How to sell your stuff in stores

I thought that it would be a good idea to share my experience of selling my comics. While it's not technically crafty, the ideas behind it can be applied to any sort of product. Also, this is information for very small scale wholesale/retail sales.

I knew that I wanted to get my zine/comic into stores, but it was scary and daunting. I already had an idea of the kind of stores that I wanted to sell at (comic stores and bookstores) so I started there.

I had NO IDEA what the etiquette was for this sort of thing. So, I just asked the employees. Here was the general consensus:

Since mine was a new item, most stores offered to buy 5 copies outright at 50% of the cover price. This meant that I needed to set the price of my comic at twice the production cost. Since it cost about $2 for me to make each comic, I set my price at $4. However, you should take a look at similar products and see what the going rate is. Mine was more expensive than the others because I tried to use higher end papers and I decorated each cover, but this might have hurt my sales. Like everything in the crafty/art world, you need to learn what works for you and your product.

I also learned that I needed to provide each store with a receipt. This was fairly easy because any office supply store carries sales receipt books for about $3. So I would hand write my receipts with my contact info at the top. Also, get some business cards made so they have your contact info on file. You can print them out at home, it doesn't have to get too fancy yet.

Some stores didn't want to buy it outright. Instead, I dropped off 5 copies of my comic with an invoice. And I would have to check in with them to see if any sold. The nice thing about selling them with commissions like that is that they pay 60% (instead of 50%). But it was such a pain to have to go back and collect my money that I decided it wasn't worth it.

I also ran into the dilemma of a store wanting to hold on to one copy to give it to their boss/manager to see if they would carry it. In this case, you typically won't see the money or the product ever again. But who's to say that the boss won't love it and want to carry 100+ of it? It's really a judgment call and it depends on the price of your product. If you have an expensive product, I would recommend a package with photos, a product description, and a business card. It really is about looking credible and reliable (and also BEING credible and reliable).

Once I had hit the bookstores and comic book shops, I realized that I could branch out and try to sell at "Handmade" shops. They were surprisingly welcoming of comic books... So, it really can't hurt to ask. You might feel ridiculous or annoying, but it's really not too big of an inconvenience for them to say yes or no.

It was an INCREDIBLY nerve wracking experience when I started. All of my comics are auto-biographical and close to my heart, so it was weird to hand it over to a stranger and ask "will you sell it?" And it was even more wrenching to stand there while someone looks over your work as you judge their silent reaction.

So why do it? I learned a lot about self-confidence and selling abilities. It made it a lot easier for me to go on job interviews and it really helped my people skills. It also gives you the opportunity to promote your own work and I found that the more I talked it up, the more excited I got about it.

And it was really an ego boost for someone to say, "hey, I saw your comic book in a store!"

There are a lot of opportunities for showing your work here in Los Angeles, but it's up to you to search them out :)