Artists Alley Information Thread

Selling at Cons is best during the...

Spring	11.5%	[ 117 ]
Summer	29.4%	[ 300 ]
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[AEAcomics]

Sogen Con, in Sioux Falls SD. August 7-9. A tiny con, from what I gather. Um, it takes less than an hour to drive there from where I live, so from Minneapolis it would be about 5 hours, probably less on the interstate. If you're located in southern MN, it's even closer.

Never been to Anime Iowa, but I hear that the AA in the Dealer's room doesn't work very well. This will actually be my first con selling.

[muffin babie]

Ooh, I didn't realize that the AA is in the Dealer's room at AI. >.< From what I've heard, that's less than desirable.
I've heard good things about Sogen Con. Mostly from people at cons that are local to me. Tell us how it goes? smile

[AEAcomics]

That's what I had heard, I don't know if they've moved it in recent years. You'lll have to check the forums.

Certainly. smile I'm hoping that I'll be able to break even or nearly so at Sogen.

[Vicemage]

I had VERY bad luck with Anime Iowa, so I stopped going a couple of years back...

If you're interested in Acen next year, there are groups of us who go down, you could always car-pool with mine. ^_^ (This year, the group's smaller than usual, so I'm probably jumping someone else's carpool this year instead of running my own, but normally I do run one.)

I'm also hitting Anime Nebraskon this year, which has just moved into a hotel in Omaha. I went two years back and had a GREAT time! biggrin Couldn't make last year because it was too soon after Youmacon (which I'm skipping this year), so I'm happy to be going back... just need to get the money together to pay my table. ^^;; Omaha's about a six-hour or so drive? Maybe seven? Not bad, AND there's fun things to do there. (I'm going a day early and meeting up with friends for Sushi and Bemani games.)

Let's see... There's No Brand Con in Eau Claire, WI. Another small but fun one (and don't let size be a turn-off, often small ones do better for AA sales than big ones). I haven't made it to that one the past couple of years, it's too close to both Detour and Acen, but I enjoyed it when I could make it.

I have numerous reasons (most of them personal) for avoiding Sogencon, but if you'd like, go for it. I don't know anything about how AA people have done there in recent years.

I'm not sure if Anime Reactor in Chicago is still going, or if it finally fell to its run of bad luck... it used to do pretty well, the year I went was, shall we say, not so good (and I didn't work the alley). But that's another one within driving/megabus distance.

Beyond that, I do Ohayocon (long trip) and Fallcon (comics only). smile

[Sabey]

ohai
^^' I've stalked this thread for a while in preparation for my first artist alley table. I have to say this was a really useful thread! A few thoughts after my first convention:
-It REALLY helps to have a portfolio (even if it's a small one with really old work) at your table

-While buying supplies have a spreadsheet to calculate the expenses you've accumulated so you know how much you need to make at the convention to break even

-OfficeDepot printing is AMAZING, for letter size color prints on a heavy (110lb) cardstock it's no more than a dollar and the staff there are if not friendly, competent. One thing though, make sure to request that they don't scale the image to size the paper or your images will be just a little off or pixelated if the image is small. They accept an incredibly large range of file types as well. OfficeDepot is also amazing at doing prints on the spot, from the time you go in and leave, it takes more than 15 minutes for around 14 prints.

-At all costs, avoid Kinko's. A lot of the people there had no idea what they were doing and they are ridiculously overpriced. You also have to WAIT for your prints, almost always overnight because of a "large workload" which is really upsetting if you need just like a single print.

-Don't bother buying expensive art paper to use at the convention for on the spot commissions, any large office supply store will have packs of cardstock for sale, 100 pgs per pack, and they are far cheaper. The only time I would suggest buying expensive art paper would be if you're doing hardcore traditional art, i.e. watercolors, etc.

-Unless you have a lot of time and/or minions, try to just stick to one sort of item to sell. This convention I tried to make both craft things and art commissions available and ended up not having enough prints/items to make my table look complete. So if you're going to do keychains or whatnot, stick to just that, if you want to sell your art, stick to that as well.

-ALWAYS come to convention with more cash/change than you need. Artists around you often run out of change and it's good to be prepared anyway. ;]

That's about all I can think of right now. For anyone who's wondering I was at Kawaii-Kon, Hawaii's only anime convention. Anyway, thanks again for this awesome thread, I'll definitely be hanging around.

P.S. Does anyone know anything about Anime Evolution? I'll probably be moving to Vancouver so I'm looking for conventions to camp out in that general area. Thanks! (:

[Seijaku_Ishida]

Sabey

-While buying supplies have a spreadsheet to calculate the expenses you've accumulated so you know how much you need to make at the convention to break even

THIS. XD I did it for Ohayocon. Felt like an organization freak, but hey, it works for me.

I can't afford to go to any other cons this year. Bleh.

[aisazia]

No it's great that you did that. I tried to keep track but failed to calculate the total cost... crying

[City_of_Stars]

Since I'm bored. I'll fill this out. I've done artist alley for about 4 years (the latest two years being more srs bsns lol). Here are my tips.

Part A- Getting the table:
1. How many months in advance do conventions usually release tables, in your experience?
This really depends on the con that you go to. It's been a while since I've reserved my own table (I've had friends help out ^^'), but sometimes tables are available two months after the con (for reserving the next year) or two months before the con. ^^'

2. How much does a table usually cost?
This also depends. Usually they're around $25-$45 for small to medium-sized cons.

3. How quickly are the tables reserved?
VERY QUICKLY. DON'T WAIT. EVER. RESERVE IMMEDIATELY. D:

4. What complications should one be prepared for?
Hmmm well. I dunno. What do you mean by that? lol

5. Anything else?
nah

Optional: What skill level would you suggest entering the AA at? If possible, please provide examples.
Hmm...you should have a relatively good skill level (they don't really care what skill level you are to get a table though). Though if you're good at drawing chibis, then I think you're golden! biggrin

Part B- Preparing to sell:
1. What sort of merchandise would you advise selling?
Small things. Such things like keychains, buttons, bookmarks, etc. Prints are okay too.

2. What sort of merchandise would you advise against selling?
Well anything that is not allowed by certain companies (such as Ouran merch).

3. What sort of stuff sells best?
YAOI. LOTS OF YAOI. And certain series like Kingdom Hearts, Death Note, etc.

4. Where would you suggest going to get things printed?
I usually print stuff in my room, but for the most part people go to FedEx Kinko's.

5. If printing at home, what preparations should one make?
Make test copies. Be sure to set your print dimensions correctly. Conserve your ink. When making your test copies, lighten the opacity so that save ink, but still see if your print came out correctly.

6. How far in advance should one have one's merchandise finished?
Way in advance would be good, but I've gotten stuff done the week of. biggrin

7. Anything else?
nah

Part C- At the Con:
1. How early should one arrive to be sure of reserving a good table?
For the most part, tables are already assigned, so there is no worry about getting your table. Sometimes people are generous to move spaces a little bit.

2. When setting up one's table, what sort of layout would you suggest?
Separate your merch into sections (bookmarks here, buttons there, prints here, etc.) and give it some breathing space for it to be easier for con-goers to look at. Be sure to have your merch out in the flesh (figuratively speaking lol), because they love touching stuff. Really. XD

3. There are some pretty bratty congoers out there. How would you suggest dealing with assholes?
I personally haven't dealt with any, but either I'd try and hurry them off or express disinterest in them.

4. Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. What issues should one be prepared for when running a table at the Artists alley?
Take care of in in a mature manner. That's it really. Don't be an a**, be nice (even if you don't want to--it's all about rep).

5. Anything else?
nah

[AEAcomics]

Yeesh, hotel, pass, and table is already up to $230. But, I shouldn't be spending too much more on other supplies. I've already got pretty much everything I'll need to do commissions.

...Depending on what time the con starts and ends each day, I could probably just drive to and from it. I''ll have to keep that in mind for next year.

[Kaxen]

Eeeaaauuugh...

I can't decide how many prints I should print and I've gotten all indecisive about how much to mark it up. It's my first con and I don't think I am super famous so I doubt people will flock to me.

My friend says 3 or 5 times the cost to make it.

[Vodka girl]

bump mrgreen

[Sakura Alchemist]

Kaxen

Eeeaaauuugh...

I can't decide how many prints I should print and I've gotten all indecisive about how much to mark it up. It's my first con and I don't think I am super famous so I doubt people will flock to me.

My friend says 3 or 5 times the cost to make it.

thats how i am too D:

i finally decided on 3 copies + one for display of each thing i print at 8x11 and one of each 11x17. :< and i decided to go with a flat price $5 per 8x11 and $10 for 11x17

but there are a couple pictures i decided to print less of D:


now back to the original point of me posting, how much do stickers usually sell for? does any one know? D: i want to know if my price will be okay or seem way too high or low. (1.50 was what i was planning on, they are 3 - 4 in tall)

[muffin babie]

Seijaku_Ishida

Sabey

-While buying supplies have a spreadsheet to calculate the expenses you've accumulated so you know how much you need to make at the convention to break even

THIS. XD I did it for Ohayocon. Felt like an organization freak, but hey, it works for me.

I can't afford to go to any other cons this year. Bleh.

I did this, too, for Anime Detour. I really love to make tons of checklists and organizational things, so it was a lot of fun. It helped me know how much I had to make to break even, and even helped me realize that someone pinched a duct-tape rose from my table. stressed
I personally didn't factor in table cost, since it was only like 15 dollars once my table partner and I split the cost. I didn't factor registration, either, mostly since my friend's boyfriend paid for me. :3

I've been hearing lots of good things about No Brand Con. It seems like a lot of fun. What time of year is it? If it hasn't happened yet this year, I'm assuming the tables have sold out anyway, but I might put it onto my "hopeful" list in 2010. n__n

[Vicemage]

I'm honestly really BAD at keeping my spreadsheets... >.< And I'm paying for it now, just filed an extension on my taxes last night because I didn't keep my spreadsheets properly (and I do enough back and forth--usually at a loss, thankfully--that I need to include cons on my taxes). So now I have to figure out where I boxed away all my receipts from the past year when I packed up to move, dig all that out, find all my sales receipts from cons last year, work it all out in my spreadsheets, and finally get mu stupid taxes done. sweatdrop

Muffin: I'm not sure if NBC has happened yet or not for this year, but it has the slight misfortune of landing between Detour and Acen, which is the biggest reason I haven't been able to keep going (since I do both Detour and Acen).

[AEAcomics]

Looks like No Brand Con is next weekend, April 24-26.

The forums are certainly more lively than SogenCon's. But if it's always in late April I wont be able to make it until I finish college. But it does sound like fun!

EDIT
Oh, and now I found out that SogenCon got off to a very rough start through the NBC forums. Oh, the irony. lol