Now that Nijikon is over, I had a chance to think about events in detail and talk them over with *raluca-z

We had a table on the Artists' Alley and got to sell some of our artwork. The good part was that (a) people being interested in/buying your artwork give you a really good feeling and (b) we got to know and talk to a lot of fellow artists, some of whom we'd only met on forums previously. The not-so-good part was that very few buyers were actually interested in original works, but kids were constantly asking about Naruto fanart We should probably put up a banner saying we have no Naruto fanart just to save time on the next con.

The deal with doujinshi

I think artists should really start to try publishing doujinshi in Romania. I've met some very talented doujinsh-ka (~Michsi, I'm looking at you ) but no published doujinshi. The surprising result is that people stopping by artists' tables don't know what that is. We had a 60-page D.Gray-Man doujinshi and ~Amena-chan had an original doujinshi too, but neither of us sold many copies, precisely because I think people tend to disregard things that are not immediately evident.

My point is: self-publishing a doujinshi and making it look professional is, umm. Surprisingly easy for a country like Romania. For example, if you want to print 100 copies of a 60-page doujinshi on manga quality paper, everything (including colour covers and bound backwards manga-style) will cost you around 4-500 RON. If this is a collaboration or shared effort, the cost will be even lower. We've tried it and it's possible, but all that's missing is a proper target audience that might be interested in reading and buying it.

And if this isn't reason enough, I should probably mention that CLAMP started out as a doujinshi circle, so it's an opportunity to make your style and work known. A doujinshi doesn't necessarily have to be based on an existent series. It can be original as well.

PS: We talked to the organizers before Nijikon and they told us that doujinshi based on existent series gets the same treatment as every other fanart: you can sell it at the con as long as you're not downloading or screencaping things off the Web.

Original Manga

... NEEDS PROMOTING. Seriously, guys. There are a lot of artists with great potential out there and some of them have been featured in Otaku Magazine, but it's obviously not enough. The problem is that, if you're self-published (see *raluca-z's Book Chasers) you only have as much promotion as you make for yourself. People walking by your table see a couple of manga volumes stacked, maybe stop and leaf through it and then go, because it's nothing they've heard of, so it MUST be really uninteresting.

So this is basically a matter of visibility, or the lack thereof. But also a matter of informing the public.

Someone at the con said something about creating a web page that explains the differences between original and fanart, doujinshi and manga, with links to works by ROMANIAN artists. This is a good idea, but requires a lot of careful planning.

It's difficult to draw a very definite conclusion here, because my thoughts and impressions are still a little mixed right now. But I think the people who made the Artists' Alley this year, will make it the next, too, along with others. And the next, and so on. The point is we should try to help eachother become more visible if we want to get results, because I doubt anyone's going to listen to just one or two persons.


Any thoughts? Ideas?



Whoever catches it gets a full-colour CG from yours truly. Original character, fanart, whatever you like. Just please keep in mind that you probably won't receive it the next day, mmkay?



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