Worldcon Economics

A few days ago, in this message, I was asked to explain why Worldcons cost so much. And make no mistake about it; despite the fact that those of us who have to deal with mundane trade shows and the like know what a bargain Worldcon is, from the point of view of someone who hasn't attended anything but small SF conventions, the $200-plus at-the-door membership cost of Worldcon appears prohibitively expensive. Also, many are likely to compare costs to larger events like Dragon*Con and ComicCon, which cost less per person for a different reason that I go into below. I've written on this subject here before, but perhaps it's time to bring it up again, as a refresher. This post is adapted from my comments on kehrli's journal.

( Part 1: Wrong Size )

( Part 2: Reinventing the Convention Annually )

( Part 3: Worldcon as the Confederation Congress of the USA )

There is of course more to the issues than one article can address. Feel free to ask me anything about what I know about Worldcons. I've spent the better part of twenty years trying to include transparency on these issues. Worldcons are a very strange sort of convention compared to most SF/F conferences. More than once I've explained all of the constraints and conditions under which we run them and been told, "You're crazy! Nobody would ever do that!" Well, maybe they shouldn't, but we've been doing it this way now for over seventy years, and somehow it works.