Animefest Part 2: Sensible Advice and the Economies of Fandom

One of the standard bits of business advice, for any business, is to be friendly, but professional. Don't talk about your personal life with customers. Don't say what a bad year you're having. Don't ask about *their* problems, any more than to say "Whew, hot out,ain't it?" This is, in general, pretty good advice. Customers don't need to know about you. They don't want your bad mood bringing them down. And hearing about your skin grafts is unlikely to inspire the purchase of tea.

But cons are different. While there are more new people- strangers!- every year, almost everyone who's in the fandom found it through friends. And those friends come to the cons. And then there are the customers, who buy a thing because they love the art, and then want to know the artist, and then everyone goes out to dinner, and then... well, pretty soon, they stop being "customers" and become "friends who buy our stuff".

I've been doing this a while. My husband, even longer. About 40 percent of the people who buy from our booth are friends, people who we'd help move, people who came to our wedding, people who share hotel rooms and friends lists and family recipes with us. And in the tighter world of the Animefest dealer's room, that percentage is even higher; 80 percent of us in any given year are returnees. We know each other. We may not have the same social schedule, but we count on each other for minor supply assists, emergency table manning, and all the other little things that go with being temporary co workers.

So when these people come up and ask how we're doing, they really want to know. They know my health is bad-- is it getting better? Will this be the last year they see me? They heard my husband transferred jobs-- how's it working out? When will we get our house built? And we want to hear from them too. Even the grim stuff, especially the embarrassing stuff...We want to know. They're our friends.

They're why we go. With the internet's current power and scope, the real unique quality of cons is not merchandising, but socializing. We go there to see our friends. We sell there to pay our way, and support our habit.

Another very sensible bit of advice given to crafters is to not let friends block customers from the table. But this gets tricky when friends are the customers. Sure, they may only be buying a couple prints while they talk, but they are buying. And often they're the big money-- see the second paragraph. It was a friend of ours who shelled out 100 bucks for a small watercolor at this year's art auction. Strangers buy prints and mousepads and small things. Friends buy originals and commissions.

I suspect we could make more money if we followed the proper rules, put business first and pleasure second. But on a moment to moment basis, this is the way I know how to work, and I don't want to change. It makes me part of a community instead of part of a competition. It keeps the focus on the art part of our lives instead of the business angle. It keeps things fun and keeps me feeling human. And really, without that, there's no point in me having this life at all. There'll always be more money in the business world. But my friends are over here.

Even more con rambling tomorrow! And a return to Etsy!

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Animefest: Part 1 : Introduction: General Info: Attack of the Colons

Now, while Blogger works, about Animefest!

I've linked the official site up there, but frankly I've never seen an official site that gave away even half of what a con was really like.


Conventions

For those who don't know cons at all: They're a magical place where people from all over the world gather for a few days in honor of a single, shared passion. The culture of any given convention varies depending on what that uniting factor is-- a sci-fi con tends to be a little more restrained and cerebral than a general comics convention, which itself is a bit more reserved than most anime conventions.

Anime conventions, like Animefest, are, in general, young (population wise), friendly, high-energy, and colorful. Despite the name, they're often devoted to Japanese general pop culture as much as anime. There's a whole lot of cosplay, everything from blockbuster shows to the ancient and obscure to original creations (my favorite)! And in the last five or six years, the fandom has trended increasingly towards women and girls, which means I am no longer the Token Chick. So that's nice.

Animefest, or the Very Model of a Modern Midsize Ani-con

Animefest tends to run between 4000 and 8000 people, over the course of four days. Compared to The Other Con in Dallas, which runs about 20 -25 THOUSAND people in a hotel in just three days, and you see why it's "mid size".

Partly because of its size, partly for other factors, Afest is also more laid back than most cons. There's a large number of older, long term anime fans (some of us in our thirties! Methuselah!), so the chaos and catgirls are held to a dull roar. It's also THE con for artists, as far as I can tell (though San Japan seems ready to give them a run for their title). The art show is in the dealer's room, always a major focus for congoers. The artist's alley is right outside, in prime place to catch the pre and post- dealer's hours crowd. The auction is generally on time and always has great presenters.

All of this is why it's the only con where we buy a dealer's table. Yes, it's more expensive (about 200 bucks for a dealers table vs less than fifty for an AA table) and has shorter hours (10-7 vs up to 24 hours), but the Animefest crowd makes it worth our while. We've been going about eight years now, and it's always a good time.

Including this one, about which more later. When I'm not at work, and can take the time to be...descriptive.