As long as you’re gonna be spending money, I try to at least make it memorable. It’s about the EXPERIENCE, not the product.

(As a final addendum: if it has ever felt like you’ve been “rushed along” by a handler at a popular talent’s table? That could be because there’s a long line, they only have so many hours each day to sign, and more time spent talking means less time making Number Go Up for convention performance.)

So, in a classic repeat of the cycle of things becoming mainstream enough to catch the eye of profit-seekers, the concept of convention guests at anime cons has shifted to a customer-funded business model.

We don’t get residuals, so many DEPEND on cons.

But YOU are the ones paying us, not the con.

The talent are caught in the middle.

Making more at cons means “selling” harder to you, pushing products more, incentivizing spending your money on them.

But they HAVE to, because if they aren’t making enough…cons (especially larger ones) won’t care to invite them versus someone who’s making more.

I mentioned it before, but - doesn’t it feel like autographs are more expensive? Or interactions often feel like TRANSactions?

Cons are saving money by doing Guarantees instead of Appearance Fees - but they want to bring talent who will have big draws.

What metric do they use to measure it? Sales.

Yes, and that’s because Freedom Planet’s case was an extremely rare exception to the norm (made possible by it being an indie production, among other things).

The post is deleted… what was this about?

I like when it jumpscares them more, tbh. Especially when it leads to-

Them: “You voiced the gay Grovyle???”

Me: “Not only that, I COMMISSIONED the gay Grovyle BEING GAY.”