A doujinshi convention is a type of event dedicated to the sale of doujinshi, or self-published books (typically comics, collections of illustrations, or novels). These events are known in Japanese as doujin sokubaikai () or doujinshi sokubaikai (). Thousands of doujinshi conventions take place in Japan every year. Doujinshi conventions can also be found in some other countries. Summary In Japan, doujinshi conventions are one of the most important distribution channels of doujinshi. Most are small-scale occasions with perhaps a few hundred participating circles, but the larger ones can attract tens or hundreds of thousands of participants, making them important public events in Japan. Comiket, the largest of all doujinshi conventions, attracts 35,000 sellers and over half a million individual visits during each of its biannual editions. Most conventions are organized by the amateur creators themselves, and most focus on the sale of doujinshi that are fanworks. Art supply companies, doujin printing companies, and anime, manga and game companies also have booths at many of the larger conventions, such as Comic Market, where they sell or distribute merchandise and promote products and services. Some doujinshi conventions welcome cosplay activity as well. Doujin works are typically fanworks based on existing properties ("niji sōsaku"). These unauthorized uses are generally ignored and accepted by the copyright holders, with many copyright holders also issuing guidelines stating that they allow niji sousaku as long as their guidelines are adhered to. Many conventions feature not just fanworks but also original (, sōsaku, ororijinaru) doujinshi. As of 2015 63% of all doujin works altogether at Comiket (counting not only doujinshi but other media such as doujin soft and doujin music) were purely niji sōsaku, while 12% were purely original. Some conventions focus entirely on original works, for instance COMITIA, a long-running convention that attracts several thousand doujinshi circles with every edition. Not all participants present at doujinshi conventions are fans or amateurs. In Comiket's 2004 summer edition, "5 percent of all circles participating in Comiket were headed by a professional manga artist or illustrator, while another 10 percent had some professional experience". In Comiket's 2010 summer edition, 2% of participants were professional creators. Due to the nature of how copyright is treated at doujin events, professional creators do not require permission to create doujin works based on things they did not work on, or things that they worked on or are affiliated with. In some cases, they