Now I have yet another con to worry about. Every time I turn around someone tells me there is a convention I simply must attend.

Not only do I have to figure out who to believe, but now my search for a day job is being impacted. I have so many events on my schedule now that I'm going to need to find a job at a temp agency rather than a company. otherwise I'd lose a job rapidly due to the sheer number of days off I'd need to take.

This is Not a Good Thing.

Are things going too far?

Um...yeah. Maintain a stable income before you worry about not making money publishing RPGs. Trust me, I've been living off LF money since I walked out of my old job and now my finances are getting as impacted as an octogenarian's anal cavity. Now, my attendance to anything outside job interviews is up in the air.

And about all these conventions you simple "must" attend...bullshit. All these cons you hear about on industry lists are luxury cons. DragonCon, Dragonmeet, SphinxCon, GriffinCon, HarpyCon, Joe-Con, SuperSecretIndustryCon, etc. are simply outside the indie (hell, they're outside the average mid-level publisher) range of sensibility. For publishers who feel they must go to conventions, there is the retailer-contact con (The GAMA Trade Show), the industry-contact (with decent sales in the right climate) con (Origins), and the sales-driven con (GenCon). Pick your priorities then pick your cons. (The above mentioned cons and their appeal are subject to change.) Outside that, it's mostly just folks who live off a spouse's income (read: industry professionals) bragging about how great it is to be able to go to all these cons.

It's similar to the following exchange:

Mick: Oh Chauncey, you simply must visit this quaint little villa right outside Rome. They have the best olives. You can eat them right off the vine.

Chauncey: Too right, old chap. I was telling Muffy just the other day that you and Audrey absolutely must summer with us at our new cottage on the Rue d'Extravagance in Nice. When the breeze is just right, you can smell the chocolate cooling in Switzerland...

Also, don't be afraid to cancel any commitments you've made if it is going to be better for your life as a whole. Just make a simple announcement stating that you won't be attending conventions X, Y, and Z that were previously confirmed, being as specific ("gotta find a job") or vague ("due to circumstances beyond our control") as you deem appropriate.