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 ]

[AEAcomics]

Oh, jeez. I understand a lot of people don't like their real names used. I'd be a bit iffy about being listed under my real name.

I've been thinking about doing Anime Iowa next year. The tables are listed at $50, so I'm thinking I'd want to split with someone. I don't need a full table, especially now that I've got one of those wire cube things to shove all my crap in.
Earlybird prereg is $35, Holiday Special reg is $30.

biggrin

EDIT Oh, that table rate was for this year! Hopefully it will be the same for next year.

[Vicemage]

I know a lot of awesome artists who do Anime Iowa, it's a pretty good con... which unfortunately is also cursed for me, so I've stopped attending. (Seriously, I went four years in a row and the weekend never went well for me. Something horrible always happened--and by horrible, I really do mean HORRIBLE, not simple hyperbole of "I tripped on the stairs and had a broken nail all weekend." So I stopped going in order to stop tempting fate.)

But my bizarre curse aside, it's a good con. smile

[AEAcomics]

Yikes, 4 in a row? That is bad.

Coralville would be an 8-9 hour drive for me. Wonder if I can convince my sister and friend to come along on that one. razz

I might try Nebraskon too, Omaha's 4 hours away. Next year SogenCon is July 23-35, so I'll do it again.
And SoDak Con is just over a month away! Vic Mignogla and Wendy Powell (Ed Elric and Envy from FMA) are going to be guests, so I'm hoping that will be a big draw. If I did fanart, I'd be pumping out FMA right now lol

[Vicemage]

They weren't all Artist Alley trips, but they did all go pretty south. ^^ The facility in Coralville is GORGEOUS, though, you'll love it.

Nebraskon's a fun one, too... I missed it last year but made it back this year, and I'm going to try to not miss it again. biggrin I don't do Sogencon, though... I'm actually looking into OSFest for a summer convention. (No, my powerful craving for food from Blue Sake Bar in Omaha doesn't have anything to do with me wanting another Omaha con... >.> )

Edit: Ohayocon's fixed my listing to be under my studio name now. That was quick!

[jillythefoo]

Vicemage

They weren't all Artist Alley trips, but they did all go pretty south. ^^ The facility in Coralville is GORGEOUS, though, you'll love it.

Nebraskon's a fun one, too... I missed it last year but made it back this year, and I'm going to try to not miss it again. biggrin I don't do Sogencon, though... I'm actually looking into OSFest for a summer convention. (No, my powerful craving for food from Blue Sake Bar in Omaha doesn't have anything to do with me wanting another Omaha con... >.> )

I went to Anime Iowa 09 this year. It worked out okay. The comics sold well there.

Staying on topic.

Part A- Getting the table:
1. How many months in advance do conventions usually release tables, in your experience?
Each con has a different thing going for it. I usually hit the site every few weeks until the AA registration appears.
2. How much does a table usually cost?
$25-50 bucks. It's getting higher over the years. $25 is rare for a table cost now.
3. How quickly are the tables reserved?
Really really fast. 24 hours to a week. I don't wait.
4. What complications should one be prepared for?
Oh it happens all the time. The dopeheads forget to update the AA part of the site when they sell out of tables then they have to cut a few people. Happened with Anime Iowa and YoumaCon once. Save your reservations/receipts/email prints any proof you have that you have a table.
5. Anything else?
Optional: What skill level would you suggest entering the AA at? If possible, please provide examples.
Is it good enough that your friends pester you to make/draw the things for them? Or people that you just met?

Part B- Preparing to sell:
1. What sort of merchandise would you advise selling?
Costume items(the con goers that didn't come dressed up will want to when they see cosplayers there.) They will impulse buy costume items.
2. What sort of merchandise would you advise against selling?
Print fanart, unless you are ungodly good. Seeing bad print fanart for sale makes me cringe a little. No amount of pity will make me buy it.
3. What sort of stuff sells best?
Sigh...fanart of whatever is popular at the time (so like Death Note and Harry Potter in 2008, Fruits Basket in 2006, Twilight now.) The long stay animes Naruto, Bleach, One Piece only go so far.
4. Where would you suggest going to get things printed?
Printing is expensive. Don't sell prints unless you are good enough to sell laminated $20 posters and $5 bookmarks.
5. If printing at home, what preparations should one make?
Don't know.
6. How far in advance should one have one's merchandise finished?
Work on it slowly through the months. Have an idea of what you want to make and sell months in advance. You can have things finished last min if you want.


Part C- At the Con:
1. How early should one arrive to be sure of reserving a good table?
When it opens. Check the site or sometimes you get an email showing the AA's hours.
2. When setting up one's table, what sort of layout would you suggest?
Place same price items in same areas. Make the price signs VERY EASY to read and spot. Then you don't have to say how much everything is over and over again.
3. There are some pretty bratty congoers out there. How would you suggest dealing with assholes?
If a pestering congoer is bothering me, I greet and try to have small talk with the new arrivals to the table and ignore the pest until he goes away.
4. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. What issues should one be prepared for when running a table at the Artists alley?
If something goes wrong don't blow up and make a scene. Take a breather and come back to the problem with a calm mind. It's not the end of the world.

Not much else. Working the AA at cons can be a lot of fun. With so many cosplayers moving through the tables, it's like a parade where they come to you. Much more entertaining than craft shows.

[AEAcomics]

I haven't heard of OSFest before. I wonder about trying MAC (formerly Kakkoi Con) next year too, it will be in June.

[Vicemage]

I'm probably not doing MAC either (there are reasons, as per usual, won't go into them here); OSFest is apparently a new one, Sci-Fi rather than anime. Reps for both OSFest and Con-Stellation (I think) were roaming the dealer's room/Artist's Alley at Nebraskon this past year, looking for people to come to their cons, and they both sounded really interesting. I'd do both, but Con-Stellation is too close to Anime Detour and ACen.

[AEAcomics]

Detour and No Brand Con are right before finals for me, so I can't do them while I'm still in school. Detour's AA is already full for 2010 anyway.
Well, maybe I could do No Brand next year, I've only got 2 non-art classes next semester. I'll have to wait and look at the schedules for my courses.
Nebraskon is after midterms, so it would probably work too. And SoDak is just barely after my spring semester starts.

I want to do more cons, but I'm mainly limited to summer months, and I don't want to travel too far to them. sweatdrop
In state cons are easy because I've already go the tax forms for it biggrin

EDIT yeah, when I was at Sogen someone from a scifi/gaming group talked to me about an event in... Sioux City, I think it was. I've got a box of business cards I've collected, I'll have to find his again.

[Cetriya]

jillythefoo

5. If printing at home, what preparations should one make?
Don't know.

I highly suggest you dont do this because it will cost alot compare to just getting it done through others. I tend to reserve home printing to special projects and hand done crafts.

but if you really want to:

on black friday, office stores have great deals on photo paper but make sure you get to know your printer as differernt paper will work differently for different printers. So far, I've heard good stuff about canon but HP printers tend to be fickle (I dont like HP products) . I've not tried to kodak but as soon as my canon dies I'll try it to conserve ink. anyways, office depot on black friday you get 300 gloss sheets for 50$. also get those free member cards since they give you 10% back on ink, paper and printing.

I also like using full sheet lables for printing stickers, you can get a cheap laminator at walmart
keep in mind that every print you mess up cost money, unlike when a print place mess up they do it again with no extra charge.
_______________________________________

Next con for me is megacon already got my table just need to make a few new things (need to also work on portfolio submissions) I'm going to do a bunch of artist sketch cards since this is a mix comic con and they seem to like these things

[Kyousouka]

Even with the awesome discounts you can get at Office Depot and the like, printing at home is still more expensive than using services. Most of that cost comes from ink, which is seldom discounted.

For prints, I highly, highly discourage printing at home. However, for stickers, as Cetriya said, it's not bad. Most sticker-printing services are very expensive, so printing at home is not too bad.

[Vicemage]

DarKlaw, if you can swing NoBrandCon, it's COMPLETELY worth it... it's my favorite con that I can't make it to anymore. It's not quite as lucritive for me as Acen has been in the past, and it sits right between Acen and Detour most years... though if I find out I got dropped from Detour, I might jump onto NBC this year instead.

I should look at PaperForest's current reviews and see if they've shaped up yet on service. I'd still love to do some stickers through them...

[jillythefoo]

DarKlawStudios

I haven't heard of OSFest before. I wonder about trying MAC (formerly Kakkoi Con) next year too, it will be in June.

I'm going to MAC (aka Kakkoi) for 2010 because I'm registered and despite all the bad rap I make the most money at local cons because I don't have to travel. If MAC2010 ends up bad then I'll give that con up.


Here's a question: What are the most well known anime conventions for featuring Webcomics?
What are the best cons for promoting webcomics?

[Kyousouka]

APE (Alternative Press Expo), held in SanFran... it's not an anime con, but it's pretty much THE con for webcomic creators. I hope I can go one day.

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Vicemage

I should look at PaperForest's current reviews and see if they've shaped up yet on service. I'd still love to do some stickers through them...

On their page they finally made an announcement on the delays. Which also says they'll be hiring more hands, so hopefully something like this won't happen again! whee