my BA thesis (that i need to graduate my major) is a case study on Homestuck and several fannish practices. I'm writing it like a series of small articles just to make it not as overwhelming, and the one i'm working on right now is about fan communities relationship in gift versus commodity economies - i.e., economies based on exchange of gifts vs based on the exchange of goods for money. Fannish gift economies have tons of examples, like art collabs or fic challenges and secret santas, and one of the articles i'm using as reference (this one here) talks about possible benefits of hybridizing these economies in fan communities. Sooo i'm looking for fanartists and crafters of all kinds who would be willing to share their experience in selling and getting comissioned for fan works, or who experienced an increase in vierwership and clientelle based on fandom exposition. I can talk about purchasing from experience, but selling is another matter altogether, and it'd be cool to have the first-hand experience of people who really get this hybridization of economies in a personal level. fanartists not involved in homestuck are absolutely welcome! i’m using HS as a framing device, but i mention all kinds of fandoms as reference in the project so any and all participation is encouraged and appreciated. I have a post on tumblr here if anyone is willing to signal boost this as well. I wasn't sure where to put this post, but the subject seems favorable to chatting, so here it is.
Slightly different, but I once did an Artist Alley as an original-crafts person at an anime con, so I can kind of talk about the reverse? IE selling non-fannish stuff in a fannish space. If that's a thing that'd help you any.
Basically the experience was that there were not very many people interested. I think I probably would have done better if I had at least some fan stuff, and certainly my table buddy (who did fanart $5 doodles) did much better than I did. I was still able to pay for the table, but I didn't make much profit at all.
