SELLYOURARTWORKS

Hola gorgeous souls!

A great business question asked today from a Creative Goddess!

I want to sell my artwork as prints. How do I do that?

I've got a buttload of experience in this i.

One time upon a time, in ye olden days of yore, I began my commencement foray into business organization by selling my art.

first markets

I had my first solo art exhibition at 23, got featured in the Canberra Times + sold prints, original art + commissions online. It became mega busy, and I ended up deciding to quit studying at university part time and reduce my hours at my government task in order to keep up with demand… I nevertheless remember one memorable December where I had over 120 packages to ship out, and was heading home early from Christmas parties to paint paint paint and paint some more!

It was very fun, and such a gorgeous time in my life.

I'm now then busy with creating east-courses in the Shining Biz Life Academy and writing and illustrating the Shining Year goal planners that I don't sell artwork anymore. I yet create every day though!

There's four steps to selling your artwork as prints:

1. Digitise your artwork.

Small artworks:

If it is smaller than A4, you tin can scan it in using a scanner. Scanners come in well-nigh multifunction print units now – getting so cheap!

I use an Epson – this is the latest version of the one I employ.

I've had it for 4 years now or so and it's still rocking it out.

Large artworks:

If you can't fit information technology onto your scanner, you tin either photograph it, or browse it in dissimilar parts so stitch it back together using Photoshop. I can't tell y'all if your camera is good enough to take prints – just trial it and see how it goes! An SLR camera is the all-time camera to employ for this to brand sure y'all've got the clearest paradigm possible with enough DPI to exist printed nicely. I'm peculiarly fond of Canon SLRs.

Tips when photographing art: Don't apply flash. Don't put in direct sunlight. Photograph in the shade, or in a well lit room. Try and get the sides of your frame to line upward parallel with your artwork to make cropping easier later on. Stand parallel to your artwork.

You volition demand to crop it using a digital photo editor like Photoshop or Elements. Y'all will likewise want to play around with contrast and colour to get it looking equally lovely digitally as information technology looks in existent life. Colours usually get dimmer when you scan/photo an image, so digital photograph editing is all about restoring that & making things pop again.

If yous don't have a photographic camera, or access to a digital photo editor, you could try:

  • asking a friend to practise it
  • hiring a professional person studio to have photos & edit for you.

two. Make up one's mind how to price your prints

  • Average pricing is about $25 for A4 sized prints, but can range from $x-$100 (with a high stop priced print, you'll need to have them professionally printed)
  • Hint: If you print A4 sized, yous can ship them in a flat envelope and information technology is much cheaper. Equally soon equally you lot beginning making bigger that you have to roll, it costs Manner more to send in a tube.

3. Decide on whether to impress them yourself or outsource them?

The Print Them Yourself Method:

  • Y'all need to buy a colour printer if yous don't already have one. I have an Epson CX5900 printer/scanner, but I call up any is fine.
  • Print on some expert card stock. I would just buy watercolour paper at 180gsm and print on that. It gave a lovely texture to it!
  • Just offset out with one size for right now.

Pros:

  • More than profits
  • You can do sales on them when you similar
  • Mailing them out yourself can be a fantastic opportunity to make it with your own branding + include flyers + vouchers to upsell to them).

Cons:

  • Y'all need to purchase printer, ink and paper
  • You need to impress & mail them out
  • Information technology can get frustrating when your printer makes mistakes & screws up ink/newspaper.

The Impress On Need Method:

  • Upload your images to a Impress on Need service, which will host a shop for you lot. People buy the prints, and the company prints & sends them out.
  • You determine how much royalty you want to earn for each print.
  • Options for this: www.redbubble.com & www.lulu.com & world wide web.cafepress.com & www.society6.com.

Pros:

  • You don't have to print & send them out
  • Yous don't suffer ze cost of print mistakes/messups
  • You don't have to outlay anything for printers, ink & paper.

Cons:

  • You lot don't become as much profit.
  • I don't think you get as many sales through companies like this.
  • Some companies won't pay out your royalties until y'all attain a certain level like $25.

The Outsource Method

This consists of yous getting a printer (usually local) to print your prints for yous. They have a better quality finish than your home printer, merely it likewise means you will demand to outlay for the order, and then hopefully sell all the stock you take.

Pros:

  • Similar in the Print on Demand method, you don't have to print.
  • Yous don't suffer ze toll of print mistakes/messups
  • Yous don't have to outlay anything for printers, ink & paper.
  • Once your concern is up + running + is doing well, you'll demand to buy dorsum your own time to focus on marketing and then outsourcing is a good solution to that
  • As with the Print Them Yourself method, mailing them out yourself tin can be a fantastic opportunity to brand information technology with your own branding + include flyers + vouchers to upsell to them)

Cons:

  • Yous'll all the same need to send them out on your own.
  • You don't go as much profit, but more than if yous went the Print on Need model.
  • You'll need to outlay for the printing yourself, then sell what stock you have.

My recommendation on which printing model to use:

Exercise what is doable for you correct now.

You can always change later.

If y'all can do the press yourself great.

Or if outsourcing prints or print on demand works for you lot right at present, go for that.

Do WHAT IS DOABLE.

4. Ready (online) store

You can sell your prints on sites like Etsy or Made It, or create your own e-commerce website to sell your prints.

Now here's the point where most people recall:

YIPPEEEE!

DONE!

And they sit. And they wait for the sales to come in.

And they get discouraged when they don't come up in, or they don't come up in fast enough.

And they call back "I'll never brand a living as an artist. This will never work out. It wasn't meant to be. I gave it a go. Now I'll surrender."

And they'll stop updating their store. They might even take it down.

And they'll always await back on that time where they tried to brand a living as an artist, just found it impossible.

But here's the thing.

In that location's one step you didn't practice:

5. Your task doesn't stop hither. You demand to become a Business Goddess!

A Business Goddess yous cry?

But I hate marketing!

I don't want to SELL to people.

I just want fairies and pixies to notice my work and rabidly buy it, and I'll just sit here in my tiny piddling studio, and create, and exist totally oblivious to the earth.

I'm hither to give you a bit of tough (but real loving) advice:

Information technology ain't gonna happen that way, baby.

And every bit much as y'all desire a knight in shining armor to come up along and PING yous on the caput with the Shining Wand of Success and removing all the work you'd need to exercise to get there… you're kidding yourself.

What you're here to do instead is stand up up for your gifts.

Be your own knight in shining armor!

And be courageous. And learn new things. And yeah, that means becoming a business organization and a marketing goddess.

You need to learn HOW to share your work with the world in a big and powerful mode.

You Demand to invest in your educational activity – in learning the secrets of shining success, of marketing + presenting your work in a way that is compelling + delicious + attractive to your tribe.

And then I can hear y'all say:

But THEY don't have to exercise that. THEY are successful without all that stuff!

And you point out every successful artistic person you know of out there.

Here's the truth though:

Yous tin bet your ass that they have business + marketing know-how that y'all don't.

And they are using information technology.

They look like little duckies gliding along the pond effortlessly.

And what you don't see is their little feetsies doing the piece of work that feetsies were born to practice.


(Leonie ala 2008!)

The same is true for you lot.

Here'south the very all-time news I can give you:

You're non Born with business or marketing know how.

EVERYONE learns it.

Nosotros ALL get-go from somewhere.

And if this little numbers-phobic broke artistic hippy of 2005 tin go on to build a half meg dollar a year creative + soulful business, certain as shit yous tin as well.

But ya gotta be willing to learn.

Ya gotta be set to go a Business + Marketing Goddess so that your gifts can go out into the world in a BIG way… touching thousands and thousands of lives and transforming your own.

Share your gifts. Starting time now, beautiful Goddess!

love,