Artists Alley Information Thread

Selling at Cons is best during the...

Spring	11.6%	[ 83 ]
Summer	30.3%	[ 217 ]
Fall	7.0%	[ 50 ]
Winter	5.3%	[ 38 ]
Any time!	45.7%	[ 327 ]
Total Votes:			[ 715 ]

[syunn]

Ahaha might as well 8D

Part A- Getting the table:
1. How many months in advance do conventions usually release tables, in your experience?
- It really depends on the con. Take Anime Expo, they release in like March when the con's in July @_@. Most cons should release tables at least 3-4 months before the convention. And that's on the small side.

2. How much does a table usually cost?
- That also depends on the con and where it is. If it's a relatively small con, or new con, then the table's might be $20 ish area. Other cons, like AX or A-kon have really expensive tables. After registration that all total to be over $100, but in return you're selling at a con that has tens of thousands of people.

3. How quickly are the tables reserved?
- Man. Everything depends on the con. If the con is not as big or well known, they generally take a while to fill up. Some even have open tables during the con. Others, like Anime Expo, or Anime North are full within the first couple of minutes they open for registration.

4. What complications should one be prepared for?
- Just don't expect AA staff to run everything smoothly. Very few cons run a smooth AA, from personal experience D: It's sad really.

5. Anything else?
- Confidence is a nice thing to have when you decide to sell your art. If you want an honest opinion, try and find someone who isn't going to tell you good things cause their your friend, and ask if they would buy your art, and at what price.


Part B- Preparing to sell:
1. What sort of merchandise would you advise selling?
- Prints are usually the main seller. There's also buttons, bookmarks, and keychains/cellphone straps. Some people are also able to sell doujinshi. Of course, if you're a hands-on person, you can knit cute things, or make hats. Those sell quite nicely as well. Commissions are also very popular.

2. What sort of merchandise would you advise against selling?
- Anything you cannot produce at a high enough quality. Try not to use extremely cheap paper for prints unless your art is GODLY. Thin, flimsy paper is a turn off.

3. What sort of stuff sells best?
- FANART. SHONEN-AI, HOT GIRLS. SHINY ART, you name it. :

4. Where would you suggest going to get things printed?
- Sam's Club if you want a local store. And if you have membership. If not, Office Depot is decent. For bigger prints, like 11x17, or 8.5x11, I use http://www.catprint.bz/.

5. If printing at home, what preparations should one make?
- Print way ahead of time. Your printer will die if you print all in one go. And prepare to shell out money for ink if you're printing a lot.

6. How far in advance should one have one's merchandise finished?
- try to finish the week before. The week of the con can be spent on finalizing how you're going to display, what your prices are, making your signs, etc.

7. Anything else?
- Don't let all the work scare you. It's worth it :]

Part C- At the Con:
1. How early should one arrive to be sure of reserving a good table?
- An hour or hald an hour before the AA opens in usually the norm. To set up your table and maybe take a eek at the other artists before you're officially glued to your table for the rest of the day. You might also want to buy some food to stash at your table.

2. When setting up one's table, what sort of layout would you suggest?
- It's always nice to have a sketchbook or a binder with your sketches/traditional art out for people to look at. I also suggest buying little stands/easels from Michael's or Hobby Lobby to put some of your prints on. That way, people can see them easier from far away rather than having to walk all the way up to your table to see your prints. It's also nice to have a cork board to display your buttons/keychains/bookmarks if you have any.

3. There are some pretty bratty congoers out there. How would you suggest dealing with assholes?
- Uhhhh, very rarely. Most people are nice, but I'm not gonna lie, there are some annoying people out there. If they're a customer, just keep smiling. Money is Money.

4. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. What issues should one be prepared for when running a table at the Artists alley?
- Running out of prints is my main problem. A lot of people overprint, but I always seem to underprint. @_@ Bring a CD or USB with your files on them so that you can run to a nearby printing store to run more if need be. Also, if you do commissions, keep a list of them. After a certain point, there's just too many and you lose track. The last thing you want is a customer to come back later and find out that your have forgotten their commission.

5. Anything else?
- REMEMBER TO EAT. Even just a little, like a hot dog. Even soda. SOMETHING. The AA is a very tiring business, so you need some sort of energy entering your body, even if it's really unhealthy. Everytime I get a table, I end up losing like 4 pounds the weekend of the con D:

AND MOST OF ALL.

HAVE FUN.

[Fiammetta Rey]

I'm living with false hope

And my eyes just want to see a ray of light

I'm gonna find it in my fairy tale...

... lose 4 pounds? OMG I need a table like NOW.

I'm freaking out about Otakon, btw. I want that table so BAD, and I failed Olin and Chi (my would-be tablemates) once already (with AnimeNext). *insert stereotypical anime look of determination here*

[AEAcomics]

Made my first supply run today and got most of the stuff I'll be needing for $20. Pretty much down to creating the art now. Gonna get my table registration sent in this week.

I was thinking about doing a raffle for the highest level of commission I'll be offering. Anybody have experience with raffles? Are they popular?

And I saw heat-seal laminate pouches and wondered if they were any good? For bookmarks, perhaps?

Otherwise, I'm thinking sketch / lineart / simple watercolor commissions, mini comics, bookmarks, and hopefully a few prints with a general attractive theme.

[InstantOatmeal]

I would first off like to thank Kaxen for giving me the link to this thread.

SECOND, this thread is (pardon my censored French) fscking amazing! I'm actually reading through it first page to last, and I NEVER do that. A friend and I are hoping to sell soon, so this is some of the best advice I've ever seen! Keep it up and I'll reply more when I'm done reading through everything. XD

[Vicemage]

I've never tried or seen a raffle like that done before, DarKlaw, so if you try it, please let us know how it goes for you. ^_^

Game-y things can be fun for people, though, like my Easter Eggs I did at the last convention... next time might also be fun (if I can clear it with the con anyway) to also hide some eggs with my card, a coupon for a little goodie, and some candy around the convention hall and see if any get found and come back. ^_^ This is, of course, assuming the con's around Easter again.

And I can't remember if I explained the Easter Egg drawing thing earlier, so for now I won't. ^^

A friend of mine (who lurks around parts of Gaia but I don't think I've seen her in here yet) also does a drawing, with little origami boxes with goodies and the occasional prize in them, and it attracts a lot of attention.

Heat seal lamination is the good kind. wink You'll need a laminator, and keep in mind you sometimes get air bubbles (I've been finding that letting the laminator warm up a good long time and smoothing as much air as possible out of the pouch before and while it's feeding in does help).

I'm waiting anxiously here for some book quotes and promotional materials... I ordered a carpload from Vista Print again, and what comes first? The mousepad for my desktop that can't possibly travel with me. sweatdrop

[Kitsune_rei]

DarKlawStudios

I was thinking about doing a raffle for the highest level of commission I'll be offering. Anybody have experience with raffles? Are they popular?

I'm not sure it'd be a good idea to run a raffle. First off, some AAs will not allow them so check the rules. I think its partly because its a gambling sort of thing, some areas are very restrictive about that sort of thing. I'm pretty sure Otakon spelled out no raffles, though the table across from me still had one and it was really bothersome because they had a big crowd that got in the way of my table for a while xp They were one of those big mass produced tables that could have been in the Dealer room.
Anyhow, one thing to consider is some people are only at the con for one day, and depending when the drawing is they may be busy or no longer there. I you were going to require the winner to collect in person, that can be a turnoff.
You'd have to make a guess at about how many tickets you expect to sell to figure out what to charge for each and still make what you are looking to for that type of commission. You'd still have to keep ticket prices low, like $1 or something, or people may not be interested. If they really want to spend more and increase their chances they can just get multiple tickets.

I'd say the best way to run the raffle would be to have entries Fri-Sat and do the drawing Sat night. I'd get full contact info (name, phone #, email) from everyone (probably make up a little printout form to fill out, make sure they write legible before they leave your table). You'll have to keep a list going of the ticket holder numbers. I think its not hard to buy a roll of those typical raffle tickets.
I assume since its your best commission it'd be something you'd do after the con and mail it to them? Then there's no requirement for them to be there for pickup and it may even be better since they could email you references if they didn't have any on them
.
(I actually have started getting cel phone #s from people I do commissions for now anyway, because its nice and easy to shoot them a text or quick call when its ready for pickup 3nodding Then I'm also less pressured to try to have it done in the approximate time I gave.)

I know some people do raffles, but I can't say I've seen them very often. Usually its for something specific rather than a commission (ie something the person can come get and immediately walk away with.) But it could work 3nodding

[Vicemage]

Kitsune_rei

(I actually have started getting cel phone #s from people I do commissions for now anyway, because its nice and easy to shoot them a text or quick call when its ready for pickup 3nodding Then I'm also less pressured to try to have it done in the approximate time I gave.)

I collect them from people for a slightly different reason... I've had a couple of instances where someone's requested a commission from me, then for one reason or another has had to unexpectedly leave the con early, without coming to pick up the commission they've already paid for. With a phone number or email, I can contact them again and send them their completed drawing.

[AEAcomics]

I think any sort of raffle will inevitably have logistic problems to work out. I'll ask on the con's forum if it's allowable.
What I had been thinking was a free ticket if they bought something, then selling tickets for 50 cents or 3/$1 or something.

Well, the laminate machine I noticed was Scotch brand and $27. I'll poke around and see if I can find any user reviews / complaints.

Hm, I might be able to offer marker colored commissions in a cel-style (since I'm still working on the blending bit) but I'm a bit wary about hauling around $130 worth of Prismacolors. sweatdrop
Anyone had issues carrying around expensive-ish supplies?

[Vicemage]

I'm not sure I'd trust a $27 laminator... ^^ But who knows, maybe it's a decent starter one.

With my supplies, no, I've never had a problem, but I also keep them tucked out of site most of the time, so people can't see or get at them. With my product, less so. I had one guy at the last con try to walk off with one of my books, and then try to argue that it wasn't clear that it was for sale when the price sign was right behind the standing display it was part of. stressed And then at a later point, I discovered one of my other books had just vanished entirely. stressed stressed (Which resulted in a further panic moment when a piece of jewelry was "missing," though it fortunately turned up in another part of my display, where someone had knocked it over.) This is my third time at this particular convention, meaning two continuous years of selling, and that's the first time anything like this has happened... something in the attitudes at that con this year.

(For the record, I carry approximately $400+ worth of markers alone with me, on top of the $100+ worth of drawing and inking supplies, and sometimes the $2500 computer. None of these items have been bothered, just the $4 book...)

[Marxwyn]

nice info
wish some of it can be used/applied here (ie. printer review) ^^

[Sabey]

If it's a Scotch 9'' Thermal Laminator...with purple flowers on the box... *too lazy to find vendor number* It's amazing and a great snag. I got mine for around $30 at walmart, on amazon they run close to $60-80. It says it can take up to 10mil but 5mil thickness is generally sturdy enough for convention buyers and if you're laminating heavy cardstock it's best to run it through a second time to get a better seal. Also be picky about the quality of pouches you get, either go with scotch or GBC also has good stuff, it's a lot cheaper to buy in bulk too. I got 100 5mil luggage pouches for $10. Just look up the nearest laminating warehouse (they usually supply schools with laminating supplies) and they'll probably have the cheapest prices, versus an office supply shore where you only get 25 pouches for a bajillion dollars. D:

*end nerd ramble on laminators*

[Vicemage]

Wow, that's really helpful information, Sabey... why aren't you posting in the laminators thread in the guild? wink

I might consider that one, actually, if I decide to move into anything laminated. It at least opens up the possibility. What's the largest size of paper/pouch it can accept? (in inches, if you don't mind, I fail with sizes like "A5," always have to look them up.)

[AEAcomics]

Sabey

If it's a Scotch 9'' Thermal Laminator...with purple flowers on the box...

Yeah, I think that was it. I'll have to double check though. So far all of the reviews I've come across were good ones. I think I might just go pick one up.

[UnseelieQueen]

Okay first of all, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS THREAD! crying
I've been trying to find out as much as can about AA and this has been sooo helpful! whee

I have been thinking about (possibly, maybe) getting a button machine, but they are all so expensive. >.<;;; I can't afford to spend $500-$1,000. <.< >.> The cheapest ones I have found were with Badge A Minit.

Is Badge A Minit a good button machine maker? What has been your experience them or with button makers?