Not every convention is worth doing. Some bleed you dry even when sales are decent. Here's a simple framework to evaluate whether a convention is actually worth your time and money — before you apply, and after you've done it once.
The Break-Even Number
Before anything else, calculate your total costs:
Table fee: $___
Travel (gas/flight): $___
Hotel (nights × rate): $___
Print/merch production: $___
Food budget: $___
Misc (bags, supplies, shipping): $___
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Total cost: $___
That's your break-even number — what you need to make just to not lose money. Anything above that is profit. Now ask yourself: is this convention realistically going to generate that in sales?
Estimating Sales Potential
Key factors that predict sales:
- Attendance: More bodies = more potential customers. 5,000 attendees vs 500 matters enormously.
- Audience match: Does the con's fanbase align with what you sell? A 10,000-person gaming con is useless if your art is anime-only.
- Artist alley size: 30 tables vs 300 tables changes the foot traffic dynamics significantly.
- Location: Big city cons often have bigger spending power than equivalent rural cons.
- Past artist reports: Search Twitter/Reddit for "[con name] artist alley" — artists are usually happy to share how their sales went.
💡 A good rule of thumb: you want to realistically make 3x your costs to make a con "worth it" from a pure business perspective. 2x is acceptable. 1x (break even) means you worked for free all weekend.
The Non-Financial ROI
Not everything is about the money — especially early in your convention career:
- New audience: Did you get new followers, email subscribers, or repeat customers?
- Product testing: You learned what sells and what doesn't. That data is valuable.
- Community: Met other artists, made connections, built friendships. Real value.
- Portfolio: Table photos, con badge selfies, the experience itself matters for applications.
A con that loses $50 but gains you 200 Instagram followers who then buy from your online shop might be worth it. A con that makes $300 profit but destroys your health and costs you a week of commission work might not be.
After the Con: Track Everything
Keep a simple log of every convention you do:
- Total revenue
- Total costs
- Net profit/loss
- New social followers
- Best-selling items
- Would you do it again? (Y/N/Maybe)
After a few cons, patterns emerge fast. You'll see which cons consistently perform, which are one-and-done, and where your audience actually is.
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