1.) Start Small: Most new conventions offer lower prices and more lee way in what you plan to sell. Yes, only 500 people may show up at the convention but $100 tables are hard to argue with. Big note for sculptures/craftsman!! Larger conventions often demand you buy the more expensive vendor booth if you sell your 3-d projects even if they are all handmade but small conventions usually still let you buy the cheaper tables in Artists' Alley.
2) Start Local: Never forget to take travel expenses into your profit margin! You might make 500 dollars a day but how much did your travel and hotel room cost each night? Until you have a firm idea of your sales, stay local unless you can crash at a friend or family member's house.
3) How Good are You?: Every artist is always improving and you are no exception, but you need to take an honest look at what you make. Can you make it cleaner, can you make it sturdier, can you make it closer to your original idea? These questions will help you decide if you are ready to start selling at conventions and more importantly, how much you can charge!
4.) What do you like? What do you like to watch or read? Can you make fan art for it? Would you like to? Can you enjoy making 100 hundred of them? Unless you can sell it for a huge profit, stick to subjects and materials you like; it will encourage you to innovate, you will make better quality work, and you won't get tired of it or at least as quickly.
5.)Fan Art! If you love a show, book, anime, cartoon, art style, whatever, show it! Odds are some one else does too. I'm not recommending you dump all of your original work or be nothing but a slave to fads but fan art can and does bring in the crowds. Personally, I have several prominent pieces of fan art on my table that I put next to my original works because the fan stuff catches the eye but brings them in to look at your own creations. "Come for the fan art, stay for the original art" is my motto.
6.) Bring Change!: I can not emphasize this enough, bring lots and lots of $1's $5's, and $10's. In preparation for cons, lots of people hit up their atms or banks and so only have $20's and you don't want to lose a sale because you couldn't make change from them.
7.) Keep a Record: Keep a record of what you brought, what you want to sell it for, and what you actually sell it for.
8.) Prices: How much to charge is a big sticking point for me. I have to look at what a pendant costs me in materials plus the time it takes to finish the whole product and how much I think my buyers can afford. I also look at competitors to get an average idea for what your art work can go for and it is best to try to match or under cut them.
9.) Ask for Feedback: You are meeting people your customers!! Ask them what they love, they hate, they really, really want! If I find a friendly patron, I ask them about all sorts of ideas and I even write them down. How friendly you are can make or break you and your shop in people's memories. Multiple people remember me from other cons and often bring their friends over to my table or recommend more conventions for me to attend.
10.) Get a Buddy but it Doens't have to be an Artist: Pretty self explanatory, with an artist you have some one else to share the booth fee, chat with the customers, or watch your stuff if you need a break or wish to attend an event. If you don't have another artist to team up with, just bring a friend (most cons include two passes with purchase of table space) to help you set up, deal with sales, and pass the time.
11.) MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL
DON'T
GET
DISCOURAGED
First event I ever did (an art show) I made -$50 dollars, had one sale to an old family friend, spent the whole time freezing, and due to wind had a Christmas reef repeatedly kamikaze straight into the middle of my artwork. At first, you will not succeed unless you are lucky and amazing (if you are, why are you wasting your time here?? go make art!) at the first convention you attend but the more feed back you get and the more you refine your art, you will do better. I consider any convention I make over my costs a success because I am still learning but I learn, and make, a little more each time.
Happy Sales!
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