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 ]

[Fiammetta Rey]

I think Ohayocon changed the rules for this/next year... they're allowing 50% fanart at the most, which is more than I heard they allowed before.

[MadHatterzMouse]

A couple notes (which may have been mentioned earlier):

If you intend to print your artwork it's best to use *at least* 300DPI, 600DPI is best (I work in a copy center, so this is something I know well).

Also, if you plan on setting up a display- read the guidelines from the con on this. Some cons are limiting how tall they can be and getting stricter on keeping people within their own table space. Akon is working on setting up a 10ft height restriction, plus they mark off the space in which you can store your stuff (which means you can't take up all the space behind the tables with your stuff.

3rd- be respectful of other artists, and/or your neighbors because you are going to be next to them for the entire con. Plus, if you need something your neighbor may just be able to help you out with it.

4th- At some cons that have a lot of artists you should realize that where you get placed my not be where you want to be. And this may not be something that can be changed so make the best of it. I know one area may seem like it gets more people than another but it could just be perception and not at all what it seems. EX: At Akon this year we had a lot of people get tables at the con who complained where they were placed...I would just be happy I got a table at that point. Also, it was discovered traffic throughout the artist alley was very even, but various people complained they weren't getting traffic... we wondered if it was no traffic or lack of selling skills. Be friendly with potential customers (and weary of thieves), the more approachable you are the more business you seem to get.

5th- If you have a display... make it memorable. We had a lot of attendees at Akon asking us if we'd seen the person with this display (or that display). Amazing how something so little can make an impression.

[Vicemage]

Okay, got my app off at 17 past midnight last night... Fingers crossed. sweatdrop

Starre: actually, they're REDUCING the amount of fanart allowed... it's down to 50% and will likely continue downward until fanart is eliminated. Since I focus mainly on original works, I'm okay with this, as I do find it hard for my original work to compete against shinydesu pictures of Naruto...

Muffin: For Paper Forest, there seems to be some loophole in copyright law that they'll do fanart, though I really have no intention of doing it myself. ^^ But I would imagine, based on that, you could email them and ask about your specific pieces... let me see if I can find the note.

Quote:

Is fan art acceptable?

Official Answer: As long as the artwork falls under fair use and/or parody laws in your country.

Paper Forest reserves the right to decline any order that we feel doesn’t follow the law, and if this is the case, we will provide you with a full refund.

Andrew’s Answer: Hooray for gray areas! Paper Forest takes it under good faith that any fan art you submit falls within your country’s parody use laws. There’s a disclaimer on the order page that states that you take full responsibility for anything you submit to be printed, which means if a big company comes chasing after you for violations, yeah, uh, have fun with that.

And for Ohayo, they don't accept much, they're phasing it out in stages.


Regarding table traffic, in my observations, I think it's a combination of a really flash display, and a good salesperson behind it. I don't have the most flashy of displays, but I do get people coming over and putting eyes on my items, which increases the chance of sales more than letting them walk past, and when I can speak to potential customers, I get more sales. (I had an unfortunate test of this a couple of years back, when I lost my voice Friday afternoon, and was essentially mute Saturday. And what is normally my best day of sales suffered badly.)

[Hotaru Kudo]

Hello everybody! I've been reading through this thread for the last two days, currently on page 60 ^__^;; I plan on doing my first AA this January, and AnimeLA, and am currently freaking out a little, but I'm excited. =3 I'll be sharing a table with my friend who makes awesome jewelry.

I currently don't really have any drawings ready to sell, that's what my project is going to be for the next few months, this thread has been very helpful. ^_^ I wanna do some fanart to sell, something I don't really draw, just 'cause I know that'll help sell stuff, especially since I'm not that popular on the internet. @_@ Right now I'm currently staring at a piece of paper trying to figure out where to start.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Hotaru Kudo

Hello everybody! I've been reading through this thread for the last two days, currently on page 60 ^__^;; I plan on doing my first AA this January, and AnimeLA, and am currently freaking out a little, but I'm excited. =3 I'll be sharing a table with my friend who makes awesome jewelry.

I currently don't really have any drawings ready to sell, that's what my project is going to be for the next few months, this thread has been very helpful. ^_^ I wanna do some fanart to sell, something I don't really draw, just 'cause I know that'll help sell stuff, especially since I'm not that popular on the internet. @_@ Right now I'm currently staring at a piece of paper trying to figure out where to start.

Well my suggestion is to do fanart of what you enjoy rather than what's popular. While I don't sell fanart, my most popular fanart pieces are actually not what I thought would be popular(Labyrinth trumps my FF7 and Gravitation fanart for instance)

[Hotaru Kudo]

Seijaku_Ishida

Hotaru Kudo

Hello everybody! I've been reading through this thread for the last two days, currently on page 60 ^__^;; I plan on doing my first AA this January, and AnimeLA, and am currently freaking out a little, but I'm excited. =3 I'll be sharing a table with my friend who makes awesome jewelry.

I currently don't really have any drawings ready to sell, that's what my project is going to be for the next few months, this thread has been very helpful. ^_^ I wanna do some fanart to sell, something I don't really draw, just 'cause I know that'll help sell stuff, especially since I'm not that popular on the internet. @_@ Right now I'm currently staring at a piece of paper trying to figure out where to start.

Well my suggestion is to do fanart of what you enjoy rather than what's popular. While I don't sell fanart, my most popular fanart pieces are actually not what I thought would be popular(Labyrinth trumps my FF7 and Gravitation fanart for instance)

Oh yeah, I don't think I'd ever draw fanart for something I didn't like. My big problem with fanart, is making the characters actually looking like themselves. o.O It just never looks right to me, I dunno. *shrugs* I'll figure something out.

Oh, and I just signed up for Artscow through your refferal link, =P holycow, so much free stuff. How much is shipping for them generally?

[AEAcomics]

When I ordered from ArtsCow the shipping was about $26, which seemed expensive until I got the package and realized it came airmail from Hong Kong razz