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potofsoupWell, a friend and I drove up to ECCC this past week in order to table in Artist Alley. I took 3 days off of work, we left at 9am on Wednesday and returned at noon on Monday. OMG but it was exhausting. We tabled for 33 hours over 4 days, and I sold ... 40 items for ~$400. Which is only 10 more things than I sold by tabling locally in mid-October for less time (26 hours over 3 days, plus didn't have to drive 13 hours each way), less cost (didn't have to pay $400 for tables and didn't have to pay for 4 days of hotel) and less effort.
So yeah, it's a bit demoralizing. Or rather, I feel like I really need to think about what I'm hoping to do with my tabling.
If I'm mostly hoping to have other people see my comics, I can put more effort into spreading them via online social media.
If I'm mostly hoping to have people who aren't usually in my internet circles to see my comics, then yeah, I should probably table more. Or I can figure out how comic publishing works (yikes).
I'm not looking to doing the convention circuit full time. A friend does, and she's basically going to cons every weekend, all over the US. She makes good money because her prints are beautiful and sell well, but:
(a) I don't think my stuff will ever reach that level because it's so niche, and the alternative is making prints and stuff that are more popular, and I'm a very poor gauge of that
(b) I can't take time off of work. I have 3 personal days per year and they can only be for: civic matter, religious holiday, family illness, medical appointment
(c) the natural cost of printing is higher for comics than prints, but sell at roughly the same price, so even if I bring the same 50 lb suitcase to a con *and sell out*, it'd be half as much as she'd make.
I also like my normal job enough that I'm really not looking to do this full time. That said, I don't want to lose money on this, either.
I think, going forward:
- I don't want to do non-local cons unless:
(a) it's during a school break,
(b) it involves <6 hours of travel, and
(c) I have cheap or free place to crash
- I should try to be better at tabling:
(a) get an instagram (sigh)
(b) design another print and another sticker set
(c) figure out an efficient "con suitcase"
- I should generate a list of local cons that I can apply for
So yeah, it's a bit demoralizing. Or rather, I feel like I really need to think about what I'm hoping to do with my tabling.
If I'm mostly hoping to have other people see my comics, I can put more effort into spreading them via online social media.
If I'm mostly hoping to have people who aren't usually in my internet circles to see my comics, then yeah, I should probably table more. Or I can figure out how comic publishing works (yikes).
I'm not looking to doing the convention circuit full time. A friend does, and she's basically going to cons every weekend, all over the US. She makes good money because her prints are beautiful and sell well, but:
(a) I don't think my stuff will ever reach that level because it's so niche, and the alternative is making prints and stuff that are more popular, and I'm a very poor gauge of that
(b) I can't take time off of work. I have 3 personal days per year and they can only be for: civic matter, religious holiday, family illness, medical appointment
(c) the natural cost of printing is higher for comics than prints, but sell at roughly the same price, so even if I bring the same 50 lb suitcase to a con *and sell out*, it'd be half as much as she'd make.
I also like my normal job enough that I'm really not looking to do this full time. That said, I don't want to lose money on this, either.
I think, going forward:
- I don't want to do non-local cons unless:
(a) it's during a school break,
(b) it involves <6 hours of travel, and
(c) I have cheap or free place to crash
- I should try to be better at tabling:
(a) get an instagram (sigh)
(b) design another print and another sticker set
(c) figure out an efficient "con suitcase"
- I should generate a list of local cons that I can apply for
