Summer craft shows are in full swing, and mentions of fall and holiday shows are starting to pop up. The dreaded cycle — filling out vendor applications and then waiting and anticipating to see if you've made it — never seems to end.
As one of the Directors of the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair in Washington, D.C., and the Handmade Mart in Silver Spring, MD, my fellow organizers and I are often asked the frequent question: “Why didn’t I get accepted into the fair?”
This question is hard to answer, as it’s different for everyone. For seasoned crafters who have sold successfully on Etsy and have been on the craft fair circuit for years, the answer usually comes down to submitting the same photos year after year with their application. As an organizer who is looking for an innovative and awesome experience for crafters and shoppers, it’s hard to accept our past vendors who haven’t evolved their crafts.
For example, a vendor who submits the same three T-shirt designs with their application every year is telling me that they really don’t have any new products in their line. This is important, especially when you see more and more crafters joining the handmade community. If a crafter isn’t making new products or designs, there are 100 more who are.
For crafters who are newer to the craft fair scene, not getting accepted usually results from submitting photos that don’t often show off the variety or volume of crafts they produce or don’t show their best products. If crafts in the photos don’t look well made or have a unique style, they lose points. Newer vendors sometimes give us too much personal information and not enough specifics about their product line in their vendor statements.
Vendor statements are important because they explain the photos of your craft. A photo may say 1,000 words, but a vendor statement is there to back it up with a literal explanation. For example, let’s say I sell jewelry and in my vendor statement I say:
“I make whimsical jewelry that will tickle your fancy with vibrant colors and semi-precious stones.”
What is this person trying to say? This is a textbook answer without much thought. The questions I want to know are: What does the making process entail? What makes the jewelry more awesome than the other 100 jewelry designers who applied to the fair? What type of jewelry do you make, i.e. rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, etc? What inspires you? What is your style?
A good vendor statement with the right photos will be a perfect package, neatly wrapped, and need no further explanation.
Here are other tips for applying to craft fairs:
1. Photos
- Make sure the file size of your photo isn’t too big and that the photos are crisp and clear.
- Be sure to send in photos that show off individual items, but have one or two that also show off the variety of your products.
- Show only your products and nothing else that might be distracting or confused with what you make. For example, if you design scarves and you submit a photo with someone wearing a scarf and a large necklace covering the scarf, it’s very misleading.
- Let your product shine in the front and center. If you are submitting a photo of your product laying on a crazy, headache-inducing patterned background, or a background that is the same color as your product, you are not doing your crafts justice.
2. Websites
Many fairs ask you for your website along with, or instead of, photos. If your main site is a blog with a small link to your Etsy shop, I’d rather you send me to your Etsy shop directly. This is not necessarily a general rule, but if it’s hard to see your products on your website or hard to find a link to your shop, that’s not good.
3. Vendor Statement
Don’t submit a life story. Stick to your product line and anything surrounding your career as a crafter. Writing my own vendor statement for applications usually takes at least a day. Email your friends your statement and see what they say. They will know if your creativity and who you are as a crafter comes through in your statement.
4. Know your market
Before you apply to a craft fair, check out the vendors from the previous year. What are they selling? What do their websites and Etsy shops look like? You will need to see if this is indeed your market.
You can usually find reviews about shows by searching the web or in the Etsy Forums. Find out if this is the show for you from what their vendors had to say.
5. Burning Bridges
Every year, at every craft show, there is a vendor who didn’t get accepted and decides to yell at the organizers. This usually starts with an email or phone call that begins with “How dare you” or “My stuff is much better than so and so’s” or “I am a very important person in the crafting world...” Every craft show organizer has heard it before, and it’s heart wrenching and not nice. Please be nice. Many shows have at least one vendor who has to drop out at the last minute for various reasons, so you never know if you might be next in line to take their place.
6. Don’t take it personally
If you are not accepted as a vendor, don’t take it personally. This has nothing to do with you as a person. With tens of thousands of crafters on Etsy alone, the competition to sell at fairs, which can only take between 50-300 vendors per show, is tremendous. For all the fun, excitement, and friendship-making that takes place at craft fairs, you must remember that the point of these fairs is all business: Craft fair organizers are creating a marketplace for monetary transactions to take place. You are seeking to conduct said monetary transactions. It’s all business in the front and party in the back.
7. Get feedback
Some vendors who have not been accepted will email us to ask what they could have done better in their applications to get accepted. I’m usually more than happy to take a look at their applications and see if I can give any useful feedback. Sometimes there’s nothing I can say, because it’s just a matter of space at the fair…but it never hurts to ask.
Get feedback about your products from your friends and most importantly, your fellow crafters. Don’t be afraid to get advice and reviews that might not be 100% positive. Being open to hearing what others had to say about your product will help you develop stronger products and marketing lines, and will improve your chances of getting into the more competitive craft fairs.
Check out more tips on applying to shows from crafter extraordinaire and Hello Craft's Communication Director Tina Seamonster here. Questions? Have advice for others? Tell us in the comments and feel free to email Hello Craft at hellocraftinfo@gmail.com. kittenrockswell will also be hosting a follow-up chat today, Thursday, June 25 at 5 p.m. ET in the Virtual Labs, Etsy's multi-user chat room.
And don't forget, applications to this year's Crafty Bastards are open until July 5, 2009! Happy crafting and good luck with all your 2009 applications!
