cons as professional development

As much as I love cons, the idea that the professional purpose of cons is networking leaves me with the feeling that I don’t do enough to make them worth the time and expense. I love them, but I don’t love the feeling that I might be doing them wrong somehow. Then recently, I listened to a podcast episode that recontextualized cons as professional development. It was a lightbulb moment for me.

The podcast was The Shit No One Tells You About Writing (which is brilliant, and I highly recommend their Books with Hooks episodes for anyone in or approaching the querying trenches, and Shooting the Shit episodes for two literary agents discussing the industry), specifically the May 11 Shooting the Shit episode.

Every career has some form of professional development, but it’s not something I thought about much as a writer, perhaps because it hasn’t felt much like a career until this year. Of course classes and workshops count, and I’ve used the context of continued learning to justify the expense when I struggled with the thought of spending money on myself, but I hadn’t really thought of cons that way before.

Previously, the biggest reason and benefit for writers to shell out the money to attend cons was the networking, so I’d heard and read over and over: “They’re not necessary to succeed, but they’re awesome for networking.”

Except I am shit at networking. I don’t know how to approach it in a way that feels genuine. Every time I try, I feel like I’m only doing it to get something out of the interaction, and I hate feeling like I’m using someone. I just want to get to know people and make new friends. Knowing I *should* network, aka have ulterior motives, turns me into a socially awkward mess.

It’s mostly semantics, “professional development” vs “networking,” but it feels like permission to simply enjoy the panels and discussions and readings, if that’s all I have bandwidth for. That it won’t have been a waste of time and money if I leave without pitching my story to an agent or editor.

It’s such a relief. I hadn’t realized the depth of the expectations I’d piled on myself until I listened to that podcast episode and, in the reframing, heard permission to let them go.

This all comes just in time for ReaderCon, too. This year, I’m going for the friends, the atmosphere, the craft and industry discussions. And if you’re around, please come to my reading Sunday at 10 am!