Scalzi has a great piece at Whatever talking about meeting writers at conventions, and since it’s being linked to by all the blogs that matter…WWdN, Neil Gaiman…it needed to go here as well. One of the things I like about Scalzi is that he doesn’t propagate the usual minor celebrity bullshit you get when people are testing the waters of their own hype.

(There is an entire class of minor writers who live in their apartments and make a psychological living (rarely much of a financial one) attending regional writing conventions and letting people know how much better they are for sitting on the other side of a panel table. They condescend, dissuade new writers by bemoaning the state of the business…sometimes they even bring bottled water to drink instead of dipping at the hotel pitcher well with the rest of the slobs.)

A few of Scalzi’s refreshing words, then click the link:

I do know that occasionally people are reluctant to approach me or other writers, because “oh, they get bothered so much, I don’t want to bother them.” Leaving aside the fact that authors are rarely bothered in this way because few people actually know what we look like, I think a lot depends on context. If you were to find me randomly out on the street or at a restaurant, this is not an inappropriate response; I probably do want to be left alone, because I’m busy having my real life. But if I’m at a convention (or book fair, or other public event), I’m generally there to be accessible to fans and readers, as are most authors who are there. I think we all generally like to be recognized in that context. Please feel free to come up and say hello; it’s not a bother.

The same goes for game designers, RPG writers, and anyone else involved in our little industry. Most of the time, if they’re at a convention (especially a smaller one) they’re there to be accessible to fans and enjoy themselves.  So feel free to go up and introduce yourself, applying all of Scalzi’s rules above to the encounter timing, duration, and content.