5 Things Artists Are Doing To Limit Their Art Sales

(Transcription)

Ann Rea (00:00):
Hi, my name is Ann Rea and I’m an artist just like you. And I’m also the founder of the Making Art Making Money program. And today I want to talk about five things that artists commonly do that are actually limiting their success. So if you’re doing any one of these five things, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. So I’ve made some notes, because I want to make sure that I cover these things. And I guess one thing we have to start with is the premise of what is success. So I’m going to start since I’m the founder of the Making Art Making Money program. I’m going to start with the premise that selling your art means success to you. If you don’t care about selling your art, then this doesn’t apply to you. You’ve got yourself a very expensive, although respectable hobby, and so it’s not for you. But if you’re someone who is a fine artist and you want to sell more of your art, then you don’t want to miss these things.

Ann Rea (00:54):
So let’s talk about the first the first thing. So first of all, if you’re entering art contest, oh my gosh! You are wasting a tremendous amount of your limited time, your limited energy and your resources. The only contest that you should be entering is the contest for your target market or your niche’s time and attention. Now if you don’t know what niche means, I’m going to cover that at the end of this little chat. But that is the only contest you want to be entering. You’re literally paying for rejection. So art contest organizers typically pay, you know, you have to pay them a fee for the privilege of showing your art to some self appointed critics and judges. Now what’s going to happen? You’re going to get rejected.  What’s going to happen after you get rejected? Well, you’re not going to feel great.

Ann Rea (01:50):
It’s just going to undermine your confidence and undermine your focus. Yet you’ve actually paid someone to reject you. Now who cares what some self-appointed judge thinks? Is that what really matters? Isn’t that what your customers, your collectors think? Isn’t that what matters to you? That should be your focus. So art contests, again, really, the only people who win art contests are the organizers themselves. And they’re literally accountable to no one. So a student of mine, and I did a little calculation, and we basically counted how many times this one particular art contest organizer was a prestigious art contest organizer. How many admissions that they stated they had accepted, right? And then we calculated how much time they had to actually review all of these applications. All of these submissions. We also calculated how much money they charged for all of these submissions.

Ann Rea (02:58):
And what we figured out was they basically had less than eight seconds to look at each one of these submissions. So, I mean, there’s really no time to actually review the submissions. And it’s not uncommon for these art contests to be rig. And I don’t care how prestigious they are. Shame on art museums who are getting in on this game as a secondary revenue stream. Again, entering art contest is futile. It’s a waste of time. It sets you up for rejection, and it costs you money. I’d rather you focus your limited time, energy and money in finding your niche and finding customers that you can sell your art versus show your art. Okay. So that’s number one. Number two, let’s talk about these juried shows. Juried shows are no better than art contest. Again, they’re asking artists to pay the self appointed judges, however prestigious

Ann Rea (03:54):
they assert that they are pay them a fee so that they are, let’s face it, likely to be rejected. Okay? So again, you want to take your limited time, energy and money and focus that on connecting with your collectors. That’s the only attention that matters, your niche. I’m going to actually define what I mean by niche in a second. So again, if you want to limit your success as an artist, enter art contests. If you want to limit your success as an artist, enter juried shows. I can tell you that no one gives a damn about your CV or your resume listing all of your prestigious exhibitions. They either perceive value in what you have to offer at the price you have to offer it for, or they don’t. They don’t ever ask for a resume. I mean, think about it this way.

Ann Rea (04:46):
If you walked into a beautiful designers boutique, and you found the dress of your dreams and you tried it, you wanted to try it on, right? You wouldn’t say, let me see your resume. You’d say, where can I try this on? Right? So, and I’ve never, ever, ever had an a fluent collector, asked me for a resume. The only one who wants your resume is your art representative. So you’ve got to read two things that you don’t want to do. If you don’t want to limit your success. The third thing is discounting. Yes. Angela says, “Try again next time.” Of course they want you to try again next time, because then you’re going to have to pay them again. So again, the third one thing is discounting. Discounting is a horrible thing to do. If you’re selling fine art, you are selling a luxury product.

Ann Rea (05:40):
Let me hear me again. If you’re selling art, you’re selling a luxury product. Do you think you can walk into Tiffany’s and get a bunch of discounts? No, the price is the price because it’s a luxury. So you have confidence in your prices. If you need to adjust them, adjust them. But once you’ve discounted your art, you do two things that damage your prospects. Number one, you’ve immediately been very unfair to every single person who you’ve asked to pay you full price. Number two, you immediately damage your reputation as an artist. Oh, and number three, you’ve devalued your art. So there is the short term, and there’s a long-term. The third thing that you want to avoid so that you don’t limit your success as an artist is discounting your art. All right. Now let’s go to number four, donations. A lot of artists will donate their art in a lame attempt for Goodwill marketing.

Ann Rea (06:43):
Maybe it’s a very fancy fundraiser. Well, here’s the thing. The problem is that when an artist, at least here in the United States, donates their art, the only deduction available to you is not for your time and your talent. It’s just for the materials itself, that’s it. And if you donate it to an auction, for example, here’s what’s going to happen. It’s going to be sold at what? A discount. I cannot tell you how many artists I have heard from over the years who are really proud to tell me that their art is in museum collections. When I asked them how much art they’ve actually sold, it’s little to none. So that is not the way to go about it. I’ll give you a little story. I explained that reality to a man who asked me if I would donate a painting to an auction that he felt very passionate about

Ann Rea (07:37):

and I’d never heard of, and explained to him that “No, I don’t discount, but if you buy my art and you discount my art, then you will be able to benefit from the tax. Write off.” So you know what? He didn’t buy one painting. He bought two paintings. So don’t donate your art. All right? And then here’s the fifth thing. When you don’t know your niche and I’m going to cover exactly what that means, and you start spending money on advertising, you’re going to lose a lot of money on advertising. Okay? So unless, you know, your niche do not pay for advertising. I cannot tell you how many students come to me in the Making Art Making Money program having wasted thousands upon thousands of dollars. Many of them have worked with marketing firms, but those marketing firms didn’t know what the hell they were doing.

Ann Rea (08:31):

And my poor students wound up in debt paying not only the marketing firm, but also paying for the advertising costs. Until you know your niche, do not pay for advertising. So what is your niche? It’s not a corner in the wall. What knowing your niche means is it you know three things. Number one, you know exactly who wants to buy your art. Okay? And number two, you know exactly why they want to buy it. And number three, you know where to go find more people just like them. So that’s every business, every successful business, and every successful artist knows their niche. They know who wants to buy what they have to offer. They know who it is. They know why they want to buy, why they’re compelled to buy, and where to go find more people just like them. Until you know your niche,

Ann Rea (09:22):

you’re going to be incredibly limited. Now, if you want to learn more about how a 4-step process, a proven process that I’ve developed over the past 15 years to identify your niche, I call it the 4-part code. Then I’m going to invite you to apply to my art and money masterclass. Now I’m going to be perfectly upfront with you. It is an application, and I’m actually going to look at the application. If it looks like I can help you. Well, then I’m going to invite you to the Art and Money Master Class. But I may ask you a few questions just to be certain that I can help you. If it doesn’t look like I can help you, I will still try to give you some resources to help you move forward. Because the fact is this, this is an application process.

Ann Rea (10:06):At this point in my life. I am not interested in helping every single artist out there. I only am interested in helping artists who really are willing and ready to help themselves. And if that’s you, I’m willing and ready to help you. So go ahead and apply. There’s a link somewhere in the comments. I don’t know where, and thank you for your time and attention. Remember these five things that are limiting or could be limiting your success. You are much better off finding your niche and sidestepping all this. I heard this word today, “bullshittery.” That bullshittery of art contests. The bullshittery of juried shows, the bullshittery of discounting your art, the bullshittery of donating your art. And that is really not the way to go. Remember, your art is a luxury. Have some respect for yourself and for your prices and learn who wants to buy your art.

Ann Rea (11:06):

You don’t need mass exposure. You need to understand your niche, which is just really a small group of people. And that’s all you need. And you can be incredibly successful with that very small and defined niche. Thank you for your time and attention. Crystal says “Don’t be known as the discount artists and sell yourself short.” Absolutely. Do not do that because it’s the worst thing you can possibly do. If you discount your art, you are really undermining the value of your art and you are really compromising your reputation as an artist. So have integrity around your prices. All right then, I invite you to apply to the Art and Money Master Class. If it looks like I can help you, I’ll let you know. And if it doesn’t look like it can, like I can help you. I will let you know, but I’ll try to point you in the right direction. Thank you very much for listening.