SHERI SINGERLING

As the title implies, I’m still very much a neophyte when it comes to attending cons. I don’t mean attending them as a published author. I mean attending them period. I never had anything against cons. There were just always other things to do or money considerations or pandemic nonsense. In short, for the 35 years that I lived in the US, I never got around to attending a convention of any flavor, book or otherwise. Funny how I’ve decided to change that only after moving to Germany, where English-language book cons aren’t terribly common.

Fantasticon

Fast forward to May 2025, and I was all set to attend my first book con and as a published author to boot. I bought a small hoard of author copies of Nytho, hopped on the train, and 10+ hours later rolled into Copenhagen. I was attending my first convention, Fantasticon, the biggest speculative fiction book convention in Denmark. I couldn’t have gone to a better con for my first one. It was the perfect size, clocking in at about 100–150 attendees, which made it much easier to get to know people. It didn’t hurt that everyone was so friendly, which the Danish are famously known for being.

I managed to keep myself quite busy between serving on a panel about non-human intelligences in fiction, doing an author reading from Nytho, and manning my table in the dealer room. I sold 9 copies of Nytho which is actually quite good, especially given the smaller size of the con. To be clear, I don’t go to conventions to make money. I most certainly lose money when you take the train, hotel, food, ticket, and table costs into account, but that’s okay. I view conventions as a way to find other people in my community, to get to know other writers and readers, to get inspired, to share ideas. Writing can be a lonely affair. Heck, being a creative sometimes feels like a strange form of self-torture, so it’s always nice to find your people, the ones who share your passion and pain. Book cons give me a boost in morale, which is always welcome.

Fantasticon was also a good length, running from Saturday through Sunday with an informal meetup Friday evening as well. It was just enough interaction to boost my morale, but not too much to risk wearing my autistic self down. I’ve kept in touch with a few of the other attendees, one of which is my good author friend, Liv Strom. Her and I have started coordinating our cons to try and attend the same ones. It’s always much less harrowing to brave the chaos of large gatherings when you know you’ll see at least one friendly face.

As Fantasticon was my first convention, I had my husband tag along. He helped man my table during my program items, which was a relief. He was also curious to visit Copenhagen so we turned it into a long weekend trip. It’s a cool city, and I loved the abundance of bike traffic. That being said, Copenhagen is expensive. It doesn’t help that the Danish krone is so dang strong compared to the euro. I would really love to attend Fantasticon again, but I’ll have to be extra thrifty next time.

LunCon/SweCon

Now that I’ve finished gushing over Fantasticon, I’m going to don my critic cap as we turn to my second book convention, LunCon/SweCon. This was Sweden’s biggest speculative fiction book convention, and it took place in Lund (hence the LunCon in the name). LunCon took place about four to five months after Fantasticon. I did the same routine of buying author copies, this time of the two novels I had published at that point, Nytho and Neuen, then took a longer series of trains 14+ hours to Lund.

I don’t have the exact numbers for the size of LunCon, but it seemed a bit larger than Fantasticon. Unfortunately, this resulted in me feeling much more like an outsider. I’m not the most social person, but I do know how to strike up a conversation in situations like these. I did so a few times, but they mostly kind of petered out. This might be a cultural difference, as Swedes are often said to be more insular. It did feel like not much effort was made to welcome newcomers, unlike the case with Fantasticon. It’s not that anyone was rude, far from it. I just didn’t feel terribly at ease. And there may have been a reason for that related to my other big compliant for the convention—not letting the dealers man their tables.

That’s right. They let us sell our books, even put our books on a table as we normally would, but we were not allowed to stand behind or even near the tables. It was doubly confusing because in their emails explaining the situation, I misunderstood and thought they would be putting our books on bookshelves. Imagine my surprise when I arrived and saw that I had an actual table. Too bad I hadn’t prepared for that and brought things like my About the Author flyer. I literally just had my books and had to awkwardly arrange them on an otherwise blank table. It looked sad. Any surprise then that I sold a total of 3 books? It didn’t help that I didn’t get on any panels or that the author readings were not publicized well. My author reading slot included 5 other authors, and we were a total of 8 people in the room. One of the attendees even had to ask if she was allowed in as she thought maybe only the authors were allowed to read to each other. Oh boy, that’s some epic failure in communication.

All that to say, the experience soured fairly quickly for me. I spent some time attending program items, but many were lectures or interviews rather than panels, and I prefer the dynamic of the latter. Most of the convention consisted of me and my friend Liv (the same one from Fantasticon) hanging out and lamenting. To be fair, I should say that the convention was well organized and in a great venue. I also had some lovely conversations with folks. Still, LunCon didn’t give me a boost in morale. In fact, it did the opposite. As such, I don’t see myself attending again, not given all the time and costs associated with traveling from Germany.

EasterCon

With 2025 in the rearview window, I set my sights on what 2026 had in store. It would/will see me attend two large conventions. I had gotten my feet wet with Fantasticon and LunCon. Now, it was time to jump into the deep end. First up was Eastercon, the largest speculative fiction book convention in the UK, held every year on Easter weekend, hence the name. Eastercon routinely sees 800–1200 attendees. This year saw >900!

As with LunCon, I decided to travel alone to be thrifty. I was resolved to go by train to reduce my carbon emissions—about 30 (train) vs 140 (plane) kg CO2. Eastercon took place in Birmingham and was also the longest of the book cons I had gone to, starting in earnest on Friday afternoon and ending on Monday afternoon. I think the long stints in the dealer’s room wore me down more than I realized. That being said, it was so nice getting to connect with readers again and actually being able to tell them about my work and learn about their interests. This time I had three books to sell, Nytho, Neuen, and my newest release Blessed is the Rot. Eastercon was wildly successful for me in terms of sales, totaling 17 books sold with Nytho selling out completely, including the hardcover mostly meant for display.

I also got to serve on two panels this time, one of which focused on neurodivergence and own voices, the other of which was about AI (robot overlords). Both were a lot of fun and well moderated. They were also recorded, which represented another first for me and good practice further settling into my author skin. The only downside was the two panels were back-to-back, with only 30 mins between them. It’s fair to say I was sufficiently brain dead for the robot overlords discussion. Hopefully, I made some kind of sense in my responses.

All-in-all, Eastercon was a blast. It was yet another book convention where I got to see some familiar faces and meet new ones. I think one of the highlights for me was an in-depth discussion my author friend, Liv, and I had in the bar about our books. I remember asking her about her recently finished draft of her latest novel. She answered in broad strokes, probably so used to people not wanting too much detail and being only mildly interested or asking from a place of politeness. But we’re both authors, so I proceeded to probe for details. She lit up and gushed about her story. I asked for more and more until she’d basically given me the gist of it all. I’m hooked. Needless to say, I’ll be reading it once it’s published. But it’s conversations like these that are so magical. Finding others who have this same love for the craft is special. As I said, writing can be lonely, but book cons help us find one another, those also deep in the trenches, filled with self-doubt but too stubborn to give in.

What’s in Store?

“Wait a minute,” you might say, “2026 isn’t over yet, and you mentioned attending two big conventions this year.” Right you are, but my second book con won’t be until early July. That one will be Eurocon, a Europe-wide speculative fiction convention that will take place in Berlin. I already have a table booked and am slated to appear in three panels, one of which will include my favorite short fiction editor, Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld Magazine.

Things will pick back up in September when I attend my first book fair Klischee, which will take place in Darmstadt, Germany. This is actually quite close to me, and I can take the train for free with my Hessen train pass that I get through my university job. As such, I only had to pay for the table. I figured this would be a good test for seeing how much demand there is for my English-language books in the German market. If it’s a flop, no harm done, and I know to focus on events and countries where the focus is English. If it’s a success, I can start branching out to events further afield but still close enough to save on some travel costs.

For the long term, I would love to attend a Worldcon. The one in 2027 (Montreal) looks appealing as does the 2029 one (Dublin). There are a few other promising book conventions in the UK and Ireland that I’d like to check out. Finland’s Finncon has a stellar reputation and is somehow free, so that’s high on my list given most Scandinavians read in English. I’m sure there are also plenty of great cons in other English-speaking countries. Australia and New Zealand are, unfortunately, too far, and I would have a very hard time justifying the emissions from those flights to my inner eco-warrior. Canada and the US are more likely options since I have family in the US that I will, at some point, visit. For now though, I’m happy to keep things simple and relatively relaxed. Maybe I’ll even see some of you at one?