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 ]

[Vicemage]

I didn't have a chance to look at your comic yet, but from my own experience, it's completely possible to sell small issues (as well as larger books), IF you have some salesmanship skills.

I actually work (and have for most of my working life) in a sales-type position, where as part of my job I'm expected to convince people they want items that they aren't sure they want. smile I can take the skills I learned at work, and turn around and apply them to conventions, convincing people that yes, they do want to check out my comic.

Also... handouts. Seriously. Give people a handout they'll remember, that gives them some sense of what your work is. At the last con I did, as soon as I reached my table a worker from one of the dealer tables ran over and begged me to sell her a book before opening. She told me I'd given her one of my handouts (a bookmark) the day before, and she'd become fixated on buying the book after checking out all her handouts (and dreaming about buying three in particular, including mine). My bookmarks have some art and my tagline on the front, and a short description of the story on the back. It's functional, and it's descriptive, and they seem to do some good. (though I'm always up for more options on handouts, too.)

It doesn't matter if you don't have a lot of readers, or aren't well known, or whatever. You just have to be able to convince people otherwise. smile

[Murira]

Haha, so if I just kinda hand out little things like that? I should look into making nice bookmarks or little cards or something. You think people would be into little postcard-sized prints?

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about my comics though...I toned them when they were totally not printing-sized, so they get a tad mushy when they get scaled up. I should probably do a test run to see what it ends up looking like. gonk

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Scale them up at 10 percent increments at a time. It still won't look as good as if you worked large to begin with, but much better than if you take it straight to the size you need.

[Murira]

Oh. Really? Hahaha, I didn't think it would work like that. I'll give it a try and see if it looks any better.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

I actually learned that from a discussion on how art thieves get good-looking prints from small images.... sweatdrop

[Vicemage]

Yikes... well, that's good to know for future reference anyway, I've lost the masters of a few files. :

I'm going to have to redo my printing guide in the guild... I went to ComiXpress to do a post-con restock, and good God the site's changed. And not just that--the PRICES are changed too. (And better! Now I wish I'd procrastinated more...) At least now I know where that random additional discount that's been showing up on my orders came from. And how much money I've given them.

[Jayde Panda]

Vice: I need to go look at your guide. I've been printing from Office Max locally, and I'm still fine with that for 8-1/2x11 and smaller, but I'm working on a new piece that I want to be larger (and maybe some smaller sizes), and I'm not sure how to go about printing those.

Counting down to Anime USA--9 days till I leave. I need to find a better way to pack my table because the bag I have now is too big. We're carpooling up to VA with a couple of other people, so we need to clear up trunk space. >< Although I love that their AA will pick up food for the artists; I may still be paying for it, but it means I don't have to pack as much food, and can maybe do without the big cooler. Anyone else here going?

[Mad Miss]

Ahh, does anyone know of any way I can get business cards printed in less than 9 days? D: I just realized I have way less time before the con than I thought >___<

[Murira]

@Vicemage: Haha, awesome. Yay for random discounts!

@Mad Miss: I think you can go to Office Depot (and probably other office supply stores) and get simple business cards printed within the day (or the next?) since I vaguely remember taking my dad to get him some business cards. I'm not sure about anything fancier than plain cards + text, though...

[Fiammetta Rey]

There's a site called Overnight Prints (.com, maybe, or .net, I don't know, you can google it). I don't know how good they are, but they were reccomended in the podcast based on this thread that was done a while ago.

And if they're like what their name implies... well, there you go.

[Vicemage]

Kasyrrah> The guide I have is pretty much for PoD comics, but I know at least two of the companies (ComiXpress and Ka-Blam) do offer posters/prints... can't remember the sizes offhand, though. It might actually be cheaper, though, to use Office Max. It's been a while since I did a color 11x17 from them, but you can always do comparisons between companies. In fact, I suggest it, rather than just going with the first one you find. smile

I was really happy with Anime Nebraskon this past weekend that they were taking orders for lunch! ^_^ I only used it one day, but it was a very tasty burger, and I'd totally use the service again next year if they do it. They also kept coming around with bottles of water, making sure all the vendors were hydrated, and that everything was going well. Super-visible security all weekend, too, throughout the room.

Murira> Discounts are good, but a little depressing too when you find out they're based on how much you've spent cumulatively... it goes up by a percentage point for every $100 you spend, up to 5% total. I may max it out by the end of the year...

[Kyousouka]

I've gotten some things printed in Sam's Club (Costco and BJ's offer similar services). The quality is very nice, and they offer many sizes. The largest is 20x30 (comparison with 8x10). The larger sizes will have a white border, though. I haven't gotten the chance to sell these posters yet so I don't know how detrimental that is.

Another thing to note is that different stores offer different sizes >>; You can find their price+product lists on their sites pretty easily (except for BJ's, which I could find), but here's a quick comparison of relevant products for SC and Costco:

Size:......Costco.....Sam's Club
4x6..........$0.13.........$0.13
5x7..........$0.39.........$0.38
8x8..........$1.49........... --
8x10........$1.49.........$1.46
8x12........$1.49............--
11x14......$2.99.........$2.87
12x12......$2.99............--
12x16.........--............$2.96
12x18......$2.99............--
16x20......$5.99.........$5.96
20x24.........--............$7.96
20x30......$8.99.........$8.96
The Sam's Club prices are for 1-Hour processing pick-up (order+upload online, pick up in store), which is cheaper than getting them shipped, in most cases, as shipping for prints is pretty expensive (although the actual per-print prices are a few cents lower). I am not sure if Costco does pick-ups, but I'd imagine they do. If not, you could go there with your USB drive and then browse the store for an hour.

I chose Sam's Club for its proximity and for the 12x16 size xP
Is it worth the $40 annual fee? I'd say yes, the $40 is made up for very quickly in savings over other services if you want more than 5-10 large prints. 20x30 at other places will run $15-20 each, and 12x16 will often be about $10! For many, the membership cost won't even be an issue since they might have friends and family who are members (I was not so fortunate). If you're very organized, you could get a one-day pass and get everything printed at once. I personally like having the option of going there at any time for prints, I'd go broke on one-day passes.
These are on photo paper, so they're very sturdy. These aren't the kind of posters you'll be able to fold up neatly (I wish I could get some of those printed at these sizes too!). The larger sizes, however, do not have any photo paper markings on the back, so they can be entered into art shows at conventions.

For 11x17" prints, Ka-Blam is definitely the place to go. They have both floppy and cardstock options, and they'll trim the borders for a small fee.

[Jayde Panda]

I guess I should shop around a bit. I've got time though. This would be for late next spring at the earliest. I'm still trying to decide what size I want the final version to be...

Vice: PoD is Print on Demand right? Would your guide help any with non-comic PoD stuff?

[Seijaku_Ishida]

So, now that the gag-order is lifted, who got a table at Ohayocon?

I did! I'm working on making some boxes right now. Bought some yesterday(and then those wooden snake things, unpainted, caught my eye. I HAD to buy a few of those too).