seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Türkiye
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Austria
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Russia
seen from Norway
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
seen from Canada
seen from South Korea
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Norway
seen from China
seen from Norway
seen from China
seen from Mexico
seen from Norway
What types of artist merch do you tend to buy most frequently at cons/faires?
Pins/buttons
Keychains/charms
Art prints
Standees
Jewelry
Anything of a specific character/property I like
Shirts
Buying things? In this economy??? (results)
New year, new survey! Like data and statistics? Wanna help with ongoing research and science?
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The 2017 Convention Artist Survey report is done!
67 pages of data and analysis featuring over 160 charts and graphs. The 2017 survey saw 782 responses for over 300 conventions in 49 states and provinces.
Curious about revenue figures for conventions? Want to participate in research and contribute to science?
>> Take the 2017 Convention Artist Survey
Remember you can take the survey for each convention you do, so if you do multiple shows a year, you can contribute multiple sets of data!
We’re just over 500 responses for 2017 and I’m hopeful we can beat out 2015 for the most total respondents (670).
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2016 Con Artist Survey Report is finally done!!
Just get back from your weekend convention? Vended at another spring convention recently?
Participate in the 2017 Convention Artist Survey!
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Usually, when I go to conventions to vend at, I've been before, so I know what will sell well and what won't at that specific con. I've been wanting to go to more because I need more income, and I don't want to scout out a few cons just to have to wait another year to apply. Do you have any tips for knowing what will sell if you've never been to that specific con? I know this is a bit vague, sorry! Is there any math in this, or is it really just up to chance, as well?
Nattosoup: You could try contacting artists who have sold at that convention before. You could also try searching this blog for con recaps and vlogs, but unfortunately, not many artists are interested in making those. In the future, you could help contribute recaps or vlogs, and help other artists decide if a convention is right for them.
I’ve tried guessing, and I really find the best way to know for SURE is to experience the crowd firsthand, and figure out how they will mesh with my personality and what I have to sell. I’m sure there’s a statistical way to figure out what MIGHT sell, but you’re also dealing with a lot of unpredictable factors, like new releases and fandom resurgences.
Kiriska: I’ve never found trying to pin down specific trends on a per-convention basis to be especially valuable, personally.
There are a lot of generalisations you can fall back on when trying to determine what kind of crowd a convention might have. Many types of conventions have relatively consistent demographics. For example, most of the attendees at anime conventions are girls from their teens to early/mid-twenties. Most mainstream comic con goers are adults mid/late-twenties and older, and many of them have young children. Here’s a neat article about comic con demographics from a few years ago.
If you know what demographic your work resonates with the most, you can use that as a shortcut in determining what sort of con you might do best at.
Definitely also do what Becca suggested and see what you can find from other artists about a specific con in the past. Some conventions are outliers given their genre or location.
Beyond that though, trends in specific products or specific fandoms change too frequently for me to feel like it’s worth it to give it a lot of weight in your decision-making process. It goes back to my “what do people prefer” stance, I suppose. It’s good to be aware of trends, but I don’t think anyone should stake everything on them.
What does “what will sell and what won’t” even really mean? How can you know with a certainty why something at a con does or doesn’t sell?
If you scout out a con and everyone is selling acrylic charms from x fandom and doing well with them, how can you be sure that same thing will sell next year? And how can you be sure that, if you produced the same sort of thing, that it wouldn’t just be lost in the crowd? If at a con you see that everyone has prints from x fandom and no one is actually selling them, how can you be sure that next year that fandom won’t see a random resurgence? Or what if next year everyone that previously had that print doesn’t anymore and the fans get extra thirsty?
There’s too many factors.
Gather information on your specific audience, the type of people who normally buy from you, and go after that larger, more general demographic rather than worry about smaller trends.
How much do you usually earn at cons?
See here for 2015 average revenue from 670 respondents at 130+ conventions.
The 2016 report will be available in mid-February.
You can participate in the 2017 survey here.
