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 ]

[[Kako]]

Frosted Muffin Cakes

In regards to keeping prices even, what some places to is they say that the listed price is including tax. So if your bookmarks were 2 bucks a pop, they'd actually be 1-something. You'd be making less money per item, I think, but it's a way to charge for taxes and not make things cost 2 dollars and 14 cents or something silly.

...Is tax on items determined by state, or is that a nationwide thing? I suppose that could get quite horrific if you have to adjust the "actual" price of the product for every convention to get the right amount when you add tax...

It's determined by state, and even then sometimes changed by county. What almost everyone in Alleys does is just take the sales tax from their own gross profit rather than passing it on to the customer. So last year at fanime I mad $235 gross. California Sales tax is 8.750%, but San Jose adds a county sales tax that brings it up to 9.250%. So after the con, when it came time to file my taxes, I listed $235 as my gross profit and paid $21.74 in sales taxes.

Jayde - The Tax Permit is Sales & Use Tax. When any money is earned, it's taxed once when the business gets it (Sales & Use) and once when you get it (Income). However, I'm pretty sure that if you earn under a certain amount with your small business (which technically AA tables usually count as) the earnings don't actually have to pass through your income tax. (Don't quote me on this one, I'll try to research it more and come back with a definite number.) Anyways, you can easily keep your prices nice and simple. smile

[Jayde Panda]

Sorry for all the (probably dumb) questions. @_@ Gross profit--is that total money collected at the table, or money collected minus expenses (printing costs, table and badge fee, travel expenses, etc)?

I've never actually thought of my art studio as a small business--it's just something I do for fun. I guess I should take it a little more seriously.

[[Kako]]

Gross Profit refers to the total before deductions, while Net Profit refers to the total after deductions. smile You're taxed on your gross profit. Things like Travel, Hotel, Food, and Table/Badge costs can be considered business expenses and are Tax Deductible, but I'm afraid I don't know much about that. >_<

It's fine that your studio is something that you do for fun, you should keep it that way. smile Just keep in mind that it probably qualifies legally as a small business.

Edit: I do want to clarify, this is just what I've learned from experience and talking to people at my local board of equalization. There's a fair chance I could be wrong about some of what I'm saying, so I encourage doing independent research on the subject as well.

[Vicemage]

Frosted Muffin Cakes

-Frustrated-

So I'm trying to look in to other conventions in my area, other than ACen and Anime Detour. As my boyfriend pointed out, ACen might be out of reach this year, mostly because in order to sell buttons, I have to either buy a brand-new button machine, or go back to my crappy badge-a-minit. gonk Curse his logic.
Anyway, I seem to have found a couple... NoBrandCon does not seem to actually have any information on artist alleys that I can find. Am I just dumb, or is it really not there? I checked the forums and the main site.
Anime Milwaukee doesn't seem to have any information on their artist alley, as far as I can tell...? They have an "artist registration" link, but I cannot find any info on the alley. Other than it seems to have been in with the Dealer's room last year. :<
MAC (which I don't really want to do, but might if it's my only option for a second convention) doesn't even have a webpage right now. It's just "Watch for updates on 2011. Thanks for a wonderful year."
Geek.kon looks kind of rad so far. I've looked at AI, but since they don't allow fanart, I would have to remake my entire stock. I'm not opposed to selling original art, but I don't know that I am good enough yet. Maybe, though.

So.. does anyone have any insight on any of these things? Or does anyone in the metro area have a hand-press button machine I can use to make ACen more likely?

NBC does in fact have an Alley, but you're VERY early to be finding information on it, since it's one that happens in the spring (typically between Detour and Acen). You can email or post on the forum asking for information on it, but it's certainly not going to be open for registration yet. (And I think that last year, it was a bit hard to find...)

MAC might not happen, so don't set your sights on that one.

AI isn't bad, if you can do the restock for it. Well, it's not bad for most people, it's cursed for me. sweatdrop

[Skye River]

How many drawing(s) have any of you done during your time in the convention artist alley ?

[jillythefoo]

Vicemage

MAC might not happen, so don't set your sights on that one.

Yeah yeah... It's a terrible con... hee hee hee. I made pretty well... I mean not well there in 2010.

Don't set your sights on that one. 4laugh


ACEN... I planning on dropping it for 2011. I can't seem to compete against all that AA talent and huge dealers room there.

[Frosted Muffin Cakes]

jillythefoo

Vicemage

MAC might not happen, so don't set your sights on that one.

Yeah yeah... It's a terrible con... hee hee hee. I made pretty well... I mean not well there in 2010.

Don't set your sights on that one. 4laugh

ACEN... I planning on dropping it for 2011. I can't seem to compete against all that AA talent and huge dealers room there.

Yeah, MAC wasn't really a high priority for me. I went when it was Kakkoi|Con. It was my first alley, actually. It was really more of a "if it's cheap and there's a table and I've got nothing else to do" thing. I'd like to start doing more than 1 con a year, but I have to either go to a con bigger than my main one (where I'd think I could make more money...?) or an equal-to-smaller con that's local and I wouldn't need a hotel room for.

@Vicemage: Yeah, I would really love to go to AI, but it is really not feasible for 2011. Hopefully 2012. -crosses fingers-
Also, I do realize that it's early to be looking for info on NBC. But the only cons I've been to are Detour, Kakkoi|Con and CONvergence. Yes, I've been going to them all for years, but still. I get nervous and tend to overplan for things gonk

@CA: No. Take your spammy s**t somewhere else.

[jillythefoo]

Frosted Muffin Cakes

@Vicemage: Yeah, I would really love to go to AI, but it is really not feasible for 2011. Hopefully 2012. -crosses fingers-
Also, I do realize that it's early to be looking for info on NBC. But the only cons I've been to are Detour, Kakkoi|Con and CONvergence. Yes, I've been going to them all for years, but still. I get nervous and tend to overplan for things gonk

You were at Convergence artist alley...? Wonder if I've seen you there in 2010...

Anyway I think Anime Iowa is a really fun con to sell at. The art can't be fanart so that's why it can be a challenge to sell there.

[Vicemage]

@Skye: I... I don't even know. A lot, but not as many as some have, and sadly the numbers seem to be going down with a lot of the people I know lately.

@Jilly: Well, beyond that, things didn't go well enough and it may not be feasible for them to actually put that con on again. This is the second year it didn't go well (and with conflict between the two years, beyond what most people are aware of); the odds are very bad that a third year will ever happen. So it wouldn't be a good one to plan for at all.

@Muffin: It's been a few years since I was able to make NBC, but they did have an Alley and I did really good sales at it. Small con with lots of people who like to give money to the artists, it was nice.

And overall statements. smile With my own exhaustion and the current state of things, I'm scaling back next year, myself. Instead of the 6-7 cons I normally do I'm dropping to 2-3 for working the alley, and going to one just for fun for a change. Room planning for one turned into a big get-together of people I really want to hang out with, and as we all know, working a table sort of robs you of that. I've missed too many years of doing that. So I'm going to go have fun! biggrin

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Having fun is important once in a while!

I do wish you could come to Ohayocon again. >: I'll miss you!