nick Cohen. It is confounding - as a newly published writer I'd go to a convention/festival for exactly the reasons he quoted - exposure in the programme, let people get to know me, hope it got me noticed, which turned into book sales etc. The difference is at conventions I'll go to loads of other panels (I sat in the audience next to Joe Abercrombie once! - too frightened to actually engage him in conversation) walk the booksellers, meet other chronners and generally have a good time. When I'm a best seller,(!) and my name is used to attract an audience (the audience who buy my books) I'll do the same. Should I be paid for the latter? Accomodation, travel and passes definitely, but a fee? As Jo said above....

Can't make my mind up, I'll let you know when it happens.

 

[Toby Frost]

I agree that it’s not entirely clear-cut. Somewhere along the line, you (and I) as a new or small-scale writer need to decide why you are doing an event and what you intend to get out of it, which should inform whether or not you expect to be paid. I’ve been to steampunk events where I know friends there and have a good time, and I don’t mind not being paid for that, especially if I can sell books. I also wouldn’t mind doing some smaller SF conventions for free if I knew people there. But anything much more than a day at a convention and I tend to find that they go on a bit, and it starts to feel like promotional work. At that point, I would be thinking “Why exactly am I doing this for free?” But that’s very much a decision for the individual.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've always gone to conventions because I wanted to -- they're fun, they're good for networking, etc. -- so doing a couple of panels to get in free always made conventions more affordable. Plus if I was doing panels I could get the exposure, promote my books, etc. For something where I was planning to pay the greater expenses -- travel, room, food -- whether I was chosen to do panels or not, this seemed like a good deal.

 

[aThenian]

It's maybe worth noting that some authors will be making a lot more for a festival than others. A headline author will bring in the crowds, and their event will make a lot of money - a less known author will probably be a loss-maker for the festival. A lot of literary festivals (those that do pay) pay their authors a flat rate which means effectively the big names are subsidising the newbies/niche authors. This seems a pretty good model to me - shows a bit of author solidarity - but it does rely on the big names not pushing to get paid their market rate.

 

[MWagner]

Philip Pullman caused a stir this week by resigning as patron of the Oxford Literary Festival - because they refuse to pay anything to attending authors:

Pullman was recently beating the drum about the looming extinction of professional writing as a viable career.

Philip Pullman: professional writers set to become 'an endangered species'

It's good to see a prominent author use his profile and take this stuff seriously.

 

[Brian G Turner]

It's good to see a prominent author use his profile and take this stuff seriously.

That's a great piece - I've copied your post over to start a new thread on that here:
Philip Pullman: writers deserve bigger royalties

 

[J Riff]

Yes - play for the love. Put in the ten thousand hours, pay for the rentals, rooms, gear, strings, get five people together twice a week, travel, even fly around, babysitters... it's not a real 'job' because - 'so many people want to do it.'
Resist! It's too late for me.... here... (coff*) but, you can make it... just hold true to your ideals... values, artistic sensibilities and... eat at the food bank forever. *
Music biz is too upsetting, sorry, shouldn't talk, will stop now, nevermind. Feel the love radiating from the few who can afford to be succesful, and - *

 

[Brian G Turner]

I know it's been said that fan conventions should be regarded as excepted from author fees - but Worldcon - Loncon 3 in 2014 - charged £105 for a weekend membership, and Wikipedia records an official attendance figure of over 10,000.

Now, not every attendee bought a weekend pass - but even if you take the physical attendance of 8,000 and charge a single day entrance ticket of £20, we are still talking about a minimum revenue of £150,000 - but probably closed to over half a million.

There is no way that the costs covered only expenses - I'm struggling to see this as anything other than a business.