So you want to sell at an Artist Alley (part 1)

    BEFORE YOU APPLY...

Have your website organized! Whether it is tumblr, deviantart, or your own website, have your art easy to access and organized to people who may review your artwork! Photobucket or other image hosting websites may work, as long as you have your work visible to judges of artist alleys, or even potential employers (hey, it happens!!)

Check if you need to get a sellers permit, or temporary tax ID! Some conventions require you to get a temporary tax ID number for the artist alley application alone. The process is fairly simple, and if you have trouble you can always call the comptrollers office, or check online for a guide or walk through! Some of these take at least a few weeks to process, so be sure to do it sooner than later.

Make sure you have the funds to do artist alley! Some people don't realize that tabling at a con is an INVESTMENT, it is not a free joy ride! You have to put down money for the table itself, registration, as well as printing costs, your hotel and/or transportation AS WELL as money for change, food, etc. Always have more than you think you might need, you never know when an extra cost will appear.

BUT BYUN! HOW MUCH MONEY DO I NEED :0 ??! Excellent question! The costs vary per each person, as well as per convention. Larger conventions, like Otakon and Anime Expo, are pretty expensive! Tables run up to 200$, without a badge! With the badge, its almost 300$, and that doesn't even include your merchandise or tables! Depending on how much merchandise you want to sell, your printing/production costs could range anywhere from a few hundred dollars, to even a thousand +. However, smaller local cons are much cheaper! For example, Portcon Maine is 80$ for a table AND it includes a badge!

    WHERE DO YOU WANT TO SELL?    

Locally? Across the country? In another country?? Do you want to sell at multiple conventions? Write down a list for yourself of all the conventions you plan on applying to, for your own sake, it would be best to make some kind of way to organize the information about each con so you can access it easily rather than referring to each of the websites constantly. I've personally found that either writing things down in a notebook, or having an online spreadsheet is the best way to organize this information! With each con, make sure your write the Application due date for artist alley, due date of the payment for the table + registration (if its not included with the table), and the date of the convention. Having all this information in one place will save you a lot of headaches and stress.

IMPORTANT TIP: Most conventions artist alley open at LEAST 5-6 months in advance to the convention. Check each convention to see their exact dates regularly. This gives you enough time to prepare merchandise, book a hotel (if needed), and organize transportation, however, you have to really plan ahead if you wish to table!! If you miss it, you can always advertise yourself to share with another artist, but this is not a guarantee to a table.

    SENDING YOUR APPLICATIONS

Of course, a very important part of the process! Like the spread sheet I mentioned earlier, write down which conventions you have sent your applications to, and then check off as you hear back from each convention! Many cons do their applications differently, here are a few of the types:

LOTTERY: Pretty much as it sounds like, generally for these there is a small window of time open for applications, anywhere from 1 day to a week. Entering the lottery doesn't cost any money, but you can (obviously) only enter once! 

FIRST COME FIRST SERVE: These are my LEAST favorite type of applications. Its basically everyone hovering on the website for the opening of the applications, and depending on the convention, they can fill up in a matter of seconds. If you apply to a con that is first come first serve, you find out if you've made it pretty soon after you applied, but of course varies for each con.

JURIED: These applications are simple and pretty straightforward, you fill out an application with your website or artwork, and then you send it off to a group of people who organize the convention and they judge your artwork to see if they would like you in the alley or not.

And of course, each application has its own rules and forms, so be sure to read carefully when filling each application!

OTHER THINGS TO THINK ABOUT:

• Do you want to share a table? or do you want to table on your own? (personally I think sharing a table for your first time is a great idea! Tabling on your own for the first time can be stressful and a little scary if you dont know what you're doing)
• Would you want to share a hotel with other artists? Many times artists who alley share rooms together, to cut down the costs. This is totally up to you though.
• Do you want a helper? (yes you probably do if you're tabling alone)