Promoting Art

I'm a big fan of Million Dollar Listings (both coasts). On his Facebook feed today, one of the star realtors, Josh Altman (one of my favorites) said: No matter what industry you're in, sales is sales.


SELLING AND ARTISTS


Selling ends up being a dirty word in the artists mind. I'm including ALL artists in the general category of artist: musicians, media/fine artists, writers and writers. The only artists this applies a little less to is physical artists such as dancers. That is a different category altogether when it comes to making money. For most media artists there is a difficulty in offering pieces for sale. It shouldn't be hard, but it is and it seems to be partly self-imposed and partly created by a general feeling that seems to persist in the public. Art should not be sullied by money. Well, that's a lovely notion, but the artist definitely needs to be sullied a bit in order to survive. Even just to create costs money, and artists need to be able to purchase supplies not to mention food and living expenses.


For that reason, it seems that many artists choose a 'low key' sort of sales approach with their work. They put it out there for others to see, and hope someone asks if they can buy it. That's definitely the 'safe' method for selling.


Another popular method is to sell the artists rather than the art. For some that means opening up cloud funding campaigns to support the artist either as an ongoing fund or a one time thing to obtain a high priced supply item.


One of the more powerful sales options for artist is to 'sell' the craft. Making money from teaching others how to create the type of art they do. There are several ways to make money from teaching online: classes, pod casts, and finally one of the most popular, YouTube videos. This form of sales has a double edged benefit. First the artist makes money from the actual teaching (straightforward fees from classes or ad revenue from videos), and second, when students find the artist this way they may be interested in the actual work of the creator and buy the pieces being created for the class or others found on the artist's website.


One way that simply isn't used enough is the direct sales approach. Telling people that certain pieces of work are available for sale. This tends to be looked on as crass, but think about it. In NO other industry in the world is it considered crass to tell people an item is for sale. People are shown information on the availability of everything from hamburgers to automobiles every single day. It's how they know what is available to them, and what the cost will be. There's nothing untoward about it. Of course, no one 'loves' commercials or advertising, but it is a necessary evil and both sides can benefit from it when it is done in an above board fashion.


So--- have something to sell? Don't be afraid to let the world know. You don't have to cram it down people's throats, or be obnoxious about it. Or you can, sometimes that works. Either way, no one will know what you have available if you are afraid to tell them.


AFRAID OF FAILURE - AFRAID OF SUCCESS OR JUST AFRAID OF RIDICULE


The direct sales approach is the one that inspires the most fear. It isn't just one single emotion that this type of sales creates. There are a couple of reasons people can be reluctant to use this method of sales for art. Some people are afraid to fail.


Afraid of failure - If you are afraid to fail you have already lost the battle. If you put your work up and list it for sale and no one buys it--you have failed, maybe. Not really though. So what? So it doesn't sell. You put it out there. That's the important thing. It may sell, it may not, but if you don't list it it will DEFINITELY not sell.


Afraid of success - That one seems the least likely, and yet, it actually happens a lot. People are afraid of what success will mean. For most people it is a big unknown, and people are afraid of the unknown. It is safer in the shadows. How can you beat a fear of success? Get over it, try it. You don't know until you give it a shot. If you become wildly successful and don't like it, quit! It is simple. It's easier than you might think to return to the shadows.


Afraid of ridicule - This is a big one for many artists. Since art, of all types, is largely subjective to opinion, what others think is a big fear for the artist. The only way to get over the fear of ridicule is to realize that it won't hurt as much as you think. If someone doesn't like what you do--so what. That's one person's opinion, and it isn't going to truly effect your life in any significant way.


So find a way to let people know about your work, and don't be afraid to promote it. What's the worst that can happen?