Anime USA 2016 – page 5
(Historical Notes: Okay, here’s another one were I wish I had the original commentary less to remember what happened and more to just see what Past Me said about it. Looking back NOW, I recall this as being the final straw that broke the camel’s back and got me to swear off Artist Alley. However, I am curious if Past Me was willing to call it a day just yet or if I still held out SOME kind of hope for the future. Then again, I also vaguely recall only doing Artist Alley again in the first place because Kurt already got a table. Maybe I was even more ready to quit than I remember, and the poor business this weekend only sealed the deal. Because yeah, this was NOT a profitable endeavor, and I was not in a state of mind by this point to be positive and optimistic about it.)
Yeah, I remember that year being a slight wash even for me and I looking back on it all I hate feeling like I tethered you this stuff for too long. I just wanted to offer a means to have a friend try and get their stuff out there in some capacity, but the grind for artist alley as a regular thing truly is a grueling thing.
These days I don’t even know if I could even get back to it in a regular capacity on my own or even just splitting a table.
I respect those who do the hustle full time, cause it’s a ton of work and energy and you never can tell how it all will turn out and how quickly you can get burned out from it.
Well it’s not like you MADE me show up at these tables or anything. I’d been thoroughly indoctrinated in the idea that this was how “real webcomic artists” were supposed to make money, so I would have been sticking with it a lot longer than I should have anyway.
But yeah, it takes a very specific kind of personality to do this kind of grind and actually enjoy it… and while there’s plenty of fruitless grinds I can enjoy for their own sake, this wasn’t one of them.
Yeah, the inconsistency was also the big thing really, plus for me, it’s all the “I have to book this many events, this many months in advanced and be paid for, and hopefully I make enough money to cover my expenses.” was really nightmarish even to me. Even online selling is it’s own weird hit and miss affair and i’ve been trying my hand at that over the last year or so, but it all comes in weird waves.
Mad respect to the people who do this as a living.
See, that’s the main reason I switched over to just commuting to cons. No matter how inconvenient the extra driving may be, it’s no where NEAR as bad as the drawn out stress of months of trip coordination.