Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

How to Start Your Own Art Publishing Company

I received a request by email to weigh in on a post at the Wet Canvas General Art Business forum today. The title of the thread is How to Start Your Own Art Publishing Company. My answer turned out to be even more lengthy than the lengthy question. To save you the trouble of logging in over there, I have reposted here:

With advances in technology is it feasible to become your own publishing company today?

Both my wife and I are full-time artists and we feel, and many others have said, that our works would do well as prints and cards. We know this is true, at least on a small scale, as we already do sell prints regionally (printed on our own Epson 2200 printer) and those have done fairly well...but what does it take to go to the national level?

My wife has been with one of the largest art publishing companies for 6 years now. She makes 10% of the wholesale cost, and the results have been disappointing, about $1,000 a year average paid out to us. Also, the company has been hurting recently as they try to figure out this tough economy, and sometimes they even have to miss payments and then will double up on the next payment....obviously not a good sign (payments made quarterly). This is one reason I've been wondering if it's a wise thing to publish ourselves and keep the full profit?

Our niche or specialty is painting animals. Obviously we can't print enough out on our own little Epson printer, so we need to find out:

1) Are there larger personal printers now that can produce prints fast enough and economically enough? Or, do individual images still need to be shipped off to a large commercial printer and printed out in the hundreds or thousands? If so, are there competitive printers in the USA still, or is everything done in China/asia?

2) I realize that the first few years require a lot of work going to gift shows, art shows, trade shows in order to become known. Also, to expand ones web presence as much as possible. Any other venues or ways to get ones name 'out there'?

What are some other thoughts/ideas/considerations on all this?

Do you know of any self-publishers who are doing well? I recently came across http://www.annemadecards.com/ and http://trollart.com/
I assume they do well as I've come across them now in quite a few shops. Of course that's just an assumption as I dont know for sure. You can see that 'AnneMade' sells her cards for $1.50 each....so I'm assuming she's getting these printed in China?

There's also big names like Mary Engelbright and Jodi Bergsma. They are big now and control their own future, but I'd like to learn exactly how they did it when they started out. Of course, today is obviously a much different time than just 10 years ago, so how much would the old ways even work today?

One big reason I'm considering this direction is because we received a relatively small inheritance (less than $25K) and it's the only 'freebie' we're ever going to get really. So do we dink it away on what-not, or invest in this self-publishing idea? I know that's not a lot of money anymore, but perhaps with advances in printer/computer technology...it's enough??

Right now, with the Epson, we print with archival inks, and these are not cheap! I'm thinking more along the lines if one prints out their own images on a high volume personal printer...on card stock, with regular inks...and then perhaps varnish with a UV varnish. I know these will eventually still fade, but will at least be initially cheaper to produce (and sell more reasonably). If there arent good personal printers in this regard, how about getting inexpensive postcards printed (you see their ads in magazines) and turning those into prints or even greeting cards? I'm just kind of thinking out loud now at this point.

If one goes to a big gift show, they need to either have on hand a large inventory, or the ability to go home and produce orders quickly. It would just be so nice to be in control of the entire process rather than have to deal with commercial printers, handing over chunks of money per every image.

I hope I havent rambled too much here. I just wanted to get the ball rolling as I know there are smart/helpful people here who will have some thoughts and insights on this. I was also hoping this could be a thread of interest to the other artists who might also be thinking of doing their own self-publishing on a larger (even national) scale.

Many thanks....

My reply is:

I received a request by email to comment on this thread, which was inspiring. As much as I would like to post regularly, working full-time leaves little time to participate here. Between spending 50 hours weekly on the day gig, maintaining my Art Print Issues blog (now approaching 400 posts), and promoting the newly released second edition of How to Profit from the Art Print Market, where it remains a bestseller on the Amazon.com "Business of Art" category, and a couple of other projects, I run out of time and energy to get here and some other boards where I like to post.

So putting excuses aside, I do have some comments for Olde Bob. Yes, it is still feasible to start your own art publishing company. In many ways, it is the best of times to do this. Yes, the economy and market changes have created huge challenges, but how art is made and marketed has changed also.

As never before, artists now have more new and effective ways to control the direct distribution of their art. With the changes on the gallery scene, I think it is incumbent on every artist to create direct distribution of their art. When you do, you can sell less and keep more. You don't keep the full 50% of retail you pay galleries, a big chunk of that goes to marketing.

There are digital printers that print relatively fast and inexpensive, but not like a four-color offset press. The difference is in inventory. If you bet wrong, you end up with stacks of paper and no where to sell them. I think printing in large quantities only makes sense for established artists who have volume buyers seeking their work. Sending to China creates potential quality issues, expensive shipping and long lead times. Again, more suited for established players than newbies.

Working for a publisher was never going to be something that would pay all the bills for most artists. If you consider, your wife's publisher only made $10,000 from selling her work, you can figure if you were the publisher, it would not be a living from those sales. Publishers have big overhead costs that you would absorb trying to compete with them.

Tradeshows do not pack the same punch as just a few years ago. Look at what has happened to most of them. I am still shell-shocked that the Decor Expo Atlanta show has failed to produce in the past three years. This was once a show with 2,000 exhibitors and an absolute "must attend" for virtually every poster publisher and many self-published artists as well. Art business related trade magazines are hanging on by threads.

Artyczar offers good advice. You would be better served, IMHO, carving out a niche based on quality and uniqueness with the aim of developing a loyal collector base. I wrote a blog post titled, Build an Art Market - Profit from Your Passion. It was about how artist, Ashley Goldberg, built a $100k annual business on Etsy and ended up being featured in an Inc Magazine cover story about how it is possible to follow your passion and create a dream job.

By your questions and references to various artists, you seem to be more interested in the gift and licensing market than the art print market. That's fine. I advise trying to tackle one or the other, but not both at the same time. It is tough enough to get traction in one of these arenas without trying to manage trying both.

You mention the $25,000 inheritance and then talk about how expensive archival inks are. These are clues to your situation and your thinking about things. My advice would be to decide to put a small portion ($5-7,000?) of that into marketing your work, and putting the rest aside in safe investments for the future.

Regarding printing your own work; there are many hidden costs in printing your own work. There is lost time and money when things do not come out as expected. The investment in high quality image capture equipment can easily exceed $25,000 and then you have to learn how to use it properly. You are adding this time and expense to making your art and marketing it. How much cheaper can you do your own printing? I would not be at all surprised for most artists, after all the costs are included, the lost time from the studio, and hidden expenses are added up, that the savings amount to less than 10% for work produced on the amateur level.

I love your optimism about going to a big show and coming back with a suitcase full of orders. It shows you have the ability to think big about your career. Unfortunately, the reality for most first-timers at shows, even back in the good old days, is that the likelihood is what you learn will be greater than what you earn. In other words, it takes more than one big event to turn on the big orders. It takes consistent marketing.

Perhaps the most important thing to consider, and this is often the hardest thing for artists to do, is to be able to honestly and brutally evaluate the marketability of your work. Your perspective is warped by being too close, your family and friends are not reliable because they love you and want the best for you and they likely have no art marketing experience to weigh the commercial viability of your work.

At the heart of the business every successful artist lies the ability to create work that resonates well with a large section of the potential market. Making stuff people want to buy and want to continue to buy is a crucial ingredient. It is not always about how your work is better than so and so's. It is about how many people are willing to open their wallet and vote with their disposable income on how much they like your work.

I can't judge how well your will do, often experienced publishers can't judge it either. The final arbiter are volume buyers and retail buyers. If you can learn to tap into their needs you can build a successful print career. If your work is less accessible, more esoteric, or just not as commercially viable as others, you can still build a market. You may have to work harder at identifying where your buyers are and how to to reach them.

Learning how to reach them means being a student of the art business. Most artists will seek teachers far and wide to learn how to apply paint, but they won't invest any time in learning how the top producers built their businesses.

The information is not laid out neatly in Wikipedia, you have to do your own sleuthing to ferret out the details and then spend more time figuring how to make them apply to your business. Fortunately, the cost of doing this is more in time than in money, which leaves you more money to spend on your marketing.

Lastly, the tools to get your work directly to your collectors are the best ever. I think every artist should have a website. Period. Most should have a blog. Working on using social media can be the single most important thing you will do for direct distribution of your work.

Whatever you do, don't undercut your partners, galleries and dealers, specifically. Treat them fairly and honestly and with integrity. The best way to find them is by working concentric circles around where you live. How many potential galleries and alternative spaces that could repeatedly sell your art do you have in a 300-mile radius around your home? Probably enough to support your business if you are successful in getting into 10-20% of them.

This has turned into a piece so long, I am going to repost on Art Print Issues. Best wishes to Olde Bob and thanks to TC Steele for inviting my comments.

This has turned into a piece so long, I am going to repost on Art Print Issues. Best wishes to Olde Bob and thanks to TC Steele for inviting my comments. Of course, I would be remiss from my own advice to artists, where I admonish them to be their own best self-promoter, if I did not encourage interested readers here to order my book.

If you want to learn more about the art print market and how to make a go of it in today's changing challenging environment, my book will be a useful resource for you.

What Is the Secondary Art Market?

In order to address the question of what constitutes the secondary fine art market, you must first know what makes the primary art market. The answer, as with many things in the broad art market, is complicated. Since the broad secondary art market includes very expensive work by contemporary masters to relatively inexpensive four-color offset lithographs, you will find the terminology is used differently depending on circumstances.

The essence of a primary sale is the first transaction where art is sold, in most cases. However, complexities arise when you study the distribution chain.

It is simple when a deal is made between artist and collector. The situation is less clear when an artist makes a wholesale sale to a gallery that then offers the work at full retail. In this instance, the retail transaction made by the gallery is considered the primary market transaction. Of course, there are other methods of first sale to consider.

Defining a secondary market sale

A secondary market sale occurs when the original buyer decides to put the work for sale a second time. Whereas this sale is most often initiated by a collector seeking to sell the work, there are cases when a gallery will put pieces directly into the secondary market. This usually not good because it means the gallery has too much inventory and too little demand for the work. No gallery is going to sell through the secondary market when it has buyers for pieces in the primary market.

The venues for the secondary art market range from the toniest auction houses and private dealers to established brokers and galleries all the way down to eBay. In November 2009, The Economist ran a piece titled “New or Secondhand?” that accurately depicted the upper end of the market. The information and concepts the article discusses do not apply to most readers here. Alan Bamberger has an useful illustrative article, "Retail Gallery Prices May be More Than Art is Worth," on his ArtBusiness.com Website.

The art print market is divided

For our purposes, we are here to discuss the secondary art market as it pertains to the art print market that includes selling reproductions as prints. In the art business, there is a bifurcation in the print market. That is, there are those fine art prints made in time-honored fashion which, by the nature of their creation, are limited. These would include etchings, woodcuts, aquatints, engravings, serigraphs, stone lithographs and so forth. See Wikipedia for more details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printmaking.

The other component of the print market primarily is made up of reproductions of original art. Some would call this the decorative art market, while others reserve that term for the open edition and poster market. How you describe it has as much to do with what end of the market you derive your income as anything.

If you are an artist, dealer or collector involved with etchings, your view of a giclée is likely to be a decorative reproduction. On the other hand, if you make your living selling giclees, or some other form or fine art reproductions, you may take issue with your work being called decorative art. Unfortunately, you can only control how you market your work.

Different processes create different perspectives

If you study the work and promotional information offered over the years by artists and galleries at the New York ArtExpo, I doubt you would find one exhibitor characterizing their work as decorative art – especially those who sell limited editions. It completely natural they would use descriptions designed to help sell their work.

The International Fine Print Dealers Association (IFPDA) also holds an annual show in Manhattan. You will find this small, but important, group of dealers generally eschews representing much of the work found at shows such as ArtExpo New York. Most will contend, as Kathryn Markel does on her Website, that the work found there is “wall decor."

While not stating wall decor is necessarily a bad thing, dealers, such as Kathryn Markel, would not encourage buyers to participate in paying the set prices for much of the higher priced work at ArtExpo. Their reasons are the works primarily are reproductions and that much of it these days is digital art. And, there you have the bifurcation in the art print market.

The diminishing secondary art market

When it comes to the secondary market, there is an active market for many artists whose work is found at shows such as ArtExpo New York. You will also find many other artists whose work has transcended the "wall decor" mentality. In other words, it is a mixed bag. Arguably, the best example of a secondary market player is Art Brokerage. It carries a huge selection of work from a wide range of artists, including many who have exhibited at ArtExpo over the years and many others who have never set foot inside it.

There is an implication that art reaching the secondary market will have appreciated in value having become more collectible along the way. For some artists, this is accurate, but for the few who enjoy seeing their art selling well above initial prices, finding an active secondary market for most is not a reality, especially in their lifetime. It is one of the reasons I have argued for not having limited editions of fine art digital reproductions.

There is a bit of a conundrum here

In today’s market, if an artist is productive and continues to put new editions in the market place, it tends to lower the resale of earlier pieces. Although in the boom years of limited editions prints, this dynamic was not always the case, and is not now for select artists. If artists combats the problem of lowered prices on the secondary market with small editions, of say 200 or less, they cap their income for that work and need to either generate higher and higher prices for their new work or put more editions in the pipeline to maintain a steady income, both actions have consequences.

Should artists be paid a resale royalty?

When it comes to the secondary market, artists do not participate in the inflated prices. Only California has droit de suite laws where artists are legally ensured a cut of the proceeds when it is resold in the state. The legislation is known as the California Resale Royalty Act. This type of law is more common in European Union countries. I doubt they will ever move beyond the borders of California.

Until the past few years, you could go to the back of Art Business News or Art World News and find several pages of small ads from dealers in the secondary art market. In a very telling sign of the times, those publications are today much smaller in overall ad pages and secondary market ads have nearly vanished. Coincidentally, in another telling sign, if you research art prints, particularly giclée prints on the sites of secondary market art brokers, you will find many pieces being offered well below their original price.

In the art business, more than secondary market is hurting

Another factor in the market that has diminished with trade magazine ad pages are secondary art market  Websites offering works while having very little inventory. Attorney, Joshua Kaufman, a long time columnist for Art Business News, wrote, “The Online Secondary Market: Resource or Parasite?” It is an informative piece detailing how some rouges operators business methods were having a negative effect on the market place. It also warned that much of the way they were operating was illegal.

While we like to think it was the industry policing itself that drove many of them out of the market, it was eroding market and economic conditions that took away their incentive. What remains to be seen for the industry is whether the market will return to a point where artists using the giclée medium will see an active market with rising prices for their work on the secondary market.

Where is the print market headed?

My estimation is it will be very difficult for the market to bring us back to the old days of a booming profitable secondary art market for several reasons. First, most artists working in multiple these days are using the giclée or digital printing format. I do not believe the public clamors for limited edition giclées. I think it would rather pay a little less and get to enjoy the art. This notion is supported by evidence some longtime publishers in the giclée market are moving away from creating limited editions in this market. Lastly, once there is a widespread established pattern of digital prints not increasing in value, it will be very difficult to reverse such a trend.

This may be a market with a beautiful creative product, but it also a business that follows trends. If the trend grows stronger to open editions, it will depress the secondary market for fine art print reproductions. That is not all bad. I think it will force the art to be sold for its enjoyment rather than the implied notion it will increase in value. Buyers of giclees found before the current economic crunch they could not recover close to the sale price of prints they bought when they tried to take them back to galleries, sell them on eBay, or through an art broker. Things surely have not improved in recent years.

How should an artist thinking about getting into the print market proceed?

I think giclees are a wonderful medium to help sell more work. Rather than looking to maximize the sale of a limited edition, I suggest keeping the edition open. There is no reason the pieces cannot still be numbered using your own open numbering convention. If the artist’s work does become collectible, then the lower numbers will likely have some higher than retail secondary market value.

For those who feel a need for limited editions, I would consider producing a small edition of 200 or less that is hand-embellished by the artist. I believe if it is clearly stated the edition will be accompanied by lower-priced open edition pieces, there would not be conflict with buyers. Certainly, recently retired artist, Terry Redlin, was able for decades to sell both open and limited editions of the same images without creating a problem for his self-publishing company or the dealers who carried his work. I am guessing and would suggest that in such a situation the limited edition have exclusive dimensions.

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West Coast Art & Frame Show & SmARTist Telesummit week.

Last week was a bit hectic. It started Monday with a presentation to the 2010 SmARTist Telesummit attendees on my topic of creating a second income through the art print market.

While I have conducted many seminars via the telephone and Internet, this one was different. After a brief introduction from show producer, Ariane Goodwin, I was off to see how deep into a 41-page slide presentation I could get in 45 minutes.

What made this unique was I talked with no feedback as the attendees' phones were muted. Like most speakers, I prefer getting vocal or visual clues, so this was a challenging way to present. I trust my listeners took value from the presentation. The talk was intended to be enlightening regarding the print market with some basic art marketing concepts included.

Finish one presentation and hit the road for the WCAF Show

Once the SmARTist seminar was over, my wife, Mary, and I jumped in the car for the 300-mile trip to Las Vegas where the first day of the Ninth Annual West Coast Art & Frame Show was underway. There were lots of old friends to see from the art print market, including many I had not seen in years.The print side art business is still in flux and I was eager take the pulse of the market.

Hat's off to the Gherman family and their long-time employees for producing another consistent show in Las Vegas. Watching them and their staff from Picture Framing Magazine interact with exhibitors and buyers was educational in itself. They work very hard at maintaining high touch relationships with all their constituents. The results are proof their efforts pay dividends. I did not encounter sour grapes anywhere, which is remarkable for any tradeshow at anytime. At this juncture, I suppose exhibitors are pleased for a decent chance to get exposure to buyers.

Seeing old friends still producing great work with a hopeful attitude was invigorating

Since I sold John and Laurie Chester of Wild Apple Graphics their first ads and tradeshow spaces, I was thrilled to help them celebrate 20 years in business at their booth. I also realized I was the rep to first sell trade ads and show space to to Michael and Susan Singleton' for their Sagebrush Fine Art and likewise to Nasser Shortorbani and Laurie Downing of Poems Art Publishing. Those companies are just a few years junior to Wild Apple. To find myself decades later still in the art print business with such friends is a precious rewarding experience.

Trade media promoting new venues for Decor Expo Atlanta and ArtExpo New York

This show offered a chance to visit in person with the intrepid bunch from Next Step Media. These former workmates included Kim Feager, Kim Klatt, Renee Pinner and Kristin Stefek Brashares. With Kim Feager's leadership as publisher and new CEO, they salvaged Decor Magazine and the Decor Expo shows from being shut down and put out of business. Fred Rogers also was there. He recently joined the Decor team after years as an exec with former owners Pfingsten Publishing LLC and Summit Business Media LLC.

This group is rightfully excited about relaunching Decor Expo in Atlanta on September 11-13. They are equally thrilled to be back in the refurbished America's Gift Mart running concurrent with the Atlanta Gift Show. It would be a great tribute to them and a sign of industry resilience to see Decor Expo Atlanta roar back to life this fall. They have my fondest wishes for huge success there.

Eric Smith was there representing his Redwood Media company which rescued ArtExpo New York from letting its former owners put it out of business. Like every show producer these days, Eric has his hands full trying to put together a strong enough lineup to draw buyers. In 2010, there are no sure things in the art print market. The recent history of art business tradeshows and art consumer shows proves it.

While I have had issues with ArtExpo's previous investment banker owners, I, then as now, believe losing ArtExpo New York would be a stinging blow to artists, art publishers and the industry at large.  As such, my hope for Eric and his exhibitors is the show does well this coming March. It was a pleasure to visit with both John Haffey and Sarah Seamark who were there to cover the show for Art World News. Their trade publication has been an important voice in the art print market for decades.

In these tough times hope springs eternal ... and it is more than just wishful

Just as my experience with art print exhibitors was fun and inspiring, I found it invigorating to connect with colleagues and friends who remain stalwarts in the art trade media and art tradeshow business. Changes in market conditions have been very hard on art print publishers and harsher yet on the trade media and tradeshows supporting them. So, it was delightful to observe a universal dogged determination to succeed among these long-time industry veterans.

Despite our very difficult economic times, and with other challenges around, these professionals maintain a palpable and realistic positive outlook as they demonstrate their belief the industry they serve is prepared to create new opportunities in bringing the art print market to a new era of prosperity.

Remembering Vivian Kistler

I doubt many reading this post knew Vivian Kistler, which is a shame. You can learn more about her life and contributions to the picture framing industry here. Nevertheless, I want to offer a few words of condolence to her family, friends and co-workers. She was a remarkable dynamo who for 30 years worked tirelessly at educating picture framers.

Vivian was a larger-than-life smart, funny, sassy, no-nonsense woman who produced books, workshops, seminars, videos and other materials for the benefit of those in the picture framing business. You did not have to know, or want to know anything about picture framing, to enjoy watching her put on a seminar. It was guaranteed to be lively, humorous and spot-on with great common sense business advice. Hers is a voice and legacy that will never be known again in our industry.

Artist Drew Friedman Launches Fine Art Print Publishing Company

Dean Martin - by Drew Friedman 

Renowned illustrator Drew Friedman, in collaboration with Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon, has launched a new Web site at: DrewFriedman.net. The site is the exclusive source of fine art prints featuring new works by the iconic illustrator.

The art, much like the artist's career, is exceptional and eclectic. In our age of celebrity worship, e.g., 3 million Twitter followers for Ashton Kutcher, (no offense AK, I get you are riding the wave, but really, who cares and who are those people?), it's refreshing to find an artist who chooses mostly offbeat, anti-celebrity subjects to immortalize in his unique style.

Many who have followed this blog for the past three years know I am not a fan of limited editions for digitally printed art. That is, with the exception of very low numbers. It's arbitrary, but I have put the number at 100. Otherwise, it's just a marketing gimmick in my humble opinion.

Friedman and his experienced art professional partners have launched the site and the publishing business on a model of using the extremely low number of 30 in their editions. Now, if you are an artist who creates slowly, this can be a financial problem. On the other hand, if you can turn out the work quickly enough, a low-numbered edition model puts you in a league of your own. Friedman's achievements and oeuvre already put him in such a league. Following up with this daring and unique idea of very small edition sizes is sure to create devoted collectors for his work.

The flip side of low numbers is unlimited numbers. I'm not necessarily suggesting the idea for Drew Friedman and company, although I think it could work for them with the right image. As always, I feel the way to make unlimited editions have value is to number them sequentially. If the artist sells thousands of an image, everyone in the distribution channel, including buyers, gets to enjoy the art.

With nothing but brave conjecture to back up the theory, I go out on limb to say the low numbers of a sequentially numbered edition would have more value than higher numbers. In other words, they would be collectible despite freshly minted reproductions being available. Perhaps some other numbers would be valuable as well. If a date was painted in the picture, or perhaps the number correlating with subject's birth, death or debut date would have more value. Collectors tend to make up their own rules about what aspects make an item dear to them.

Best wishes to Drew, Irwin and Barbara for tremendous success in their new art publishing venture!

Three Art Marketing & Art Publishing Links to Make You Think!

It goes without saying, there is a great amount of very good information for visual artists to be found on the Internet. That so many put forth the effort to share what they know is remarkable. These folks, all of whom have full lives, are to be commended for their efforts.

We'll start with post from Myron Arndt. He has been a publisher in the art print market for many years. Long enough to have observed the many twists and turns this market segment has taken. I'm sure he's like me and would not have predicted a few years back how much the open edition print market has changed. Undaunted, he provides some straightforward advice in his Art Business Thoughts blog post titled: 10 Simple Things Artists Should Know About Reproductions. As the title implies, the information is simple, but knowing and paying attention to it can make a big difference when you are gearing up for the print market.

The art market is full of terms that have multiple meanings. For instance, ask 10 people what is a print and you get my drift. This next link, Getting Your Artwork Published, is from gifted pen of Lori Woodward Simons. Now, when I hear getting art published, I go straight to thinking about someone like Myron Arndt at his Island Art Publishers taking on an artist's work.

Not so fast, Lori's article is all about getting your work published in a print magazine. The same term takes a different meaning under her tutelage. Her article, published on Clint Watson's splendid Fine Art Views blog, where she is a regular contributor, gives great insight borne from years of her personal experience and observation.

I've long been a proponent of getting publicity wherever possible. Lori's advice on how to go about it should be must reading for any artist seeking to get wider exposure via traditional media. Good publicity is worth its weight in gold. You just can't buy the credibility that comes with the strong implied third-party endorsement of a well placed media piece.

Now that you have some ideas for making prints and how to go about getting recognition for your work, you need some ideas on how to get it to market. Who better to give you a unique twist, one you probably haven't given much thought, than Alyson Stanfield, in her Art Marketing Action newsletter? Recently, she published a piece titled, Get People to Sell Your Art for You. The article has great ideas and links to dig further into affiliate marketing.

True to form, after hearing from her readers, she followed up with more thoughts in her Art Biz Blog to offer more clarity on the subject. You can read Is Affiliate Marketing for You? there. It asks and answers the questions about whether such marketing techniques are useful for everyone. The answer, is of course, no. As with any serious undertaking, you have to judge your fitness and desire to take on projects no matter how promising they seem. One thing is for certain, getting good solid advice from art industry veterans such as the fine folks featured here can only help your cause.

Keep It Small - Keep It All - Sage Advice from a Smart Art Marketer

Back in the day, as the well-worn phrase goes, I repped Decor magazine. At its peak, it was a huge success with a fully paid circulation and producing monthly issues with tons of advertising. In many ways, its success mirrored what can easily be considered the Golden Years of the art print market. The business boomed along with so many others that fed off the Baby Boomers coming of age who appreciated art and wanted to decorate their homes with it.

One of my advertising clients was Edward Weston. No, not the famous photographer, but another person who shared the same name. He was an entrepreneur, art aficionado, art publisher and secondary art market broker and dealer. He published works by famous people, including actress Elke Sommer, one of the most stunning blondes to ever grace the big screen. Ed was perhaps best known as having one of the best collections of Marilyn Monroe photography. Sadly, he passed away last year. I miss him still. But, he lived a good life and to the hilt as well.                     

He ran the smallest size ad, a 1/8th page unit, every month in Decor for decades. With his budget and income, he could have gone bigger. He could have done a lot of things bigger. I once asked him why he didn't publish more and have a larger staff. He looked at me and said, "Barney, I keep it small and I keep it all."

There is great wisdom in that little rhyme. It is something to consider when you are trying to decide what direction you want to take your art business, especially your art print business. In the current unsure economic client we are in today, it makes a lot of sense to heed Ed's sage advice. That is, the more you control the distribution of your work, the fewer hands it passes through, the more you will keep. It would be a good exercise to work out different scenarios so you can understand how the power of Ed's suggestion can work for you.

If you sell direct, you keep 100% less the cost of production and marketing. Any other intermediary in the chain has to be compensated. These would be galleries, online sites, publishers, dealers and art reps. I decided to self-publish my book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market, because it looked like the best deal for me. The spread between my net wholesale self-publishing and what I would get from net wholesale from a publisher was a ratio of more than 16:1.

I was confident no publisher could sell that many more books than I could on my own. Plus, I get paid much quicker than if I were with a publisher. This is assuming I would have been successful in finding one who wanted to take on the book. I believe I would have, but for me it just didn't seem to make sense to do the work of seeking representation and then get paid less as a result. So, in my own way, I've followed the advice I give artists, which is to self-publish if you have the means and marketing know-how. And, I've followed Edward Weston's advice too; both with no regrets.

Wild Wings at 40 & Wildlife Art Genre Both Going Strong!

Congrats to Wild Wings on its 40th year in the art print market!

My colleague of many years in the art print market, Larry Richardson, recently sent the interesting informative newsletter seen below. It is a bright reminder the wildlife art field is one that remains vibrant.  It was this genre that led the way to the print market's greatest sales figures in the heyday of limited edition reproductions. Artists such as Bev Doolittle, Robert Bateman and Carl Brenders, to name just a few,  became superstars in the field.

Numerous art print publishing companies such as these: Wild Wings Art, Mill Pond Press, Greenwich Workshop, Somerset House, Hadley House Publishing, Applejack Art and many others flourished alongside their superstar artists in the golden era of limited edition art prints. Though market conditions have changed, these publishers continue to produce successful print editions and introduce new artists as well.

The genre spawned two publications to serve it, Wildlife Art Magazine, which remains a stalwart in the field and USArt, which met its unfortunate demise as the mania surrounding large number limited editions lost luster in a market that ultimately became over saturated.

Here are Larry's observations and thoughts on the wildlife market:

The art of wildlife and outdoor scenes that sprang to its zenith in popularity over three decades ago is still a viable fundraising tool with organizations made up mostly of hunters and fishermen.  But even those who are not "joiners" want to decorate and daydream by looking at a beautiful, realistic scene.  Yes, realism and more so photo-realism has been kept alive by this avid group of conservation-minded individuals who in most part are not art aficionados, but nevertheless, support a segment of artists who otherwise might not pursue their chosen career. 

Like other artistic pursuits, the majority of the very successful wildlife artists made their early living in an associated field if they were lucky.  Waiting tables as a second job helped support their dreams.  The elements to become successful as a wildlife artist are found in other vocations as well. First is artistic talent that is recognized by a particular public and, yes, even exploited (read--take it to the bank).  Perseverance and initiative must be present. You don't have to be an extrovert, but having a little ability to relate to people sure helps.

HDExpo Puts Art in the Hospitality Picture

Changes in the tradeshow scene regarding the art business have been frequently reported here. The traditional industry shows such as ArtExpo and Decor Expo are well off their peak years in size, as are the publications that support them. And, the total number of shows serving the industry are at lows not seen in decades. No matter what factors you use to account for the downward trend, they are sadly there and showing no signs of resurgence.

Tradeshow Woes Are a Problem Across Many Industries

It's not just art and picture framing shows that are on their heels. You needn't look hard to find evidence of contraction in all kinds of industries. Given such a multi-industry trend is surely a cause to wonder if there are alternative shows worth either attending or exhibiting for artists and publishers.

There Are Bright Spots To Be Found

One growing show growing increasingly important to many art publishers and self-representing artists is the HDExpo. It is the sister tradeshow to Hospitality Design magazine, which also is growing in size. These entities primarily serve complete design needs for hotels, restaurants and corporate centers.

Gaining traction in this market is a way to create a steady cash flow from a distribution source outside the gallery and online channels that are top of mind for most artists. Not to say the field isn't competitive. It is, but I have always maintained there is ample room in the most crowded fields for artists who bring a fresh perspective to the scene.

Hospitality Design Magazine Publishes Largest Issue Ever

As a former trade magazine rep, I drooled with lust when I saw the most recent at-show copy of Hospitality Design. At 448-pages plus cover, it resembles a mid-size city phone book. I hadn't seen a trade pub that size since the heyday of Decor magazine's show issues for New York or Atlanta many moons ago. The combination of growing importance of the HDExpo show and the size of the magazine puts an exclamation point on their momentum and the market they represent.

Las Vegas Is a Boom Town for Home Furnishings & Hospitality Design Shows

Las Vegas is also home to the World Market Center. It is the host site of the Las Vegas Market, which also is bucking the downward trend as a huge fast growing international home furnishing marketplace. The common wisdom for decades was no venue could successfully compete against the IHFC show and the concurrent shows in High Point, NC for the home furnishings market.  In just a few short years, the Las Vegas Market has proven there can be a viable alternative to the IHFC.

To Be An Effective Marketer in an Industry, You Must Be a Student of It

Effective marketing is a multi-year strategy. The first stage is to become educated about potentially lucrative markets important and new to your business. If you have your own designs on seeing your originals and reproductions used in the hospitality industry, learn all you can about the shows mentioned here and the markets they represent. You likely don't have the budget to tackle them all. But spending time studying them is a great first step towards getting your foot in the door at one of them at the appropriate time.

On the HDExpo Web site, go to Expo/Exhibitor List/Product Category Search. Start with the Artwork: Prints/Reproductions/Photography category and work your way through all the other appropriate categories for ideas on companies to approach, or to see what those exhibiting are doing on their on Web sites. It will be time well spent to study this terrific resource. And, of course, if you can actually go there, all the better. This year's May 14-17 conference and May 15 -17 exhibition dates are upon us. If it's too quick for this year, tickle it as a must for 2009.

Surtex Offers Artists Yet Another Alternative to Galleries and Selling Online

The Surtex show runs May 18 - 20 at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. Surtex bills itself as a licensing show for original art and design and offers a different kind of distribution and income from the hospitality business. Surtex is a terrific venue for artists who want to license their work. It's a show to walk the first year and then to decide if paying for exhibit space makes sense. Many artists are able to make connections there by respectfully and tactfully approaching publishers and licensors when they are not otherwise busy in their booths. The better you prepare for these shows, the better your experience will be.

Something Old Something New Meet Myron Arndt & Sue C. Smith

SOMETHING NEW

A long time art print indutry veteran recently joined the ranks of art business bloggers. His name is Myron Arndt. With his list of accomplishments and breadth of knowledge, he is sure to add value to the conversation about how to help the art market, prints in particular, navigate the choppy waters surrounding it today.

An example of the valuable information Myron is publishing on his Art Business Thoughts blog is his recent post titled, Art Submission Tips. It provides insights for artists on how to properly present themselves to a publisher. One of his ventures is Island Art Publishers. From this vantage point he offers firsthand knowledge, wisdom and tips for artists considering working with a a publisher. Check him out, you'll be glad you did.

I would love to see more art print publishers join the ranks of bloggers. It would be good for them and great for the industry and artists to have them publishing their thoughts and sharing their treasure trove of experience as Myron has chosen to do. If you have contact with any publishers, let them know about Myron and suggest to them the notion of starting a blog for themselves. Tell them to contact me for ideas, guidance and resources to get started.

SOMETHING OLD

Sue C. Smith launched her Ancient Artist blog in May 2007. I love the concept; the subtitle is: On creating art in Oregon, starting a second career in art instead of retiring, developing an art marketing strategy, and philosophical discussions about art.

How many artists does that describe? A whole bunch is the answer. Boomers are shedding their past and searching for their futures in droves. The number turning 60 every day is astounding.

I think Sue is on to something with her approach. Her blog topics are wide ranging, but are all nonetheless interesting. Much of her Ten Things You Can Do Now dovetails perfectly with my own philosophy of developing an art career.

Best wishes to both these bloggers to keep adding to the art business and art marketing blogging conversation.

ArtExpo Las Vegas & Decor Expo Atlanta Shows Mirror the Market - Part Two

The New Millennium Brings Change and New Challenges to the Industry

The early years of the 21st century set the stage for major changes within the industry. For example, against a trend of declining trade magazine ad pages, the industry witnessed the largest shows ever. There was the demise of the PPFA (Professional Picture Framers Association) shows as stand alone entities, and the rise and success of the industry’s only regional framing and art show in the form of the West Coast Art & Frame show. 1999 brought the sale of the Commerce Publishing Company's ABC (Art Buyer's Caravan), Galeria and Frame-o-rama show and DECOR magazine to Pfingsten Publishing LLC.

The Commerce Publishing Company sale to Pfingsten Publishing LLC led to its acquisition of Advanstar Communications' ArtExpo shows, Art Business News magazine and other related media and show properties. The Pfingsten's ownership also brought the end of CPC’s regional art & framing tradeshows. Deemed marginally profitable and contracting in size, the new investment firm owner cancelled shows in California, Orlando, Dallas, Louisville and rotating shows elsewhere. The closing of these shows was an early indication of both changing market conditions and different management philosophy.