The last of MARCON?

Year 2022 was billed as the last year for the Multiple Alternate Realities Convention, a.k.a. MARCON. The event, according to long-time attendees and vendors, has dwindled considerably from what it was even a decade ago, moving from its downtown Columbus location to a smaller, less expensive location in Worthington, Ohio. The event, which featured several tracks of seminars, panel discussions, and performances, drew perhaps 300 attendees and vendors by my "guesstimate."

I attended for the first time last year as a vendor and did well enough to sign up again as a vendor for 2022. Expecting a larger attendance because the event was billed as the final one in MARCON'S 57-year run, I had high hopes. The packed program included sessions for brainstorming ideas to continue MARCON, as its current organizers—all volunteer—made the decision to discontinue hosting the event. A convention with even a few hundred people is tremendous work, and the volunteers are to be commended not only for having done that work for so long, but to have done it well.

As before, some of the costumes by cos-play attendees were really well done and others not so much. Regardless of the intricacy of the costumes, conventions like this always make for good people-watching.

This year dealers were placed in a larger room with the art show and art auction put in the room used in 2021 as the Dealers Room. This year's convention did have more dealers and we were spread out a bit more. I like not feeling cramped. The "space music guy" was to our left and another author whose books primarily featured antiheroes and zombies was placed to our right. His table had a sign offering "free writing advice." My two tables were filled with books and paintings. The Dealers Room did have some minor celebrities: the Harp Twins . They performed and sold tee shirts and other merchandise. The young ladies were accompanied by the Volfgang Twins .

As was the case last year, the paintings sold better than the books. That surprised me, as I write (and publish) in fantasy and fantasy romance, which one might think a popular genre for this cohort of humanity. I'm not complaining, though. Sales exceeded the registration fee, if not my total expenses. (I managed not to spend everything earned on jewelry this time, so kudos to me!) I did meet a couple of repeat attendees who informed me that they read my books (purchased at last year's event) and enjoyed the books. I asked them if they'd left reviews. No, they hadn't.

I spoke with fewer people this year than I usually do at events like this. I usually get a handful of attendees who want to talk about writing, editing, and publishing, but not this go-around.

Overall, I can't complain. Sales were okay. I got to meet a favorite client in person. I met some interesting people. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

I hope that MARCON will find a new group of devoted parties to assume responsiblity for organizing the event so that it can continue to provide a creative and social outlet for those living multiple alternate realities.

#henhousepublishing #hollybargobooks