Art Publishing – How To Make Money In The Art Business
There are a few ways to get into the business. You can be completely independent; create, print, market and distribute your own images. This is a worthy aspiration. You can also work with a publisher and have them publish your work so that most of the financial responsibility falls on your shoulders and you receive a royalty based on sales. Both works, however, are very different. It’s up to you to learn the difference and decide which way to go.
If you decide to publish your own work then it is a matter of preparing your images for printing as you will be responsible for selling them. Preparing your art for print means cleaning it up with Photoshop to make sure the colors work, the digital files are clean, and the proper copyright notice has been included. Your digital files should be at least 10 megabytes, but not much larger than 50 or 60. You may want to create the digital file so that the images can be printed in a variety of sizes.
Once you’ve cleaned up your images and they’re ready to print, you can upload them to user-generated online galleries that will feature your work and sell it for a royalty. They will be the printer; all you have to do is add your images. Imagekind and Finerworks are two sites that offer this feature. If you decide to be entirely responsible for printing it, you will need to work with a printer who will give you a cost per print, decide with you on the quality of the paper, and be open to shipping directly to your customer. It is up to you to market your work. You can do this through blogs, Twitter, word of mouth, physical galleries, and Facebook. It’s a tough road to go, but if you’re into social websites and marketing, this is all part of the fun. You reap the rewards of 100% of the profits.
If you decide that working with an art publisher is the direction to go, it’s up to you to research which publisher. You can attend trade shows to meet them or gather information through internet searches. Once you have a list, check out their sites to see if the work they post is similar in style to the type of work you do. If you’re a very traditional Western art publisher and your work is urban inspired and very digital, that’s probably not a good match and you’re wasting your time. Look for a good fit. Once you’ve found that fit, you’ll need to find out who the product development manager is and contact them. They will want the fastest and easiest way to review their work. Try sending them your web address or a photo sharing site like Flickr which can be a quick way to check it out. If you get rejected, don’t take it personally…everyone gets rejected at one time or another; keep trying until you find one that fits you. However, if you’re having little success signing with a publisher, you may need to take an honest look at your art. No one wants to hear that their art isn’t good enough; however, a publisher is making a huge investment in his art; you must be reasonably sure that it will sell. If they don’t feel good about it, then they won’t work with you.
Lastly, do your research. Find out what the latest trends are and try new artistic directions. Be bold and understand that making money from art is a good thing. You don’t compromise if you make money from it, you make a living and get paid for something you’re good at. Join that.
