Every Thursday night you can find me on my friend Chap’s Anime Book Club streams, where we read a couple of volumes of a manga of our choosing, based on a group selection. You can watch them on YouTube or Twitch, but that’s not important right now.
On Thursday, July 9th, we were streaming Higurashi Daybreak, an interesting and fun 3D fighting fangame made for Higurashi When They Cry, which we had recently finished. All of a sudden, I got an email.
This is a long shot, but we have an opening this weekend in our artist alley and the table can be yours if you can make it tomorrow.
This was at 10PM. The convention in question, Anime Blues Con, is held towards the beginning of July every year in Memphis. Specifically, this year, it was July 10-12th.
I was previously put on the wait list for additional tables, but suddenly I was offered a last minute artist alley table—giving me less than 10 hours to prepare before the convention opened.
Naturally, I said yes.
how we got here
So as I’ve written about before, I like boothing at conventions. I typically do so with Studio Elan, where we sell yuri visual novels physically as well as various merch for our games. We do this around once or twice a year, having boothed at conventions like OffKai Expo and Otakon before (I write this while flying to OffKai Expo!). I think it’s fun, and as one of my friends asked me (“how do you stay so chipper??”), it’s probably because I was raised selling Girl Scout cookies.
There’s not many conventions near me in reasonable driving distance (gotta love the South), but Anime Blues Con has been a staple since I was in high school. It was my first ever anime convention, having been to it since it was tiny and held at a local Hilton rather than the big convention center it’s held in today.
Because of this, I applied to their artist alley months prior. Their artist alley is usually a pretty closed off affair that doesn’t accept new people, but the convention recently got bought out by VXV Events and their artist alley is now back open. …I still didn’t get in, as I said before, but I did get wait listed, so it wasn’t a no but rather, ah, not right now. I was rather miffed at this, but I got in at the end, so that’s what counts, right?
So anyway, I was preparing-not-preparing for ABC. I was starting to pack for OffKai but still hoping I’d get in to ABC—but every day it grew closer, I put it out of my mind and focused on OffKai. Then I got the last minute email. Incredibly last minute, but I still took it.
How and why? And how? And why??? (The “why” is obvious — I like running booths and I’m delusional)
how I was able to prepare in less than 12 hours
tl;dr I was already prepared.
At the beginning of July I was able to fulfill the remainder of Kickstarter backer rewards from my campaign for Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon, my otome game. This last batch was the physical game copies, professionally made by Disc Makers that cost me around $3.10~ a copy. I also run an online store for my studio, which I keep stocked with some non-specific boys love, yuri, and otome merch because I occasionally sell at online conventions like Citrus Con.
If I did not already have some stock for my online store and from my Kickstarter campaign, it would’ve been impossible for me to make a profit.
Now, that doesn’t mean it would’ve been a complete waste—I could’ve brought what few keychains I had from prior games, made a few quick stickers & mini prints and set up a laptop to play demos on while advertising my games. It probably wouldn’t have made a profit, but you could write it off as a “marketing expense”.
Let’s go over what I needed in order for me to have the booth I had and make a profit from it.
what sold?
physical games
My bread and butter is the games, so physical copies of them are pretty important. I already had physical copies of Crimson Waves, but every night I had to print more copies of my other games—namely, Canvas Menagerie and Asphodelium. I luckily had blank DVD cases and writeable CDs from thrifting so I was able to make a handful on my own to match the Crimson Waves one.
In order to make the Canvas Menagerie and Asphodelium copies, I used blank DVD cases, 4.7gb blank DVDs, CD label paper, and printer paper. Added together, it was around $3~ for me to print each copy. I had to quickly design a DVD case for both as they had only had CD cases before this. While the games were burning to the discs (did you know Windows 11 can natively burn to discs in the file explorer?), I would print out the papers and cut them to fit the DVD cases. It takes a little patience but this is honestly something anyone can do, and I was able to print out several DVD copies every night in just a couple of hours (while running around and doing other planning stuff).
The Crimson Waves ones were funded by the Kickstarter and sell for $25. Canvas Menagerie and Asphodelium, my 2 boys love visual novels, sold for $20 each. You could get all 3 in a bundle for $60, which also included a CD copy of Mari’s Magical Deliveries (a very rushed print, so I gave it as a freebie rather than sell it).
Explaining your games to people in person is hard. I’ve gotten used to it for Elan—which helps because I didn’t direct nor write most of them—but doing it for my own where I solo developed several of them is another beast. Since I have multiple games, I keep my pitches short—”this is my Victorian vampire otome game”, “this BL is slice of life with fictional TV actors”, etc. and went into more detail if the person seemed interested. I kept Crimson Waves on one “shelf” and my boys love games on another so people could easily differentiate them during my spiel.
Most computers don’t come with CD rom drives anymore because why should people be able to properly use computers, but it’s easy enough to get an external drive via USB for $15~. There’s also plenty of people coming back to physical media and buying it for collecting purposes or for the feeling of actually owning what you buy.
Physical copies feel quintessential for me. They’re the category that made me the most by far, but they’re also integral to what I want to do. I make games. I collect games. I play games. I want to sell real, tangible copies of my games to others who like playing and collecting games.
keychains
I actually didn’t sell any of my game keychains (well, sorta—more on that later) but my 2nd highest category was keychains. Specifically, my embroidered keychains.
My mother bought an embroidery machine a couple years ago and for Citrus Con this year I wanted to try making keychains with it. It took a lot of trial and error, but I was able to make some for yaoi, yuri, and otome that sold well. But without an embroidery machine, you’d have to mass produce these in bulk.
At the convention I priced these at $15. Online they were previously $12, but rounded numbers are easier for people and it took into account more of the time I spent on making these. They’re a pretty unique item, after all!
These are “general” merch, meaning they’re not specific to any of my games but still match the overall vibe of everything else (I make boys love games, so it makes sense for me to have a keychain that says “BL”). I sold out of every style except for the otome ones! In total, I sold 10 of these, and definitely could’ve sold more if I had the stock for yaoi/yuri themed ones.
Only problem with these is that they take me a while to make and therefore can’t be restocked easily. It takes around an hour and a half to make 3 full size ones and 1 small one (the max I can fit on a medium sized loom), and because the machine is prone to hiccups I have to be in the room with it the entire time. I’ve since been able to restock them for my online shop, but I’ll be sure to make a ton before I vend anywhere else.
buttons
My next best-selling category at just $10 less earned than keychains was buttons. I bought a button press as a spur of the moment depression purchase several months ago and finally got to really use it! …It’s not great and is very finicky, but I’ve more than made up the $70 I spent on it.
Similar with the keychains, I made a general boys love and otome-themed button for Citrus Con months ago and they were by far the best sellers. I sold out of the “BL Enjoyer” pin on Friday but because they’re easy to make I was able to restock them every night and even try out new designs.
These buttons were $5 at the convention (on my store they’re $3, but then you have to pay for shipping) and sold very easily. I sold almost 30, which was by far the item I sold the most of. But because of the lower price, they were my 3rd best performing item gross-wise.
grab bags
My surprise hit was grab bags & boxes! I like blind bags (especially for stickers) for when I can’t decide what I want but I’d like more than 1 sticker or print, and it seems others like them too.
I kind of hoard shipping & packaging supplies, which is where I got the materials for these grab bags & boxes. I was able to get a set of 100 pink small bags (that aren’t see-through) and 50 pink cherry boxes for $1 each (the entire sets for $1), thanks to finding them at a discount returns store months ago. I knew they’d be perfect for blind bags or just some cute packaging so I picked them up, and they definitely helped!
I ended up selling 11 grab bags & boxes, themed to boys love and otome. The boys love grab bags & boxes were very popular, and I even had a line of people waiting to get one at one point—?! I would say “just to be clear, these are grab bags for boys love merch from our games” and they’d go “yep!” and I would sit there like really…?! It’s still shocking to me sometimes that complete strangers want original artworks without having to be told the story or context behind it. Some people see art they like and they buy it, simple as that. And sometimes that art is your indie games.
As for the contents, the otome & BL grab bags were $10 and contained 1 random keychain and 3 random stickers, each focused around those themes. I also had a sticker grab bag that was 5 random stickers for $5. These were heavily discounted as the keychains alone were $12 and stickers were $3. However, I print my own stickers at around 5-10 cents per sticker and the keychains in the bags were older stock I’ve had for years. Being able to clear out some of that older stock was a big relief!
For most of them I put a handwritten note inside detailing what merch went to which game (such as “Canvas Menagerie keychain”) so they could look up the games later if they were interested and had the context behind where the characters are from. I really wasn’t expecting them to be so popular, but part of that I believe is due to my signage—more on that later.
stickers
My last best-selling category is stickers, which sold for $3 each. As I’ve said before, I have some “general” designs that have done well online, so those were my primary sticker sellers here as well. My other sticker types might’ve sold decently too, but with how rushed I was I couldn’t come up with a good display for them and what I ended up doing didn’t really work—the tape I was using hated the vinyl of the cubes and refused to stick, so the stickers weren’t very visible at all (and were falling off most of the time).
I have an Epson Ecotank printer and a Silhouette Cameo 4 that I use to make my own stickers at home, with a few older ones being mass produced from places like Vograce. The plus side of making your own stickers is that it can be relatively cheap—you just need a printer and can make square stickers easily, or hand cut them out yourself for die cut stickers. You can also print literally any design you want in any quantity—while I do keep a stock of all of my stickers, it’s only a handful for each type, since I can always print more later. I don’t have to worry about ordering 50 or 100 of a single design that might not sell well and stocking it somewhere. The downside, however, is that the quality often isn’t as good as mass produced ones. You also need a cuter like Silhouette, Cricut, Juliet, etc. if you want to do die cut stickers and not die yourself, which can range from anywhere from $150-300+.
I’m a big sticker collector and they’re my go-to purchase at artist alleys since they’re easy to scrap book and relatively cheap, meaning I can store them easily and buy from more artists. They’re fun to design, too, since you can slap a frame around artwork and turn it into an interesting design—my general designs for stickers uses a heart stamp frame from Clip Studio. Stickers are also great as freebies and worked well in my grab bags.
misc.
I had a variety of other things that sold such as a few acrylic standees and mini prints, but the items above were the best sellers by far.
what will I do next time?
I love boothing at conventions and have already signed up for Anime Blues Con next year, so let’s look at what I’ll be doing differently next time—when I have more than 12 hours to prepare, hopefully.
tiered displays
The cubes were helpful, but without a good way to attach items to them they were mostly useless. Next time, I want to use the cubes for height and attach proper attachments to them (2 weeks after ABC, I was able to add command strips to some of the panels for putting out keychains up at OffKai).
A lot of artist alleys use acrylic stands to display stickers and such, which I’d like to use in the future for displaying stickers and physical copies. They offer height and easy visibility for merch so they help people see more of what you have.
better price signs
Most people didn’t really look at my (hand written) sign that had prices, but rather at each of the items for sale and looking for prices there. I made small price stickers where I could, but having better signs leads to an easier experience for people shopping. It can make you a little anxious when you can’t find the right price for something, doesn’t it?
bigger prints
I didn’t sell many prints but that was mainly because I was in such a rush that the only thing I brought was mini 4×6 prints that I made at home. I do have 11×17 and 8.5×11 paper that’d be great for larger prints and would like to bring next time.
more stock
With more time to actually prepare, I can make a lot more stock so I don’t run out of best sellers and have to keep reprinting merch every night! It was exhausting and pretty taxing on me to spend 8-10~ hours at a booth (plus the commute back and forth) and then spend 2-3 hours making more merch every night. I was pushing myself as far as I thought I could on Thursday night and Friday. Some items like the embroidered keychains I couldn’t make more of with my limited time and things like keychains and acrylic standees need to be ordered over a month in advance, so having things prepared will be very, very nice…
how could you do this?
Not easily, that’s for sure. So let’s look at some things to keep in mind…
good paper >>> good printer
Get a printer. You probably already have one unless you got mad at it and tossed it out the window. Find one on Facebook marketplace or an estate sale or just get one on sale. I have a high-end Epson 8550 Ecotank I got on sale while I had a corporate job that is wonderful, but you can absolutely make do with something else (though ecotanks are well worth the money over cartridge printers).
Paper is what really matters. Every pack of paper will print differently. Paper can get too old to print on properly too. You just gotta try different paper types, different settings, and see what works for you. I get 95% of my paper from estate sales, so I just try out different ones with low commitment (my favorite letter sized photo paper? A giant pack of Kirkland Signature paper!). You will have trial and error here, so why invest a lot of money? (I’m encouraging you to go thrifting, hear my subliminal messaging)
Without a printer, you can still get items printed rather easily – most American corner stores (i.e. places like Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, etc) offer photo printing, typically for under $0.25/print for 4×6. Places like Office Depot allow for a wider range of printing, like flyers and brochures (I ordered 100 5×7 single-sided flyers for Crimson Waves for $55 from there a few years ago). You’ll also need some kind of signage, including what you’re making and any QR codes / social media handles you’ll want to advertise.
With a printer and photo paper, you can make prints – namely ones like mini prints (4×6) and letter sized prints (8.5×11). If you get a big enough printer, you can even print your own 11×17 prints (artist alley standard). With thin glossy or nice printer paper, you can print your own DVD case covers. With cardstock or thick printer paper, you can print your own CD case covers. You can print flyers for your game with a QR code for the Steam page; business cards for yourself and your studio. And, you can make stickers!
stickers are easier to make than you think
With label paper and a printer, you can make stickers at home! All you need is some kind of adhesive paper – sticker paper, label paper, address paper, etc. You can easily find some at your local department store or thrifting.
I have a Cameo that I can tell to cut out my stickers, but you can cut your own stickers out by hand or just have stickers of set shapes. Square stickers are cute and would be easy to cut (especially with a paper cuter). There’s also adhesive paper made for jars (like for canning) that are already circles that would be good for stickers of headshots. The quality won’t be as high, but that’s the trade-off for being easy to make.
You can also easily buy stickers online from manufacturers, typically in quantities over 20. I’ve ordered holographic stickers from Vograce before and they’ve been pretty cute. (I don’t recommend Stickermule)
you need a lot…
Do you have a way to accept payments like credit cards? Do you have a secure place for cash? Do you have bags for shoppers to put their merch in? Do you have prices listed out and easily readable? Do you have a range of priced merch, from cheaper items to high end ones? Do you have a good way to display it all? Do you have your socials listed somewhere, or signage of who you are? Do you have a way to transport all of this to the convention center? Do you have a way to get food at take breaks?
focus on the games
Rather than buying lots of merch for your game that probably no one there has heard of (sorry, but let’s be realistic!), focus on the game itself – that’s where the story is (heh). People don’t have the context behind your merch yet, but they do have the context behind the game(s) if you give it to them. Talk to them about your game(s), about being an indie developer, about why you made the game, about how you made the game, about why they might like it. Unless you’re an artist and have a solid print display, this is probably going to be where your bread and butter is.
Setting up a computer for demos is fine, but depending on the audience for the convention people might not be interested – at ABC, people were typically there in groups, so people weren’t interested in being separated from their group or doing something that they couldn’t all do. At more gaming-oriented or larger conventions, though, a demo space could work great for you.
Project Menagerie recently launched which has plenty of resources on printing games – namely visual novels – physically.
what do you like?
Part of what I sold were things I like that weren’t 100% my games. I like otome. I like boys love. I like yuri. So I sold things I made pertaining to those for people who also like those things.
What about you? Do you really like buttons? Tote bags? Oshikatsu rosettes? Photocards? What about your game(s) do you really like? Mysteries? Drama? Erotica? Incorporate that into your booth (as long as it doesn’t break the bank).
Boothing at conventions are so much work and so much energy but so much fun. It’s exhausting, but just a week afterwards I’m already looking at places to apply to next…
Give it a try at some place local if you think this sounds fun – you never know if you might enjoy it (and bring a friend if you do)!
— Arimia