Just curious what kind of a living you can make from doing this.
I dunno how authoritative it is, but these guys purportedly arrange celebrity appearances and have a number of former Trek actors listed.
William Shatner: $50,000+
George Takei: inquire
Nichelle Nichols: inquire
Patrick Stewart: inquire
…actually, it looks like most of them are “inquire”. Make them an offer. If Wil Wheaton isn’t doing anything that Saturday, maybe he’ll come to your kid’s birthday party just for free cake.
Basically, media guests want money, while writers will usually shop up for free. I once got an inquiry from an agent from the guy who plays Morg on DS9 and I think it was $500 at least (plus we paid his hotel and transportation). Remember, this is a guy who never said a single word in the series and who just sat at the bar drinking in the background while others were speaking. I’m sure an actual star would be much more.
Who morgues for Morg?
I tried checking the ConRunner’s Wiki. This is a site talking about running Sci Fi/Fantasy/Horror/Anime/Etc conventions. Unfortunately, I can’t find things about typical fees. I did find this:
http://www.conrunner.net/wiki/index.php?title=Guests_of_Honor
That is not entirely true, however. Media guests tend to want compensation for showing up. These things are negotiable to some degree, but depend upon the value of the celebrity and what they can draw elsewhere.
I know of one convention that brought in a Babylon 5 main star (while the show was on the air) for several thousand dollars (it may have been $10k or even $20k - I don’t know the actual amount). I know another situation for a second tier actor from Farscape shortly after the show canceled where the arrangement was made for travel expenses (from Australia!) and a dealer’s room table to sell autographs.
Note that sometimes there are other limitations on appearances. For example, Star Trek is owned by Paramount, and they strongly control their property, so the stars are largely constrained to show at Paramount owned “conventions” (i.e. Creation Cons), which bear very little resemblance to a fan run convention. I recall reading somewhere that Wil Wheaton made arrangements to go to one convention as Guest of Honor for essentially no fee as part of a book promotional tour, but the caveat was he couldn’t be billed for his Star Trek work. Now anyone who is a fan would know the name, and might even find it odd/amusing to see him listed on ad material for an SF con and not mention his most notable role, but that was a contractual limitation driven by Paramount.
Bryan Ekers said:
I dunno how authoritative it is, but these guys purportedly arrange celebrity
From their about page, they seem to be an agency working to act as a broker for the customer, not the celebrity. So they don’t represent any of these celebrities. Rather, you fill in information about who you are and what you can afford and who you want, then they either try to negotiate a deal (if it’s reasonable) or tell you that you’re expectations don’t meet your finances, and perhaps recommend someone you can get (You want Leonard Nimoy, you can get Morn). So it’s not surprising they don’t list fees for the celebrities. First, they don’t know them, and second, they will attempt to make deals.
Most fan-run science fiction conventions do not have media guests. The guests of honor get room, transportation, meals, and a per-diem. Those not listed as guests of honor get free memberships (and for some conventions, not even that).
I know of only one fan-run convention that had a media guest – Michael O’Hare was a guest at Lunacon during Babylon 5’s first season. He didn’t behave like a media guest*, though, and took part in quite a bit of programming (I was on a panel with him). I’m not sure if they paid him an appearance fee over and above his transportation, etc.
I-Con often has media guests, too; I suspect they do get fees, since they behave like media guests.
I’ve been involved with Albacon since 1995 and the only guest we ever had with media connections was Sally Caves, who wrote a couple of ST:TNG episodes (and created the character of Barclay). But she came as a writer, not a media guest. I would occasionally get information from agents representing people like Morg or Lou Ferrigno, but once I told them we didn’t pay a fee, I never heard from them again.
*In general, guests at a convention appear on multiple panels and circulate around the convention; it’s easy to meet them and talk with them. Media guests are often only there for one event – an hour or so talk – and an hour of autographing. You can’t approach them at other times, and they’re often not even around except for those two times.
As Irishman states, the laconic alien barfly on DS9 was Morn. “Morg” was a word used in the TOS episode “Spock’s Brain” (apparently to the brain-nappers, “morg” means men, “imorg” means women).
Anyway, after my lottery win, I’ll arrange for Dwight “Barclay” Schultz and Michelle “Ro” Forbes to come to Montreal, with special secret guest Dirk “the orginal non-Moby Starbuck” Benedict.
Maybe it’s a little different here in the UK. British actress and comedian Hattie Hayridge played the computer hologram in ‘Red Dwarf’ for a couple of seasons. At the time, it was a very popular show. I met her once and she told me that she gets invited to relevant conventions, and generally likes to go along if she can, but doesn’t get paid anything much (maybe some travel money and lunch). I asked her why she went and she said it was mainly about giving something back to the fans of the show, and since all she had to do really was be there, why not? Nice attitude. I can’t help thinking it would be nice if a few more ‘stars’ were like this.
**RealityChuck ** said:
And the reason why is media guests generally expect a fee above travel expenses, and fan-run conventions do not have the budget to afford it. The one I mentioned above, that fee killed that convention. (Okay, there were a lot of factors in the demise, but that year they were grossly in the red.) That is a common occurrence for fan-run cons.
Look, in order for a media guest to be worth their fee, you have to really amp up the attendance. That means you need serious media promotion of that person. But media promotion takes money and connections and time. And the person has to be enough of an identifiable star to attract people on their merits.
Alternately, you get a real small-time person who has a bit of a cult identity from the show, and you negotiate their “fee” to be mostly in autograph sales and the like. Then you hope people are interested. Frankly, it’s tough.
Typically, these folk get publicity out of the event in a way they couldn’t get otherwise, so the compensation for them is largely the access to the fan community. Media guests (even minor characters and one-episode guests) are much more likely to be trying to earn a living out of their appearances, not fan awareness.
Typically there are different levels of guest. Guests of Honor are the top billed guests - maybe minor celebrities, but more likely to be writers, artists, and possibly editors. They usually get full compesation - travel, meals, room, per-diem, a guest liaison to make their arrangements and cart them around and stuff.
Second tier are special guests of some sort or other, who get their membership paid for. Maybe get an extra membership for a spouse/kid/partner/assistant. Typically this is reserved for a guest who isn’t top billed, but brings something special to the con and their presence is of value to the con, and they wouldn’t come otherwise.
Third tier are panelists - these are people who pay their own way but agree to participate in programming. It may be as simple as having a vast knowledge of some sci fi topic and getting asked to contribute that to a conversation on that topic. May be contributing on several panels, or offering a demo or something. Maybe even giving a special talk of their own.
That is usually what has to be negotiated when making the arrangements - what is the compensation, and what are the expectations. They make a list of limitations on their time. Good guests will participate in several panels beyond just their public appearance and signing. Micheal Doyle (Garibaldi for B5) was at ConTroll (Houston back in mid-90s) and was active and engaging with the fans. I think that was his first con.
Note that as I said, media conventions (e.g. Creation Cons) are different ventures. There, the guests are very much limited in their participation, though the "con"s themselves can be limited ventures. I’ve been to a number of half-day Creation Cons (before I wised up).
ianzin said:
It would be nice, but two factors prevent it. First, often these actors find themselves without a paying gig after their show ends. Charging for con attendance helps them pay the rent. Second, the studios that own the properties see there is a market in the fan base, so they get involved to earn a slice of the pie.
Not exactly. The Guests of Honor – those listed as such in the convention publicity material – get all their convention expenses paid (the per-diem is intended for meals).
If the guest is a professionally published SF author or artist, they usually get a free membership (exceptions: Worldcon charges but refunds the money if it makes a profit; World Fantasy Con charges and does not refund). Some cons give free or reduced memberships to spouses. Other than Worldcon and World Fantasy, I have always gotten a free membership for myself, even at large cons like Boskone or Lunacon when I had only a single short story published.
No one running a con expects anyone other than the GOH to be a draw (and sometimes not even that – most people go to the con because they like that particular con). But having a long list of panelists gives the impression that there will be plenty to do and see, even before you post the schedule (which is usually done after preregistration is closed). The list also allows dealers to stock up on books by the participants. There are autograph sessions, but no one charges for them.
For a fan, then policies vary. Sometimes, as panel participants, they get free memberships; other times they pay their way.
Albacon, BTW, has one of the most liberal policies of free memberships: program participants, their spouses, former Albacon Guests of Honor, former Worldcon chairs, and holders of non-North-American passports get free memberships. We still make money most years.
While I understand your basic point, I think you are forgetting about the distances involved here in the US. I doubt she’d just pop 'round to Budapest for a quick bite and a chance to “give back.”
I’m sorry, I am not in the biz. What does “free membership” (for someone not famous enough to be a guest of honor) entail, generally?
As someone who has been Chairperson for a small-mid sized Midwestern fan-run con (InConJunction), most of what has been said about appearance fees is correct. We were able to have some media guests from time to time, but at least one of those did not charge an appearance fee because he had family in the area and it allowed him to visit family.
Our standard contract for a Guest of Honor includes a badge (free admission) for themselves (and a guest, possibly), hotel accomodations, transportation costs (airfare or driving costs reimbursed at the IRS mileage rate), and a meal per-diem paid upon arrival. Due to having been burned a couple of times, we no longer pay appearance fees; however, we have chosen a “sponsorship” method for certain guests where the con picks up the “usual” stuff and the sponsor picks up the appearance fee or possibly other costs. We are also very aware of the willingness of our GoH to mingle with the fans; if we hear someone tends to be very isolationist, and hides in their room when they’re not on a panel, we usually don’t invite them.
Our other “levels” include “Special Guest”, which is someone who receives free admission and either hotel OR transportation (because they’re a big enough name to warrant it), but for some reason aren’t GoH; “Featured Guest”, which is someone who is a professional in a related field (author, scientist, artist, musician, etc.), who gets free admission without a minimum number of hours they must provide; and “Panelist”, who only gets a free admission if they provide a certain number of hours (I believe we’re currently at 4 or 6 hours) of programming.
A local Trek based con has run into the appearance fee issue repeatedly (but they expect fees because they are media-based); I believe the highest fee they’ve paid was somewhere in the neighborhood of $25,000 for an A-list Trek star. That sort of cost usually kills a fan-run con, unless they’ve got a wealthy backer. 
So “free membership” just meant free tickets to the Con? Ok. Thanks!
Many fan-run conventions are put on by clubs, and are only open to members of the club in question. By buying a membership in the club (a membership that will often expire just before next year’s convention), you’re buying admission in to the convention.
You’re also gaining access to any other activities that the club runs during the rest of the year (if any), but that may or may not be of interest to people who just want to attend the convention.