Con Report (Patreon)

Hey guys! I'm back from MFF - have been for a bit now, but I'm recovering from a busy weekend and just now getting my thoughts in order.  I'll have the monthly packs out in the next few days but for now, a blog post!

The con was pretty great overall! I got to see some friends I haven't seen in years (comes of missing last MFF, I suppose, but we went to Japan instead which I feel is a good trade-off). I had an art jam with one of my oldest friends, met the wife of one of my other oldest friends for the first time ever (she's adorable!), went fursuiting (and got lots of attention!), got to see my wife enjoying herself (sadly rare at cons lately), had some good food, watched TV (always a plus in hotels, we don't have TV at home), did well in the art show despite only selling a few pieces, and made enough money to break even.  On the whole, a success.

Sales weren't as good as I was hoping, I made less than half of what I made in 2016.  Weirdly, I sold more merch and prints than I did commissions, which is completely bass-ackwards from my usual con sales. I was positioned between two huge merch displays, one of which people kept lining up for and blocking my table.  My own table was just some print binders, a banner (on the front of the table, less useful when the table is blocked), a standee with prices and business cards, and some scattered stickers, charms, and journals/sketchbooks.

I know what I need to do next year - I need to build up my display to something more professional looking and eye-grabbing, preferably with some height. I might need to increase the amount of merch I offer as well. I sort of feel like the fandom moved on without me - in 2016 my table didn't even have merch, but I was around other people who had table-level displays and mostly sold prints and commissions.  Merch was a lot more rare, it seems like. These days Dealers Dens are all t-shirts and fursuit parts and stickers and backpacks and giant posters and phone charms and plushies and and and.  Not nearly as much just 'prints and commissions' as there used to be.  Dark Natasha, Diana Harlan Stein, and Heather Bruton were across from me and they were only doing prints and commissions, but they are MUCH bigger names than I am, and their displays were a lot flashier than mine, too.

I suppose it's because the con demographic is skewing towards the younger partying crowd, and they want souvenirs, preferably easy to wear or carry with them and display, not so much hand-drawn porn - they buy their commissions digitally.

It sucks to have to figure this out like a dash of cold water to the face - and the wallet - but I'm not going to be left behind! *determined face* It'd be too easy to bemoan 'kids these days' and try to power through doing what I've always done, but I think I need to face the music and update myself for modern times if I want to get anywhere.

The other downside of the con was that my abusive ex showed up.  One of my friends, who knew him too, spotted him in the Den and came to my table to warn me. I had my housemate Ikani come sit with me for the rest of the day (CassioBunny was napping in the hotel room), and the next day, Sunday, Cassio resolved to sit with me all day.  I was sitting there staring into space waiting for customers when she suddenly quietly told me to go out the back way and take Ikani with me and go have a cigarette or something.  I did so without question and while we were away she texted Ikani for us to get my things from the art show. We did and then she said it was safe to come back, but apparently The Ex and his friends had shown up and stood in front of my table for some time while I was gone.  Cassio's not sure if they knew where they were standing, as none of them looked at the table or at her, but... he and his friends hardly ever buy art, pretty much never at a con, so I can't think why else they'd be there except to harass me. I may just be being paranoid but I really feel I can't be too careful with him. I guess the plus side of having the con be 10,000 strong is that there were so many people that a) I never actually saw him myself and b) I was never alone, there was always at least a dozen people nearby in case anything bad happened.

It spooked me a bit, but I honestly wasn't that nervous, whether for those reasons or just because my recovery has come so far.  For a while I was thinking over what I would say if he did try to approach me, but I realized that I had no way of determining what my emotional response would be if that happened, so I decided to just not worry about it and, as my mother says, burn that bridge when I got to it. Nothing happened, I never even saw him (though whether or not he saw me is up for debate) and I felt safe the whole con. So I think that's also kind of a win in and of itself.

I've come home to quite the to-do list - nothing like the 20 - 50 person waiting lists I've had in the past, but 12 commissions is a lot for me lately, even if 2 of them are currently on hold.  Just gotta put my nose to the grindstone!

My streams have been rather.. lackluster, lately. The stream before the con only a few people showed up and I sold 1 sketch. The stream before that was a Black Friday sale and only sold 5 slots - previous Black Friday sales have seen 30+ buyers. The stream today only 1 person (the same person who bought one last stream) showed up to watch for an hour until finally a regular came in to buy an ink and brought some of his friends to watch. I typically take 3 - 5 slots per stream (depending on what's bought) and usually fill up within 30 min of starting.  I have no idea what's going on.  Even if people are low on cash for the holidays/convention, you'd think they'd still show up to watch the art and socialize. I don't think I'm doing anything different and I'm pretty sure I haven't had either a quality drop or a sudden uptick in the niche-ness of my subject matter (though that is something I'd like to work on lowering overall - I love drawing weird stuff but the problem is that it only sells more and more weird stuff, which is a smaller and smaller market as you go), so I have no idea why the sudden change. If any of you have an inkling, please share! Streams are my livelihood and I need them to get by, so if there's anything I can do to attract viewers and buyers back it's essential that I do so.

That's it for me for now, it's late and I'm tired and my tummy hurts. But overall I'm pretty okay.  How are yall doing, how was your weekend (whether you went to MFF or not)?  Any holiday plans?