The economics of my first indie art market
This June I participated as a vendor in an art market for the first time. To be exact, the NYC Pride Indie Horror Book Fair. I'm not really an author, but I had drawn two erotic horror comics (see Swimmers and Drip here), and this market caters to the exact niche they're aimed at: spooky gay perverts. Perfect.
In addition to the comic, I was hoping to debut and sell my cursed card game, Ómina. I went into the experience with as little expectation as possible. Attendance might be low due to competing events during Pride or perhaps my work simply wouldn't resonate with the audience. I knew that at the very least I would be able to gather some information though. Opportunities to put your work physically in front of people are few and far between, but they always offer some insight.
Shortly after being accepted as a vendor, I faced the first hurdle: The production run for Ómina would not arrive in time for the market. Despite placing the order in late April, I was given an estimated ship date of mid-August. The market would be held on June 20th. Yikes. Currently Ómina is produced by a small American manufacturer that does good, custom work and accepts small quantity orders, but they are unfortunately fairly slow. I had hoped that the almost 2 month lead time would be enough, but it wasn't. I still had the prototype deck and could have people try out the game in person to gauge their interest at the very least. Then I could point them to the link to buy the game directly from the manufacturer online. That would have to do for now.
Fortunately, both comics were quick to print and ship and I soon had 10 copies of each ready to go. I started preparing signage, setting prices and designing some business cards. Soon enough, it was market day.
So, how did things go?
Overall, exceptionally well!
The only negative was that people primarily responded to the one item I couldn't sell! I got so many comments on how unique Ómina's transparent cards are. People thought the illustrations were compelling and haunting. Some people wanted to buy it for themselves, parents wanted to buy it for their kids, others wanted to buy it for their friends who like occult things.
After the first 2 hours, I hadn't sold a single comic and all the interest had been in the card game. I was bummed, but gradually, the comics started to move. By the end of the day, every copy of Swimmers was gone and half of Drip had sold too! The market went from 12-5 pm and was never dead for more than 10 minutes at a time.
Onto the economics. How much did I spend and how much did I earn? I'm not including the money I spent developing and test printing Ómina since I didn't have a chance to sell it, but in terms of preparing the comics and securing my table for the event, here's how it broke down:
Expenses:
Table fee for the market: $78.66
Print test for comics: $11.43
10 copies of Swimmers comic: $48.18
10 copies of Drip comic: $31.69
Total Expenses: $169.96
Earnings:
5 x Drip at $10 each = $50
6 x Swimmers at $15 each = $90
Total Earnings: $140
You might notice that I mentioned Swimmers sold out, but only listed 6 copies sold above. In addition to those, I gifted 1 away and traded another with a fellow vendor. I had also sold two copies at a local comic book store on consignment prior to the market. I didn't earn as much margin on those since the store takes a cut and I had priced them at $10, but they brought in $6 each. Let's include that $12 in the sales for this period.
Total Earnings: $152
So, did I turn a profit? Nope! I lost $17.96. But I still have copies of Drip on hand and when I sell those I'll be in the black! I also have valuable insight into Ómina's reception. If I had had it on hand, I estimate I would have sold between 5 and 10 copies. The interest really was there and quite a few people got out their wallets to buy it on the spot, only to have me direct them online.
All things considered, this first showing only provided good news. People were interested in the comics and they were REALLY interested in the game! I've now placed a larger order for Ómina (20 copies) that I'll bring to the next market I can get in on. I'm glad to have had this trial run to gauge interest before placing larger orders for any of the work I was selling, which would be my advice to anyone trying to sell their work. Produce very limited runs at first. In my case, 1o copies of each item was ideal. Find opportunities to test if people are interested in buying your work. If they aren't, you can adjust your pitch. Is the price too high? Are you in front of the wrong audience? If things aren't selling at first, you won't be out a ton of money and stuck with inventory you have to store.
I'm not going to get rich off my work any time soon, but I had a great time interacting with people during the event and am happy to be close to breaking even. Sales are not and should never be the motivating factor for making art, but it is a lot of fun to see people excited to take home something you've made.
Thanks for reading! Take care,
A.J.