Questions about tabling at a zine fest

[zoyous]

Hi everyone! I've been making comics and zines for many years, but I've actually never tabled at a zine fest... until now. Well, soon. I was fortunate to get a spot at the upcoming FLUKE festival in Athens, GA, and I was wondering how many copies of each issue of my zine should I bring? I've been doing my comic for quite some time, yet gauging by my social media and website analytics, I expect this will be the first time most people have ever seen my work. I have six issues and I was planning on bringing about 25 copies of each, offering some individually and some in bundles. Does that seem like a reasonable number to have on hand? I really have no idea if I'll sell some, or all, or hardly any at all but I am basically looking at is as a way to meet other artists and check out their work, so I know it will be a cool experience.

Also, aside from cash, how do you handle payments? I have a PayPal account set up but currently no other ways to accept electronic payments.

[JerrryJames]

That sounds like a pretty good inventory to start with so you can gauge how much you might need to bring in the future, or if you can even bring a little less, idk how crackin' Fluke gets. For yourself though, I'd highly recommend setting up a Venmo & CashApp too, they're extremely common & simply laid out, you just don't want to short yourself out of potential sales from anybody who Might not use paypal, & you'll more than likely run into Somebody who only has Venmo or CashApp. It's also helpful to have a little card with your payment information written on it so you don't have to spell anything out for anybody & that makes it easier on everybody so things don't get messy if you're dealing with more than one person trying to buy something at a time. Just a simple card with something like: "PAYPAL: @dixntits - VENMO : @dixntits - CASHAPP: @dixntits", etc.

[colinprojects]

I’ll second setting up PayPal, Venmo, and CashApp. Seem to be the most common, but everyone has their own preference.

One of the big pluses is that the apps have a QR feature. If someone wants to pay, you pull up the QR code on your phone, they scan it with theirs, and it’ll send them directly to your account. No question of if they found the right account or not, nice and easy.

[slugfizz]

Hi zoyous! Congratulations on tabling at FLUKE! That's exciting!

Last year at CAKE I brought cash but ran out. I don't have Venmo, CashApp, or PayPal. Used my card with several vendors and it was never a problem. Seem to remember entering info on their phones. Perhaps they had a card reader?

Wishing you a successful show!

EDIT: I went as customer, not tabler.

[TomMurphy]

At events here in the UK, I'd say 95%+ of our sales have gone through our Zettle card reader. ISTR it was only about £20 - I'm sure it's paid for itself many times by now by enabling convenient purchases.

[rudy]

I go to a comic/art/zine show almost every weekend as a customer, and I would say only get a card reader if you're serious about tabling a lot in the future. Cashapp and Venmo will do you just well at small events. People will expect to use it. A card reader is more convenient and professional, but money transfer apps do the job for cheaper. FLUKE seems like a small show, which will be great for you to gauge how you do your next in the future in terms of number of copies to bring and method of payment. Bringing 25 of each comic sounds like a good number because you'll have some extra to trade around at the end.

[slugfizz]

Just went digging through emails to find credit card receipts from most recent CAKE. Every single tabler I used my card with-- used "Square". Hope that's helpful!

[zoyous]

Thank you everyone for your insights ~ I really appreciate your perspectives, both as vendors and as attendees! This will definitely help me be a lot better prepared.

Another thing I've encountered as I've learned more about zine and comics fests and started looking into attending them, is that I have been finding it challenging to find up-to-date information on them. For example, I actually first heard about FLUKE around this time last year, but had already missed their deadline to apply as a tabler at that time. On the other hand, I knew there had been a local zine fest where I live (in Asheville NC) for several years, but for most of last year it seemed to have gone dormant and I stopped checking their site for updates, only to be surprised to hear it was on again just a week before it happened. I was also repeatedly checking the blog of a zine fest in Nashville for quite a while until I looked a bit closer and realized they hadn't updated their site since 2016. So far I've just been trying to piece together information from artists I've started to follow on Instagram, when they have reposted event announcements. How do y'all keep track of annual events that are active and within traveling distance for you?

[rudy]

i have a document of events im interested in nationally and local. if they have an emailing list, i try to be on them. you should definitely ask other artists at FLUKE what other conventions theyre planning on going to so you can get a good idea of where you could be going in the future.

[slugfizz]

Hi zoyous!

CAKE, the Chicago comic fest, has a website that lets you enter your email for updates.

Also, you might be interested: Thick Lines pod (Katie Skelly, Sally Madden) episode 35, recorded April 2022. They talk to Robert Newsome and the first half is a discussion of FLUKE. Second half they all talk about comic "The Pits of Hell".

[crapmasterzac]

How many zines/comics should you have published before considering applying for a table at a show

[colinprojects]

Feb 29, 2024 22:18:55 GMT crapmasterzac said:

How many zines/comics should you have published before considering applying for a table at a show

I had published zero things before I tabled at my first show. It helped me power through finishing a bunch of works in progress, honestly.

I do think it depends on the size/scope of the show, that might not fly at a lot of bigger events. Then again, what's the worst that can happen in applying?