When I was asked to join NOTHS (Not On The High Street . com) earlier this year, I was a bit nervous about it. It's quite expensive to join and you have to pay the whole lot up front. However, I decided it was worth going for it. Orders started trickling in pretty much straightaway and it was chugging along quite calmly until the beginning of this month.
NOTHS asked me if I'd be willing to let them put my 'Life is Good' print in their 'last minute' Xmas catalogue. I jumped at the opportunity and sales have gone completely mad! I was warned by them that this might happen, but really I had no concept of what it means to be promoted by such a huge company until the last couple of weeks.
If you're thinking about signing up with them as a seller, it's a big up-front cost, but it certainly delivers in terms of orders - especially at this time of the year. So definitely worth considering.
On top of that I'm getting a few follow-on commissions since doing the Wisley Craft Fair - which is really great. That was another risk that has turned out to be worth it. Committing to taking a stand at any of the big fairs is quite a major expense and always a risk because you never know how you're going to do. If you're a artist/maker/seller, the only thing you can do is talk to other artists/makers and get recommendations as to which fairs have been good for them.
So it's going to be a busy few weeks of packing and posting, followed by a busy January-February of commissions.
I also want to finish my Peace Sign which I started some time ago. Here's the current photo of that piece in progress.
