When shows ask your sales totals are you OK with it? I've heard the reasoning that they use it for their advertising. Then I wonder if they use it to invite you back (or not)? Personally, I am offended when asked to share my sales dollar totals. Would anyone go into a gallery and ask the owner his sales for the week? Or would you ask your doctor how much he made today? I know some artist like telling everyone how much they sold, but for me it is personal. And I'd like to keep it that way!
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I think it's a good way for the organizers to hone the advertising and make sure the artists will return the following year. No one is going to repeat a loser show. Most of the shows I attend have some kind of survey they hand out toward the end. There are other questions, too....like: how the organizers did on the volunteer side, the advertising, media mix, etc. I don't mind saying how my sales went compared to a booth fee....I started out with a pretty tried and true formula: booth fee= 10% of gross sales. For a number of years, that formula was spot on. In my comments on survey sheets, I could say, for example: my gross sales were twice what I expected, or half (hopefully not,) etc.
On a slightly different note, I did a show this past summer and didn't make one sale. That has NEVER happened before. The organizer (who I've done great shows with) had more problems than he should have, but suffice it to say that the advertised traffic being 30,000 attendees was so grossly over-exaggerated, that I really put up a stink. I managed to get a credit toward one of their other shows this year.
So, perhaps letting them know that your sales were good/bad helps you in more than one way.
Gayle, This discussion is about shows asking your dollar amount in sales. Regarding good/bad, one artist's good is another one's bad. So it means little except maybe that you were satisfied with sales. Maybe that's what they should ask: satisfied/unsatisfied?
Elle, I think that is all they need to know. Actually, they could determine that if you applied again the following year.
Exactly! I think that is what they really want to know....good/bad. Unless they are asking for a % of your sales, they don't need an exact $ amount.
I do some shows by two different promoters. One asks for dollar figures at the end of the show and then disperses that information back to the artists in averages by media. He also uses that information to tweak or even cancel a show for the following year. He wants the artists to make money. I don't see anything wrong with that. The information he gives back to the artists is very valuable to me to see how my medium fared in a particular show and where my dollars stand with other artists in my medium. It helps me decide whether a particular show is a good fit for me. I pay good money to AFSB to get this kind of information and at these shows I get it for free. And while not everyone reports their dollars it certainly is a bigger sampling than I get from AFSB.
The other promoter never asks for dollar figures and last year I did one of his shows that should have been cancelled long ago. Research after the show told me I should never have done it in the first place but why is this show still going on when no one but the promoter makes any money?
Obviously I'm in disagreement here with most of you (except Richard), but if it's a clear expectation of a show that you report your numbers, what's the big deal? The shows we report it's either for commission purposes or for the local show who uses the numbers to attract promoters, grants and advertisers. I also know (after I asked the promoter) it's used to calculate the income for the local sales tax if the artists correctly submit their sales tax forms. The show uses the sales tax revenue to help justify the extra expense created by the need for traffic control and extra police presence.
If you don't know ahead of the show that they want your numbers reported, I can see raising an objection, but if it's clearly stated in the guidelines, then we deal with it just like we deal with everything else we do or don't like about any particular show.
Warren and Nancy, I couldn"t have stated it better. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way!
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