There was this lopsided conversation at Rockaway about SF conventions, and about writers going to them to do or to not do business, and the difference between fan and fan (those links are a little off, but you get the idea), and all like that. I say “lopsided” because started to go pear-shaped, mostly on account of it being Sunday afternoon of a very long weekend, I think . . . Anyhow, there’s apparently this discussion springing up on the subject of advice to writers attending conventions. Some of it would give me a headache if I didn’t have one already, but Michelle Sagara says one thing that is fairly close to something I meant to say at Rockaway, and didn’t:

I think it comes down to this: I don’t do anything that doesn’t look like fun. This goes for everything at a Worldcon, including talking to editors. If it’s not fun to speak with a specific editor? I don’t do it. I am guaranteed to get away from home once a year, and even if it’s in theory for business reasons I’m selfish enough not to want to spend that time putting on a fake smile and pretending I’m enjoying something I’m not. If it’s fun to speak with an editor, even if I think there’s no chance I’d ever submit to them (or that they’d ask <wry g>), I speak with the editor. Ditto pretty much everything else at a convention.

That’s what it comes down to: Nothing that doesn’t look like fun. The writing itself is enough work. If the rest of it isn’t fun, you seriously have to ask yourself what’s the point of it all.