Selling VN at anime conventions?

[bunbun]

I realize a lot of commercial games are sold online with pay to download system.

Most conventions I've been out of Japan sells fandom bookmarks, keychains, art prints and small merchandize instead of doujinshi or games.
They're also mostly fan made things instead of original creations.
Taiwan, China and Hong Kong started selling doujin games, what about Europe and America?

I wonder who experienced selling original/fan VN at conventions.
If you are one of those who tried, will you mind telling me your experience and what anime convention it is?

[Anna]

I'm willing to talk about it, but I don't think this is very useful unless you live in my country yourself. It's probably very specific to where the convention is held and by whom.

Anyway, I sell original visual novels and doujinshi with my team at conventions in The Netherlands. Actually 90% sells original stories instead of fan-made stuff here. One of our popular conventions had about 2400 visitors last year, but the visitor-number seems to be rising (a little) each year. You can sell some things, but it's not to be called very profitable so we mostly do it for fun and to speak with all our friends there who do the same thing. I can imagine fan-doujinshi or VNs sell better though.

so in no particular order, the fun and the bad:

The fun:
1. You can talk to the people who buy your things and they often tell you their opinion about your previous works, which can be really fun. One girl told me she bought one of our books and then read it to her little sister.
2. You can sell a bigger number of copies than usual in a day, because of the extra exposure (unless they place you in a crappy spot).
3. It's useful for making yourself more known.
4. Meeting old friends.

The bad:
1. expenses for printing, food, travel, hotel, tables and tickets make it hard to make a profit out of this (although we have, just not much). I prefer one-day conventions because you don't have to arrange a hotel/B&B.
2. If you have a bad location, you will be doing nothing for a long time and not sell much. bad location = an area with little traffic or the wrong kind of traffic, such as people who just spent their money in the area before yours.
3. You will be sitting in one spot for a long time and going there alone is suicide; with multiple people you can take breaks and walk around. This also means you don't see much of the convention itself. I can guarantee you'll be beat at the end of the weekend or day.
4. Some of the cons are really terrible at organisation, so you'll get all kinds of problems on the day itself. One problem each convention has is that the 'dealer room' always opens later than planned.
5. Dragging your stuff to the convention, try doing this with public transportation and you know what I mean. I recommend cars.

[gekiganwing]

I have seen the indie group Zeiva Inc in the artist alley section of my location convention, Anime Central. Also, Sakevisual has a list of planned cons on their site, which are centered around Texas. I have also heard that Hanako Games sells products at conventions.

If you have a product to sell, then you will probably benefit from doing the following:

* Ask many months in advance. Unless you're attending a small or recent fan convention, there's probably going to be a lot of competition for space.

* Likewise, make sure you (and your group) can afford it. Find out how much it will cost to enter the artist alley, factor in all the other expenses, and plan your budget.

* Review convention-specific policies. For example, ACen has some specific and general guidelines on what can be sold by individual creators.

[papillon]

I wrote up our totals from last fanime in a blog post here.

It's a lot of work for not much return (after you factor in travel, hotels, convention costs, etc) and it can mean that you're too wiped out to enjoy the rest of the convention. Fanime was running a separate steampunk event at the same time and I never got to see it because I was working... really, I was too tired to do much of anything.

We'll keep doing that one event as long as we can continue making it through registration (competition is FIERCE) but I don't intend to pick up more cons unless they start paying me to attend!

[Chu-3]

LOL I just came back from comiket yesterday!!! and now damn tired. not mentioning i'll have my flight tomorrow.
as far as i can say, comiket is the weirdest con i've ever attended. it's from 10-4pm, but people in front of me already close their booth at 12, and then people at left and right has already gone at 2 so my booth was so lonely. swt. but some people bought my games, and it made me happy.

well, i'm still new, so i don't really make money with cons, (consider the expensive plane ticket), but i got experiences at cons, and i know more people there, some from game company, other developers, and it's fun!

[netravelr]

Personally, I"m not sure about making money at cons; but it is a great way to interact with the communities that buy your games. That being said, people are also often willing to spend more money than they may otherwise just because they are at a con (or maybe that's just me). I'd love to do it, but I want to build a library first.

[Alexis_Royce]

My fiancee and I do a fair number of cons; we were in nine different Artist's Alleys this year, so we got around a bit, and we'll be doing it again next year (already booked for Acen, among others). I don't think that selling your VN at a con is too bad an idea if you keep some tips in mind:

-Try a small convention first. Smaller cons are friendlier, cheaper, less competitive, and people are more likely to stop and chat. Check http://animecons.com/ for a small con near you.

-Have more than just your VN for sale. If the con allows it, fanart is a good idea. Crafty tables that sell hats and scarves and such are also becoming more popular. A bare table will scare people away, but a full table makes people feel more comfortable with browsing.

-Bring a friend. Manning a table alone means no breaks. And if things go well and you get busy, the extra hands are a godsend. If that friend has art of their own, they can fill up half the table, and cut your costs in half, too! Win-win. ^_^

And I don't know if this works for others, but having a demo drew a lot of attention for me. When I went to invaderCON, I had the demo for my VN on a laptop at my table for people to play. A small crowd would stop to watch them, making it into a group experience. Mine was too long at fifteen-to-twenty minutes, but a five to ten-minute demo might just do the trick. I wasn't selling the VN, but it did drum up my other business.

[sake-bento]

I've sold VNs at...::thinks:: A-KON, Mini A-KON, AFest, All Con, San Japan, Ikkicon, Anime Expo, Kami-con, Hamacon, Matsuricon, and Sakuracon. While the results vary, the outcome of most of these was as follows:
-I had a lot of fun.
-I didn't really make much money after factoring in the cost of the table, room, food, and travel.

Other people have already offered good advice, but I'll throw in my own experience:

-Bring your own food. Convention food gets expensive fast. The cheap way to go is bring bread and peanut butter and jelly. Or cup ramen. Or anything cheap and easy to make. Con "survival" sites can probably give you expanded advice on this.

-Sleep! Cons are great fun, and it's tempting to stay out late and have fun with friends. You'll regret it in the morning. Get your full eight hours in.

-Artist's Alley is cheaper, but harder to get into. Register as soon as you possibly can. There's always a huge competition to get into Artist's Alley, but it's cheaper, and people tend to be more open minded about buying original art. You might have a shot at the dealer's room depending on the rules of the con. Just know that you'll be up against established anime, manga, and video games if you try. Some cons offer "small press," areas for more serious artists who do their own comics or other things (like visual novels). Feel free to check if your con offers those. Those tables don't go as fast, and they're usually nicer.

-Read the forums ahead of time so you know what and/or who to expect. Every con has a different atmosphere, and you'll want to prepare accordingly. Know your audience before you arrive.

[bunbun]

Thanks everyone for the advice.
It seems that people are more accepting with visual novels nowadays ^^
I was worried that people are more interested in fanmade things and aren't interested in original games.

@Papillon : Thank you very much for the total sales and information about the amount of people attending the con.
I think it'll be a great reference on how many copies one should produce and sell at cons.
Just a question if it's not too confidential. How much did you sell your games for at cons?
(I'm assuming printing costs are considered too which should be more expensive than the downloadable version?)

@Chu-3 : I'm glad you enjoy comiket! Yes it's true that people go early as most things are sold off after 12 in the afternoon!
People seem to be more interested in the items than the event itself.
I mean compare to other cons, there are contests, events and stage events, but comiket is just...booths!


Lastly, thank you everyone for the advice. I'm aware that cons don't focus much on money-making.
I just hope that while attending con I'll be able to get back the money paid to print the merchandise.
I don't think anyone will like it if they returned with many left overs or a lot of unsold stuff.

Sorry for double question but...
for people who attended con, how many copies did you bring, sold and how much did you sell them for?

[Blue Lemma]

I'm going to echo what papillon and sake said about not making much money from it (esp. considering expenses!) and it being a lot of work. Nice to know it's not just me

The experience is great, though However, no hurries to do it again...

[papillon]

@Papillon : Thank you very much for the total sales and information about the amount of people attending the con.
I think it'll be a great reference on how many copies one should produce and sell at cons.
Just a question if it's not too confidential. How much did you sell your games for at cons?
(I'm assuming printing costs are considered too which should be more expensive than the downloadable version?)

as the comment on the post says, generally $10 or $20, whatever's closest to the download cost, except cheaper for misprints. It does cost more to print the discs, of course, but I have no desire to tack small amounts onto the prices. The last thing I want to do at the table is deal with change. If everything's $10 or $20 I can come prepared with a stack of tens and that's all I need.

Also, since cons are limited-time events, you often want to be able to claim Special Event Discount Price to get people to buy it now!

I'd actually say to avoid small cons in general because when it's slow, working a table is REALLY MIND-NUMBINGLY boring, and once you're bored and miserable customers will be put off talking to you and it'll get worse. Depends on the venue though. We once did a tiny one-room convention where we could see all the events from our table, so while customers were few and far between, we were well entertained and actually made a better profit than at some slightly larger shows.