I feel like most of our posts right now are convention specific so why not throw another one onto the pile?
There are about 500 posts out there about Vending in an Artist Alley and a lot of that advice about how to set up a table and what to bring and yadda yadda, it’s nice but I’m here to give you some of the weirder advice we’ve found over the years of vending at Artist Alleys (and now even in Vendors and Dealer’s Dens yeesh look at us go).
Small reminder that this is going to be focused on Canadian Conventions because we’ve only done a handful of conventions outside of Canada and we’re just based up here in the great white north. I’m gonna split this post into 3 subsections, maybe?
GENERALLY IMPORTANT INFO
Okay so I lied a little bit I can’t help covering a few basics here before we get into the weirder reminders.
Before we get in too deep, if you haven’t seen our post about Merchandising and Ethical Artist Alley you might wanna take a little peep especially if you’re very, very new to this. I think everyone needs a healthy dose of reality before you take the deep dark plunge.
BUT ENOUGH PRATTLING. Let’s talk about What To Expect…
PRE-CON
While I am covering basics I’m going to try and outline weirder observations, things you might not have thought of.
TRAVEL/SETUP
A lot of this advice feels pretty common knowledge to us at this point but I feel like it might come in handy for those who are not used to travelling…And most specifically for vendors who do not have a car.
THE CON ITSELF
This is less, advice and more, something that might mitigate frustrations going in (and even when I know this going in, I still wind up frustrated all the same but MAYBE it will help YOU)–Very few conventions actually inform their staff on where the hell Dealers/Vendors/AA is supposed to go. Its part of the ecosystem. I’m so sorry. You might want to make sure there are 2 of you on set-up days, your helper can either wait with your luggage while you run ahead into The Fucking Maze and pray someone can point you in the right direction.
SOME conventions give you an actual map/address to the loading docks/bays… a LOT of cons’s instructions are pretty much bullshit. If they tell you you Can’t Use The Elevators because of x or y reason–they’re lying, nobody is going to stop you. Just do it and spare yourself the hassle of sweating to death and back and killing yourself hauling 50lb suitcases up a flight of curving stairs.
If you’re reading this and you’re not a vendor–if you spot a vendor struggling with bags going up stairs, proper etiquette is to like offer to help at maximum and/or, do not stop, watch and snicker to your friends, at minimum. I’m looking at you Toronto.
HOTELS
I don’t support AirBNBs I think its a scam and I also think anyone using them just doesn’t realise how much Hotels offer By Default for the same price you are paying an AirBNB for. Including your stay at a hotel they also allow you to:
- Store your bags when your room isn’t ready/your free day after you check out if you got a spare few hours before you gotta travel back home.
- Ship boxes of merch ahead of time (within reason, there may be storage fees attached, you might be playing chicken with your deadline)
- Get a free shuttle service from an airport to that hotel (check this before booking flights… mostly how late the shuttle go for)?
- WITHIN REASON–they don’t actually charge you a cleaning fee for like, Living In Your Room for a weekend.
- They will call a taxi for you if a shuttle isn’t an option (phone anxiety avoided ftw)
- Staff is always around if ever there’s an issue (forgot your key? missing toilet paper? need a little directional guidance on what cool things are around to see when you’re not tabling?)
- Staff is also just very nice idk i haven’t ever met anyone who was an asshole LOL.
This is gonna IRK some folks but a good measure we partake in is tipping cleaning staff. We usually leave the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door all weekend mostly because I’m cool with not having my sheets changed/washed every night and we try to leave any and all garbage close to the bin so cleanup is easier… but I worked in retail and nothing hurts a small tip, whatever you can give. Think of it as a paying it forward kindness.
TRAVEL MODES & METHODS
AIRPLANE – sorry kids you don’t get a carry-on and most of your bags have a very HARD LIMIT of 45lbs/23kgs. Get yourself a little shit baggage scale you can measure the weight at home… they aren’t always accurate but they can get close… maybe keep some space in your personal item to fit a pair of jeans or a sweater that put you over the weight limit.
TRAIN – Hooray even on super basic economy you, too, can get 2 free carry-ons of a SMALL or MEDIUM size (wow??) along WITH your personal item! This mostly is in reference to our trips from Toronto-Montreal but the train staff are generally more lax than airport security. However, the closer you get to bending the rules, the more likely you’ll be dinged with bag fees and/or shame for adding too much weight to your bags–the penalty here is still… a lot less severe than it is flying.
BUS – Idk really its like… bring whatever you want. Do whatever you want. Nobody’s gonna check your shit, the bus driver is some big guy with hulking muscles or something they’re just gonna toss your bag in the big bin and look at you like, ‘are you getting on or what?’
CAR – what are you rich? Think you’re so cool rolling up in your really sick set of wheels, all covered in novelty radical bumper stickers, huh? (I’m JUST KIDDING–if you’re doing cons regularly this is admittedly probably your best option. No weight fees, the only constraint is how big your trunk is and how far you’re willing to drive. Optimal. Just outside of our personal capabilities atm). It IS feasible to do conventions without a set of wheels. You might have to bribe family for help or just grow a thick set of muscles hauling all your shit around.
THE CON KIT
It took us like… a decade to make one officially… don’t be like us. Make one yourselves and make sure it has:
- SCISSORS
- TAPE (MASKING)
- STICKY NOTES
- INVENTORY SHEET*
- DISPLAY PIECES
- clamps to anchor heavy items to your table
- re-useable zip-ties
- connectors
- loop attachments for your backdrop
- SCREWDRIVER (phillips & flathead)
- PENS
BOOKING
Typically we start with, securing the table. Once we got that we wait to see if the con has a hotel block (or ask), usually we just book with the con bc its the cheapest option anyway. Then we slap a tracker on Google Flights for a few weeks and wait for as good of a deal as we can find (if you have another method for flight tracking PLS let us know yeesh its dismal out there).
And that’s for our farthest travelled cons. But the order of operations is about the same on our end.
*INVENTORY TRACKING
Doesn’t matter how you do it, connected to your online storefront, or old school like ours. You’ll want something that tracks what you sold, how much different items sold for. Its nice to know, overall, how much you made but its even more useful knowing about how much seems to sell at different conventions. It helps avoid overpacking for future events (or pack MORE if it turns out you severely underestimated.
INVENTORY SHEETS…CONT’D
For those curious what our own sheets look like… they vary from con to con but they roughly look something like this:
We fill them out by doing a traditional tally and manually calculate everything at the end just out of our own personal curiosity. We also periodically run a quick calculation during the show just to keep an eye on progress. It’s nice! I know there are way more robust ways to do it! But this is how I’ve been doing it for a while now and I’m an old fart who keeps struggling with making tech things connect seamlessly so One Day Maybe.
POST-CON
It took us an embarrassingly long time to generate a post-con to-do list that we SHOULD follow and we’re still trying to work into our routine. This is maybe common sense to some but to others (like me) it helps having a routine that looks something like this:
- Crash. (Not kidding take 12hrs to just fucking conk, babes) Do something quiet, decompress. If you don’t usually give yourself permission to do this, I’m giving you permission to make it a part of your routine.
- Unpack. Within 24-48hrs you’ll want to unpack suitcases…mostly any tablecloths, runners, soft materials need to air out, books and paper products are in that same boat. Doesn’t hurt. Also feels nice to put everything back in its place.
- Track. In the following week take 5 to fill out a handy dandy spreadsheet (you should already be filling out your expenses on this thing but you can always kinda do that retroactively). This is what we track:
^ This one is the main squeeze. Keeps track of the convention, what we made each day total, what we spent on the con and the profit subtracts from the two totals. If that thing reads negative AFTER you’ve done the con…. wuh oh. Maybe its not a con you likely do ever again…
^ This is what helps us figure out what types of items do best on the con floor. We already get a gist of what does well online/at our shelves in certain shops but cons are pretty hectic so putting it all in one place like this makes it easier to parse what to focus on going forward and what’s just wasting our time/money.
^ And then (because I can’t help myself), I also like to do a break down of items that do the best to find out which variations work the strongest. I also mark down what was that item’s best convention and how much we sold of that particular item at that convention. I also have a total for how much money each of these items made because sometimes the different price points mean that just because one Sold More doesn’t necessarily mean it MADE more.
- Scan. All your damn receipts. All your food and drink. All your taxis/transit fares. Anything in relation to the convention and you working it is an expense. Make sure you keep all of these (and get into a better habit than me and maybe scan them so you have them all nice in a little digital folder for your accounting records)!
Then take it easy if you can. Give yourself a few days to bounce back. Conventions are rough, be kind to yourself in the aftermath of it all.
FUNKY TIPS
Here, we finally got to the whole reason I wanted to make this post in the first place… there are a few… well, they’re not rules… they’re just interesting things we’ve noticed throughout our time in artist alleys…
PRICES IN MULTIPLES OF 5s
Admittedly this might mostly work for us because here in Canada, any breakdown outside of a multiple of 5 is awful. We rarely if ever deal in loonies and toonies and, honestly, nobody’s complained so far. Round your prices up to the nearest 5 (or take a small hit and round down) guaranteed the sale happens easier. In higher amounts, just round up to the nearest 10 or 20 idk. Just it works. Our prices wind up being 5, 15, 20, 30 40, 60 and 80, with 90% of the table being priced at $20.
PACK BOOKS INSIDE TOTEBAGS
In order to protect our books when travelling (or just getting them to a con) since we’re always using suitcases I’ve found the best (and most flexible) way to pack books is just stuff them in a totebag and loop the handles around the bundle. Pack them at the bottom of your suitcase (closest to the wheels) so they don’t jumble around. If you want to be extra careful with humidity/water, any left over plastic shopping bags are a perfect use for this too.
KEEP BOOKS ON THE TABLE
We’ve tried the wire displays, the tiered wooden shelves anything you might imagine to give our books some height but for some reason* people don’t seem to pick them up off those shelves, they interact with books more when they’re on the table, feels more casual (think of how books are displayed in a bookshop, you’re more likely to interact with the ones that are NOT on a stand than those that are. *Most folks are really polite and don’t want to ruin your display so make it easy for them to interact with your work without putting in that fear they’ll misplace something or topple your shelf.
TEXT BLURBS FOR BOOKS–
Okay okay last one about books, sorry they’re always the hardest sell and our favourite item to make so we’ve crafted our methods well over the years. Give your books an entertaining elevator pitch. Make it funny. Make it catchy. People are just more intrigued if you can give them a vibe in 1-2 sentences that stops them in their tracks. It also means you have an elevator pitch at the ready with permission to deep-dive if people are interested in the story they picked up. A few of my own blurbs were as simple as, “evil lesbian knights” or “mad max meets greek mythology”. To keep the table from being too cluttered we usually focus on one blurb for a series or blurbs for our bigger projects.
SELF-SERVE
Where possible, making your items self-serve really is just kind of a no-brainer… speaking as someone who has tried just about every type of display. Letting people touch, interact, feel the quality of your items is usually the fastest way to a sale (and putting trust in attendees makes people more inclined to put trust in you). I’ve only had maybe a handful of items stolen from my table over the course of 10+ years doing it. Your business shouldn’t really make or break on the loss of a charm or an enamel pin. It smarts but that’s what profit & loss is for. Showing people you trust them not to take from you without asking, instills trust with people willing to support you and the work that you make and honestly? That’s way more valuable to me than some kid nicking a pin. //shrug.
KEEP WITHIN REACH OF WHEELCHAIRS…
Okay, so here’s a big one I’m noticing when people try to be all smart and kooky with their table displays, sticking them on risers and making giant shelves for their displays…. maybe take a second to put yourself at a lower angle… would someone be able to reach that item? See that item? We’re overlooking a significant number of people keeping things out of reach and eye-line, not to mention folks holding crutches can’t reach across the table, often they’re equipped with straps to keep them from falling out of reach. Just… making things accessible doesn’t really stop at making sure the venue has an elevator, it’s enabled by vendors and artists who keep this into account too.
WEAR A MASK
Hey… what’s that? Yeah I hear you whining already–hear me out. I know you don’t give a shit about COVID or whatever. I know you think you’re soooo tough. Good for you! Happy for you–anyway. Let me level with you real quick. Aside from the fact that we haven’t gotten “Con Crud” or “Con Flu” or whatever nonsense you all seem to get after a con SINCE we’ve kept wearing our masks at these events–It also serves as a point of respect to attendees. Its admittedly a bit frustrating that such a small act on our part can make folks more comfortable… and most people just refuse to even bother. Idk. Call me crazy.
SOCIALIZING *DOOM*
(look i think i’m really funny just laugh and keep reading–)
I was just talking to Harpy (my partner in crime) about this post and decided it needed one last section where I talk to you about what to expect socially from artist alleys and interacting with the public.
And, listen… these hours are extremely long, extremely gruelling and you will get some insanely out of pocket people making some insanely out of pocket observations about your work. Admittedly, we get a lot less of it lately. People are generally very kind and sweet.
I’m putting my hands on both of your shoulders and telling you that you NEED to resist making those flashy funky social media posts about Awkward Encounters with attendees. I need you to understand that while yes, you have feelings, and yes, you are there for hours and hours and hours–that not every comment folks make at you is intended with malice or vitriol. Sometimes its just fucking awkward. Sometimes someone just says something and like I know they’re kicking themself later for it. MANY people shopping around conventions and shows are neurodivergent–you can’t take everything everyone says like its some slight on your work. Take the compliment, no matter how weird it is. Imho, the weirder the better. It shows this person made an effort to try and connect with you. I think a lot of internal strife would be avoided, taking into account that some folks are shy and get quiet, some folks when shy or nervous just get loud and say the wrong thing.
And even if that isn’t true, its kinda just nice believing the best in people and moving on from there, not letting yourself dwell on something that doesn’t really matter in the end.
Except all you fuckers who slam your bags and your drinks on top OF MY BOOKS. IM HUNTING YOU DOWN FOR SPORT–!!!!
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