A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege to attend Worldcon 2024 in Glasgow! It’s taken me a little time to recover from what was ultimately a massive and overwhelming event – my first Worldcon after all – but I absolutely loved getting to meet other indie authors, and wow! Did they show up!
So here’s a little overview of how Worldcon went and what indie authors were getting up to.
The Free Library
After arriving at the SEC hosting Worldcon in Glasgow and registering for my pass, my first port of call was the free library! This was an incredibly ambitious and generous project ran by Palmer Pickering, indie author of SPFBO semi-finalist Heliotrope, and litrpg adventure Dark Town. Indie authors from across the globe could directly mail copies of their books to Palmer, who arranged for them to be placed on library-like shelves in the centre of the dealer’s hall and community stalls. Others authors like myself brought in books with them and could place them, along with flyers and bookmarks, for guests of the con to peruse and take with them. And I certainly had fun carrying a bunch of heavy books across Glasgow.
Thanks to Palmer’s efforts, the free library was a resounding success! Books that were placed there didn’t last long! They were flying off the shelves, quite literally, which meant lots of new readers now have some fantastic indie books to read.
In fact, the free library did so well, Palmer is hoping to bring it to Worldcon 2025 in Seattle!
Ribbons!
Ribbon chasing was the hot topic of Worldcon. I had no idea what the ribbon discussion was about at first, but many stalls were handing out ribbons that could then be attached to your pass. They became a great collectors item as folk were adding more and more ribbons, effectively turning their pass into a long scarf!
Thanks again to Palmer Pickering for bringing indie-themed ribbons to Worldcon, including “Indie Proud – We are the future” and a specially designed SPFBO ribbon with the SPFBO logo! While I didn’t collect as many ribbons as some, I’m super happy with my ribbons!
Indie Author Stalls and Small Presses
There were many indie authors and small presses at Worldcon running their own stalls and selling books. Some held book launches during Worldcon, including J. E. Hannaford’s new cozy fantasy, Unfamiliared, and the incredibly queer I Want That Twink OBLITERATED! by Bona Books – which sold out of books ahead of their official launch!
My favourite stall was A. K. Faulkner’s, author of Jack of Thorns, and if you look VEEERY carefully you can see the giant tentacles of Bona Books in the background:
I spent hours (no kidding) just walking the dealer’s hall which was absolutely stuffed full of stalls, and not just books, though naturally I ended up buying a lot of indie books! Some other familiar small presses were Guard Bridge Books, Flame Tree Press, Luna Press, New Dawn Publishing, Space Wizards Science Fantasy, and more.
Hanging out by The Broken Binding
While there were lots of bars to hang out at and socialize, the cool place for indie authors to hang out and meet was by The Broken Binding’s stall. If you’re unfamiliar with The Broken Binding, they are a UK-based bookstore who produce signed and special editions of fantasy books, including indie authors. They had a few indie books on sale at their stall, including special editions of The Iron Crown by L. L. MacRae and hardcover copies of Mushroom Blues by Adrian Gibson. I picked up my copies and was excited to meet both of the above authors in person AND get my books signed!
Here are just some of the books I grabbed along the way. By the end of Worldcon, my haul was thirteen new books!
Quite a few familiar names and faces popped up at The Broken Binding stall, including the creator of SPFBO itself, Mark Lawrence.
The Self-Publishing Panel
Indie authors appeared on a variety of panels through Worldcon, but the big one for me was this: How the Rise of Self-publishing Is Changing the SFF Landscape. Moderated by David Wake, panellists included indie author Ryan Cahill and Claire E. Jones, editor George Sandison, and the head of publishing at Kickstarter, Oriana Leckert. It was a packed panel and I recognized many of my fellow indie authors in the audience.
The panel discussed the growth of indie and self-publishing and how going indie now feels more legitimate and is a viable business option. They also spoke of the dangers of vanity presses (money should always go TO the author, never give money to a company who promises to publish your book for you!) and the importance of asking yourself what you personally want from YOUR publishing journey and whether self-publishing is for you. The panellists see hybrid publishing as the potential future of publishing, combining the best of both indie and trad publishing worlds.
If you happen to have a ticket for Worldcon, then you can watch a replay of the panel yourself for all that publishing insight.
Seen at Worldcon
So who did I meet at Worldcon? I so was so lucky to bump into A. K. Faulkner, Adrian Gibson, David Green, J. E. Hannaford, Joao F. Silva, Joseph John lee, L. L. MacRae, Lucy A. McLaren, Niranjan, Palmer Pickering, Patrick Samphire, Phil Williams, P.L. Stuart, Ryan Cahill, Rob J. Hayes, Tessa Hastjarjanto, Tim Hardie, Tao Wong, Virginia McClain, and William C. Tracy! It was also fantastic to meet Rowena Andrews of Beneath a Thousand Skies blog and the Terrible Timy from Queen’s Book Asylum. I spotted many more authors and bloggers between panels that I sadly didn’t get chance to speak to because Worldcon was so busy! Maybe next time!
Did you get a chance to attend Worldcon? Let us know in the comments!
