Comic Convention Cost Calculator

Because the calculator assumes each copy's own printing cost is already recovered by that copy's sale price — profit per copy is sell price minus cost per copy, and break-even copies is fixed costs (booth, hotel, travel, meals, misc) divided by that per-copy profit. It deliberately doesn't factor in the printing cost of copies that never sell, so break-even tells you "how many copies to cover the table and travel," not "how many copies to avoid a loss overall."

Net Profit subtracts total investment — fixed costs plus the full inventory cost for every copy you printed, sold or not — from gross revenue based on your estimated sell-through percentage. If you print far more copies than your sell-through percentage implies you'll sell, you can clear the break-even threshold on fixed costs alone while the unsold inventory cost still drags you into a net loss, since that unsold inventory was never in the break-even calculation to begin with.

Total Fixed Costs is booth fee, lodging, travel, meals, and misc expenses added together — the costs you'd pay even if you brought zero copies to sell. Total Investment adds your inventory cost (print copies × cost per copy) on top of that, representing everything you've spent to be at the table with product in hand.

It divides your projected gross revenue by the number of days you're attending, giving a same-shape number regardless of whether one show runs 2 days and another runs 4. It's a comparison tool, not a cost metric — it doesn't account for the fact that fixed costs like booth fee or hotel nights may not scale linearly with additional convention days.