Tuesday, March 05, 2013

ECCC 2013- mini assessment


This was mostly meant to be a learning experience, to see how this Artist Alley thing works and perhaps do more in the future.  Here's a quick survey of my observations...

What worked:

-Square card reader and phone app. Pretty awesome to be able to take credit cards!

-Finding a niche... I figured out Sat. morning that my little cartoon books could be sold as an "All Ages" book since I didn't depend on sex jokes or explicit language for my jokes.

-Having a spiral bound batch of samples that people could easily flip through. Marty brought a small portfolio with some prints of Teen Ellis and his Black Flag pages. These drew people in to the table and gave us a reason to start a conversation... "These are pages from a story that appears in this book" etc. It worked well enough on Friday night that I brought a sketchbook in of my stuff on Sat. morning and it helped drive more drawing commissions. Heck, I even sold a page from the sketchbook!

-Marty! Marty was an awesome tablemate... super personable, chatty and fun to hang around. Every con table should have at least one Marty at it!

-Taking the bus into town. It's the way I commute every day and the bus made for a stress free morning and probably saved us about $50 of event parking we'd otherwise have to pay for over the weekend.

-Signage. I made little signs telling convention goers in brief terms what we were selling. I think it helped.

Things that didn't work so well:

-Anthology book. I don't think Anthologies sell well. I think people want a narrative and they want the product to be consistent in nature. I suspect that although a lot of folks could find something they like in the TAG book they probably wouldn't want to spend $15 for a few pages that they dig.

-Missed getting a lock on a table for next year. They had a sign up for it all weekend long, but I didn't find the paperwork until late yesterday.  :(

- Single panel cartoons and sketchbooks. My little Nearsighted comics books sold pretty well as did Marty's sketchbook, but I think if we had comic books with stories in them they would have sold much better. If we had a web comic with a following, we could have sold a lot more.

Marty, what did I miss?

 

34 comments:

Davis Chino said...

Rick, this is a super-good rundown.

You are right about the sales drawbacks of an anthology. It may be a format that can only thrive with a great hook ("The Artists of Blizzard" or such like). But I wonder if we couldn't have had slightly better luck with the book if we'd focused our display on showcasing a nice selection of the art contained within...? Give em a better idea what to expect.

And on the anthology question, I think of the very cool "Monsters & Dames" book that the Con prints every year--and sells out of on day one (900 copies? all for charity). There are ways to do a nice anthology that people will buy. I'm not suggesting we go that fancy--but it could be done...you wrote how "people want stories" (I agree!); we could try next time to make a TAG Sampler that's all stories (my idea for the next one being a Horror Anthology--it'll kill!).

Another problem that hurt not only the TAG Annual Sampler but also our individual books was their lack of easy categorization. Somebody passing the table couldn't tell right away what they could expect inside the books.

Over the course of the Con we both scrambled to find ways to better communicate the content of our books (you did better than me! The "all ages" pitch worked great). We did it via signage and "explanatory banter," but a lot of improvement would be possible in this area.

And compared to many of the other Con artists, we were REALLY hurt by our lack of an appreciable following! A core group of dedicated followers could definitely keep the sales coming....
But I wonder how much of the final dollar for a lot of artists at our level is from straight up book sales, and how much is really down to selling drawings...and sort of selling the "personal touch." People seemed to really want to connect with the artists/writers, and to come away with something tangible, even if it was just a signature. The possibility of a cool drawing was a much bigger motivation to spend than coming into the Con looking for new, unexpected books to buy...at least, that's what I think.

Davis Chino said...

p.s.You are too funny saying every table needs a Marty!

Every table needs a Rick (fun, talented, up-beat, can-do, connected, reliable and a sales generating machine!)...and everyone attending DEFINITELY needs a Schmitz family with whom to stay. You guys made the experience so easy--and so fun!

MrGoodson2 said...

Rick. Thanks for the big write up. And you Marty for the follow uo in comments. Gave me a good sense of what an ECCC weekend was like at the small press table.

MrGoodson2 said...

I also think this may have been the last "small" ECCC. The unavailability of tables, the buzz I saw on twitter, means this con will get the flash mob effect of ComicCon. It still won't get the Hollywood treatment next year. But the pop culture tsunami trend is now in place.

Rickart said...

Yeah... now that I think of it, maybe it's a good thing we didn't sign up for an Artist Alley table if we decide to grab a booth area like some friends I know did this time around.

Total truth about a following... I have a friend who did most of the art for Plants vs. Zombies who was busy doing drawings the whole time.

Davis Chino said...

Are the Artists' Alley tables already sold out for next year?!?!

Oof. Just when we were getting a groove on....

Rickart said...

No, as far as I know we must missed the LOCK on a table.

I may still appeal to their mercy and tell them what happened and send them a check. They may just go for it... assuming that we don't want to go for the big booth thing.

MrGoodson2 said...

At this point I'd probably be the anti-Marty for an art table.
"This isn't a library kid," type of attitude.
Booths may not be do-able either

"Exhibitors
Exhibitor space is sold out--please fill out our wait list form below, as it does turn into a mailing form for our 2014 show.

If you have any questions, please contact Kristina Rogers at kristina@emeraldcitycomicon.com.

If you would like to be placed on our wait list, please fill out this form"

JMG said...

It sucks that all these damn Cons are selling out of Tables, artist spots, admission etc. It's just getting OUT of control. They just need to build us a city and be done with it.

Tom Moon said...

Maybe we should start going to Cons all around the country! Or the world! There's the one in France, "Angoulême International Comics Festival", the second largest in the world, after the Comiket in Tokyo. The fact that these things keep selling out is a good sign. There's a demand!

Beata said...

That city has been built, Jim.

It's called San Diego Comic Fest.

Beata said...

P.S. I loved reading the various accounts of ECCC, as well as seeing the pics!

P.P.S. I'm going to go order my TAG sampler now. Lulu finally has a sale happening through midnight March 8th ... 20% off ... coupon code: SPARK

Beata said...

Marty, where's the link to buy your sketchbook?

Beata said...

And Rick, same question on your Nearsighted Comics book.

Davis Chino said...

Beata! No online sales site...how about I email you and beg you for a sale privately?

Beata said...

You had me at "beg" ...
:D

Davis Chino said...

Ha!

Tom Carroll said...

I am begging too ...

beg.

Tom Carroll said...

And hah! ... I'm back. For a while I couldn't remember what my password was for this blog ... but I've been reading avidly.

MrGoodson2 said...

Good to see you back on board Tom C. Hope things are going alright for you.

MrGoodson2 said...

And I want a Davis sketchbook and a Cat Herding nearsighted Comic.

Tom Moon said...

Hey, the Darth Maul bagpipe-playing guy saw my YouTube video post and left a thank you comment! Guess his real name is Niall Townley. Funny.

MrGoodson2 said...

Beata. Lot of time between now and the next Comic Fest to do some promo. You guys could get a lot of that tsunami effect. Couple of big names etc. Of course the head ache will increase geometrically as well.

Tom Moon. I tried to drive a little traffic to the vid on twitter. Didn't know it was your youtube acct

Tom Moon said...

Beata, are you officially connected to the Comic Festival somehow?

Rickart said...

Update:
So, I've had a chance to read over the paperwork and it looks like artist alley applications open up on June 1st. It took a little while for it to fill up last year, but I'm guessing that it's going to fill up faster this year, so if I were you and I wanted a table I'd mark the calendar and send it in early.

I'm shooting the form along with a check to the ECCC people tomorrow and hoping that I can still get a reservation now.

Also, there is a NEW con called Rose City Comic Con in Portland Sept 21-22. Another venue to sell at if people are so inclined. There is another con in Seattle called Jet City that happens around the same time, but I've heard is a much smaller affair.

Beata said...

SD Comic Fest 2013 will be Oct 4-6, and yes Tom, I am connected to it. Last year I coordinated the Art Exhibit and Artist Alley ... didn't you get my invitation?
http://www.sdcomicfest.org/
You guys will be hearing from me very soon!

I'll have additional help this year, so I can be more of an Artists' Liaison once the Fest opens. I'm also coordinating the (new) Masked Ball, which will be a live-music event ... with real dancing, not just a bunch of people hangin' around in costumes.

Rickart said...

I took a peek at the Rose City con... it's run by the same folks who run ECCC. The artist alley tables are $150- half the price of ECCC. It's not the best time of year for a con, at least for me, with the kids going back to school and such. Still, I'll wager that Portland is hungry for a well-run con and that the ECCC organizers will be able to attract high quality guests. It's tempting. If i had any hope of having a new book ready by then I might have gone for it. I don't see any deadline for ordering a table, so I guess they just close it when all the tables are taken. perhaps having a con so close to ECCC will releive some of the pressure off on ECCC so that it doesn't grow too much larger.

JMG said...

Ok...so WHO is going to Wondercon at the end of the month?

Tom Carroll said...

Catch up: I'm working part time in hardware & tools at Home Depot, teaching two classes at the Art Institute of California: San Diego, and just finishing a stint doing flats for color artist Wendy Fouts Broome to facilitate her color work on Legend of the Dark Knight (pencils by Tom Mandrake). I will also soon be a moderator on the forums of a new site called CreatorSafe that will launch this year at SDCC.

A few other irons in the fire, but nothing smokin' hot at the moment.

MrGoodson2 said...

Excellent Tom. Tom Carrol.

Did you get the Home Depot gig strictly through online application?

I'd like to work for Home Depot if I could swing it. Are they alright as an employer?

I just interviewed for a position as a part time computer IT guy for the local library. That may pan out. Other competition for the same spot.

Being creative on my own time suits me fine. Every "creative" gig you get is going to turn into work anyway. Might as well be running a table saw for money.

MrGoodson2 said...

I wrote you a regular email Tom

Rickart said...

Good to see you back on these pages Tom C.!

The sort of color work you are doing is what I more or less did for Joe Chiodo back in the day... assisted him on colors. I even got a bit of credit for it. It openned the door for me to do colors on my own for Malibu Comics and then Marvel (when Malibu was bought by Marvel). It was a fun gig although it paid almost nothing. Perhaps you can use your new credit to open some doors for yourself!

Tom Carroll said...

That's my goal, Rick ... let nothing lie fallow.

H.D. is a good employer. I enjoy what I do, though it is extremely minimal in the creative dept., unless you think that deciphering people's hardware needs and leading them toward the light (the right screw, etc.) is creative. I tend to use somewhat more "educated" vocabulary in the store with customers ("conundrum" got worked in the other day instead of the more simple "problem," but I don't overdo that ...

I went through the general online sign-up, Ellis. I had to do it twice, and I think it helped on the second pass that I was already working at CVS, another retail giant. But go through that. Julie and I are actually back on Aetna for benefits right now because of Home Depot. Never look THAT gift horse in the mouth.

Tom Moon said...

Thanks for the update Tom. Glad you're back posting on TAG!