Those of you who follow my ramblings, rants and freak outs elsewhere know that I’ve been spending the last 3 weeks preparing like mad for a festival I probably never should have entered. But you know what? It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for a student artist, so I nabbed that. I may not have gotten much sleep and may have broken my piggy bank, but I got a $300 booth for $15. SO I WON’T REGRET THIS. I went into it totally unprepared, especially as a digital artist, but hey! I sent my last poster in to the printer earlier today. Breathing free and easy, with another week left to make bookmarks, a banner and display items if I want.

Anyways, in preparing for this festival, I have garnered a lot of experience doing things that previously I never had the guts to attempt. I’m getting posters made, had books printed, had T-shirts printed. I went all-out. It’s a very prestigious festival, with an expected attendance of 250,000 over an entire weekend. Yes, that’s right, a quarter of a million. What do comic conventions normally get? A couple thousand? Once-in-a-lifetime.

So, as soon as my merchandise arrives, and I try my hand at selling it, you guys are all going to get the retrospective write-ups of the experience: what I did, how I did it, what I should have done differently, and what more (or less) I’ll want to do next time, like I did with selling the Not Alone epilogue. I will be including pricing (for both buying and reselling), so you know when you’re getting ripped off or not. A lot of people have asked about an article on conventions, and this will be what I’ve got. Not quite a COMIC convention, but a selling experience nonetheless.

That’s right. I’m your guinea pig, and I hope we can ALL learn from this.

Wish me luck guys! The festival is July 11-12, in Rochester, New York. Specifically, it’s the Corn Hill Arts Festival, though there is neither corn nor a hill. Stop on by, I’ll be on the corner of Clarissa St and Corn Hill Place, in the Emerging Artist’s section. Here’s a link with more info. Free somethings if you’re in town and find my booth!