J. After the Con
First, rest and eat some real food!
Deposit any checks you may have on the morning of the first business day after the con. Don’t spend the money without counting it up and calculating the sales tax you’ll need to pay, and making a record of the rest so you can claim it on your income tax reports. During the con, it’s quite tempting to reach into the cash box and grab money to buy food or pay for the hotel, but this is a bad habit, because it screws up your final tally. If you have to do so, make sure to write a small note with the amount of cash you took and for what reason, and put it in the cash box so you’ll have it at the end of the con and know exactly where all your money went.
Also do an inventory of your merchandise and see what sold, what sold out, and what didn’t sell. Combine that with the notes you took during the con of the items people asked for (because of course you made note of what people asked for, right?), and you’ll start getting an idea of what sort of things you want to focus on making for the next con.
Keep the records of all your sales. Don’t throw them away. You’ll want to refer back to them next year, and the year after, and so on, so you know what sorts of things sell well at this particular con, or in this region of the country.
Then sit back for a week or two and relax before swinging into work for the next con.
Congratulations! You’re now an Artist Alley Veteran!
I read the whole thing. It’s made of win and awesome. (You deserve a medal for putting it together!)
Thank you!
Awwww, thank *you*!
(and posting while logged out to see if it’ll pick up my new Gravatar from my email address… *edit* It did!)
I read the whole thing too and I’m not even an artist. If you weren’t a librarian, you would be a great teacher I’m sure. Much more polite than a lot of my observations about things. Also, much more attractively layed out and explained.
Very informative
I, too read through the entire thing and wow it’s helped a lot.
you brought up things i wouldn’t have thought of otherwise!
aiome boston 09 will be my first con to sell stuff at so im a bit nervous.
i’ve been drawing and etc for a while so i wont have any issues with prints and extras, it’s just the sales part.
thanks again! :]
Thank you! Good luck at the con!
Wow, thanks SO much for writing all that. It had so many wonderful tips, smart ideas, and it boosted my confidence into my preperation to do my upcoming 1st time in the AA. I will definetly take all of this advice and sell lots, so that I can profit and have enough money to buy one of your webcomics. Thanks again!
You’re welcome! Good luck, and let us know how you did!
I’ve been thinking about selling in artist alley for awhile now, so this has been so helpful in letting me know what I’ll be up against! Thank you so much!
Amazing! This year will be my first at artist alley, and I make more crafty things than drawings. However, this was still very useful and definitely added to my bookmarks. Thank you!
From one (moderately seasoned) convention artist to another, well done. I was looking to writing one of these from a culture class here at my university, but I don’t know what I’d touch on that you haven’t covered.
Grace: I think if I were to expand on this, I’d talk about the different sorts of crafts you could do and sell in addition to/instead of art and prints, maybe some of the logistics involved in just signing up for an artist alley (especially since some sell out so fast), the sort of money you can reasonably expect to make, the logistics of pricing in more detail (especially with hidden costs), and maybe come up with some sample record-keeping paperwork.
I have a vague urge to make an interactive checklist for con prep, where you can check off stuff you need to do before the con and write in anything that I left off, and it’ll print out a nice checklist that you can use. XD
And also I’d talk to more artists and put their personal stories and advice in it. I did talk to a number of them, but the only place I made it clear that this is not all my own opinion, but the synthesis of several people, is on the acknowledgments page, and I’ve seen several people across the net link to it with words like “This is useful, but it’s only one person’s opinion,” and it isn’t.
This is a really good guide. My friends and I are selling for the first time in October and are sharing a booth at AA. So I am researching the info on AA and this is the best I have seen. Thanks!
I’m really glad I read this. It’s so informative and has enough pieces of humor to keep one entertained while reading without getting bored or skipping sections. Anyways, I’ve recently been thinking about opening up a table at a local con but I wasn’t sure how I should go about preparing (since I’ve never even been to a con before). Anyways, thanks for making the guide. Very Helpful.
thank you very much for writing this in-depth guide. for a first time artist-alley goer it’s really helpful!
Thank you so very much for writing this! I’m considering doing my first artist alley this coming spring, and this really opened my eyes to a few things I hadn’t honestly thought of.
This will definitely be bookmarked and referred back to, so thank you!
That was very helpful! I read the whole thing! This year will be my first time getting a table at an artists alley and I’m terrified. I feel a little more confident now after reading this. Thanks!