Art Palaver Artist Marketing Blog

Follow Up To My Best Way To Help Artists Question

daryle@artpalaver.com — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:13:41 +0000

Two days ago I posted a question about the best way to help artists and there has already been a great response. I wanted to take a moment to write this follow up post to try and keep the conversation going.

Brenda started off the discussion with an interesting thought:

“I think that there could be more promotion and education aimed at the general public regarding the benefits of owning original art. The more people who can appreciate art the more potential customers.”

This is a great idea and those of us who already appreciate art and know its value probably take it for granted that everyone knows the benefit of owning original art. But when you think about it you know that is not the case. One way I’ve thought of to help address this issue is to create a brochure that briefly explains the benefits and value of original art. I could make this brochure simple and in PDF form, release it under creative commons and have it available for anyone to download and make their own. This would allow an artist to be able to have the brochure available to hand out when they felt it was needed. I’ll be sure to let you know when that is available.

But that is just one tiny thing. What can we all being doing to educate people on the value of art? If you have an idea please do comment.

The next comment is from April Quast who states:

“I need exposure. I’m a mom, a teacher and artist. I’m confident that I have something unique to offer the art world but I don’t even know how to get the world to see what I have to offer.”

I hear you April. Exposure is something every artist needs in order to build a fan base that will lead to sales. I believe it is important for an artist to seek as many avenues of exposure as possible but through a focused and planned effort. It is up to the artist to explore all the possibilities the area they live in has to offer. This can include coffee shop, restaurants, galleries, or any public venue that their community offers in which art can be displayed. The internet also offers a lot of opportunity for exposure. And it is my goal to continual develop Art Palaver to help artists navigate the web in an effort to sell art.

TheRichAnt comment touches on a very common thing I hear from artists:

“To be honest I haven’t a clue what I need. I have often thought having my own solo showing. However funding for that is non-existent. So I thought social media would be the key. I have a Myspace, Facebook, twitter, youtube, blogspot, my own website, etsy, and I network in Ning communities.”

I know that social media can be helpful because I personally know artists who have created a career in art by selling through those outlets. It helps to know your market and find out where they hang out when it comes to social media. Knowing your market is basically knowing why type of person buys your art. What they do for a living, how old are they, how much money do they make, what part of the country do they live in, you basically have to paint a picture of your most common buyer and go find them. The other thing to be careful of with social media is spreading yourself too thin. A little market research can help you identify what networks to invest in.

Sandra Reid says:

“I have been thinking about your question and personally, even though financing my art is a very large problem at the moment, what would help the most is an art mentor/coach. Like a business coach/mentor but this would be someone who has experience in the art world that would be willing to share their experience and who I could bounce ideas off when I was stuck or had a problem.”

Sandra I find it interesting that your comment is the only one to bring up lack of money as a problem, but you realize it is not the biggest challenge you are facing. A business coach can be very helpful for an artist. I’ve been doing that locally for sometime now and I am currently looking into ways to do that via the internet. One concept I am looking at is group coaching via conference call. Having 6 to 10 artists in on a conference call so we can trouble shoot where everyone is at. The group format would allow it to be affordable.

I’d also recommend finding anyone that you can talk out loud to about the issues you are facing. It doesn’t always take consulting with an “expert” to work through your challenges. Other artists can be a great resource for this, especially ones who may be further down the path than you.

Over on Facebook Lisa Skyheart Marshall said this:

“It is really good to associate yourself with some kind of community if you are feeling discouraged, or if you are just starting out. There are also communities of artists that share studio space, and you can get to know them. Because making art is sometimes a solitary pursuit, making friends with other artists is incredibly helpful. It is supportive, uplifting and is also a form of networking.”

That is sound advice. And the key with that is finding a supportive community.

And Scott sent me an email that I have nothing to add to:

“This is an extremely difficult question to answer, probably because there is no one solution or no answer at all. I have always believed that one must start with the work. If the work has no merit whatsoever, no amount or marketing or advice is going to turn its creator into a self supporting, successful artist. If the work has merit, the first task for the artist is to identify his or her audience, because the art world spectrum goes from black to white, from A to Z. So the artist must find his or her niche in that spectrum. When pursuing a marketing strategy, once you have identified your audience, I advise pick and choose where you put your energies very very carefully. 99 percent of everything you do will bring very little in return, usually, nothing! So you don’t want to waste your valuable time when you should be creating. It’s not a matter of quantity; it’s a matter of selectivity. Choose to pursue things which you believe have a chance at some return. Survival strategies evolve and change over time. Never give up!”

*****

I am still looking for feedback to this question. My mission is to find out what artists need and then how can I get it for them. Either by providing it for them or pointing them in the direction they will find it. Currently I am working on things that will help continue dialogue like this. A new podcast is in the works, more free e-books, more guest posts, video tutorials for social media (let me know what you’d like to see), as well as a series of affordable webinars (less than $10). I am also researching something that would help artists get exposure and generate revenue to fund artist’s grants. But it has never been done before so the research is taking time.

It is my goal with posts of this style to help generate more dialogue which will generate community and through community people survive and grow. Are you with me?

What Is The Best Way To Help Artists?

daryle@artpalaver.com — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:02:27 +0000

My goal with this post is to create a little bit of a discussion via the comment form. Please offer your opinion on this one. If you get this via email just reply and I’ll add you comment to the site.

What I am trying to figure out what is the best way to help the individual independent artist. I am sure most of you know the type of artist I have in mind with this question. The artist that holds down a day job but also spends a fair bit of time in the studio producing work but the work is piling up faster than it is selling. Artists who do not have any type of gallery representation. Artists that feel stuck because they don’t know what to do next. Artists working from a corner of a room in their house, or in the garage, or basement, dreaming of one day turning a corner and being able to make a living full time through their art. What would help those artists the most?

Money is the obvious answer but is it the best answer? I’ve created and awarded artist grants through a prior business before but always wondered if that was the best use of the money. Sure I was able to help one artist at a time but there was always a stack of applications from other artists that I was not able to help. Would more grants for lesser amounts be the answer? More specific grants where an artist asks for certain tools or supplies?

“The arts” get a lot more support than “the artist.” It is important to me as this blog starts to generate revenue that I always give back to the community that supports it. With that in mind I’d like to do what I can to lift up more artists. Or better yet create a community where artists lift each other up. So tell me what do you need? What one thing do you believe would really help your art career? Please let me know in the comments.

Thanks,

P.S. Did you leave you comment?

Art Palaver Podcast Call For Artists

daryle@artpalaver.com — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:37:37 +0000

My path to art blogging began when I started interviewing artists, I’d like to do that again.

Palaver is an old word for having a long discussion. I started this blog to have a long discussion about art. A few months back I experimented with a podcast here on Art Palaver and now I would like to fire those up again but with a new aspect, discussions with artists. So I am making a call for artists who would be willing to be interviewed on the phone for the podcast.

Here’s how it will work. Artists will submit to be interviewed via the form below and then will be contacted to set up and schedule the interview. Before the phone interview I’ll send the artist a list of questions and topic points so they can be better prepared for the interview. Then the interview will take place at the appointed time via Skype. Each interview will take between 30 to 60 minutes.

Then I will use the recording of our conversation as a basis for a podcast. Each podcast will have a blog post to go along with it that will promote the featured artist from the podcast episode, as well as my promotions across social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It will be a great way to promote yourself and your art, as well as generate new fans of your art. And remember more fans means more sales.

The interviews will focus on the artist, their art, and the challenges they are facing on the business side of art. And this is open to artists of all kinds including visual artists, writers, musicians, photographers, and sculptors, just to name a few. My goal with the podcast is to help promote artists across the web as well as learn about the business and marketing struggles artists are experiencing. And through that we can all learn from each other. I know many artists feel as though they are going it alone out there, I hope to offer a little support and community through the podcast.

If you think you are up for being featured in a podcast please click here to submit your information.

Sunday Art Video | Creating Art In All Areas Of Your Life

daryle@artpalaver.com — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 19:31:28 +0000

I do what I do because I believe that everyone is creative. And since everyone is creative everyone has an artist in them waiting to come out. But being an artist is not limited to painting, sculpting, or an of the typical things that come to mind when you think “artist.” No matter what you do for a living you can bring creativity to it and become an artist in your position. If you pay attention you can find these artists behind the wheel of a bus, serving your food, delivering your mail, or taking care of you on your flight.

This video features Southwest Airline’s flight attendant David Holmes, now known as the rapping flight attendant. By using his creativity David makes his job more interesting for him and also brings a lot of joy to those around him. A great example of why it is important we all recognize our own creativity and live an artistic life.

Don’t see a video? Click this link.

10 Free Writers Tools To Help You Get Ready For National Novel Writing Month

daryle@artpalaver.com — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:00:09 +0000

Are you ready for a month of literary abandon? If you have a novel in you that has been waiting to get out now is the time to get ready and write it. Because November is National Novel Writing Month and during the month you’ll find great resources and a lot of support over at www.nanowrimo.org.

You still have a week to prepare and get your things in order so that you’re able to write that novel so I thought I’d point you in the direction of some great free resources to help you write.

Evernote is a great way to save and keep track of all those ideas you find and all the research you do on the internet while drafting your novel.
yWiter is a free word processor that is designed specifically for writing a novel.
Imagination Prompt is a little tool you can use if you’re feeling stuck.
JaLingo is a free dictionary that you download and ad to your desktop. Very handy.
GNU aSpell is for those writers looking for a top notch spell checker.
Celtx is for those who are drafting a screenplay, comic, or script.
ASuite is for those who need to work from various computers. It allows you to easily launch applications, files, and web pages from a movable storage device like a USB memory stick or iPod.
FreeMind is software that maps your mind. Which is very useful at all stages of a project as large as writing a novel.
Word Count Plus is a simple way to keep track of your work count if you’re writing within the Firefox browser.
Sonar is a submission tracking program. Now that you’ve written that novel get it published!

Of course there is always the tried and true $.25 lined notepad and $.10 pencil for writing that first draft. Often the simplest solution is the best solution. And the act of transcribing it into your word processor is an automatic second draft. Bonus!

My Free E-Book | Twitter Primer for Artists

daryle@artpalaver.com — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:23:29 +0000

In recent months I’ve heard a lot of questions from artists about Twitter. Mostly from people who are interested but do not know where to start when it comes to Twitter. And of course the question of “why would I join Twitter?” So I decided to right a little e-book to help out those who have not ventured into Twitter’s waters but are curious.

Let me say this from the get go, I am not one who will ever say “You have to be on Twitter!” I would not say that about anything. It is important to investigate tools and decide if they fit into your process as a working artist. The closest thing I have to a “have to” is a quality website. These days it is really good for people to be able to find you and your work online in a place you own all your pixels. But I digress, that is a topic for another post.

Today I’d like to introduce to to Twitter Primer for Artists:

It is a very basic book that covers the fundamentals of Twitter, from creating your account, to terminology, and finally optimizing your account. Think of it as a “getting started manual” for Twitter.

If you are someone who has been thinking about Twitter I suggest reading the book to help you decide if Twitter is right for you. Bottom line is that Twitter can help you connect with people anywhere in the world. And also Twitter is a lot of fun. If you do read it please let me know what you think. What did I miss? Was any part of it confusing? What parts did you wish I had gone more in depth with? What typos did my editor miss? How awesome is it?

And this is just the first in a series of books I will putting out over the coming weeks to help artists navigate the internet. Let me know what topic should be added to the list.

Click here to download Twitter Primer for Artists

How To Land Your First Gig

daryle@artpalaver.com — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:59:13 +0000

This is a guest post by Chris Hess. In this post he offers up some tips and advice to musicians wanting to hit the stage for the first time. Read the post then I’ll tell you more about Chris.

You’re a musician. Fancy. You’ve come to the conclusion that you’re ready to get out there and expose your musical self to the world. Exciting.

I want to tell you something…not to crush your hopes and dreams but to be honest with you. Most folks fancy themselves musicians these days. Most folks are excited to expose their musical selves.

“But I’m really ready. Like, REALLY ready,” you say.

Fantastic. But first, you must find a place to play and you must claim your spot on top of the stack of submissions at the venue you choose. There are ways to do this. Are they surefire? Negs. However, they will at least give your music a better chance of landing on stage rather than in the trash.

RESEARCH YOUR VENUES

Different venues cater to different crowds. Some focus specifically on one genre of music while others run the gamut. Figuring out what venues might actually host your music before you start sending out e-mails and albums will save you more time than you think. Less wasted communication efforts means more time to hone your craft, correct? Or perhaps more time to nap. Regardless, you’re not wasting your time or the time of someone reading your e-mail.

Once you have a venue picked out, take a bit to figure out how the place operates. Get to know it best you can. Have a meal with it. Get an idea of what nights they have live music. Read some history. Figure out why you want to play there. A stage is a stage, sure. But if you find out something about the venue that tickles your fancy, then that excitement should come through when time comes to make contact.

Before you make contact (please note BEFORE), do your best to figure out how the person in charge of scheduling shows prefers to receive submissions. Phone? E-mail? Snail mail? Digital Press Kits? Actual CDs? Poke around on the venue’s Web site and see if you can figure this out. If after that you still can’t find the infos, put a call in to the venue.

3,2,1…CONTACT

You’ve done your research. You’re excited about a place. You know in what format they prefer music to be submitted. Now you just have to hit send on that form e-mail you digitize to all venues or drop your CD-R with what is apparently your musical moniker scribbled on it in the mail.

I jest. Do not do either of these things. Time for some sub-points:

If Submitting Electronically

Make it as easy as possible to listen to your music. Good ways to go are links to a Sonicbids or MySpace page (I’ve always had the best luck listening on Sonicbids). If you are going to e-mail tracks to the talent buyer, make sure they are in MP3 format. Not WMA or AAC. MP3s are universal and can even be played within some e-mails, depending on the provider. If you are going to link to a personal web site, make sure your music is easily found there and in working order. If I have to poke my way around a site or download a track from some place I’m not familiar with, I usually don’t listen.
Form e-mails may save time, but I can sniff them out from a mile away. Personally, I give less priority to acts sending out these types of feelers because I’d rather have someone playing who e-mailed because they want to play at the venue where I work. At least take the time to include a personal note that shows you have some knowledge of the venue and the talent buyer’s name.
Include the dates you’re looking to play and be willing to take opening slots. It’s been said that the quickest way to kill a career is to take top billing.

If Submitting via Mail or In Person

Make me WANT to listen to your music. In other words, the presentation of your album should reflect the quality of the music. Sharpie scribbles on a CD are not becoming. Neither are cracked cases. Good album art & packaging is worth investing time or money or both in. There could be a stack of demos on my desk and if one comes across in creative or beautiful or beautifully creative packaging, I will give it priority because i am intrigued. Trust me here…I’m not the only one who thinks this way. Here is some required reading from the All Songs Considered Blog: “You Can Tell A CD By It’s Cover” (http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2008/05/you_can_tell_a_cd_by_its_cover.html)
If you drop an album off somewhere, make sure and include contact info. This sounds like common sense, but more often than you think I get a CD with a “thanks for listening” note taped to it and no contact info.
Press packs are nice if they don’t look like a book report you’d hand in to your high school lit teacher. I don’t need 4 pages of people you’ve played with and bands you’ve been in and a short history of your immediate family’s personal struggles. Let me know a bit about who you are in a concise and creative manner. When creating a press pack, be sure to reference the two tips above…and do the required reading.
If by chance you get to actually meet the person in charge of booking shows at your venue of choice, don’t walk in like you own the place. They might be nice enough to let you play their stage. Shake a hand. Be interested in the room. Thank them for at least giving you a listen…and then hand them the most beautiful thing they’re ever going to listen to (refer to the three points above…and do the required reading).

THE FOLLOW THROUGH (also known as patience)

It’s been a little while and you haven’t heard anything from the venue you researched and submitted your easily listened to/beautifully packaged music to. Patience. You can try dropping a line to the venue just to make sure they got the package or e-mail. Sometimes persistence pays off, sometimes it annoys people. Ask if you should check back again or wait to hear from them. Keep looking for venues and submit your music the right way. Eventually, you may get a spot somewhere. When this happens, there are a few things to remember:

Be on time to soundcheck and be respectful of the venue and sound tech.
PROMOTE YOUR OWN SHOW. Don’t expect that the venue will do this for you.
Keep open lines of communication leading up to the show, responding you any e-mails or phone calls you receive in a timely manner.
Be thankful. Thank the folks at the venue profusely the night of the show and then send a little note of thanks the week following the show. These notes…and the hopefully kind words they contain…do wonders. I will invite someone back to play again because I know they appreciated playing in the first place.

Those are the basics. Be brave, young one. Put your music out there. Make people want to hear it. The extra effort will be noticed. Expose your musical self in the proper manner and have a nice time.

Chris Hess is a good friend of mine so I can vouch for his experience in the music biz. He currently manages a unique not for profit coffee house in Fort Collins, Colorado, Everyday Joes. A large coffee house that is also a music venue. Because of Chris the coffee house has hosted such great musicians as Trace Bundy, Sleeping at Last, David Bazan, Katie Herzig, Tickle Me Pink, and Danielle Ate The Sandwich just to name a few. More of Chris’s words can be found on the Everyday Joe’s blog and Chris’s personal blog Whiskey and Cardigans.

The Results From Your Actions Fuel Your Belief In Yourself

daryle@artpalaver.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:44:07 +0000

You started by recognizing your potential to make a living as a full time artist. This potential caused you to take action. The actions you took started to produce results. And from those results you really begin to believe in yourself and your potential. The process has come full circle.

I think that belief is the most exciting part of this whole cycle. Belief is the part where you start to realize that you were not crazy thinking you had potential. Belief comes from making sales, being accepted to a show, being awarded a grant, or being featured in an article, just to name a few results. It comes from the results that reinforce the notion of your potential, solid outside validation that you are indeed a working artist.

It is important that when you get results that foster belief in yourself that you start the process over and once again look at your potential. Small victories hint at the potential of larger ones. You will see even more potential in yourself which will allow you take more and bigger action which will produce even better results than before, which will get you to an even stronger belief in yourself. A cycle of growth and goals begins.

I quickly created this crude diagram to help illustrate that cycle:

Told you it was crude, but hopefully you get the point. Just remember to look at your results and believe in yourself.

One last time…

Here we are again with one last film clip from The Matrix. This one makes its point in about 20 seconds. Our here Neo has been taught that no one can stand up to an “agent.” That when you see an agent all you can do is run because everyone who has ever fought an agent has died. In this scene Neo looks at his escape route and then remembers the actions and the results that got him to this point and he believes in himself enough to turn and fight the agent.

Click here if you don’t see a video player.

Remember these four steps:

Step 1: Recognize your potential.
Step 2: Take action.
Step 3: Learn from your results.
Step 4: Believe in yourself.

And…

You can make a living with your art!

Potential Plus Action Produces Results

daryle@artpalaver.com — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:25:15 +0000

After you’ve recognized your potential as an artist and that has sparked you to take action the next thing that will happen is you’ll start to see results. That is just how the universe works, actions always produce results. And this is when things can start to get exciting for you as an artist. For you see results bring all sorts of great things.

Before we go any further I will let you know there are “good” and “bad” results from your actions. But when you really think about it “bad” results are just lessons in how not to do something which is just as valuable and helps move you toward your goals as an artist. You could almost say there are no bad results. It is hard to know which Thomas Edison quote to use here because he has so many that apply. I like this one:

“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.” ~Edison

We have to talk about those undesired results because I am very aware that those negative results can become a great excuses to give up on your potential, to stop taking action, and find yourself back at zero. I hear the excuses all the time, “I’ve had a website for years and never sold one piece on it.” That statement is a reason to believe that art, especially your art, can not be sold online. That selling art online or anywhere is something other people do, not you. In that example the artist usually took one action, created a web site, and stopped there. Adopting the classic “build it and they will come attitude.” Since the site was built and the desired outcome was not achieved more actions must be taken.

You have to move your mind back to step one, potential, because your potential has not changed, it is still there. You know your potential is there but the actions you are taking is not bringing out that potential. Adjust and continue to take action and producing results. The most important thing is that you are getting results. Which is a lot more than you get if you’re still waiting to take action. Results become your guide, through them you learn what works, what gets your art sold, what to keep doing more of, and what to stop doing.

Results move your recognized potential toward realized potential.

The movie illustration continues…

Okay I saved this for the end because I know I may be testing my reader’s patience with using an old science fiction movie as an example to how you can make a living as an artist. Hang in there, this series is almost done. In this scene we pick up our hero, Neo, near the end of the film. Early on he realized his potential and began taking actions. At first small steps moving toward that potential Now he is taking bold and drastic actions and in this scene it gets mixed results. But overall it moves him closer to realizing his potential.

Use this link if you’re having trouble viewing the video.

Step 1: Recognize your potential.
Step 2: Take action.
Step 3: Learn from your results.

Sunday Art Video | Sleeping At Last

daryle@artpalaver.com — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Sundays are such days of leisure. A great day for flopping and watching. This Sunday we have an art video that hits your eyes and your ears.

It was created by Javan Iveny using paper cutouts for stop animation to go along with the song Green Screens by the band Sleeping at Last.

Enjoy:

Green Screens by Sleeping At Last from Javan Ivey on Vimeo.