Foolscap After Action Report
Well, it had to happen eventually--I finally hit a convention that was a bust in terms of sales. It's been a while since I've done any kind of show where a) I didn't sell anything hardly all weekend and b) most of the people walking by showed little to no interest in my work. (Not that were many people walking by either.) I'd forgotten how frustrating and depressing that was. I actually found myself getting angry as the weekend wore on and I was stuck behind a table instead of doing all the other, far more enjoyable things I could have been doing. Luckily the people were friendly enough to snap me out of my funk before I got too deep. :(
I think the basic problem was that the show was just too small. I knew it was small going in, but I didn't realize how tiny--apparently they had less than a 100 people in attendance. o__O;; If I'd known THAT, I never would have signed up! I did make a few sales, but didn't even make my expenses back--and I was still better off than my neighboring table, who had come up from Portland and was paying hotel and travel expenses on top of everything else.
Lessons learned at the start of 2016:
First and foremost--choose my shows wisely! To be fair, a certain amount of experimentation has to happen, but right now for me time is a precious and limited commodity. If I'm not making a profit off of a show, then I'm not going back. Not as a vendor, anyway.
Foolscap was the first trial run of my new PVC pipe display frame. Putting it up took me a surprisingly long time--3 hours!--but I think part of that was just because I'd never done it before. And teardown was fast--maybe 20 minutes, tops. The hardest part was getting the rings on the piping and figuring out to hang prints--I can't hang them the same way I could with my wire shelves, but have to tape them together. After a couple tries, though, I think the end result was sturdy enough, and looked reasonably professional.
(Apologies for the bad cell phone picture.) I'm not sure if it's going to save me much weight when I fly out, though--the piping is light, but I have to use six mini-clamps to keep it in place, and those suckers get heavy. :/
It was also the first trial run of my new rotating small print display rack (yay Craigslist!) and my very first handmade coloring books! Unfortunately, due to just how slow things were, I couldn't really get a good idea if people were interested in the coloring books, but the rack seemed to go over well. It definitely got my small prints up to eye level, at least.
I have to admit I was hoping for some extra income to offset all the taxes and misc. expenses I had to pay at the start of the year. Still, onward and upward! The convention wasn't a total loss--the people attending were very friendly, they gave me tons of space, and I had some great freewheeling discussions about books and birding. AND I got to meet Ursula Vernon's (of Hamster Princess and Digger fame) husband and one of her birding buddies, who both were very interesting to talk to and gave me a lot of tips on how to prep for Anthrocon!
I think the basic problem was that the show was just too small. I knew it was small going in, but I didn't realize how tiny--apparently they had less than a 100 people in attendance. o__O;; If I'd known THAT, I never would have signed up! I did make a few sales, but didn't even make my expenses back--and I was still better off than my neighboring table, who had come up from Portland and was paying hotel and travel expenses on top of everything else.
Lessons learned at the start of 2016:
First and foremost--choose my shows wisely! To be fair, a certain amount of experimentation has to happen, but right now for me time is a precious and limited commodity. If I'm not making a profit off of a show, then I'm not going back. Not as a vendor, anyway.
Foolscap was the first trial run of my new PVC pipe display frame. Putting it up took me a surprisingly long time--3 hours!--but I think part of that was just because I'd never done it before. And teardown was fast--maybe 20 minutes, tops. The hardest part was getting the rings on the piping and figuring out to hang prints--I can't hang them the same way I could with my wire shelves, but have to tape them together. After a couple tries, though, I think the end result was sturdy enough, and looked reasonably professional.
(Apologies for the bad cell phone picture.) I'm not sure if it's going to save me much weight when I fly out, though--the piping is light, but I have to use six mini-clamps to keep it in place, and those suckers get heavy. :/
It was also the first trial run of my new rotating small print display rack (yay Craigslist!) and my very first handmade coloring books! Unfortunately, due to just how slow things were, I couldn't really get a good idea if people were interested in the coloring books, but the rack seemed to go over well. It definitely got my small prints up to eye level, at least.
I have to admit I was hoping for some extra income to offset all the taxes and misc. expenses I had to pay at the start of the year. Still, onward and upward! The convention wasn't a total loss--the people attending were very friendly, they gave me tons of space, and I had some great freewheeling discussions about books and birding. AND I got to meet Ursula Vernon's (of Hamster Princess and Digger fame) husband and one of her birding buddies, who both were very interesting to talk to and gave me a lot of tips on how to prep for Anthrocon!