| Selling Your Art by Douglas Ready |
Let me get this in right up front: Art Agents don't do anything for the artist the artist cannot do for
himself. Most agents will tell you differently.
The simple truth is that the baton for directing your career is probably best left in your own hands. I'm
quite certain there's an agent out there who's worth every penny of the 20-50% you'll wind up paying
him--plus expenses, in most cases--but in twenty-plus years in the art business, I've yet to meet him.
It isn't that art agents are inherently evil, it's just that they aren't necessary. There are certainly
instances when an agent's negotiating skills could work to the artist's advantage, but negotiation--like
sales and marketing--are attributes reasonably easy to acquire. There are a number of working artists
who are quite satisfied--even thrilled--with what they've accomplished with the help of their agents, but
it should be remembered that talent and skill partnered with tenacity is what determines success in any
business, ours included. Dropping your career development strategy into anyone's hands other than
your own can be a recipe for disaster.
Any agent generating enough commission to earn a living from his efforts must by necessity represent a
stable of artists, thus defusing his efforts to enhance a single career. The artist who refuses to accept
responsibility for building his own career often discovers that he has become just another notch on an
agent's list and is missing out on important opportunities simply because he himself isn't chasing them.
And forget about signing with an agent and chasing appropriate work yourself. The industry standard is
for the agent to require his full commission on any project the artist tackles while signed, regardless of its
source.
In the greatest majority of cases, art directors are directly approachable. The artist willing to assume
responsibility for marketing his own abilities and negotiating his own pay rates will have a more secure
and successful career than the artist who shoves that responsibility in another direction, crosses his
fingers and hopes for the best.
That said, there is one area where an agent can significantly increase the probability of success: book
publishing. If your ambitions include writing and illustrating children's books--assuming you're looking
to create your project from scratch, not just to secure an illustration assignment from a publisher--or
humor books or even how-to art books, an agent is often a necessity for securing the best working
contract. Publishers have come to use Literary Agents for what used to be called "First Readers" and
often will not review projects that do not arrive through an agent.
Please note the difference between the Literary Agent and the Art Agent. If you're trying to sell a book,
you don't want the presentation and the negotiations handled by someone whose primary experience is
hawking your drawing ability to a bi-weekly newspaper.
Eventually, once your work begins to publish or display in public, you'll find yourself confronted by any
number of promoters, referrers, coordinators--in short, people who neither purchase art outright nor
offer assignments--who will assure you they can enhance your visibility by introducing you to any
number of potential clients or collectors. A PARAMOUNT RULE OF THUMB: ANYBODY WHO ASKS
YOU FOR MONEY SHOULD BE DISMISSED.
Now...
If you're going to pursue clients on your own, you'll need to develop a strategy for identifying and
approaching those potential clients with whom partnership could prove mutually beneficial.
REQUIRED REFERENCE MATERIAL
There are any number of printed volumes designed to assist the artist in building his skills and the
monetary return on those skills. The Internet has made researching these volumes quick and easy.
Amazon (www.amazon.com) lists purchaser reviews on its website of virtually every book available. A
mention of a volume in an Artist Chat Room will usually generate immediate and voluminous opinion on
any given source of reference material.
Source Books
The industry standard for the working artist to source potential clients is the Artists Market. This
nominally priced annual volume is now available in several different varieties, including the Children's
Writer & Illustrator's Market. These volumes are not necessarily complete within themselves, but they
do offer contact information for a substantial portion of the markets available to both the fine artist and
the illustrator.
The Advertiser's Index is an invaluable source book for the illustrator interested in advertising or
product design. This annual volume lists every company in the United States that spends a minimum of
$50,000 a year on advertising. Contact information on each company usually includes the art director
and the product development director, as well as information on which advertising agency handles that
company's account. This book is expensive--better than $1000 a copy--but the business section of most
public libraries will have a copy available.
Any number of industry trade journals publish an annual directory. Toys, Hobbies & Crafts, for
example, publishes a toy industry directory that includes contact information on manufacturers,
distributors--helpful for the entrepreneurial artist who has decided to use his design skills to produce
and market a functional product--importers, specialty design firms and licensing firms--helpful if you've
developed a character you'd like to license across the board for use on existing product. Specialized
business information can be pricey, so it is recommended the artist check with the business section of his
local library before purchasing these directories.
The publications necessary to build your career depend on the specific areas you intend to pursue. If
posters and prints are a primary interest, Art Business News should be on your reading list. If comic
books and graphic novels beckon to your creative abilities, The Comics Journal, Diamond Distributor's
Previews and The Comic Buyers Guide should come in once a month. A quick Internet search on any
specific discipline of artistic endeavor using the Google search engine (www.google.com) will direct the
artist to any number of specific, appropriate and viable referral sources.
Artists & Illustrators Directories
There are any number of creative directories--such as American Showcase or Creative Illustration in
which the artist may showcase his work. Hopefully, these directories wind up in the hands of an art
director looking to hire. Other directories, such as SPECTRUM or THE BEST AMERICAN FANTASY
ILLUSTRATION are released annually and sold to the general public in bookstores.
The artist needs to carefully weigh the cost of inclusion in these directories before committing himself.
These kinds of directories can prove helpful, but an effective, properly targeted direct marketing
program can often produce the same kind of results at a more reasonable cost.
TRADE SHOWS & CONVENTIONS
There are any number of Trade Shows held annually. The focus varies depending on the group involved.
The art publishing industry, the book publishing industry, the advertising industry, the magazine
publishing industry, the newspaper publishing industry--all have their own Trade Shows, as does the
Stationery industry, the movie industry, the fashion industry and just about any other industry you can
think of.
Trade Shows can be a good venue for meeting potential clients, but participation is not generally
inexpensive and the geographical location of the shows can be prohibitive. Trade journals for each
industry regularly report on Trade Shows and the artist with a bent toward exploring this promotional
vehicle would do well to study the journals with a jaundiced eye and determine whether or not the cost of
attending warrants the potential return.
Conventions, on the other hand, are ready-made for the artist who specialized in genre work. I'm not
talking about the meeting the sales guys go to without their wives, I'm talking about the literally
thousands of conventions held every year as an opportunity to gather the fan base of any number of
genres--comic book readers, civil war aficionados, science fiction and fantasy buffs, historical societies,
renaissance people--this is where they gather in kind and in bulk.
These events offer the artist an opportunity to present--and offer for sale--that work designed for a
specific audience in a venue that pretty much guarantees every pair of eyes in the hall will be interested
in his subject matter. That doesn't necessarily mean that every pair of eyes will be interested in the
artist's particular style, but in this kind of concentrated fan base the odds of stumbling across someone
who does like your style improve greatly.
A business survives by making a profit. That profit is generated by creating and producing a product or
service, then promoting and selling that product or service, over and over again. Every working day is
structured to accomplish these ends. Product becomes the important concern. Financial solvency
permits the continuation of artistic pursuit. A dedicated, straightforward approach to producing work
and selling it permits financial solvency.
And, if the target is financial solvency, the artist must target his efforts to produce the best possible
results. The artist must recognize his own creative ability, but he must also recognize that the presence
of creative ability, even a powerful amount of it, will not generate a financial return unless that ability is
properly and consistently applied to the creation of art, and the art produced is continuously presented
to potential purchasers.
The artist can spend a great deal of time and effort perfecting those skills necessary to produce
wonderful works of art, but if no one knows what he can do he won't make any money at it. It really is
that simple. Potential buyers have to know who you are, where you are, what you do and how to contact
you.
A good rule of thumb is the 70/30 rule: 70% of the artist's working time is spend in the conception and
creation stages of his career and 30% of the artist's working time is spend promoting his skills and his
product. Assuming the artist's skills are up to par, promotion is the one thing that insures a viable
career.
It's important that promotion time is actually spent promoting. Lollygagging in front of an open Artist's
Market sipping hot cocoa while talking on the phone to an intended romantic conquest simply isn't
productive, and it surely isn't going to get the artist where he wants to be. Promotion time should be
spent actively researching potential markets, be they avenues of exhibition or cul-de-sacs of commerce,
and assembling the appropriate material to mail.
The artist unwilling to aggressively promote himself, his talent and his product will never find continuing
financial success as a artist.
In the art business--just like any other business--you get no more than what you ask for. If you don't
ask, you don't get anything.
Making a living as an artist comes down to these simple steps:
1. Learn your craft and practice it well.
2. Produce as much work as you possibly can and make sure the artwork that leaves your studio is the
best work you can produce. And make sure a lot of work leaves your studio.
3. Never miss an opportunity for self-promotion. Understand that opportunity is made, not found.
4. Repeat Steps One, Two and Three every day, day in and day out for the rest of your professional
working life.
Good hunting.
Douglas Ready
©2006 Serendipity Press. All rights reserved.