HOW IT WORKS: THE BASICS OF BOOKING SIGNERS FOR CONVENTIONS

*Daniel Louzau is an agent for IDDS, a celebrity management agency that currently represents talent from several Star Wars projects, including Omid Abtahi, Bonnie Piesse and Katy O’Brien. Many thanks to Daniel for taking the time to explain the basics of the booking process for our readers. – FDR

It came to my attention recently that there is a bit of mystery as to how guests at comic-cons and other pop culture events make money.

There are multiple ways that a guest can be compensated from promotional work (i.e. no money) to full-on daily appearance fees. It also depends on the type of event (comic, horror, anime, themed cons, etc.) In the early days of the emergence of pop events most guests signed for free. The problem became that resellers would show up and get tons of merchandise signed for free and then sell them online or at booths for pure profit.

Eventually the guests grew tired of resellers profiting on their signatures and began charging for autographs. Some even refused to sign or charged more when the autograph was “without personalization” to impede the secondary market. As events grew bigger and expanded, the amount of guests increased. There became a competitive nature to the pricing of autographs. A guest would not want to charge too much and get less fans buying nor charge too little and not get their money’s worth for the time they put in.

Some events did what was called an “appearance fee” while others preferred the less risky “guarantee fee.” Appearance fees are just what they sound like. This was what Hollywood agencies were used to – booking a client for a flat fee for university lectures and other appearances. This is what we see now with the bigger actors and especially with events overseas. For example: Let’s say Marvel movie star’s appearance fee is $150,000 for a two day show. That means they get $150,000 regardless of how many autographs or photo-ops they sell. Typically, the pricing and schedule is up to the event to figure out. They have to calculate what to charge and how many units they need to sell in order to break even or possibly profit.

An event has an average of five hours a day to recoup the money. If a day is 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the guest, with a one-hour panel and bathroom/lunch breaks, it amounts to about five hours a day or ten hours a weekend. That means they would have to average $15,000 an hour in sales. This is why you see pricing for over $100 for the big named Guests. $15,000 is a lot to sell in one hour. If an autograph session with a fan takes a 30 second average then that is 120 autographs an hour. That means they would have to sell the autographs for $125 to break even and that’s in a perfect world where there are no delays and everyone is right at 30 seconds. We all have friends who take way more than 30 seconds at the autograph table. The event wants to give a sense of value but at the same time keep the line moving.

Photo-ops help a lot because you can typically do that faster. So where you might only get 80-120 autographs an hour, if the Photography team is quick and efficient, you can get upwards to several hundred photos taken in one hour. With Photo-ops there are other costs in the pricing to pay the photograph team and other fees. It’s where the event recoups the majority of the money.

Guarantees are just like they sound. The event is “guaranteeing” that the guest will make “X” amount of dollars. This typically puts the sales and pricing on the guest or agent in conjunction with the event promoter. Let’s say for example that CW star’s guarantee is $10,000. They would sell their autographs and selfies for a price of their choice. Typically they are looking for that sweet spot that captures the most business at a price fans feel are of value. If the guest sells less that their guarantee, in this case let’s say $8,000, then the event will make up the difference and pay $2,000 at the end of the event. If the guest makes more than the guarantee, then everyone is happy – the event pays nothing out of pocket and the Guest brings home 100% of their sales.

So in conclusion, if you are curious as to how pricing is done for autographs/selfies and pro-photo-ops understand that it can be a wide range of reasons. Remember that this is a business and the only way to stay in business is to be profitable or if its a non-profit entity then to at least break even. This is Sales. Pure and Simple. The Events are selling an Experience and the Autographs and Photos are memories of that Experience. You have to determine if that Experience is of Value to you.

Daniel Louzau – Agent for I Don’t Do Subtle Management – An Appearance Agency

To learn more about IDDS “I Don’t Do Subtle” Management, click HERE.