Re: Norwescon & Album Sales

Oh, good grief.

If the Dealers' Liaison wants to be truly and genuinely consistent, then several other common forms of con-commerce also need to be outlawed:

# the art show and art auction
# authors who bring stacks of their own books to sell

     (either at autograph tables, panels, or out of rooms)
# authors who charge for autographs (of course, most

     of the SF/F authors who do this donate the proceeds
     to charity, but principle is principle)


  # selling of memberships, T-shirts, and other stuff by


     other conventions at fan tables and/or bid parties


  # the activities of "fang merchants" who will fit you with


     vampire teeth in the privacy of their hotel rooms


  # sale of fanzines in the fanzine room (if any; not all


     cons have one of these)


  # sale of game products by game companies at their


     exhibit tables or during game events (I don't
     suppose anyone's running a sealed-deck Magic
     tournament at Norwescon, are they?)


  # photographers who take pictures of costumers after


     the masquerade, then turn around and sell the
     photos to all comers


  # any sort of fund-raising auction (such as those often


     held for Clarion West, or SFWA's Emergency
     Medical Fund, etc.)

I will bet you that one or two of these *have* been outlawed, but no sane concom is likely to want to (or be able to) stamp out all of the above. This is, in a word, anal-retentive. (Frankly, I would pitch the art show/auction as the strongest parallel--artists are allowed a dedicated space to exhibit *and sell* their work; musicians should be entitled to the same consideration. To allow one and disallow the other is discrimination based on one's chosen medium of creative expression. Granted, art shows do charge for panel space--but on the flip side of that, we don't charge authors
for the privilege of coming to cons and promoting their books.)

I am somewhat amused by the "reserved filk table" compromise. There are a couple of easy ways to gerrymander this one--for next year's con, the filk coordinator need only persuade the concom that a modest budget increase is required for filk programming, and then take the cost of the filk table out of that budget. (If one wants to be subtle, one can undoubtedly arrange for a Front Person to launder the funds so that it looks as if the table is being paid for from outside the con.) Then, come next year's Norwescon, one simply rigs up a Nifty Sign for the Filk Table which says something to the effect of "Staff Is Out Entertaining The Masses; Buy Albums At Upstairs Annex During Concerts"--and don't worry about manning the main table.

This will, of course, infuriate the dealers even more, because the concom has deprived some other worthy entrepreneur of the chance to separate wealthy fans from their hard-earned coin. But in granting even that much compromise, it seems to me that the concom is essentially recognizing that the musicians *do* have the right to sell albums--and if they are going to do so at all, they might as well give in all the way.

Mind you, I do sort of see where the Dealers' Liaison is coming from. If I were going to write an overall convention policy about what's permissible in that line, it might say something to the effect that no goods or services are to be sold outside the Dealers' Room EXCEPT for those that fall under one of two categories:

1. an author or other creative artist selling his or her own work in connection with an announced program item in which he or she is a participant
2. a recognized nonprofit organization selling merchandise or memberships in support of its stated purpose, provided such sales occur at times and/or places approved by the concom (i.e. at an assigned table, an officially hosted bid party or a scheduled auction)

There might be wrinkles to iron out in that, notably since not all cons are run by nonprofit groups, but it would be a sane start at a workable policy.

• John C. Bunnell
• JCBunnell at sff.net

 "You'll never grow old, and you'll never grow poor,   If you look to the rainbow beyond the next moor."

                                               --F. McLonergan

-----Original Message-----
From: Mistress of the Blue Shift <quarong at eskimo.com> To: filk at dragoncat.net <filk at dragoncat.net> Date: Saturday, March 21, 1998 2:51 PM
Subject: Norwescon & Album Sales

<long message snipped> Received on 03/22/98