This is a letter that went to Bill Crider and me from Bob Randisi:
Ed and Bill,
I don't blog, but if I did I'd blog about this. As it is, I'll probably do a Rant & Rave column for Crime Spree about this.
I've been looking up future conventions on the web--Bouchercons AND Left Coast, Crime--and I feel a definite rant coming on. I think convention organizers are losing sight of the fact that most of the authors pay their own way. Hotels and registrations are close to $200 each now, when it be a BCon or an LCC. Doesn't have to be. I learned that after we ran Eyecon '99. It's a shame...
RJR
Ed here: Since I don't go to conventions, I haven't followed this debte closely. But I do know that as a science fiction fan of the Fifties, when a big convention was two hundred people, there were some major growing pains as conventions morphed into spectacles.
Any thoughts on mystery conventions?
I nearly always go to the Bouchercon, and I've been to a couple of Left Coasts. I also go to two or three regional SF conventions a year, and I loved going to the small regional mystery conventions in Texas until they ended. Obviously I like conventions. I have a feeling that some of the bigger mystery conventions are morphing into spectacles now, but that hasn't stopped me from attending. The price, as Bob says, is getting to be a problem, however. As are the distances.
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