/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

Some of you may have noticed the washi tape trend, alongside with the surge of drawings using washi tape.

I was wondering what you gulls thought about selling works using washi tape? Is it totally cool in all cases because the work is transformative? is it only okay if its generic pattern tape or plain? is it only not okay if it's another (artist alley) artist's tape design? etc.

>>9910536
If it was made with another artists tape I would think this was pretty damn rude... people who like the tape design might purchase your product instead of buying the tape to make a thing themselves, cutting into the artists sales.

Commercial washi tape i can’t see a problem with though. It’s just a craft made with purchased material at that point, like any AA craft.

How many items do you usually bring to a large 3 day con? Like I’m talking quantity... should I bring 1000 items, 2000 items, or 3000? Do you guys ever even sell that many items? I get so stressed with this stuff. What if you guys sell out before the last day?

>>9910581
Bring enough to if you completely sold out, you'd be happy with your profit, but if you sell nothing, you won't be stuck with an unmanageable amount of merchandise.

>>9910536
TECHNICALLY, lawfully, you bought it you can do whatever you want with it. MORALLY if you don't ask permission to re-sell or re-use artist tape i can see this ending very very badly.

It would also depend on if you were making prints or if you were using the actual physical tape. I would be more okay with you using strips of my tape for every item (say you sold decorated notebooks or with your art on the cover + washi tape deco or something) and credited me in your shop listing. I might even be okay with someone making a print with my tape as long as there was credit, and i've given permission for someone to use it in a zine with credit at the end.

But if any of these were to happen without asking me first, i might be kind of annoyed. If they refused to give credit because TECHNICALLY they don't have to i would probably black list them from buying from me and warn my friends too.

>>9910242
I made about $1700 gross, $1200 net total. I tabled last year and made about double my net total, so it was a little disappointing. That seemed pretty inline with what other people were saying this year though. I’m not a full print artist, but my prints barely moved compared to other cons.

If you’d like, you could try hopping into the discord for some art feedback if you’re worried about posting it in the thread. Breaking even is great for your first con, so don’t be discouraged!

Hey does anybody know how to make anonymous kofi donations? I would play around with it but I don’t want to make a mistake and have my name show up.

I'm almost done unpacking my things at my new place, which I'm so happy to finally achieve and settle, so I'm gathering my AA things in one place so I don't lose track of my inventory and display stuff. I have so much catching up to do before my events next month... Thankfully they aren't long at all, but my table always look sad to me when I don't have enough variety.

>>9910790
Donate from an incognito window?
I think you just have to make sure you're not logged in right?

AnimeNext went better than expected, but that's only because I went in with absolutely trash expectations. Still only made a couple hundred over a grand profit wise, but that's also because I'm still only at the bare minimum to fill a full table. Not sure if I want to go again.

>>9910800
Is that it? I don’t want my email to be displayed since that is my real name.

>>9910892
Idk the ins and outs of ko-fi but I would assume you could do a private donation and use a credit/debit card if you don't want your paypal address out there? I don't know if its really possible to be 100% anon to even the artist you're donating to

>>9910681
Why was anext this year so slow? I feel like they must have lost a lot of attendees.

>>9910375
Do you have a link to your store? 3 inch is big for me but I love bug merch

>>9910561
>>9910646
Thanks for your input!
i'm specifically talking about (in my case, anyway) original OOAK drawings that utilize washi tape, like pic related (not mine).

>>>9911101
There was a boycott in December of it because the con runner is now considered """"racist""""

>>9911214
What’d they do

>>9910892
Can't you just make a throwaway email if you're that determined to stay anon?

>scoping out vendor list
>’oh wow this guy lists a bunch of different sites/tv channels/etc he’s drawn for or been featured by and has apparently worked with Marvel, he must be really good, let me check out his—‘
>.’...oh’

>when a conventions *closes* their applications for artist/dealers hall a *year* before the con even starts

Yea, its annoying when cons don't let you know if you are accepted or not a month before the con, but come on, they don't need a whole year notice. 6 months is plenty reasonable.

>>9911260
What con?

>>9911288
FWA

>>9911192
>>9910536
Yeah, I was kind of wondering about this too. I would like to do commissions at cons like the work you posted, but I can see how it falls into an iffy area. Same question goes for more decorative stickers, I guess.

>>9910561
The thing is, why wouldn't another artist's washi tape be considered a purchased material if you purchased it from them? If someone's enjoyment of a tape's pattern was what pushed them to buy the transformative piece, wouldn't it make more sense for them to also buy the tape itself rather than not? Though it's more plausible that it's the design itself that sold the piece, rather than the pattern imo.

>>9911222
Probably not what the other anon is talking about, but someone running their Facebook page kept spamming weirdly edgy memes. Iirc it was a lot of fma Nina “jokes” and it eventually got to be offputting and in bad taste. They had to apologize on the page publicly but people were still really pissed about it. It happened a few months ago, sorry if the details are a little off, you might be able find the posts on their page still.

>>9911331
>why wouldn’t it be considered a purchased material
If you sincerely can’t grasp why artists might find people selling products with those artists’ tape designs to be in poor taste or how that’s different from using mass produced tape by a company then you might be a little lacking in empathy

>>9911337
That’s interesting/funny and all but, in addition to not being what anon was talking about with the racist stuff, there’s also no way THAT was the cause of the reduced attendance we were speculating about so it’s not terribly relevant. Might be good for a laugh though.

>>9911337
Nina jokes seem “weirdly edgy” to some people? What? Are hughes jokes edgy too....? I thought they were both just an expression of collective fandom sadness.

How good do you actually have to be to get into an alley? I feel like I'm good enough, and I had gulls here tell me I was good enough last August, and I've improved a heck ton since then, but I still wonder. How much does skill actually have to do with it? Taeshi doesn't sell any anime related work, it's all just her furry drama comic with mediocre chibi art, but she still rakes in a ton of cash, all due to her massive following.

>>9911222
>>9911337
>>9911478
It was during Christmas when people were pushing the black Santa. The runner posted a picture of some anime girl dressed in a Santa outfit with something along the lines of "if we're changing the way Santa looks, then how about this?" and of course people had to get angry about it.

>>9911331

There's a difference between mass produced products sold by corporations and small run products created and sold by independent artists. Many of them don't make and sell tape with the intent of it being resold, and even if you feel differently, it's important to consider how they would feel if they saw your works using their designs without permission. You're essentially trying to ride the coattails of their designs. If you really feel that your art is as good or better than the washi tape artists designs and you're not selling pieces just because people like the tape pattern, then it wouldn't hurt you to just use storebought tapes as a courtesy.

If it's something you really can't let go, how about asking the artists when you buy if they are okay with you using and selling the pieces using their tape that way? Some will say yes, some will say no. Even if you think it's unnecessary, at least you'd know you aren't going to hurt anyone, which should be important to you if you like their works.

If you decide that all of that is just too hard, at least, at LEAST, credit the artists on every piece, on every post where you display your work online, put it on the fucking jpeg next to your own signature, so there is no mistaking that you did not produce that design. I guarantee a lot of people won't understand the production process and think you made it all from scratch.

>>9911536
That was stupid as hell of them t b h. Sucks for any artists that might have gotten reduced at-con business from it though.

>>9910530
Where could I find a manufacturer for omanjuus?

>>9911192
I would definitely ask each artist before doing this. Again, technically yes you can do this but it may step on toes.

>>9911331
To elaborate on what >>9911474 is saying, when a big company mass produces tape generally the way it works is they have an in house artist that is paid a fair wage for their work (or contracted at a fair wage if they are contract artists) For example, I'd expect someone to be paid $40/hr to be an in house designer and if it took them 2 days to bang out a tape design they'd be paid $600 ish at least. Just hypothetically. The company can then print THOUSANDS of that design for pennies. Their total cost per roll is really in the cents.

Now an artist alley person? We aren't being paid to make the design, we assume all of the risk. Financial, time, etc. Each batch of washi tape will cost most people $100-200 on top of the time to make it. On top of that, most people sell their tape for a measly 5-10 and many people do not manage to get rid of all their stock or if they do it can take up to a year or more.

So why's this matter? Well some artists see you reselling their tape as profiting of their hard work that they might not have even had time to break even or profit off yet. You used a foot of their tape, but you're selling your item for $10+, way more than what they were getting for a foot of their own tape they made with their time and money.

I've actually had someone resell "samples" of my tape on etsy, it doesn't feel great. Lawfully I can't stop them.. even though you're right it's "purchased material" it just doesn't feel great.

Anyway, I think we're all on the same page that permission should be obtained but hopefully that clarifies the washi tape artist's permission. FWIW I'd give permission for people to use them on one offs like >>9911192 showed so long as if they were sold online i would be credited, and if they were being sold in person or at con commissions that they please try to credit me if possible.

>>9911565
>then it wouldn't hurt you to just use storebought tapes as a courtesy
Yeah, that's what I was planning on doing.

>>9911474
I can see how selling the tape itself would be in poor taste, but not really how selling a transformative piece would be. >>9911589's point does make sense though, and it cleared things up for me.

I've seen an artist branch out and sell their own inks though. If (hypothetically) someone were to use that ink in a commission, would the same concept apply and hence it would be rude not to credit them? Or are inks considered more material-y than washi tapes?

>>9911589
>I've actually had someone resell "samples" of my tape on etsy, it doesn't feel great.
Jesus christ how trashy

>>9911605
I can't speak for everyone buy I'd say ink and more obvious material is okay, though credit is still appreciated. Washi tape directly features someone's art and design, so even if you draw something new, you're still using other people's art in your art. Ink doesn't have the same relation, and honestly it's made to be used for art and writing. Even if someone were to object to you selling drawings with that ink, they must have expected you to draw with it.

>>9911605
My take on it is: even though everyone is treating washi tape like real life texture packs, the pattern/art was designed by another artist with the express purpose of it being a finished piece that can stand by itself. Even if it's transformative, you're still piggybacking off something that wasn't initially intended to be built upon like bases or patterns on deviantart.

IMO ink is simply a material. Unless there's a proprietary blend of glitter or something I doubt anyone can tell, but it's nice to support and give a shout out to your fellow artist if you post it.

>>9911631
Is that still valid for mass produced tapes? Obviously the illustration was still drawn by an artist, but their use is much more mundane than a limited edition run (which all artist alley tapes virtually are). I totally get the arguments above about using specifically another artist alley artist's tape (i'm the original washi tape anon who asked about it in the first place), but in my mind using storebought tape is akin to, idk, using someone elses photoshop brush or pattern.

>>9911636
Yeah, I don't think anyone will call you out for using store tape.

>>9911636
read >>9911589

Why are people so hesitant to name and shame the bad and abusive people in AA?

Is it because you want those of us that are new to be tricked by them initially like some messed up rite of passage?

>>9911800
It isn't exactly hard to tell when someone's off their rocker in the community, and everyone has access to the same posts and information. If you get tricked because you didn't look in on things enough that's all on you.

How was A-Kon for everyone?
I skipped it this year because of how bad it was last year. Did it get any better?

>>9911800
because regardless of who's being an ass, posting about drama makes you look bad. I personally let all friends know about sketchy people, but I think it's tacky to just approach someone i don't know and shit talk.

>>9911966
A-kon was good for me, but I moved to dealer's this year. Most of my friends in the AA said it was comparable to last year (not that good)

>>9911800
Probably because no one wants to get caught up in that drama tornado

>>9911800
I know of an absolute cunt in AA who has done some shady shit, but saying anything against her will get her lackeys sent on you. She is very good at playing that social media game. Besides I don't want that can of worms opened any more than it has to. My guess is most people feel that way, even on AA threads on cgl

So how bout that first batch of Youmacon tables that sold out in 5 seconds

>>9911800
It's not as simple as that. If someone is truly horrible I have no problem informing the public of it. But the people I encounter that do problematic things aren't necessarily BAD people. If I were to specify any of those incidents it would immediately pinpoint who it was as I was the only other person in the situation. Then you can get labeled as someone untrustworthy who spreads gossip even if it was true - which is also, unto itself, not a great thing to do. It's not the case of I want other people to suffer but I need to protect myself first.

>>9912227
They need to switch to lottery or something because this is just making people pissed
Plus people are still gonna buy multiple tables regardless of the day they "allow" it

>>9912227
saw it go in my cart twice then got hit with the error message

>>9912244
I dont understand what people mean by went in their cart twice? I got a table but I just selected 1 from the drop down then hit checkout and it took me to the page where it locks you in for 8 minutes.

>>9912244
Was it an actual error message or was t an "error" because it was sold out? If it was because it said no more inventory, then from the time you clicked the quantity in the drop down menu to the time you clicked checkout, they sold out.

>>9912251
For myself at least, I clicked the dropdown for my table and hit submit, but then the page refreshed and said that it was in my cart, but also brought me back to the same drop down(it didn't move on to the hold screen). So I selected again, and again it was in my cart, but then the page refreshed and it was unavailable. Like the system gave me the same table at the same time as someone else and then updated itself to fix the mistake, taking my table.

>>9911174
My partner gave me the okay to link their shop. They just put up some new bug stickers the other night
https://www.etsy.com/shop/xagave

>>9912326
Same issue my crew had. Maybe we'll have better luck tomorrow.

>>9912023
Name her. Come on, anon, you're an anon. Nothing will happen except maybe some spam and drama on this singular /aag/.

>>9912227
>>9912240
Seriously what are cons thinking when they do this? How is that even good for the con, there's no benefit to this kind, either do jury if you want a certain caliber or lottery if you want a distribution, this way the selection of artists is 'most luck'.

>>9912227
>>9912240
Seriously what are cons thinking when they do this? How is that even good for the con, there's no benefit to this kind, either do jury if you want a certain caliber or lottery if you want a distribution, this way the selection of artists is 'fastest clicker' and nothing else.

>>9912227
>>9912240
>>9912410
Looks like they're releasing more tables Tomorrow and Thursday, then after that the remaining will be Juried.

Seems like they thought this through.

>>9912427
Honestly I see a lot of people angry but I really like the method they have. Releasing chunks on separate days gives people multiple chances if they have work, and having tables set aside for juried applicants for those people who really go all-in on cons sounds great. I wouldn't mind if they also put in a chunk for lottery too so everyone has a method that appeals to them.

I think a good in-between system would only allow registration for tables for 24 hours and then apply a lottery the next day to that group, and then you’ve got your AA without website errors and crashing. Also then you know only the dedicated people who want to table will remember to apply.

>>9912429
>Releasing chunks on separate days gives people multiple chances if they have work
But how is that better (for either the con or the artists) tha just having open signup during that period and then lotto?
I guess it’s *marginally* less work for the con because they aren’t performing the rng part of a lottery system but that takes so little time (rng, then send out acceptable mails manually, done.)

>>9912450
I mean...that’s not an in between system, just a normal lottery based one? one day to sign up rather than a week+ is shorter than usual but it’s still just a lotto system.

So...just for curiosity, what do you guys prefer the experience of tabling at — juries AAs or other (lotto, first come first serve)?

Juries alleys will have interesting and successful people to meet, trade and network with, and the overall high skill may increase traffic to the AA especially if it’s a con known for a good one. Additionally, being juries may have placed you in a special area which gets more traffic or only contains few tables to split that traffic. On the other hand, you will face stiff competition.

A non juried alley of either kind will mean at least some people with lower level than you so your work will stand out more and likely have more sales. Also often cost less for a table. On the other hand not as good for secondary stuff like trade, network, etc.

>>9912534
>juries x 3 times
*juried, oops

>>9912534
I like juried because I've never been rejected for one, and I hate lottery because I've never been selected for one.

If that changes, my opinion will probably change, but right now I'm pretty damn biased.

>>9912548
Wait so if you’ve never been to any other kind besides juried (since I also mentioned first come first serve), you started out with juried cons straight off the gate? Woah

>>9912534
Personally I like FCFS best. I have shit luck with lottery. A mix of FCFS and juried would be okay with me too.

Does anyone else keep a folder full of inspiration for merch?
I recall an anon posting their collection awhile back(on imgur?) but I can't find it

>>9912548
>>9912578
Er just to clarify, in my post I was asking about the experience tabling at each type of ally (what you preferred and the differences), not how you felt about the selection systems themselves, which was already being talked about.

>>9912548 #
>>9912578 #
Er just to clarify, in my post I was asking about the experience tabling at each type of ally (what you preferred and the differences), not how you felt about the selection systems themselves, which was already being talked about.

With those paragraphs about the pros and cons of the experience (networking, selling, etc) I thought it was pretty clear what was meant, but maybe people only saw the first part.

>>9912534
I prefer lotto just for the fairness of it. Everyone, experienced or not, has equal chance and no one is relying on fast fingers or their internet connection. I've gotten in on lotto, fcfs, and juried. i like the idea of not seeing the same ten artists every convention i attend on the east coast, and juried tends to result in that.

Half juried and half lotto would likely make everyone happy, though.

>>9912534
I acknowledge Juried as the superior system because it creates the best artist alley for attendees and rewards skilled artists with an expansive merchandise portfolio. There should be no loss of sales due to too much competition in a well juried con, because a good jury selects for a variety of art styles and fandom focuses.

That said, I can't fucking get into juried cons. FCFS or Lotto for me.

>>9912589
You were clear, we just always end up talking about the selection process anyways.

>>9912534
1 month to register around 6 months before the con with a jury or a light jury (to get rid of actual trash artists) with lottery by category (to make sure there isn't too many artists of one type.).
**also**, allow for an e-mail sign up so they will actually let you know when registration opens so you aren't just refreshing the page every day.

FCFS is only acceptable at very small conventions where tables don't sell out within a day.

>>9912571
No, but the last FCFS con I've gotten into was four years ago, and I don't think I could properly compare my experience of those first couple of years with my last few years of jury only cons.

>>9912664
Yeah, I lean towards juried too, also thanks for being the only person to actually answer the topic i was wondering about lol

>>9912664
That's how juried "should" work, but it rarely ever does.

>>9912663
My thoughts exactly. Fellow east coast'er here. I've noticed the past 3 years I've been seeing the same people in the AA at multiple cons too... Then I see them whine and complain about how their sales keep going down each year and can't figure out why.

Is AnimeNext the only lotto east coast convention? Not counting the little one or two day college/high school cons.

If your shit art doesn’t get picked when juried, you don’t deserve to be at an artist alley.
You get rejected, to work harder to improve your work.
Plain and simple.
All you people complaining about bad sales are the people probably with the shit work that got in via FCFS or lotto.

>>9912918
Even with jury, skill isn't 100%. I've had many artist directors tell me they LOOOVE my table, and other conventions that have rejected me several years in a row. personal preference of the staff has a lot to do with it. Some cons might prefer craft artists, while others heavily prefer print artists.

>>9912918
As a buyer though, sometimes I want simple. Sometimes I want little sushi stickers with smiles on it for my little sister who can't appreciate a fully rendered waifu slapped on every kind of product imaginable. I want to see a variety of styles/skill.

The past few years all AAs have started to look the same. And as I mentioned before, where I'm from, I always see the same artist in all different anime conventions along the east coast. AA used to be my favorite part of the con, but lately I've been feeling less and less excited about it, because I already know what to expect.

>>9912918
I mean. If 300 skilled artists apply to a juried alley and there are only 200 tables, the other hundred suddenly ‘don’t deserve’ to sell in AA...? Logic, anon.

Anyone who can successfully turn a profit regularly can and should sell at AA if however much theyre making is worth it to em.

(Also unfortunate placements like behind a pillar in the back can happen even at juried cons and screw over otherwise profitable tables)

How would you feel if an Artist Alley accepted people not by jury or fcfs, but by solid profit numbers, since it shows exactly who knows how to make products that your attendees want.

Would you be willing to actually share those numbers with a con?

>>9912955
how is the con even supposed to verify that? it also sounds like a way to get in trouble with the IRS...

>>9912955
I think that'd screw over the artists who did get in through that method because there's a homogenized group who have specialized their art and subjects to maximize the amount of profit they get, and they tend to do well as a standalone, but when they're all together, they all suffer because they compete directly with each other, and the pool of customers and money is limited.

I think everyone still benefits from there being a variety of art styles, and skill levels, because there's something for everyone, and not everyone is interested in hyper-rendered waifus and flavor of the month like >>9912934
said.

>>9912955
Also, regional tastes are different, I think it's a bit presumptuous to assume a panel of like 5 people can predict what 10,000+ attendees want from a con, sometimes attendees don't even know what they want until they see it.

Solution.
Best spots in the front: Juried.
Shit/regular spots: first come first serve.

>>9912990
Switch fcfs with lotto, and i'd say yes. Fcfs keeps happening while i'm at work on my phone, and i really can't get the apps in fast enough.

>>9912955
what. I make anywhere from $200 to $4000 at cons. What number would they use? My best or average? What about beginners or people who have only done smaller or one day cons?
This is stupid, anon.

>>9912955
In a similar vein.. I wonder how much staff would have to raise table prices to make demand peter off naturally? People already pay $1000+ For otakon tables, would fanime and AX still sell out in seconds with $500 tables? For sure. What about $600? $800? $1000? $2000?

Personally i'd love a way to just buy my way into the alley like Otakon for every con but i know it would piss off a lot of artists who don't earn as much. But maybe there's a medium there idk. Just rambling.

>>9912955
This would jury for "what the most people love", and not "what people love the most" which are often two wildly different concepts.

>>9913029
That would be interesting. It would be very easy to pay a high price for a second year since you know how much you make, but I just couldn't pay $500+ for a table somewhere unless it was somewhere I have been before. Not gonna pay that much to only make $1,000.
Having a few premium tables put up for auction would be neat though.

>>9912300
it was an error message saying tables were unavailable. if you are in the youmacon group you can see someone posted a screenshot of it showing the error message in one of the threads.

round 2 in a couple minutes good luck to everyone

>>9913125
Watching people who probably don't make shit at cons piss and moan on facebook is almost making up for not getting in

>>9913125
Sold out in 30 seconds. Fucking incredible.

>>9913144
Im pretty sure it was more like 2 seconds, I was refreshing nonstop and when the tables popped up i clicked and it was already sold out... such a gauntlet

>>9912918

I'm semi-professional, regularly get freelance jobs, and make five digits at big cons, but I get rejected like 80% of the time from juried cons because I draw boys love. I'm fucking good enough. Juries just don't like my subject matter. People connected with those cons have told me as much. Doesn't mean I don't "deserve" to be there.

>>9913182
what kind of assisine reason is that? plenty of fujos go to cons, idk what the juries could be smoking.

really??? shes going to change up the schedule she just posted yesterday AGAIN? what a fucking shit show

>>9913184

Most con juries are made up of normie boys and girls who are creeped out by fujos and BL so they curate it out. Even had a con with an acquaintance on the jury and she told me I should take all my BL out of my portfolio if I wanted to get in. I did one year and got in. It felt dishonest so I didn't do it the next year, and I got predictably rejected again.

Conventions are bad honestly.

>>9913216
Jury systems are shit and in my state it’s favoritism. Our major anime con is off of a lottery system and it’s impossible for new artists to get in and so the con in the recent 3-5 years are the same artists producing the same stuff.

The same staff is running another con in about 6 months from each other and it’s jury system so they’ll pick the same artists from their other con for the tables (and the tables are limited to about 15-20)

We should get a list of all the artist alley directors and figure out what each of their favorite anime is. Then when we submit our portfolio, we include extra artwork of characters from their favorite anime to win them over.
Think it'll work?

Anyone with two very different styles have tips for display? I have a cutsey anime style and a semi-realistic painting style and often times people come to my booth and ask if I'm selling X because it doesn't look like part of my style, etc. I'm thinking the contrast might be affecting customer interaction.

>>9913250
one style at the top of your display, the other near the bottom. My partner and I's prints are fairly detailed, but we have a large sticker and charm selection thats very cutesy and not like our prints at all. Having our commission info and examples on one of those 3 piece folding frames has been great to tie all the work together, too.

Really appreciate the fact that someone at least has a blacklist of charm manufacturers and shared it, but I hate people who never joined a GO or researched in their life saying these things..

so anyone have more news regarding Sakimi's new convention kimicon? I had a friend who was pissed cause when she signed up, it was initially 150+Tax but now its 250? I did some digging around and it seems like it's already stirred some shit at anime north.

>>9913250
Same situ. (I don't really do anime cute, but have a very silly cartooning style that shows up in some of my merch and a more painterly and serious one for most prints). Organize your booth in two clusters, sort of like what other anon said (i do a horizontal transition rather than vertical though, so it's easier for people to go stand in front of and look at the kind of style that speaks to them more)

>>9913250
>>9913393
I agree a split horizontally is more fair. Putting one person's art on top of the other is more unnatural, and makes it unequal as far as viewability goes. When I move prints to eye-level, they sell better than if they're 5-6' off the table. I'd feel screwed over if I was the partner placed high up.

>>9913352
I've never even heard of it before but their onsite contract says it's only $150 for an AA table so YIKES. Maybe there was some miscommunication with whoever she's dealing with.

Also spill the AN stuff.

>>9913429
Ahh but all the styles are my art. Im not sharing the table, im just one person with drastically different styles

>>9913393
>>9913264
Thank you!!! I see, so i should definitely clump my stuff somehow... I appreciate the responses!

>>9913432
Not the same anon but I heard Sakimichan prints were being sold at the KimiKon booth but they were trying to play them off as freebies with weekend pass purchases. Something like that

>>9913435
To clarify a little, while me and my partner share our table, both of us have cutesy stickers and serious prints, so we mix the work inn each section together because our styles match really well. We kind of use our overhead prints as advertisement so that people from farther away come over to look at our stickers and charms too. It's worked rather well for us, considering we had kind of shitty placement at both our last two cons.

Hope you can make it work for you (:

>>9912580
Mm yes that was me! Imgur-anon. I'll drop links in a bit. I'll try to set up a separate imgur account from my personal one so its better organized.

How would artists feel if we ranked our AA submissions against your combined # of twitter/instagram/twitch followers? Those all seem the most relevant to attendees now and it would be an easy and fair ranking system that would get fast turnaround on acceptance as soon as the submission period ended.

>>9913649
so you are going to check ALL social media to make sure sure the followers are real AND local to the con?

>>9913475
With all the money she makes, you'd think she'd at least give her attendees some cool freebies

>>9913649
Seems like a bad move, and there are a lot of great artists out there that don't have that big a following. Also like the other anon said earlier, buying followers is also a huge problem and makes this shit unfair

>>9912580
>>9913504

Sorry I got busy but I have it all organized on google drive now
>https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1D19QV9nHwaY8AaNiEXZAAkEhkBTSsb01?usp=sharing

I will try to keep adding more to it and keep it updated when I can. I never really expected to be sharing these random inspiration folders off my computer with anyone so I wasn't the best at keeping track of sources. I'll try to do better from now on and update what I already have when I can.

I'm glad that these have been helpful to others!

>>9913649
Popular does not equal good. As has been discussed in these threads earlier, an active artist with a lot of quick doodles will often be more popular than an artist who posts a print-quality image to the internet every three months. Besides, what is the most popular tends to be FotM stuff, and this doesn't do anything to ensure variety and the same 20 artists every year.

>>9913432
>>9913475
KimiKon has been officially banned from AN because they were selling her art which as an industry table you cannot do.

>>9913352
the application is a $150 down payment and then another $100 closer to the con or something? It's some bullshit and I think it's because they don't have the initial funds for the building they chose to host it at and the artist are the ones to suffer for it.

>>9913658
Hi anon, would you be okay with me adding this link to the OP for future threads? I really appreciate all the hard work you put into this

>>9913649
The problem with this is that the number of follower don't necessarily correlate with the followers that will attend the con. A friend of mine is relatively popular and has mostly East Asian followers, but those people probably aren't going to be attending the US cons he lowkey tables at.

>>9913663
Thank you, and yes it is alright with me. I'm glad it can be a helpful addition to the OP!

>>9913658
>250 MB of AA inspo
God damn, bless you seagull, this is really nice.

>>9913658
Ah that was me, thank you so much anon!
I really appreciate it!

>>9913682
Glad to help!

I'm not sure if it will be useful for everyone. You can definitely tell what my personal taste is and probably what sort of items I sell by looking through haha.

If anyone else has a hoard of inspo photos they'd like me to look through and possibly add, you can email the account cgldrawfags@gmail.com

>Effective July 16, Etsy’s transaction fee will increase from 3.5% to 5% and it will also apply to the cost of shipping.

welp

>>9913649
I know people with 10 times as many followers than me that make 10 times less money than me at cons.

So... who got into Colossalcon East? I’m not sure if it’s worth doing so close to other big September cons like CRX/San Japan/Dragon Con/etc... Has anyone tabled there last year?

>>9913694
I was thinking about opening an online shop but fuck them then. Does anyone have any experience with Bigcartel and Seismicart? The main draw with Etsy seems to be a big userbase and market, which I admit is significant. Does other shop platforms rely on you having a big following on your own to be worth it?

>>9913699
Did acceptances come out?

What do you guys do with merch that you finished but don't feel good about? I did a double sided keychain design that I sort of disliked after I was done, and a fair bit of work went into it too (different images on both sides.)

Do you ask fellow artist friends to see if they think it'd sell or sell it as something else, like a sticker? Thoughts?

>>9913706
Yeah, got y acceptance email this morning and a friend confirmed she got a waitlist notice so it seems like they’re going out today.

>>9913713
INTERESTING, I'll wait for mine then

>>9913709
Do you mean you arent as confident with the artwork anymore or actual product defects?

For me
>I dont like the art anymore
>sell it as usual (my most hated button design was my top seller)
or
>legitimate defect
>sell at discount and disclose the damages to the product in the description

>>9913722
It's more like I started off really liking the concept and all, but by the time I was done putting the work into it and it's ready to be sent to printing, I suddenly look at it and feel like it's probably not going to sell well.

Might be that I stared at it so long I'm bored of the concept and the design, because the quality of the work is up to my usual standards.

>>9913725
Show it off to some friends, as >>9913722 said, lots of times what the artist liked isn't the same as what turns out to be popular with buyers.

>>9913694
It could be worse. This screws over people who rely mostly on small cost items though.

>>9913699
Waitlisted, they wrote there’s a second wave of 20 artists ahead of waitlist so it’s unlikely they’re going to get to the actual list. Fucking feels bad

>>9913699
Waitlisted. Oh well, would have been fun.

Generally, what kinda of keychain attachments do people prefer? Didn't add ballchains because I never trusted them, they lie
I personally like the cell phone charm since it's thin and doesn't distract too much from the charm but sometimes I feel they aren't study enough like the big clippy lobster claw one.

>>9913786
I like cell phone straps for 1.5" and smaller, for bigger ones I prefer lobster clasps. It's as you say, straps are more discreet, metal clasps are more sturdy, so you don't want your charm obscured but if it's bigger you want the keychain to be more reliable.

>>9913751
Yea just got that same e-mail. Funny thing is last year they had a few not even show, empty tables.

>>9913699
Just to give you an idea, last year I made exactly even. It's not a big con, room closes @ 7ish. Basically just made it into a free waterpark vacay.

>>9913649
I'd just buy 10,000 followers to guarantee myself a table. Just judge by a group of people viewing the portfolio.

How many charms of each design would you order if you had four cons coming up in the fall? I've ordered charms before but I only had them at one or two really small cons and don't know if I can accurately predict how much to order. My art is lower mid-tier skill level I think? (Convention attendances are about 15k, 1k, 1k, 3k for reference)

>>9913808
>my art is mid-tier
Anon you might be overestimating yourself or underestimating.
To answer your question it would be best if you provided a picture of some of your charms and mentioned if they’re doubled sided and what size.

>>9913649
That's a terrible idea. AA is for everyone, not just popular artists. Even those very same people had to start somewhere.

>>9913835
Whoops sorry about that. The charms would be double sided and about 2-2.5inches probably of MHA, Voltron, or CCS
>>9898867 Was basing skill level off of this post

>>9913649
Awful awful awful idea.

>>9913658
Thank you anon, I appreciate you and the work you put into this!!

>>9910681
This stuff is wild to me, because I sell at small UK conventions and so my profits are £100 at most. It makes me want to travel to the big US conventions to see how I would do there.

What kind of audiences do you find buy your charms? Is it a different audience than buys your prints?
I really want to expand into that world, but I'm not really sure how to go about it. I know itabagging is a huge thing right now, but the kind of people that buy my prints really aren't the kind that would have an ita-bag. I'm wondering if I should try to target the kind of fandoms that are prone to ita-baggers, or just stick to the genres I'm used to. The series I draw don't really have many charms, but I'm wondering if that's for a reason or if it's just a more untapped market.

>>9913702
I've used Big Cartel for half a year now and it's worked well for me. There's no marketplace but there's also no transaction fees, just a monthly fee for listing. I've gotten plenty of sales just from advertising on my social media, but I also do a lot of fanart, so it may not be the best fit if you have more normie-focused crafts or something.

>>9913786
I always attachments off, and the lobster clasp ones can have jump rings that are kind of a pain in the ass.

>>9913926
If you're specifically trying to target itabaggers, aim for series or characters that fans get heavily invested in waifu/husbando ties but they don't have a lot of official merchandise (Example: Fire Emblem). There's a stigma in itabagging that official merchandise is better than fan merch whenever possible.

That said, charm sales have gone up in general, itabagging makes them trendy even for non-baggers, and they're more versatile for prints for people running out of wall space.

please help us all (i guess its good that maybe a good 100 might be juried at least)

>>9914048
They were gone in 3 seconds, fuck.

>>9914057
well yeah

I'm gonna rant about Youma a bit because things get worse every year despite all the good intentions to make things better.

Beth needs to stop accommodating people, because all she's doing is feeding the angry, and making every decision more and more convoluted.

Batches of 40, 50, and 10 fcfs tables is a HUGE waste of everyone's time because there's hundreds of us applying for every single batch, including repeats who want to buy tables for their friends. Why she thought this was a good idea is beyond me.

And then go and ask people HEY WHAT SHOULD I DO CAUSE YOU'RE ALL STILL MAD ANYWAY halfway through the reg process she stipulated herself, DOESN'T HELP ANYONE!!!

Her post earlier about her reflection??? Is she TRYING to inflame people??? How is every year getting worse??? And why wasn't any of this resolved BEFORE the application goes up??

I can't even. The incompetence and ignorance is too much. And it's a real fucking shame because Youma is a good con.

>>9913786
I've had issues with the cell phone charms shredding or getting stuck and tangled in zipper pulls. If I'm buying it for an itabag, I'm not going to care. But I don't actually use the ones with those types of straps anymore for that reason.

I kinda prefer the right option when it comes to my own buying preferences.

>>9914063
I've never gone but was interested in trying to get in this year. What a shitshow. Will still apply for juried though.

>Youmacon jury results will start going out Monday
I don't fucking believe you

>>9914092
everyone's so happy over the jury and they forget the one who's running this shitshow of an alley is head of said jury xD

Damn Youmacon FB group worse than AANI children

Ducking R I P

>>9913432
Some anons already responded, but I asked my friend again and she says sakimi was selling 2 passes to the convention for 100, and you get 10 free prints with it. Seems like she was pretty much using the convention advertisment. got banned for it

The table was 150 initially, but it was only in fine print on the contract that stated all artists had to pay an additional 100 before aug 31st. Pretty shady shit for a first year con, not charging up front.

>>9913649
You say easy and fair, but that's just not true. Not all good artists have huge followings. I've seen absolutely stellar artists have the followings of a 13 year old uploading crude MS Paint doodles of their sparkledogs to deviantart.

You'd just be pitching a giant barrier against any artists trying to get their start.

>>9913926
If you cater to flavor-of-the-month baggers you'll get lots of easy normies jumping on the latest trend who will buy them.
Catering to more obscure fandoms will also get you sales since they're desperate for any kind of merch.

I'm planning on selling handmade plushes and I'm worried about having them displayed so openly. They're custom machine embroidered ones, so I'd be pissed if someone grabs it and runs. Am I just overthinking it? What do you think would be the best way to display them?

>>9914309
Put zip ties around them

>>9914312
Well fuck, guess I was overthinking it. Thanks anon.

>>9914081
Btw only ten minutes to apply for juried

So im going to connecticon this year and i wanted to have charms to sell ready.

Id like to know what places everyone uses to order charms from, i was thinking of using zapp creatives but im worried about the charms not gettinf here on time (july 12th). Anyone have any rrcommendations?

>>9914579
go away.

>>9914583 Dayum son. Don't gotta be like that.

>>9914579 Read the FAQ plz. You can find the resources there https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10uNmynwRn6CRc-OMqCeXmJwCNnEnd-vYi-7AQzSx74I/edit?usp=sharing

>>9914579
Honestly I don’t think zap charms would get to you in time. I’ve done 10+ orders from zap creatives and it usually takes around 7-9 days just to get your artwork through the ‘artwork check’ process, then an additional however many days (usually like 12) to actually print it out.

Is there an ideal way to run an AA acceptance when I only have 3 staff members including me to run the dept? I don’t think we’ll have the time to go over hundreds and hundreds of submissions in a jury setup, especially when it feels useless as we’re most people’s second choice con on our weekend.

Would it make sense to do a FCFS jury setup? Where we only take 100 submissions at a time and after finding the best open for another round later?

>>9914783
>Where we only take 100 submissions at a time and after finding the best open for another round later?
That sounds fair. Or you could do lottery that gets rid of 50% of the applications and then jury the other 50%?
Or just get more people to help.

>>9914783

I think the benefits of lottery are very underrated. Artists hate it, but it's the most fair system, and it also ensures that most of your AA is fresh every year, and not the same people getting in over and over because they are the fastest or have seniority or know the judges or have the most generically appealing styles. And even though artists hate it they complain a lot less in the aftermath, compared to jury or fcfs.

>>9914622
This has been my exp as well, ordered from them thinking their 7-10 business day 'production time' would mean it shipped on the 10/11th business day, it actually shipped about 16 business days out from ordering.

>>9914783
How big is your alley: How many submissions do you get, how many tables do you have room for? How fast do your spots normally go for? Or are you a first year con? My con runs a juried alley with only two people (the department head and myself), but a lot of this depends on the size of your event and the demand for your tables.

I'd be happy to talk shop with you about AA department stuff if you want to over email, too.

>>9914783
Lottery with a portfolio check. Then you're only checking on the few who get randomly selected to make sure they aren't garbage, and that they will fit nicely together but aren't all the same product.

Call it Lotto + Light Jury - all the big names will be mad they don't have more chance than new artists, but you'll still have a decent quality alley that was fairly selected.

I have my first con next month (12-15) and am ordering for the first time from Vograce. I've been following the guides but, can anyone give recommendations on which shipping would be faster but not too expensive?
pic related is a design('s a-side), hope you permit the markings

>>9914783
i think ACen has the best system desu

Categorized Juried Lottery... so you check portfolios to make sure everyone's legit, and that you have a fair number of both crafters and print artists.

except there's always gonna be people who gamble the system and check crafts when really they just have the one pillow and the rest are prints lmao

Anyone get into Crunchyroll yet? Seems like only rejection emails so far from ppl posting updates

So, how plausible is it to make a living just selling at cons? Of course it depends on the number of cons you go to, your price points, ect. ect. so I guess, is it reasonable to think I could bring in a least 2k a month? I feel like it's the type of thing where I should keep my expectations low but I can't help but have high hopes. Do any of you gulls do AAs full time, or as your main income?

>>9915048
I never have been to an AA yet, but I plan to here soon. I’ve been making a living off of just my online shop for my art and my popularity is increasing, so it would be dumb to miss out on artist alleys at cons where I have more exposure. Depending on how hard I work I can get up to 2k-3k in just my Etsy store profit, which is more than enough to live off of. And I don’t take commissions, so it’s not like straight profit from commissions or anything... I just “really” started about two months ago with all this stuff so it’s really possible anon if you keep your head up and motivated. If you’re good enough you can live off of it for sure.

>>9915030 I don't think so. All I've seen on AANI and Twitter so far have been rejections. I'm starting to wonder who they did accept...

>>9915048
2k is doable pretty easily if you're skilled. I mean some if the experienced AAers in here can bring in 10k + in a single big con.

>>9915030
it looks like they are sending out all the rejections first

>>9915048
I've been doing cons and etsy as my only income for 2 years now. I'm making enough to make a living and not consider myself poor. I make between $1k to $4k per con (around 5 a year) and between $300 to $3,000 a month on etsy.

The problem with cons is that you never know if you'll be accepted or not. You need good money management to make it through slow periods of no cons and low online sales.

>>9915048
2k a month is very doable.
I used to do prints and keychains and the like and I think the most I ever made doing that was 5k. I do mostly clothing now and make around 10k+ at my bigger cons. But clothing is a looot more expensive to make than prints so most of the money I make goes back into manufacturing anyway.

>>9915234
Would you mind me asking how you transport all your clothing? I assume you travel

>>9914783
For those that are chosing you as a second choice:
Make sure you have a payment date 2 weeks before the con, and a way for them if before those 2 weeks to refund or transfer to someone in the lotto. So you can get your waitlisted tables in.

Anyone here ever table at Nan Desu Kan in Denver? I've been thinking about applying for it next season because it's local and I figure I won't lose much either way, but I haven't seen much about it in terms of AA from artists. Good? Bad? Passable?

>>9915516
Seconding this. I'm in the Denver area.

>>9915244
I do but not really across country. I mostly just do cons in my area with my van and one or two helpers. I do plan on expanding my range though and just mailing my stock if I have to fly.

>>9915030
Yeah, haven't seen any acceptances yet. I got in last year, but I wouldn't be surprised if they raised the bar considering how many people applied. I still got SacAnime as a backup, but I'm beginning to wonder just how split the NorCal crowd is going to be...

Ughh. I did not break even at my first con, only earned enough to make back the cost of the table (so it’s the same as if i bought the supplies/stock and then the con never happened.) my neighbors weren’t doing so hot either and one of them who usually sells well only did about as much business as me. But unlike the established sellers for whom some losses are expected I was hoping/expecting to at least have enough from this one to pay for the next table (and affirmation selling is worth the effort.) Also unhelpful to learn what sells since no specific items dominated my sales. I don’t know what to think.

...did any anons have a pretty underwhelming (didn’t break even) first con and turned it around at the next ones?

>>9915757
What con? as it anext? another anon had the same thing happen in one of the recent threads

>>9915759
No, it was a one-day, local event.

>>9915757
>>9915772
probably just a bad con. I'v done several small cons where I made less than $350. Good cons I do $1,500 to $4,000.

>>9915772
>one day local event
Anon, think of those types of events as extra tips. If you make some money, nice, if not, oh well.
Never expect a one day event to actually sell well. Keep your chin up.

What diameter PVC pipe do people find best for their displays? Would it be good to split your 8ft horizontal piece into two 3ft pieces and a 2ft piece or have even more pieces for customizability?

>>9915757
I normally will bring in a few k at most conventions. Occasionally, I'll do small local events and I might bring in a few hundred. I tend to avoid small one-day events unless they are in my immediate neck of the woods for that reason.

I think the worst con I did was about $150, and I was mostly there for the fun stuff at the venue and around the venue so it was just some extra money to spend there.

>>9915757
Local 1 day cons def arent a good indication for how you'd do at a 5k+ convention.

In november i did a 1 day con that ended up have an attendance of 200ppl. Didn't cover my 20$ table.
In april i did a 3 day con with 7.5k attendance. Made $1.5k.

Use your first shitty con experience as a learning point for setup. What worked, what didn't, what was the best way for you to store your shit, ect.

>>9916122
Most common ones are 1/2 and 3/4". Some people cut them smaller to travel, but the structure becomes weaker overall. It was galaxy brain to learn that some people go to a local hardware store to cut them for out of state cons.

I'll tell you from personal experience that with 1/2" diameter, the two 3 ft across by itself holds up well at 6 feet, but it'll sag without an extra T support section with the 2 feet added.

>>9916211
Worst con I ever did I made $45. There were a whopping total of 12 "attendees" total and I'm pretty sure I made out the best. This was a week after I pulled 4.5k. At least the table was free.

So yeah, one day cons are not any real indicator.

>>9915772
Dont worry. First con I ever did (AX) I made 2.5k, second con which was a local event i made -$500. Negative. Long story. Small local cons are not good for actually seeing how well your work will perform.

did CRX really just send out a single wave of rejections and then nothing? why on earth would you send out rejections first

Just a general question to all anons who have tabled before, what's your slowest selling product type? (ie: prints, charms, stickers, buttons)

>>9916511

I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around it too. Was everyone who got the rejection from last year? Because what a really bad look. CRX was a risk for a lot of those artists, as a first year con in a bad location. Then we try to come back and we get a rejection with no waitlist (??) thrown in our faces, and no confirms. Feeling really used.

>>9916665
the no waitlist confuses me too, I wonder if they'll wait to open it until all rejections/acceptances have gone out? And yeah since the artists from last year applied early I think they're the only ones who got emails. I really hope they accepted more previous years artists than they rejected but it's hard to tell right now.

>>9916675
>>9916665
I'm a new artist and I was rejected.

>>9916675
>>9916665
I'm a new applicant and I was a rejected. Not a bad artist either (but maybe not top tier), I'll get into maybe 50% of the juried cons I apply for.

>>9916675

The email I got seems pretty final. I imagine the group who hasn't heard anything yet could either get accepted or get waitlist emails, if they do them. Otherwise I don't see the point of not confirming their placement now, and dismissing many artists up front.

Just feels like this is what AA is at this point. Take a bullet on a first year con and it does okay, next year everyone hears about it and there are so many more applicants that you can no longer get in... No real benefit for showing up to their first year other than getting rejected first.

>>9916684

Ah, crazy. I really wonder what their process is then. Many of the rejects I've seen have been rather decent artists too, which seems strange now knowing they aren't all artists who tabled last year. Are we really the bottom of their pile?

>>9916599
Totally depends on the con. My partner and i's sticker packs consistently do really well, and we make a killing off them. Some cons our charms sell like hotcakes, a couple they've barely moved, though we found doing a 3 for $25 helped. Most likely it has to do with age of the attendees, and what country you're in. All our canadian cons have had low charm sales for some reason?

>>9916686
Out of curiosity could you cap the email?

>>9916665
also a new applicant and got rejected. i do very well at fanime/ax/etc. but many of my friends who do well also got rejected. a small handful have not gotten emails yet so i'm assuming they got in? it's hard to say.

>>9916754
Not who you are replying to, but this is the email I got. I also did not attend last year, but I know when the accepted people post about getting in we will get a better idea of what CRX is looking for in their alley.

>>9916599
My sales go:
Prints >>> stickers > buttons >>>>>>> charms

Anybody get sorta upset not by their follower count, but by their follower demographic? I'm grateful I'm starting to get more active and engaged followers on instagram recently, but I've noticed a lot of them are teens.. like.. really young, and it's a weird feeling of "Is something about my art not good enough for people my age?"

I know IG has a younger audience for art, but I also barely get any art follows on twitter where the older crowd is (though that might be because my twitter's a mess of RTs and stuff, so I'm trying to discount that for now)

I know it's a weird thing to be hung up over, but it's nagging at me that maybe my art style is immature or something like that, and I don't want to become one of those cringey artists you see on AANI who have a decent following, but have underdeveloped art and are unaware of it :(

>>9916822
It could just be that that's the type of follower your art appeals to, it's not necessarily bad. Adults like cutesy shit too, and kids slurp up horror. It doesn't necessarily reflect on your skill level or art style(that requires personal reflection if anything)

I'd be more worried about whether my online demographic is actually worth appealing to and if they'll help support me financially.

In my case, on one of my social medias, I've managed to attract more followers geared towards my original work, however it's my fanart that brings me money at conventions. So obviously whenever I advertise my con stuff, it's dead quiet. I like that they like and follow for my original stuff, but I need to eat too ya know.

>>9916822
It makes me kinda sad that my audience demographic prefers pictures of me to my actual art, if that counts. Even though it was over five years ago and I was way worse at drawing, I remember that the very first guy to commission me admitted to later only doing so because he was trying to hit on me, and he thought I was pretty shit. I just want to make it on my own skill and merit, and knowing that that always hasn't been the case is really upsetting.

>>9916822

I think it's just that younger people are more active online in general. I have the same problem on twitter, though I think my age range is higher than yours. I'm in my early 30s now and have so many early 20s followers that it kind of bums me out. Makes me want to engage less with them because I don't want to be accused of being a creeper with younger fans.

>>9916895
I'm 29 this year and this is such a mood, forever worry im gonna wake up to a call out post if I talk to much to anyone under 22

>>9916599
My small prints sell the best but my bigger ones hardly ever sell. Charms have always been a wild card for me.

>>9916895
>>9916902
OP anon here, this was exactly another one of my gripes I didn't bring up but just hit 20 this year and while I know that's still young too, I get stressed when I see those 15 year olds following... especially when I genuinely want to follow back because some of these kids draw better than I do, so it turns into a case of "I'm just here for the good art, please don't talk to me too much or else this is gonna be so awkward on my side"

guess this is sorta ironic that I'm asking when I'm hitting that awkward zone for you guys, sorry but thank god anonymity here I guess

>>9916886
Ah man anon, I'm so sorry to hear that, that's just a bad case of shitty dude bro and client from hell rolled into one... Hope you've had a better time of it now

>>9916878
Thanks anon, that's reassuring just to hear. Gonna try to keep working out my art style and all that good stuff.

And oh huh, that's a good point too. I'm mostly here for fun and any AA/store/art-related profits are more of a hobby/part time job than living for me, so I didn't think about it from the pure financial view. Online promo-ing doesn't seem to make too much of a difference for at-con sales at least, so I guess that's a silver lining?

>>9916886
Same. I've finally given in and decided I'm going to start posting more photos of myself along with my art since that's the fastest way for me to get followers...
>>9916895
>>9916902
Do you openly talk about your age? I'm 33, but people assume me to be 18-20, and 16 online due to airbrush filters. I just never talk about my age, but then again I have like literally no following since I basically just started up with my art and doing aa.

>>9916480
>negative 500
wh-what?

>>9916822
I have a younger following on insta, but an older one on twitter. It's a bit harder to get followers on twitter in my opinion. I don't think anyone actually watches hashtags there and most of my followers come from my mutuals retweeting stuff.

>>9916886
I'm glad I'm not alone in this feel. My cosplay instagram is so much easier to get followers on than my art one. An art post a day posted at an optimal hour for a week = one blurry selfie in terms of snagging new followers. I just never post of my face on my art accounts for this reason; I would hate wondering if people only followed me for my face.

>>9910581
If you can sell out before the last day you pat yourself on the back, count up your fat stacks of cash and treat yourself and your friends to a nice dinner on Sunday night before heading back.

Don't overestimate what you need to bring, just bring what's comfortable and you can easily carry in and out.

>>9911260
American cons are a joke compared to their Japanese counterparts.

Comiket's equivalent to Art Alley always opens up 2 weeks after the previous convention (since they run the convention twice a year this means every six months like clockwork), the applications are open for just under a month so everyone gets a chance to enter the lottery. You find out 2-3 months later (over 2 full months before the con) whether you got in or not. You also know EXACTLY where in the alley you are placed and you get your tickets/badge mailed to you at the same time.

If you didn't get selected, you get a refund for your application fee and can easily try again in a few months for the next event.

They do this for over 30,000 artists at the event. Meanwhile Anime Expo and Otakon struggle to handle barely 300-450 artists once a year.

>>9916962
Touhoucon, terrible con (went because i love touhou and just wanted to break even desu), barely sold anything. Table was $125 and they charged another 600$ to me after the con for a """"complimentary"""" hotel room they gave me. (Tldr- they sent like 4 emails asking me over and over to claim one reassuring itd be totally free so I did. I live 25 minutes from the con so I wouldnt have accepted if they werent so persistent.) Apparently the owner was bankrupt and had no money to pay for any of the hotels he had given out- tons of rooms to vendors, guests, and staff.

Learned a valuable and costly lesson about taking too good to be true offers and ive sworn off of first and second year cons now because of it as well.

>>9916958
I don't get a huge follower boost from posting selfies since I don't really hashtag them, but I always get an enormous profile/website click spike and usually a couple of sales... It felt dirty though so I try not to do it too often anymore unless it's super relevant (table pic, showing off merch)

>>9916665 I was feeling ok for a bit, pretty sad because I wouldn't be able to see friends and people I met last year. But when I saw the number of friends and artists that I admire that tabled last year saying they were rejected I started getting annoyed. There's no way these are actually rolling applications and the fact that they disregarded us taking a chance on them makes me think they don't care about that and reinforces the idea for me that they don't know what they're doing. Sorry for the salt...

>>9916895
Maybe this is naive coming from an early-20s female artist, but for the most part, I don't worry too much about interaction with younger audiences at con because it doesn't go past conversations about fandoms or talking at the table. I don't have any particularly spicy or questionable art anyways so that might contribute.

I have one fan that I was a camp counselor for (she's 16 and somehow found my artist handle) and I avoid interacting with her bc she has a good amount of younger followers from a toxic fandom that have harassed me on Instagram before for no reason. Other than that it's usually older men that I worry about and the situations aren't from being overly sociable online, it's more unprovoked.

If you are late-20s and older, general interactions with people in their early 20s seems fine. Ofc I'm not talking about like R-rated convos and PMing just comments back, etc. As long as you aren't inviting them to hang out at con or whatever I think you're fine.
With younger people as long as it's more PG-rated topics I feel like interactions are safe, but again, this is coming from someone in their early 20s so maybe I'm just not old enough to see it yet.

I’ve about had it with zap creatives. Put in an order of 95 charms, about ten come in correctly, the rest fucked. I literally am so upset right now. I could understand one or two misaligned... but over 70??? Fucking really?? This isn’t the first time I’ve had issues with my orders with them before either. This was an expensive order too, it was around $1600 usd (order of 500) least they could do is check and see if they came out okay for me spending so much? I’m so angry anons. This was a preorder design too.

I’m going to a con where I’ll be selling cosplay prints. What can I expect? Will I break even or will I flop?

And even though I used their loop template, about a quarter of my designs came lopsided with the hole punch? Literally why.

>>9917092
Flop. Unless you're selling revealing cosplay shots, you probably wont even make table.

>>9917089
Holy shit anon, thats BAD. Theyre not even the same for every charm.

>>9917132
Dude you’re telling me. Like what the fuck happened during production? An earthquake?
Here’s one Sayori that arrived aligned perfectly but had her side ripped out? Fuck she looks like she got ripped open by some animal.

>>9917089
>>9917097
>>9917136
How does Zap get by? How can they take a look at this and think "it's fine, just a minor scratch no one will notice"?
I already heard that their customer service is shit, and minor errors may happen with all charm manufacturers but most of them will only have a couple that are flawed and will throw some extra into your order. This is atrocious.

>>9917141
Best part is I actually counted all my alleged "500" charms, and I only received 440.
Ten designs, but what character am I missing 40 of? The Sayori, the one design where they're already almost completely fucked.
I'm still in shock.
I mean I could understand this happening to one of my smaller 50 or 100 charm orders, because its just a small amount i guess. But for them to fuck up this badly on a order that cost me roughly $1600 USD? I couldn't be fucked to get a little more 'respect' on such an expensive order?
Maybe I'm old fashioned, but on my store on my higher valued orders when people order 4-6+ charms, (total is usually $80-100 USD) I'm super careful with their order, use my sturdier packaging, and maybe throw in an extra mini gift just because I'm thankful they put in such a big order. Like did they really think "yes of course this is fine" when throwing them in the box? Did they even look at them at all? At this rate I'm seriously looking in to buying my own acrylic printer/cutter.

>>9917149
Your order makes my vograce complaints a while back seem like nothing. They fucked up your charms so badly. I've only ordered from zap once, and they posted my charms on twitter, so theyre at least a little active on there if you want to make them and the twitter AA community Very Aware of these fuck ups.

>>9917089
>>9917097
>>9917136
Holy crap! I've heard of Vograce being bad during the summer rush, but I would've expected Zap to have better quality assurance and customer service what the hell????

>>9916822
teenagers have standards, so I don't see it being a problem. It is <12 children who just like anything colorful or whatever.

>>9916822
Social media is scary altogether nowadays with the younger generation. There's a 14 year old beauty YouTuber that scares the bejeezus out of me with what she's doing at her age

>>9917167
>>9917157
>>9917141
It gets worse, anon.
Just counted out the designs individually, and I ordered 125 Monika charms and they only gave me 50. They literally ignored my specific requests of how many charms I wanted of what designs and just gave me 50 of each design.
I asked for 95 of Sayori? Only received 50, 40 which were fucked.
Asked for 25 of some love lives? Still got 50 of each design.
I’m so appalled right now, they literally fucked up everything possible. I’m going to go cry for a bit.

CRX started rolling out acceptances

>>9917184
What a fucking disaster
Godspeed anon, I hope you get something salvaged from them
Also fuck zap

Speaking of messed up orders, check out these oversized angels I got from vograce today (they're supposed to be the same size as unit 02).

I'm not even mad though, considering they were the same price as all the others. I got a giggle out of it.

>>9917184
That's awful, anon. I'm so sorry. I don't understand how this got sent out.

>>9916665
I'm thinking that they decided to reject a ton of print artists from the bat, especially if your skill is not to their standards or art style is too similar to others, I can see a few more 3D based artist that does plushies or more original stuff vs mostly fanart get a table, it might just be that they want variety... it's not a loss on your part anyways

Not sure if you gulls care, but an update on the Mattel order of light up fox tails. Turns out they aren't using them for a corporate furry party, but they are releasing a line of dolls with light up tails and they are sending a lot of (i guess 60) youtubers promotional boxes that include the dolls and my tails to show off on their channel.
So not only did I get a huge order, I am also getting an insane amount of free advertising???

>>9917236
That's awesome anon, good for you!

Hopefully it'll result in more orders

>>9917236
... does this mean they're making a new fashion line for Barbie's weekend out at the furry convention?

canada friends, how are taxes for packages in your country? I want to save myself some $$ and hassle by having all my material shipped to my hotel, but I don't want to be hit with sudden charges.

>>9917241
Thank you! Me too. It launches next month, so I'll have to wait and see

>>9917244
lol, I hope so. The product line says
>"The Gleemerz dolls are mythical creatures that illuminate friendship fun with their curiosity, interactive play, and rainbow light-up tails!"
so... ???? There are no pictures of the dolls yet. For now, I'll just imagine they are furry barbie dolls.

>>9917228
I saw a lot of comic/western and craft artists getting rejected so I think they actually might prefer an anime illustration style

>>9917221
That's great! Also, really glad you made merch of Leliel

Warning to anyone in the NYC area: Don't do Boroughcon, if they even have one next year. It's a scam and the guy running it is a scumbag.

>>9917089
Like, what do you even do with all these? Toss them? Sell them for $1 each? Give them away for free?

>>9917149
I knew someone who frequently made $1k+ orders (so was a well paying, frequent customer), ordered a month in advance of their deadline and zap still didn't finish the order in time.

Honestly people should probably start looking into Ink It Labs again because at least their customer service is worth the extra cost.

>>9917228
>>9917249

I do a lot of original stuff and I got rejected, although yeah, my stuff is a little more western style.

>>9917021

Super feeling this salt. We got no benefit. Wish they'd never spun it like we were getting some preferential treatment for taking the risk on them, because clearly we didn't.

>>9917228
>>9917249
>>9917285
They rejected an all plush artist Onelani and they rejected Little_Reddo and Bing who make pins, apparel, charms, and prints and they both have anime styles so I don't think that's necessarily it either.

>>9917303
And all of them tabled last year. I'm p bitter just because the whole thing where someone on staff last year told artists that we'd be getting emailed with a sign-up list if we wanted to come again next year and we'd be promised a table for this year's con. And obviously, that never happened and it feels like they're slapping us in the face.

>>9917245
Ship it to a friends house who's attending the con, add chocolates or a tshirt with it. My packages dont get hit if they look like sending loot to friends. However one time they charged me 50$ customs fees to ship a laptop up that i already owned, i'd just forgotten to put it in my bag before leaving a friends place down south ): they had me pay like i was purchasing my 6 year old, sticker covered laptop. My friends had only packed the laptop, nothing else, so customs assumed it was a company purchase.

My usual customs fees arent too bad for Vograce charms though. 20-30$ from a 300-400$ order?

Just got my CRX acceptance. My last con was Fanime though, so I'm worried about picking it over my local con for fear of oversaturation, but I know the bay area has a lot more money than my region.

>>9917089
Agree with >>9917157 you should definitely post this on twitter if you're up to it, since I feel like they might be more inclined to deal with your situation properly if their reputation is being risked. This sort of thing is absolutely not okay, and even if they did refund you in full there's still the problem with having to order new charms and figure out what to do with the fucked up ones.
So sorry for what happened though, I've never had a problem with Zap but seeing this sort of thing makes me pretty eager to take my money elsewhere.

>>9917089
Hey Anon, sorry to hear about the super bad Zap order. I've been using them for a long while and whenever I get a bad order, I take photos, count up all the bad charms, and send them an email asking for a reprint. They usually do as asked for free (the shipping time varies however).

They usually are willing to do that even if they frame it as "they're doing this in good will" as if it was out of the goodness of their hearts or whatever, but I'm pretty sure they'll know they fucked up and don't want bad PR. So shoot them an email with photos and give it a shot?

Sorry if this is the wrong thread. While I plan to eventually try for a table at a con, I'm trying to build up my crafts online. Is there anything against selling crafts on multiple platforms. (i.e. On Etsy AND on facebook through Shopify's site)?

>>9917307
This kinda PR with Artists, and also competing with long-time con Sacanime on the same weekend, as well as taking Fanime's venue is just in all around bad taste to me desu

>>9917381
Nope. Not unless you specifically sign an exclusivity contract.

>>9917307
>we'd be promised a table for this year's con

I thought I'd imagined this since no one's mentioning it. Glad I'm not the only one who's feeling pretty screwed.

>>9917264
One friend made 15$, the other 25$. : / Tables should be free at that point.

>>9917390
Taking another cons venue sounds kind of stupid to get upset over especially if they're months apart.

>>9917264
+1 to this. All the artists I talked to didn't even make back their table cost, or made profits of $1-30.

$200 for 50 Artist Alley tables, and I heard the official attendance count was 400 people for all three days, and even that seems a little high. The guy running it lied about attendance numbers.

>>9917496

Not that anon but presumably it's more about the demographic. At least a bit north in Santa Clara it was reaching a slightly different set of people. How many people will travel out twice to San Jose for different cons that offer basically the same things?

Hey Youma didn't you say you'd have results for your jury done by the weekend :3c

>>9916822
This is fucking wild, I was just thinking about this the other day!
I mostly have people my age but having under aged followers make me kinda nervous about my art and if I'm appealing to the right people.
Reading some of these replies makes me not want to start posting cosplay on my art account lmao, but I just hate having to manage multiple social media accounts so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

>>9917089
I'm sorry this happened to you anon, Zap needs to get it together.
I wanted to order just 1 charm from them to test it out, but I think I'll hold off

>>9917089
This is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable. The fuck. If they don't give you a full refund I'm going to be livid for you. Never ordering from Zap ever.

>>9917184
Shit man. Be sure to contact them about this, and if you don't get a refund then post it on twitter. I'm certainly not going to order from them, if you put it out there for other artists to see then the PR it will bring should force them to refund you.

>>9917245
If you send by Canadapost or something (as long as it's not a private courier), then even if you get hit the custom fees aren't too bad. If it's below like ~$200 though, chances are you won't get hit.

>>9917516
It's past 8pm and there have been no updates. I'm not surprised, but still...

>>9917506
Wasn't it 200 for ~prime spots~ which didnt even matter because they switched the table placements a thousand times? I also heard that that 400 head count included all the vendors, so it's more like there were under 200 attendees

>>9917506
>>9917264
That is awful :/
I have been to a con like that before and all the artists just bought from each other since during 90% of the con, there were more vendors in the vendor hall than actual attendees.

>>9917508
This was exactly what I was getting at, thank you

Just got my order of charms from Vograce and nearly half of them are defective. I'm really pissed. This was supposed to be my batch for Anime Expo. It seems like all the popular charm suppliers are dropping the ball. Mine aren't as bad as anon above but I don't think I'll be able to sell these.

>>9917776
Do you have pics of the damage? I'm wondering if I'm missing something. I received a huge order from vograce yesterday and legitimately all of them are pristine, I looked through each bag because I was paranoid from the recent complaints. The variation in quality reports from everyone is really strange,

>>9917776
fuck dude, we've gotta place a charm order like next week and I have NO IDEA who we're going to go with. InkIt and Chilly are so costly when you have a fuck ton of designs, but Vograce and Zap are such a gamble.

Where'd that anon go who found a good replacement for vograce on alibaba? Who's dick do I have to suck to get deets?

>>9917778
I'm wondering if it has anything to do with who you're in contact with? I'm the anon with damages from last thread, and I go through Coco.

Sooo anyone else get an email from Anime California saying you applied, when you didn't apply for it?

>>9917789
Yeah I got one...I think they're pulling previous vendors because my friend also got it and the last time we were at Anime CA was when it was in its second year.

I'm starting to look into vending as an artist, and Im looking at the resources for creating stickers, from yalls experience do dye cut stickers or sticker sheets sell best? and which company is your personal favorite? im looking at stickermule but i dont know if the investment is worth it

Anyone hear back from Holiday Matsuri in Florida? I applied months ago and still haven't heard anything - is this a hard rejection or?

>>9917247
I am so hyped for you anon but I would be careful about specifically posting these details on here (even if it's anon) bc undoubtedly it could be traced back to you if someone from mattel saw these posts, and they're pretty scary about people leaking info

>>9917778
Could it be first time orders as well...? I've had issues with my very first order (with sizing and minor alignment issues) but ever since then my orders have been perfect, and I order a LOT of charms (host group orders)

>>9917804
I like stickerapp, quality is nice and they've always given me a ton of extra. for me personally my individual stickers do better, mostly because a lot of people will tack on a couple of stickers to an order they're already making, and a whole sheet seems to be viewed as more of a commitment.

fwiw apparently the person who runs stickermule is some kind of bigot according to artist alley dramas, but idk if that matters to you at all

>>9917789
I got an email from them anime California too thanking me for applying when I didn't. I know I didn't cause Im already committed to be at a diff con for that same week.

>get commission friday
"Ok just give me a week window + i won't be home this weekend for father's day"
"ok sounds good"
>buyer silently opens a paypal claim monday
"why did you do that"
"ur to busy"

I explicitly stated in the Paypal invoice Terms and Conditions that if I already started working on a commission, the payment is NONREFUNDABLE. I do have proof of me showing him a rough sketch the day he commissioned it and he said it looks good. What's the likelihood of Paypal siding with me in this case? I know they hate siding with sellers but I'm not sure if they're more inclined when I explicitly stated it. Of course the guy refuses to respond to anything I send.

>>9918025
I offered to do a simple ink for the half he paid and he agreed, very surprisingly. In the instance this happens again tho, is paypal likely to side with me since I have a clearly set terms and conditions in the invoice? Should I do anything else to help deter this?

I'm worried about Animanga. My friend signed up to table, but I've heard from other people that it's a first-year con and it's kind of sus from the number of people that got invited. What's the usual case of stuff like this? It's not my money and time on the line, but I can't help but be worried for them...

>>9918025
I'd say it's a toss-up. You have proof of work, etc, but paypal also just tends to side with the buyer. In the future, I'd contact PP pre-emptively regarding the claim so you can show your contract, buyer messages, etc.

>>9918025
Name and shame anon, none of us want to deal with a customer who fucks us over like that.

>>9918025
I find if you call them, they are more likely to side with you. I had to call them for work since an out of the country customer filed a claim against us because she got hit with customs. I called them and they rejected her claim right away.

>>9918041
I'll be worried too. $275 table + 1 badge is way over priced for a first year con. Even with amazing marketing, I can only imagine at most 2,500 attendees for first year cons, over 3 days.

And looking over their floor plan, animanga is prepared to set up 150 artist alley tables and 123 exhibitors booths. Yikes.

I've even tried searching the fairplex calendar and googling "fairplex pomona aug 4" to check if there are any other events running at the time/place. Found nothing so far. So its not like Anime Impulse where they claimed to have 100,000+ attendees when the attendees were actually counted from Blushcon, Asian American Expo, and Silk Show.

>>9917264
Can confirm. The only reason i went beyond breaking even was because the girls selling the deco phone cases spent like $50 at my table. It was a pathetic sight. CEO claims they sold 2k tickets. I'm unsure i saw 200 people.

>>9917184
If you hear anything back can you follow up here? I have to use them for a large rush order soon, and I’d really like to hear how they handle how badly they fucked up your order. Sorry you’re going through this also, I’m sure people will understand for preorders, it’s not something you can control! Just be honest with them.

>>9917776
Could you post pics when you have time? All of these horror stories about the two places I get charms from are freaking me out.

Anybody sold at J1-con before? I'm not sure if it's worth missing small press expo for (I just really like going to SPX as an attendee and would hate to miss it only to barely make anything).

J1 con in Philly and now Atlantic City? If so, I did it last year and it sucked hard fucking core.
They've been a one day con for a couple years, and last year they went to 2 days because they were getting "so popular". I refer to this con as Garage Con, because it was held in a single room warehouse around n o t h i n g in Philadelphia.
-Because of such, they did everything in the same room with a blasting stage bullshit. You could not hear shit.
-First day they were an hour late in opening the garage and artists/dealers were waiting outside. Second day they were TWO hours late in opening. Many people wanted to just leave because sales were shit Saturday, but they had their stuff inside.
-Saturday morning the guy says to us, "just pick a table and set up" as we didn't get maps.
-NO ONE CAME. The floor was always dead and ironically they claimed they had 2k people and I doubt there was more than 200
(Yet they still blasted music from the stage all day.)
-Every artist looked miserable and everyone I talked to either didn't make table back or just broke even.
-So many dealers and artists packed up early
-One of the people high up on staff became a creeper in following all my social media...which would be fine, but he justs comments on my selfies and is constantly hitting on me even though I always delete his comments.

Theres a reason their FCFS tables don't sell out in seconds and I was dumb and desperate enough to go for it last year (which the table was $125 for a 2 day crappy con).

They had no business making it a 2 day con, and they are fucking delusional to think they have enough attendees to move it to Atlantic City and make it a 3 day con.

I also internally rage whenever I see someone on AANI ask about this con and one or multiple staff members get into the thread to comment about how great the con is. I've kept quiet though because I don't want to appear as someone who will speak badly about cons in knowing several convention runners are part of AANI.

>>9918025
I have to agree with >>9918110. Please post a first and last name or at the very least their email.

>>9918829
O shit is this one of those places that puts a stage in AA, hate that... And yeah, I searched AANI and saw that a mod tabled there and there was another post where the con organizer was talking up how the hotel was funding it this year and that woud counteract t he risk of moving to AC, so to me that was something to weigh in its favor...

It does sound like being sponsored by the hotel this year has given them the cash to bring in big-name guests and maybe more attendees as a result but everything you wrote sounds horrible, I don't think I'm going to do it.

Are fandom related or original stickers better sellers? I'm having trouble deciding what to do since people jump fandoms all the time.

>>9918844
I mean. That's a huge, ill-defined question. You have a built-in hook if the sticker is related to a popular character or fandom, but an unappealing fandom sticker won't sell (and faces competition from other fandom products) while a nice original will sell and also gives you a chance to present something nobody else will have.

Most of my favorite sticker purchases have been originals. Animal inspired ones are pretty popular (also plants, succulents are very in rn.)

>>9918839
In all fairness, Philadelphia has ALWAYS been bad for the anime/weeb culture. I went to the AI there, regrettably, and so I lived in the city for a while. Anime stores never lasted long. No interest for anime clubs at colleges. At the time, too, all the professors of AI and surroundings school frowned up anything remotely hinting at an anime style in art too. It was strongly discouraged both academically and socially.

(This is also why I'm somewhat dreading tabling at Shikkaricon)

You could give J1 con the benefit of the doubt though, I guess... With its move.

>>9916211
>>9916262
>>9916473
>>9916480
>>9915855
super late reply but thanks a lot, everyone. putting it in context helps me understand what went down. I'm going to pick more lucrative events in the future.

>>9918025
Well, now I'm a bit concerned. What's some legal mumbo jumbo I could use to prevent incidents like these? I know nothing about contracts.

>>9918907
Dunno if an invoice (which is what you’ll be sending people) is exactly a contract and clearly this guy didn’t give a shit about what it said anyway.

I'm looking into selling 4x6 glossy prints (found them in my garage, home-printing), what would the pricing be for it? I'd like to think they would be $15 if they were regular-print sized, so would they scale down to 10?

>>9919115
Tbh I would never pay $10 for a 4x6 print unless it was hand drawn. It's just way too small. 4x6's are usually $5.

>>9918041
It's prob gonna go the way of that fandon con that cancelled a week before it happened or dashcon, it has a founder w money but they're aiming too high for a first year especially if they have a con center booked. They're definitely not gonna sell out the required hotel rooms so it's gonna probably be a 1 year con after they go bankrupt

What print settings/options do you guys pick when you guys need to get last minute prints done at Staples and Fedex during con? I've gotten prints done (11x17, 8.5x11, and 4x6) at these places, but they never come out right (banding, white spots, etc.)

>>9919115
If a regular size print was 8x12 scaling it down means you'd actually fit FOUR 4x6's in one 8x12 sheet jsyk

If I joined a group order in AANI on the basis that everything would arrive in time for a convention soon, and now the timeline for production is a week behind because the organizer wasn't strict at all with payment or design deadlines, would I be in the right for asking for compensation if my items don't arrive in time? Or would that just be a bitch move?

ALA confirmed to be 4 sale days for 2019

>>9919356
If you paid them anything for the service outside of your share of the costs/shipping then I think you're entitled to ask for a refund on the service fee. However, outside of that, asking for compensation isn't really viable imo.
If you didn't pay them extra on top of the merch costs, then you're not paying for a service that can be refunded- They're just acting as a middleman for you, and if they slack off then that's that. If you want to have a 100% reliable way to get your stuff when you need it by your deadline, order the merchandise yourself directly from a supplier, and if the quantity is too high run your own group order. Otherwise you're at the mercy of whomever else is the group order host.

Anyone else tired of the virtue signaling the last couple of days? Yeah shits terrible and I donated too, but why are people bragging about their amounts and posting it online? It's sickening

>>9919396
source

>>9919497
It was posted in the /cgl/ AA discord. One of the anons emailed ALA about it.

>>9919483
I don't think posting the amounts is necessarily bragging? If they were doing fundraisers w/ their art it's most likely for transparency's sake. Also, sharing that you donated is likely to drum up support and spread awareness about the cause. Look at things like gofundme - there's a reason why there's a "share" option whenever you donate.

>>9919530
That and to actually verify they donated instead of just using the situation as a extra boost to their sales and hoarding all the money

>>9917806
I just got an email today!

Is holmat a good con to travel to? I primarily have only done PNW cons so holmat is literally the farthest place away from me. I do alright at the cons here, but I feel like it might not be worth to travel...

>>9919724
I did it last year - I traveled from CA and it's not super worth it. It's during peak holiday rush times so travel is expensive and I have a ton of online orders to deal with. It's a decent-ish con but I'd much rather spend the time focusing on my online store and working on merch for January cons.

>>9919483
Re donations specifically, if you care about a cause then obviously you want it to get more donations so you’ll post about it...virtue signaling is when it has no point besides showing how you specifically feel, but using your social reach to promott donation campaigns has a point.

>>9919724
As someone who lives 30 minutes from the con I only do it cause I live 30 minutes from the con.

Florida cons are pretty well known for being subpar, Holmat may be one of the better ones but it's still a Florida con.

does anyone have any recommendation for an alternative to adobe indesign? i'd like to lay some comic pages out for print and so on. i'm not against paying so long as it's a one-time fee.

new thread: >>9919951

>>9914988
a bit young for that position isnt she

>>9917221
This happened to me once. It was a time where Vicky was super angry at me to the point she didn't want to reply anymore because all the charms designs weren't the same size. In the end, the bigger one ended up being super big. No complains tho.

>>9920874
Geez lol I feel bad for vograce dealing with you guys. No wonder they're swamped. Next time, if your charms are all intended to be different sizes, make a guide for them, like a height chart for your charms. Two red lines indicating how tall each one should be in relation to each other will help them a lot and save time.