((This is a repost of my journal from FA. There is a wonderful discussion & stories of other artists' experiences in the comments I would recommend reading if you are interested! http://www.furaffinity.net/journal/6023402/ ))

Arrived back from RMFC Monday evening! This was such a FUN and great con friends-wise; got to see many friends again and had a great time hanging out with a lot of my good friends! Unfortunately sales-wise it was not a very good convention, but I'm glad the friend factor really made it not suck :)

I don't know if it was a new hotel, more expensive food, too many dealers, or a combination of things, but myself and many of my artist friends had terrible sales this con. I don't want to complain too much since I did still make a profit and that's awesome, but comparing the numbers to last year I literally winced. Merch sales were OK but NO ONE wanted commissions this year?? It was so backwards and bizarre I'm still scratching my head over it!

Every convention I've sold at, I've filled up on commission slots within the first 2-3 hours of the Den opening. This RMFC, I had some Sketch and Sketch Badge slots open ALL DAY long, every day, only closing them an hour or so before the Den closed because it was getting too late. As sellers we try to find what the current trends are in con sales, and these days it's custom work (commissions). So when you don't sell commissions well at a con... what's going on? It's a bit disheartening when this happens, I know a few non-local artists are debating even coming back to RMFC because they don't think it will be a profitable con for them. I think this is a good of a time as any to remind con-goers that it actually is really important to shop at a con and buy from the Dealers Den if you want to continue seeing artists attending conventions; we're there for YOU and I will guarantee that if sales at cons continue to drop, artists will stop going, which in turn will lead to overall attendance dropping.

I usually come home from a con with a stack of take-home work that will take me months to finish. This con I have only 5 badge commissions and a few sketches to do; I can probably finish everything within a month. I know a few artist friends did GREAT this con so it certainly wasn't an all-around bumfest, but from most I talked to it was definitely slower than past cons.

So, so, so bizarre..

Anyway, enough complaining about that :) A good time was had at RMFC and thankfully it being a local con means no matter what we'll be coming back next year!
Charfox and I had a BLAST running our "So You Think You Can Dog" panel on Saturday! We had a good turnout and had such a FUN time :D We'll be doing it again next year for sure, and will continue with the exclusive stickers as prizes!
I love the new hotel and think it fits us so much better than the old one! Growing pains and all aside I think this is a good location for RMFC and we can grow into it for many years to come :)

Thank you everyone who stopped by my table and said hi, and especially thank you to those who bought something! You make the con worth coming to every year and I really appreciate your support! <3