Artists Alley Information Thread

Selling at Cons is best during the...

Spring	11.5%	[ 117 ]
Summer	29.4%	[ 300 ]
Fall	7.2%	[ 73 ]
Winter	5.5%	[ 56 ]
Any time!	46.5%	[ 474 ]
Total Votes:			[ 1020 ]

[Kyousouka]

Cetriya: Actually, MNext has been pretty good for me, it's definitely a more OC-friendly con. And this eyar it'll supposedly have an even greater AA focus. I am looking forward to it.

I can't really change my offerings so easily, since I sell what I paint normally. I do not have the time (or the drive) to make paintings for conventions.

[Serena Rhapsodos]

Cetriya

Serena Rhapsodos

Cetriya

also, not all cons are the same nor will all have the audience you're targeting so be selective.

I know at my local con about 1/3 of the artist alley didn't sell "art". They sold plushies and all sorts of other crafts. And those were just as great selling as the arts. But all the stands had great presentation of their work, the same for the crafts people, they showed off how talented they were by sewing there or making select items that could assemble easy.

edit: did that make any sense? XD

lol, well I'm going to guess what you mean (its cool I suck at communicating with words thats why I draw), you're assuming that by 'audience' I mean the 'media' that costumers consume.

well thats only a part of it. some cons the attendees like 3d craft work more then others, but it could also be name recognition, color pallet, themes (steampunk, fantasy, gothic, ect), medium (digital prints or traditional work?), it could break down even more then that. Older audience tend to favor more subtle mature color pallets while younger tend to favor brighter things. Some people prefer oils over water color, it could even get down to price and presentation (quantity/quality/rarity).

Awa for example, last time I did the con, I sold 1 comic. It seems to be more of a crafters con. Metro/ Mega seems to be a commission con, jacon(no longer) and afo is where I sell the most prints.

now it doesnt mean that a con that like plushies you cant sell prints but if you find you don't sell much dont think that its cause you're bad, just know that its not your market.

No, what I mean is English isn't my first language so sometimes I can't articulate my thoughts well.

I think what I bolded is really true. A lot of time it has to deal with market, but also how you present yourself. I know someone who was moody the entire time at her table and never sold anything. And she asked her friends why she wasn't selling, and they told her to do something. And she didn't, and this was when someone was looking at her stuff.

But the AA is really like playing Russian Roulette, you may do well one year but the next year tank. But it doesn't hurt to put yourself out there ahead of time.

[Cetriya]

Kyousouka

Cetriya: Actually, MNext has been pretty good for me, it's definitely a more OC-friendly con. And this eyar it'll supposedly have an even greater AA focus. I am looking forward to it.

I can't really change my offerings so easily, since I sell what I paint normally. I do not have the time (or the drive) to make paintings for conventions.

well just what you paint, but what you put your painting on. don't do things different in the last min but I try to plan stuff starting Oct till Feb to get things done. Like i dont just sell prints, I also sell stationary (sketch books for some reason sell more then note books) and I plan to expand on that and sell things like bags and wallets if all goes well.

If I have the funds I may go next year. this year I need to finish up school and plane tickets are to much.

Serena Rhapsodos

I think what I bolded is really true. A lot of time it has to deal with market, but also how you present yourself. I know someone who was moody the entire time at her table and never sold anything. And she asked her friends why she wasn't selling, and they told her to do something. And she didn't, and this was when someone was looking at her stuff.

But the AA is really like playing Russian Roulette, you may do well one year but the next year tank. But it doesn't hurt to put yourself out there ahead of time.

Presentation effects all areas of selling/marketing. If you feel (and have gotten others opinion to verify) that you've done all that you can to make your stuff appealing, then I think more often then not its something that you cant change. If they are just not there to buy your stuff, then it wont sell as much as you'd like to.

[LavenderMintRose]

Yeah... I guess I'm just not meant to do art. I'm currently trying to figure out why I thought I liked it (or if I ever actually did).

I think I just... got it into my head that it was the "right" thing to do and it was "wrong" to not be an artist. I think that was to stop myself from being ordinary.

But I have no idea what to do with this AA table. I can't get my money back, and my table partner doesn't want to do it without me. But I don't want to do it...

[Cetriya]

Fiammetta Rey

Yeah... I guess I'm just not meant to do art. I'm currently trying to figure out why I thought I liked it (or if I ever actually did).

I think I just... got it into my head that it was the "right" thing to do and it was "wrong" to not be an artist. I think that was to stop myself from being ordinary.

But I have no idea what to do with this AA table. I can't get my money back, and my table partner doesn't want to do it without me. But I don't want to do it...

awe, dont think that you cant do it, but do ask if its something you just want to do as a hobby or professionally. which ever you chose, make sure you know what it is that you love about drawing.

*in all honesty, I hate drawing I just like expressing ideas and well, pictures are the best way of doing it so I draw.

if your friend dont mind, I have a friend who's been trying to find an otakon table spot. ask if you can switch with her. She's a friend of minds since 9th grade, you can find her stuff here: Chicochan.

[Kyousouka]

Fiammetta Rey: If you like it, then you like it. Don't equate financial success with your love for drawing. If you think you enjoy it, keep doing it even if other people don't like it.

The reason you're not selling is because you're not at a high enough skill level, but you'll never reach it if you give up. Practice, keep working, enjoy your work. Draw what you want to draw, don't do it for conventions. Don't even go to conventions, stay home and draw in those days instead xP

[LavenderMintRose]

@ skill level: I have been drawing for 6 years. I should be at a higher skill level that I am. I hated myself for a long time because I thought the reason I never improved was because I had mental problems keeping me from holding skill. It's really because I never wanted to do it.

@ going to cons: I will never stop going to cons. Cons are my life. Cons have been my life for 5 years. I started doing AA because I thought just being an attendee wasn't the best way to enjoy the con... but it is. So that's what I'm going to go back to doing. I am, however, going to start going to less anime cons and more general cons, because while those tend to not have voice actor guests (my main reason for going to cons), they tend to have writer guests, and a whole bunch of stuff for people who want to be writers. Which I where I should be. Anime cons tend to not have that since they focus on fiction written on another continent.

[Kyousouka]

By going to cons I meant doing AA at cons, sorry. If you enjoy cons for things other than AA, then you should keep going to them!

If it's any comfort, for my first... I don't even know how many years, I didn't really improve either. It took a metaphorical kick to the face to get me to start improving.

[Kaxen]

Back from Anime Expo. I sold $230 of stuff (except raised table prices, buying a pipe display, insisting those pipes be sea foam green, and paying extra for rush business cards kind of ate into how much of that was actually profit and not just for making back costs) which is an improvement over the $70-ish last year.

I wasn't expecting to sell my plushies, but people wanted them. I might try to improve my plushie sewing skills for the future.

@_@ I wasn't expecting such an improvement.

My buttons didn't do as well as I thought they would though.

This year the majority of my commissions were portraits. O_o I never thought I was good at getting a likeness but people seemed to like them. One guy even came back to say I did him the best.


Also, making an obnoxiously bright table display seems to help get traffic and be remembered. People were using my table for meeting up after losing each other. @_@

[StarMasayume]

I always wondered weather buttons were worth it. I love the small cheap ones but I don't want to dish out the extra money for a botton press and such to get started o.O Would need to sell lots of buttons.

Crossing my fingers that at Ancient City Con that I'll make up the costs of merchandise and going costs XD Spending a lot more this year. Well $200 on mousepads and $100 for 10 munny's boosted the expense. I wonder if I'll do any better at ACC since I'll be in the dealers room? At least I have two more cons I"ll be selling at probably.

Oh Cetriya, my dad's making me one of those table frames to hang the larger prints from! I remember you had one and I know I've seen a lot of people with them. The neat little stand with framed prints worked for quite some time but a lot of them have broken.

[HappilyMeg]

Thank You so much! This is awesome information that i really needed!

[BreathLessX]

I Just love the AA at the cons. I'm going to Otakon this year and *hopefully* I'll buy more OCs than Fanart this year. If they're good.

[ayano_chingkay]

I like winter... 3nodding ,

[Seijaku_Ishida]

I'm totally stalking Ohayocon's page for AA updates. Apparently they're moving the location to a more secure one, so it can be locked up at night. I do like how it used right outside of the Dealer's Room and was open before and after the DR did to get us extra traffic, though.

[Cetriya]

now that I think about it, unless its a really small con, why arent all AA's in the dealer's room? I know some people want 24hrs, but I'd rather have a high chance of high traffic, then be stuck at an empty walk way for 72 hrs.