Let’s talk about our experience at the Taiwan Publishing Creatively Fair 5! Let's start with the creations at the event. Every booth showcased only original works – not a single fanart (doujin) piece in sight. This felt quite surprising because, in Malaysia, even when it's specified that the works must be original, you still tend to see a bit of fanart, as there’s already a fanbase, making it easier for people to spend money on fan works.
The range of works was very diverse and sincere, with creators showing a lot of care toward the quality of their creations (especially the printing). Our works are mainly in English, so we naturally didn’t resonate as much with the local crowd.
We are truly grateful to the kind locals who went out of their way to help promote us, even introducing their own customers to our booth. Honestly, Taiwanese people are so thoughtful! It’s just that most of them were very shy; just when we started to introduce our work, they would walk away. 😓 (In truth, we were shy too. It was our first time running a booth in a foreign country, and we became socially anxious!)
Still, this was our introduction to Taiwan – we’ll definitely dive deeper next time. This experience also allowed us to see many areas where we need improvement, so we didn’t leave empty-handed. We’ve returned with new insights and ideas, and we hope that the next time we make an appearance, it will be with a more polished and mature image!
