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Why Do Artists Charge So Much At Conventions?
Lately, I've run across some people complaining about artists charging a lot of money at conventions for their work. The people complaining are upset that they can't afford art.
What they don't know is how expensive it is to sell the art. Here's the breakdown, with actual costs and intake, from the convention I just went to:
I took in $562 over the weekend from selling prints, comics, kanzashi (hair accessories), and one $10 commission. Sounds great, huh? Think again.
Hotel bill: $162.70 This is because I was sharing with one other person. It would have been twice that if I'd come alone.
Gas: $20 It was a 3.5 hour drive.
Table cost: $70 This included my badge.
Ink: $35 This is low - I didn't do a full round of printing for this con, just filled in a few. But I basically went through six ink tanks to do it.
Paper: $37 Low again, as I was filling in from leftover stock from the previous con. If you counted all the prints I had left over from previous, the amount it cost me for ink and paper triples. I choose to regard it as a sunk cost, as the money was already spent.
Food: $50 Rough guess. Sodas during the day to stay awake, lunch, dinner. Breakfast is included in the hotel cost as I ordered in because if I don't eat a real breakfast in the morning, it can trigger a migraine, which means I don't sell at all.
Kanzashi supplies: $50 Rough guess. Probably more.
Rachel: $30 My writer. When I sell the books that she and I worked on, we split the money. I sold $60 worth, so she gets $30.
Total costs: $454.70
Sales tax: 8.25% - $46.30
Yes, this means I profited a whopping $61.00 for three days' work. I was at my table from 2-6 on Friday, 9 - 7 on Saturday, and 9-2 on Sunday. 19 hours of work means I made $3.21 for every hour I put in. That is, if you don't count the hours I spent printing, making art, making kanzashi, and such. If you put *that* in, I'm taking a huge loss. Which is why I don't consider it. My art and crafts are a hobby, and my rule for hobbies is that they have to pay for themselves, and that's what I'm doing with this.
So the next time someone complains that artists price their work too high and that they should charge less? I CANNOT CHARGE LESS.
--
Musings
Now ... there are places I can reduce expenses. Not the artwork itself - I'm not compromising on quality there. I could, say, find more roommates. Or bring bread and peanut butter to eat three meals a day. Hell, no. These conventions are also a vacation for me - one of my hobbies is attending conventions. If I have to stay in another godforsaken crash room with 123 of my closest friends, or eat peanut butter for three days, it's not worth it. I'm not giving myself migraines so you can have cheap art. I am also going to these cities to hang out with friends and eat dinner with them. I'd rather not go at all than deny myself that pleasure, and I'm not complaining about it - just telling you so that you understand where I'm coming from.
It's also a slow economy right now, and people are running scared. Last year, I might have made a little more, but the overall costs would remain the same, and my profit would not have been that much more. It was also a smaller con. A larger con would allow me to sell more, but my productions costs would be correspondingly higher. Six of one, half dozen of the other. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I probably ought to raise prices+, but I've experimented with prices a lot, and I think that if I raise them much higher, I sell fewer items, so the overall intake remains about the same.
I'm not posting this to ask for tips on reducing costs, and such will be ignored. This entire endeavor is a hobby, and I'm doing it primarily to recoup my expenses. This post is a public service announcement that I can link to the next time I run across someone complaining about how much artists charge for their work in artist alleys.
---
And oh, yeah: you might now understand why I am saying COMMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN. Info HERE.
What they don't know is how expensive it is to sell the art. Here's the breakdown, with actual costs and intake, from the convention I just went to:
I took in $562 over the weekend from selling prints, comics, kanzashi (hair accessories), and one $10 commission. Sounds great, huh? Think again.
Hotel bill: $162.70 This is because I was sharing with one other person. It would have been twice that if I'd come alone.
Gas: $20 It was a 3.5 hour drive.
Table cost: $70 This included my badge.
Ink: $35 This is low - I didn't do a full round of printing for this con, just filled in a few. But I basically went through six ink tanks to do it.
Paper: $37 Low again, as I was filling in from leftover stock from the previous con. If you counted all the prints I had left over from previous, the amount it cost me for ink and paper triples. I choose to regard it as a sunk cost, as the money was already spent.
Food: $50 Rough guess. Sodas during the day to stay awake, lunch, dinner. Breakfast is included in the hotel cost as I ordered in because if I don't eat a real breakfast in the morning, it can trigger a migraine, which means I don't sell at all.
Kanzashi supplies: $50 Rough guess. Probably more.
Rachel: $30 My writer. When I sell the books that she and I worked on, we split the money. I sold $60 worth, so she gets $30.
Total costs: $454.70
Sales tax: 8.25% - $46.30
Yes, this means I profited a whopping $61.00 for three days' work. I was at my table from 2-6 on Friday, 9 - 7 on Saturday, and 9-2 on Sunday. 19 hours of work means I made $3.21 for every hour I put in. That is, if you don't count the hours I spent printing, making art, making kanzashi, and such. If you put *that* in, I'm taking a huge loss. Which is why I don't consider it. My art and crafts are a hobby, and my rule for hobbies is that they have to pay for themselves, and that's what I'm doing with this.
So the next time someone complains that artists price their work too high and that they should charge less? I CANNOT CHARGE LESS.
--
Musings
Now ... there are places I can reduce expenses. Not the artwork itself - I'm not compromising on quality there. I could, say, find more roommates. Or bring bread and peanut butter to eat three meals a day. Hell, no. These conventions are also a vacation for me - one of my hobbies is attending conventions. If I have to stay in another godforsaken crash room with 123 of my closest friends, or eat peanut butter for three days, it's not worth it. I'm not giving myself migraines so you can have cheap art. I am also going to these cities to hang out with friends and eat dinner with them. I'd rather not go at all than deny myself that pleasure, and I'm not complaining about it - just telling you so that you understand where I'm coming from.
It's also a slow economy right now, and people are running scared. Last year, I might have made a little more, but the overall costs would remain the same, and my profit would not have been that much more. It was also a smaller con. A larger con would allow me to sell more, but my productions costs would be correspondingly higher. Six of one, half dozen of the other. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I probably ought to raise prices+, but I've experimented with prices a lot, and I think that if I raise them much higher, I sell fewer items, so the overall intake remains about the same.
I'm not posting this to ask for tips on reducing costs, and such will be ignored. This entire endeavor is a hobby, and I'm doing it primarily to recoup my expenses. This post is a public service announcement that I can link to the next time I run across someone complaining about how much artists charge for their work in artist alleys.
---
And oh, yeah: you might now understand why I am saying COMMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN. Info HERE.
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And I won't take the first half until I get to your space in the queue, just in case I've overcommitted and I have to do it in June. :)
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I think many people don't understand that these aren't mass-produced products from slave labor-like factories in China. Then again, this goes into my whole mega-gripe about how art has been cheapened in our society with overexposure and no one really understands how to value it anymore.
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The people next to me were selling lots of buttons at 2/$1. If I was currently looking at this as a serious business, rather than a way to recoup my costs for going to the con and doing art, I'd be looking at doing a lot of cheap stuff right now, but it's too much of a time investment for me to prepare them - the time/money tradeoff just isn't right for me at this point. (If I were working as a full-time artist, that would be entirely different!)
(P.S. - They had one Hetalia button and were constantly being asked for more Hetalia.)
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.... I kid. One of the stories I've overheard and like to tell is about an artist who was designing a logo or something for a mechanic's business. The mechanic wanted the artwork for free, saying, "I'll credit you and you'll get free exposure!"
The artist then pointed to his car and said, "Then, would you work on my car for free? You'd get free exposure."
Usually, that story does the trick. Then again, when it came to people who complain about prices of -personally done artwork just for them-, the concept of 'you know, i do this for a living' probably won't pierce their perception of 'art=fun and work=money. fun=/=work so therefore art=/=money'.
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And the Free Exposure canard! Gaaaaaaaaahhhhh!
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I've never understood people who complain about that kind of thing, honestly. (Or the damn free exposure thing. wtf.)
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(My room's pretty well full of art of all varieties, from video game promo posters to Mucha prints, so it's an... interesting mix!)
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I usually had [past tense coz I'm unemployed now) about 12.5% of discretionary income at the end of the month in my previous job. That is, if my salary brought me $3,000 a month, there were $375 per month left after I paid housing, food, taxes, utilities, gasoline, etc. I could use this money ($375) to buy me whatever I please or to save it. I don't know if having 12% of discretionary income is good or not though.
In your case, your work left you $61 of discretionary income for $562 gross income. That is, 10.9% of the money you made during those 3 days were yours to do whatever you please. That's not very different than mine. I mean, your three days work kept you sheltered, fed, paid for gas, and left you with 61 in your pocket...it still sounds lousy, but expecting to work to obtain 100% of discretionary income is kinda difficult.
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I totally know what you mean, I'm only 1 year into artist alleys but I was getting those comments last year and I had some of the cheapest prices in the alleys I go to D: it really pissed me off that people wanted me the drop the prices even more when I was only making pennies per sale!
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Am I still number one in the queue? Should I email you with details/wishlist to start discussions?
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I haven't done commissions in a really long time, so I can't really guess how long it'll take me to do them, so the basic spiel I'm giving everyone goes thusly: I'm reserving May for getting ready for A-Kon. If I don't get to you in April, I'll move you to June, when I can get back to them. If you decide you don't want to commission, you can leave the queue at any point, no questions asked. I won't take the half in advance until I get to your turn in the queue and we've talked about what you want because I don't want to take anyone's money and then flake out in case something happens. :D
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