Thanks for your interest in attending Archon as an invited guest.  Archon's policy is to provide free memberships to individuals who meet one of the following standards:

·          Individuals who qualify for membership in the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America or SFWA (http://www.sfwa.org/org/qualify.htm).

 ·          Artists who derive more than 50% of their income from selling their artwork.

 ·          Individuals who have been a Guest of Honor of any kind at a previous Archon.

 ·          Individuals who have achieved distinction or been published in their academic or technical field (designed for science fact or historian type guests).    Editors and publishers are included in this category as well as pros who work in the movie industry, television or other related fields (special effects, costuming, etc.)  During the X Prize competition, we had several panel discussions with guests from the various teams competing for the X Prize.  We have also had folks from the Planetary Society and Moon Society fall in this category and come to Archon as invited guests.

 ·          Other individuals who Archon’s board of directors and/or pro liaison feel should be invited.

As a general rule, self-published/vanity press authors and independent filmmakers are not provided a complementary membership to Archon.  As with any rule, there are exceptions.  For authors or artists who are borderline, we usually see how attendance is at their panel(s) when they come as a regular attendee and then decide if a guest invitation should be extended the next year.  With the explosion in self published authors and Internet based content, this has become a bigger challenge than it was five to ten years ago.  Being an invited guest in the past is no guarantee of a future guest invitation to Archon. 

Like any convention, our goal is to invite guests who will attract people to attend Archon.  While we do not have the budget for paid staff and large guest invitation lists like other conventions, Archon usually attracts over 2000 people each year and we feel our guest policy works well for our convention.  We are always open to suggestions and are currently trying to figure out how to handle the new media content while remaining true to our roots as a general science fiction and fantasy convention.

I hope this answers your questions and helps you understand how Archon determines who we invite as a complementary guest each year.  If you have any questions or wish to inquire about receiving a complementary membership to Archon, please visit the CONTACTS page and email Archon’s This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .