Artist Alley Registration and Portfolio Questions

[hadeshorn]

Hi all! This is the first year I will be attending Fanime, and I'm hoping to get a table at AA. Incidentally, it's also my first time being on the seller side of an AA.

First: Is the AA table application date announced beforehand? If so, how far in advance? It strikes me this would be so, but I am just nervous since it sells out in minutes.

Second: We must include a sample of our works with the application. Will we be restricted to these works when selling? I have a lot of uni work to complete before the end of March, but I have allotted all of April and May to refinishing older stuff and making new works for Fanime. I suspect the application will open before I have time to assemble some of the prints and pieces I intend to sell, which are a mixture of original and fan-art. Basically, I do have a portfolio, but not all of the works I will be selling are in it yet. Bad news y/n?

I'd like to assume that the portfolio sample is just that, a sample of our potential works ... but again, first time here. Any clarifications would be appreciated! Thanks.

[Hachimitsu]

as of now, from last year, around febuary!... the artist alley was suposed to start making registration!.. but since the year started off late, I assume it will arrived around mid march..... MAYBE late march because i know around this and the next is going to bee swap meet..

I STRONGLY urge you to be prepare because tables REALY filled up fast! for the first 5 minutes over 100 tables are filled! i got my table at the 300th mark after 25 minutes~!

as for portfolio!... if you have a deviant art account or some kind of picture hosting website you can use that as reference so that AA can accept you to join in the tables  ^ ^!



dont be nervous I know you can do it just be alert.... make sure you subscribe to twitter  / facebook because they announced the hotel registration, which lead alot of people frustrated! that the main website was very glitched!

[chibimonster]

Tables sold out in just under 15 minutes last year ( if you go back several pages in this forum, sysadmin actually posted sign up stats from last year).

As for portfolios, you have two options: a link to a web page ( this can be your own or one on deviantart, tumblr, etc). The purpose of this is to make sure you actually have stuff to sell and that you're following the rules. They also use this to get a good idea of what your table content I will be like because they use projected table content to help make a seating chart.

They'll typically give you about 2 weeks notice before registration goes live, and when it does they'll post links all over the place (forums, twitter, Facebook, etc). Last year registration was in late January, but it has gone up in late march in the past. This year, since there are a lot of delays, I wouldn't be surprised if it went up in April.

At any rate, just stay updates, make sure your wifi's working, and type really quickly and you should be fine.

[Oniko]

like chibimonster said they will give notice before registration.  I cant stress enough that if you have twitter FOLLOW THEM if you have facebook FOLLOW THEM.  The chances of you getting a link on the website when reg goes live is very unlikely, not to mention even if they do the websites server will be so flooded you might not be able to load it to get to that link. 

PRO TIP: Every year people complain they couldnt find a link, trust me, they post it on FB and twitter, those are your best bets.

Personally I just post my DA page.  There are a lot of things there I dont sell but a good 50% of it I do. 

[chibimonster]

like chibimonster said they will give notice before registration.  I cant stress enough that if you have twitter FOLLOW THEM if you have facebook FOLLOW THEM.  The chances of you getting a link on the website when reg goes live is very unlikely, not to mention even if they do the websites server will be so flooded you might not be able to load it to get to that link. 

There are actually 2 FB pages where you can get Artist alley info: the actual fanime page, and the Artist alley Facebook group. It's not very active right now, but it's another good place to ask questions. Just search for FanimeCon Artist Alley 2013. You can join and get updates that way (when updates actually start happening).

I'm pretty doubtful that there will be server issues this year. I know they were bad in 2011, but last year everything went smoothly. I hope this trend continues.

@oniko: I actually got the link off the fanime website last year when I registered. Was I lucky or something?

[Oniko]

like chibimonster said they will give notice before registration.  I cant stress enough that if you have twitter FOLLOW THEM if you have facebook FOLLOW THEM.  The chances of you getting a link on the website when reg goes live is very unlikely, not to mention even if they do the websites server will be so flooded you might not be able to load it to get to that link. 

There are actually 2 FB pages where you can get Artist alley info: the actual fanime page, and the Artist alley Facebook group. It's not very active right now, but it's another good place to ask questions. Just search for FanimeCon Artist Alley 2013. You can join and get updates that way (when updates actually start happening).

I'm pretty doubtful that there will be server issues this year. I know they were bad in 2011, but last year everything went smoothly. I hope this trend continues.

@oniko: I actually got the link off the fanime website last year when I registered. Was I lucky or something?

Last year despite how fast it sold out was probably it's smoothest year.  I love Fanime and it's staff, but I wont be taking my chances on the website. The past years were always slow to load. When you have 300 people hitting their refresh I cant really blame the server for crashing. Just saying that I would have all options ready instead of relying on one and then wonder what went wrong if things go south.

[chibimonster]

Last year despite how fast it sold out was probably it's smoothest year.  I love Fanime and it's staff, but I wont be taking my chances on the website. The past years were always slow to load. When you have 300 people hitting their refresh I cant really blame the server for crashing. Just saying that I would have all options ready instead of relying on one and then wonder what went wrong if things go south.

Maybe the best place to get the link would be someplace like twitter then. I know the forums and the website both get slower when people start furiously mashing the refresh button. I don't really remember if they even posted the link on twitter last year, either. I'm pretty sure Facebook would be a good place to get the link though, because the chance of FB's servers crashing from Artist Alley registration is basically zero.

I'm super worried that my wifi is going to die on me mid-registration. It's been acting super strange lately and disconnecting spontaneously (sometimes once every 5 minutes). Do you have a backup plan if your wifi fails (other than freeloading on the nearest network that's not password protected)?

[hadeshorn]

Thanks for answering! Twitter and facebook followed.