One of my favorite drag queens of all time is Bob the Drag Queen. In part because he just seems like a genuinely real and kind person. And in part because I just love his name.
Calling yourself Bob the Drag Queen normalizes drag in a way that names like Trinity the Tuck or Pandora Box don’t. And while I love both of them too, there’s just something down to earth about a drag queen named Bob
Which brings me to my latest endeavor.
I’ve been Scott the Bookseller, Scott the Publisher, Scott the Webmaster, Scott the Author, and a number of other work personas that I have taken on over the years. And now it’s time for something new.
I am now Scott the Event Planner, master of all the cons and festivals he surveys.
It’s been a long time in coming. I’ve been searching for a new full-time job ever since Google began to take our information without sending people to our website over a decade ago. It’s gotten progressively worse, with Google summaries and now AI, and running an informational website has become increasingly difficult and unprofitable as a result. Our income from our own business is less than a quarter of what it once was.
Our current websites, created for writers and readers, were built in spite of Google, drawing their traffic from our newsletters and social media, and even that has become more difficult.
I’ve been looking for a full-time job for 2 1/2 years, and it’s been brutal. There have been a number of near misses, and I have discovered that most employers today want someone who has experience doing exactly the job they are advertising. It doesn’t matter that I’m an entrepreneur who has all kinds of skills I’ve picked up over our last twenty-eight years in business.
That’s been a very painful lesson to learn.
Then, a year and a half ago, I fell into running the Sacramento Book Festival. It’s something I have enjoyed immensely, even if it isn’t a paid position. But it gave me the skillset I needed – running a large scale event.
On the strength of that experience, I got a job running Nebula Con this year, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association’s annual convention celebrating the Nebula Awards. It was in Chicago at the start of June, and it was a fantastic experience. I felt charged up, like a conductor in Grand Central Station, and realized this is what I want to do.
So now I have two major events under my belt, and I’m looking for the path forward that lets me actually earn some money doing this, because I really enjoy it.
I’ll keep you posted on progress there, but the upshot is tht I am now Scott the Event Planner.
Just like Bob, I hope what I do will bring people joy. And that they will say “Damn. That guy’s really good at that.”
One can only hope.