Just like the road to Wrestlemania began at the Royal Rumble last month, the road to the San Diego Comic-Con also begins in the winter. Yesterday at 9 a.m. PT the hotel reservation system became available; the whole process reminded me of college, when I’d wake up at 5 a.m. to register for classes, along with the rest of the student body whose last names began with a letter between “N” and “S,” and then sit by the phone for two hours hoping to eventually get through. My wife was on one phone and her laptop, while I was on my cell and my computer, trying to get a room any way we could. By 9:30 a.m. we finally did make it through the online process, grabbing a room at the hotel we wanted.

Heidi over at The Beat experienced something similar, as did Len Wein, who tried to bypass the SDCC travel site altogether:

At the end of the hour, when I realized the closest rooms I would be able to find at the con rates would be at my own house a good two hour drive from San Diego, I decided to change tactics and I started going to the hotels’ own websites to look for reservations instead. I managed to find what I was later told was the last remaining room at one of the major hotels for a rate that was slightly more than DOUBLE what I would have paid through the con. After the reservation was confirmed, I called the hotel and spoke to a very helpful clerk who managed to knock a hundred bucks off the room rates for each of my first two nights. The remaining two nights remain the same. Since I’ve got five months between now and the con, I intend to call the hotel periodically to see if I can keep whittling away at the thousand dollar difference between the cheaper rate and what I’m paying now. I’ll let you know if I wind up being able to afford anything to eat at the con, or if you’ll all need to bring me sandwiches.

This is my first time to use the registration process, as typically I stay with my aunt for the con, but this year we’re going with some other people and wanted to have hotel rooms close to each other. Next year, they’re on their own, and I’m going back to my aunt’s where the registration process (and price) are much more to my liking.

For people who did get a room, Scryptic Studios has a Q&A round-up with Joshua Hale Fialkov, Kristen Simon and several other creative types, as wannabe comic writer Elton Pruitt asks about the do’s and don’t's of trying to network and land gigs at the con. Fialkov gives advice on what not to do:

Drink so much you fall down, shit your pants, hit on your prospective editor, wind up wrapped in toilet paper quietly crying the name of the girl who left you in 1994.

And, no, I’m not kidding.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 7:01 am and is filed under Conventions, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.