The Fast and Easy Shortcuts to Success?

by M.Theresa Brown

An interesting discussion began the other day when, on a yahoo group message board, a list of the 12 ways to be successful as an artist were published. The 12 steps were “OK advice” but pretty generic and from a popular Internet art marketing site  and I responded to the post with the following:

“Oh my, real world experience counts for a lot in these discussions.

It is telling that the most often asked question in our art marketing seminars is “How do I price my work?” The artists who ask, regardless of what they just heard from me in the seminar, are searching for an easy, magical formula for instant success. And top of their list is the thought ” skip the rest-just tell me how to price my art so I can sell”

Those artists are not understanding or accepting that there is no single answer. I tell them it is the “whole package” which is the key to pricing their art. But even putting the “correct price” on a piece of art will not sell it!
From what I have seen and heard, very few artists today are willing to work as hard as it takes to develop that package

They pop from one guru’s message to another looking for the yellow brick road and a way to the top with as little effort as possible:-) And along the way, they go nowhere because there is always the underlying voice telling them “but that’s a lot of work” or “I don’t know if I can do that” and off they go looking for a message that sounds more in keeping with what they’d like to do.”

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BTW-did you notice the “teaser” form of writing? This seems to be the era of a new news form of  Internet writing. Gone are the days when the summary of the whole article was in the first paragraph. Now most headlines when you turn on your computer are questions. “Did the man jump from the building?”  “Did the war end?”   The old time newsmen would roll over in the grave.

How often have you started on a particular marketing venue for your art and in just a matter of days, or a couple of weeks, especially if the results were disappointing,  or you could not see the value of it, you just dropped it? Does that mean that you cannot do it? Does it mean that you don’t want to reach your goals badly enough?

No, we are all human and we all get discouraged, disappointed, tired or too busy and let our initial efforts fade away.  But there is a way to channel your energy and enthusiasm and keep the level up there long enough to see positive results! And positive results, as we all know, breed continued enthusiasm. The key here is to concentrate in ONE marketing area. Just one. Give yourself a time limit of say one month. But in that one month, give it ALL you’ve got.

Let’s look at an example. You have decided to sell your art on Ebay. You have listened to us tell you to research, research and research your particular art product and see who and what is selling. So you have done that. You have found several artists who are earning anywhere from 800-1500 a week selling their art and you are excited! You feel that what you could do will sell as well. Piece of cake!

Now if you have been creating all along, you will have anywhere from 8-12 items ready to list on Ebay.  Assuming that you already have a sellers account set up, as well as Paypal, the initial part is done.  If you have never sold on Ebay however, you need to delve a bit further. This link to Ebay will start you in the process!   http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/index.html

But this post isn’t so much about getting started on ebay as to what you need to do to stick with it. We, and I mean as in “I” have been guilty more than once of selling moderately well on Ebay and then I fizzle out…yes, even me! I have tried new art forms just for fun but obviously wasn’t inspired enough to stick with it…so this post is a reminder to me AND you, that nothing works if you don’t stick with it!It’s easy to be satisfied with moderate sales and far harder to make that extra effort to produce great sales!

So if you have your 8-12 items posted on Ebay and nothing sells, does that mean you have it all wrong? No. There is a learning curve to everything…that time where you worry and agonize over it and spend too much time on it and then suddenly, one day, you realize that you just breezed through posting those items or writing that description and it only took you minutes!  So see how many times your auction was seen. Is it in the right category? What about your starting price? Your description? This is where your research will have paid off. And remember this-it seems that virtually any art can sell on Ebay. The key is to get it out to the public and STICK with it!

This perseverance and persistence will pay off. Whether you are selling on Ebay, your blog, on the street …anywhere. Success is measured not in one big swoop but in increments! The ones who succeed will do so, not because they are the most talented artist or craftsmen but because they stuck with it through the good and the bad. That’s what success is all about!

So what does this mean for you when it comes to pricing your art? It means that you have to believe in the value of your work. Do you believe that a painting that took you a day to paint is worth $2750. ? Can you say “This painting is two thou sand seven hundred and fifty DOLLARS” in a strong positive voice, not “it’s twentysevenfifty” said apologectically. You get the idea? The same applies if the painting is $100. As an aside, some of us will have trouble saying this no matter what the price. The solution is to practice. Say it out loud. Repeatedly. Say it until it comes naturally.

When you believe in the value of your work, communicating that value to your potential collectors is much easier.

In the last post there is an video clip of Theresa at one of our workshops. She tells a story about art school, professors and their influence. Nothing new to me, she told it to me long ago. But since she told it at the workshops and I posted the video, we have been getting similar stories from others. Stories from long ago and stories that happened recently.Nothing seems to have changed.

Of course, the fact that Art Schools don’t teach you how to market, sell or have a career after you leave school is the basis for ACE. Now if you watched the clip or attended our workshops, you know that Theresa is now a portrait artist. As in portrait painter, she paints portraits. This is also something that she didn’t learn at art school. At the workshops, the consensus from art school alumni seems to be that nobody was taught the techniques and craft of art. Isn’t that what you went to art school for? To learn?

So if you weren’t taught how to do it, I guess it would be hard to teach you how to sell it! So my question is, “What do they teach at Art School?”

I talked with one of the workshop attendees recently and his story was about a Studio Art class. The major requirement for this class was that a the beginning of the term you bury 5 objects somewhere on the campus.  At the end of the term, you dig them up and write about them. My response was “Huh?”  He decided to drop the Art and major in Physics. And know he wants to resume his art career at some level. I think it will be much easier for him than if he had gone the “fine art” route

So I look back and value what I learned in Arch. Eng. My Archtectural Drafting class taught me more about perspective than you would want to know. The concept of vectors has been a great tool to teach drawing to adults. And most of all I have learned that creativity is not just a possession of artists, writers, musicians and other “creative types.”  That will be the topic of another post. Or maybe a book.