More About Self-Promotion

From another facebook conversation:

Self-promotion works for some people. John Scalzi is famous for building a huge audience with his blog. My understanding is he started the blog because he wanted to blog, not to promote his fiction. It worked out well for him, but he is an example of one. He's clearly a guy with a lot of energy, and he writes a very readable blog.

I attend cons to see friends and meet new people. I do panels because there are things I want to talk about. I think over the years, panels have made me more visible, and I may have gotten a few new readers. But mostly I do them because I enjoy conversations about science fiction, writing, politics...