Thursdays and stuff...

[ellenmillion]

Man, it has been a stinker of a season in terms of sales. Print services has been hopping (yay diversity), but sales through the storefront? pfff... I haven't taken a hard look at the numbers, but I think it's about half as good as last year at this time. And last year was slim compared to the year before. I haven't *felt* like the economy is as horrible this year... my LJ friends haven't moaned as loudly about not finding jobs (indeed, many of them have picked up really super jobs!), but fellow vendors at shows have griped about a lack of sales and the Con reports I've followed haven't been real positive. Meh.

I still gotta wonder if I've done something wrong. Too many designs to wade through now? Is the site too slow? Hopefully the t-shirt sale will attract a few sales. Maybe I'll put up grab bags again, too... those were popular and I love making them. Maybe things will just pick up a little towards the end. Leaving for vacation is starting to stress me. Wishing, not for the first time, that there were someone around to leave the business with for three weeks. Next year, I hope!

At any rate, plowing through on various things again. Got 7 or eight EMG designs up yesterday, and a few PA designs, plus four in the claim site.

Might not open submissions until March... I absolutely MUST get all the designs I have in the queue up before I start accepting new work. I want a three-day turnaround, not an eight-month turnaround. That's just... ridiculous and embarrassing. Yeah.

Okay, I'm done yakking.

Comments

*waves*

[afke.livejournal.com]

Things like cons have been very slow overhere too, no one buys anything, because everyone is saving :(
So I doubt that you did something wrong, I mean I haven't been following your site, but business is bad for everyone at the moment.

Re: *waves*

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

It's reassuring to hear it's not just me! (*waves back*)

[baba-studio.livejournal.com]

Oh - it's always good to talk about this kind of thing. Today we got our UK sales figures and I was actually really pretty pleased with them - but the distributor said "no, no, they should be WAY higher" and then talked a lot about how reluctant people are right now to buy anything. I think that at least there is one upside for us in starting in a recession, and that's that we learn to work with that, and don't raise expectations too high - like I say, I would have been quite pleased with what we've sold (it isn't mega, but then, we aren't Penguin and we can't afford to do any mainstream marketing) but then, I don't know what it would have been like five years ago.

Oh well - this conversation will run and run I think! Thanks for talking about it.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

People get so *weird* talking about money... like sales numbers should be some kind of secret thing. I have trouble with it myself.

At any rate, it's nice to hear I'm not alone, and that it's probably not some kind of image problem I'm just unaware of. I do agree... this way at least when the economy improves, we'll be completely happy and overjoyed, instead of ho-hum. :)

[baba-studio.livejournal.com]

We worry about all this sort of image thing too. We are told quite often that our work is "strange" but, in fact, it's supposed to be - and we don't want to do straightforward cute (yuck!). In fact if anything, the work is going to be a lot more extreme in its surrealism this coming year (we thought Bohemian Cats was mainly decorative and romantic - but the feedback is that it's also a bit weird so goodness knows what next year's work will provoke!)

But I think it's the general economic thing that makes us all feel this way about image. As I say, the ludicrous thing is that in fact, our sales figures are (compared with my expectations) really good - but when people who have been in the industry for ages tell you that you should have much higher expectations, then it does make you think - and begin to get insecure. BUT - I think in the end those doubts should be ignored - you have to do the work you feel committed do.

[curvature.livejournal.com]

Speaking of money Ellen - I need to pay you for the lovely colouring books.
Do you do credit cards or should I hook up with Paypal?

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

I do credit cards! I'll set you up with a link asap.

[chamois-shimi.livejournal.com]

Sales seem to have been pretty crummy for craft fair kind of stuff, too. Looks like folks are spending less money on fun stuff. I know K and I sure are, sadly- he hasn't had a raise of any kind for 3 years, and the costs of things keep going up...! And me with no steady paycheck. Whee.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

:( That's another thing I keep hearing... those folks who do have jobs are feeling underpaid and overcharged. Filling my car with gas is a shock everytime. ($2.17 a gallon?! Sheesh...) Oh, and UPS just raised their rates. Geeez.