happykittyshop asked: Your shop has always been inspiring to me, and helped me start my own business! But then I went into making my own plushies, because I won't selling all the products I bought. Do you find original characters are more hard to get noticed than "Kawaii" products?

Answer:

Thank you!

And yes, always. People can find an attachment to a cute thing much easier than an original character. If you can firmly establish your character and foster that attachment (such as featuring them in a comic or something) then you have a higher chance of selling it, but even then it’s hard without something huge to back it like getting a movie or TV show made around them.

I was always told how much people loved my characters (Celesse, Frog, etc) but they never really bought them, not even cheap prints. And people seem to love our characters in Strays, but they rarely buy the products of them that are available.

There’s a distinct difference between getting an original character noticed and selling it. I notice a lot of original characters that I really like, but that doesn’t mean I want to own merchandise of them. When you try to sell something it has to have a broader appeal than a complex character can usually offer outside of their context.

#questions