Slow Time: Recovering the Natural Rhythms of Life

April 21st, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in Time for Art? | 2 Comments »

Waverly’s Turn (cont.):
In the old days it was location, location, location.
Now, it’s attitude, attitude, attitude.

The story: Part 3 - A Season For Marketing

(Waverly Fitzgerald, our Slow Time Lady of smARTist™ 2008, continues.)

I’ve also found it useful to shift my attitude towards marketing. I used to think marketing meant promoting myself. Now I think of it as a way to find my readers, a subtle distinction but one that makes it much easier to do.

That is, now I am looking for the people who will appreciate what I do, rather than trying to convince total strangers to appreciate my work.

When I thought of marketing as selling my work, it seemed self-serving and arrogant. After all, who did I think I was? But, once Slow Time was published, I recognized that marketing was a way to be of service to the book. That took my ego out of it. Now my job is simply to help the book reach readers who want more time in their lives.

My ultimate goal is to find ease and joy in marketing. I want my readers to come to me. I want people to invite me to write for them (Thank you, Ariane!) But first, they have to know that I’m the person to come to for information about seasonal holidays, organic time management, slow time. And until I have more requests than I can honor, more orders than I can fulfill, I’ll go on doing my marketing, easily and naturally, one week at a time.

Your turn:
What’s your attitude toward marketing your work? (Note: you do not have to be ‘pretty’ here. Rant ‘n rave if you want!)

—————————
Waverly Fitzgerald is the author of Slow Time: Recovering the Natural Rhythms of Life, which contains twelve weeks of ideas and exercises to help you develop a more spacious sense of time. Her web site, School of the Seasons, offers a monthly holiday calendar, articles on celebrating seasonal time and a free bi-monthly newsletter containing ideas for aligning with natural time. She also blogs about her experiences as an amateur naturalist learning about the plants in her Seattle neighborhood on her blog, Living in Season.

Part 2 - A Season For Marketing

April 18th, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in Time for Art? | No Comments »

Waverly’s Turn (cont.):
One of the greatest keys to creative flow is flexibility. When you see something is not working. Or life gives you a new perspective…do you give it a whirl? Waverly did…

The story: Part 2 - A Season For Marketing

(Waverly Fitzgerald, our Slow Time Lady of smARTist™ 2008, continues.)

Throughout May I kept putting off doing my marketing (I was in the throes of a creative project) and felt dissatisfied at the end of the year because I could not point to any publications.

Towards the end of the year I was talking to a fellow writer and writing teacher, Priscilla Long, and she told me her goal was to send out a submission a day.

She’s a poet as well as an essayist and has built up quite a body of work. Sending a poem a day to a literary journal (there are hundreds of them) seemed easier to accomplish than my marketing efforts, for instance, querying a magazine editor about an article or sending out a book proposal. But Priscilla’s commitment inspired me to adopt a more regular approach to marketing.

This year my goal is to do a submission weekly. I began a list of possible marketing efforts, which includes everything from creating a Listmania on Amazon, featuring books on time, to sending a query to Real Simple for an article on organic time management, to writing a guest blog for Ariane (Ok, that wasn’t on my list but it counts).

The list is helpful in many ways. Once a week, I look it over and choose the task that seems easiest to accomplish given my current energy and other commitments. Whenever I come up with a new idea, I add it to the list. There are more than 52 ideas on my list at present, enough to keep me busy all year. I also use the list as a checklist, marking off the tasks I complete.

I’m not really strict about my weekly deadline but when I miss a week, I try to catch up. Counting up my checkmarks as I reviewed my list for this article, I see I completed 12 tasks by the end of March. It amazes me that I was able to meet my goal so easily and with so little stress. I also notice that I’ve received three rejections but those don’t seem as painful as they would have in the past, because I know I have other irons in the fire. I can also look at my list and see that there are many more opportunities to explore.

Your turn:
What kind of lists do you use in your art world? Do they work for you? Why? Why not?

The Story: A Season For Marketing

April 15th, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in Time for Art? | 2 Comments »

My turn:

I’ve been feeling the crunch of time lately; chewing away at emails, tasting the flavor of helping clients, swallowing whole chunks of I’m-not-getting-to-what-I-want-to-do.

So I thought the perfect remedy would be Waverly Fitzgerald, the Slow Time Lady of smARTist™ 2008!

Here is a series of her time-tested ideas about helping time work for you!

The story: A Season For Marketing

Hi, I’m Waverly Fitzgerald, one of the presenters at this year’s smARTist™ conference where I touched on a topic ”How to find time for marketing,” something I’ve struggled with in my creative writing projects!

It’s often hard enough for creative people to find time to create, even though that process has intrinsic rewards. It’s even more difficult to find time for marketing, especially since it seems to take away precious time from our creative projects.

Over the years I’ve experimented with different ways of incorporating marketing into my schedule and I’ve found several that work for me.

My first approach was seasonal, which is my favorite way of working with time. I decided to concentrate my marketing efforts all in one month, leaving me free to spend the rest of the year creating my art—writing—without feeling guilty about not doing marketing.

Because I thought of marketing as attracting readers the way flowers attract pollinators, I chose May. I made a circular calendar to visually depict my focus for each month in the year and put a picture of a hummingbird drinking from a flower on the month of May.

I enjoyed having one month where I could channel my creative energy towards marketing. It seemed like it was over too soon, just as I was beginning to hit my stride and become comfortable with my marketing efforts. But the next year, when I tried the same technique, it didn’t work.

Your turn:

1. Have you ever tried to create a visual map, like Waverly’s circular calendar, to burnish your marketing reluctance with the shiny glow of beauty?
2. And (you get two today!)…what have you done that worked once or twice, but not again?

New World vs the Old World

March 24th, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in Marketing Your Art | 2 Comments »

My Turn:
I’m always ranting about the New World vs the Old World, and marketing on websites is one of the best illustrations for what I mean.

The Story:
There are reasons why marketing on the Internet works, which are not the notions about marketing that we’ve come to expect: “I want mine, and I’ll manipulate you until I get it (sales pitches, ads, etc.), all the while watching my back.” (Old World)

The new paradigm for Internet marketing is based on cooperation, generosity and trust (New World).

You still have sales pitches and ads, but the fundamental underpinnings have dramatically changed.

What makes online marketing so exciting is that those who give willingly, generously, and joyfully find the return comes back a thousand fold. That’s the success behind free newsletters or eBooks, which contain solid, nitty-gritty information that we can use, like this 61 smARTips ePamphlet.

And here’s another difference, Old World hype doesn’t work on the Internet. All we have to do is feel the slightest twinge of hype and we’re out of there—in one click! The offering has to be genuine and have real value because anything less drops right off our computer screen.

Your Turn:
I don’t know about you, but I find the New World approach less stressful than the Old World approach, heartfelt, but not naïve. Smart, but not poisoned with suspicion of other people’s motives. What do you think?

Pricing and Licensing Your Work

March 17th, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in The PLACE of Art | 2 Comments »

My Turn:

There are so many permutations to the pricing question for artists that it’s a wonder we can ever figure it out. Here’s another twist…

The Story:

During the smARTist 2008 Telesummit, one of our participating artists asked a question about pricing and licensing, and our licensing expert, Michael Woodward responded.

The Artist: An art consultant wants to print one of my images on canvas for a client and wants to know what I would charge. They are doing the printing. What do I charge to license an image for one-time usage?

Michael Woodward: This is simple. You ask what she is charging the client for the prints, and charge her 10-15% of the total price charged for the prints.The percentage is negotiable.

Your Turn: Have you ever licensed one image of your work? How did you price it?

Make Price “No Object” to Selling More Art – Part III

March 15th, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in The Business of Art | No Comments »

My Turn:
Creating

The Story:
From Aletta de Wal, M. Ed:

A.C.T. 301 member Bruce Marion is one established earning artist whose strategy is to have multiple sources of income and includes these tactics to earn high income:

• “Create the best artwork I possibly can and continue to evolve as an artist and a business person.
• “Be in the best shows and galleries that promote and sell me well.
• “Have High class home shows of my new work for my collectors
• “Create excellent promotional materials….brochures, postcards, website and continue to build my name and artwork to be internationally recognized.
• “Publish a book of my work.
• “Create new licensing opportunities. www.artistcareertraining.com/featuredartist.asp

Admit it – we all like a bargain – or at least, we like to think that we paid no more than we had to. But we are also conditioned by all the messages around us that we deserve the best. When we see and experience quality in an object we desire, price is usually no object. Why should it be any different for people who love your art?

Your Turn:
What is your pricing strategy and how is it working for you?

Make Price “No Object” to Selling More Art – Part II

March 13th, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in Let's Debate! | No Comments »

My Turn:
Once you’ve learned who your audience is, what general guidelines might apply under any circumstances?

The Story:
From Aletta de Wal, M. Ed:

Under-pricing appeals to bargain hunters and new collectors with low art budgets. For part-time or emerging artists, making regular sales at reasonable prices will keep you in art materials or in business. As you keep the doors open, you build an audience and get the encouragement to keep on going. Once you’ve established a record of sales, you can gradually raise your prices, while you develop the quality and reach of your work.

Mid-career artists are best to improve the quality of their art and marketing to attract luxury buyers. While high income earners can afford to pay top dollar, there are many other factors they seek in the experience of collecting art. This top 1% of the population wants what they want at a fair price. Once a viewer is emotionally committed to owning your art, price is simply a detail.

Madison Avenue ad agencies are trying to market word-of-mouth publicity. Until they can package real relationships, artists have a much better chance at succeeding through personal contact. Established artists transform curious viewers into happy buyers and consistent collectors through building relationships over time. These collectors become marketers for your work in their collection or stories about personal contact with you.

Your Turn:
What two or three ways do you have of creating real relationships with your potential buyers?

Make Price “No Object” to Selling More Art – Part I

March 11th, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in Let's Debate! | No Comments »

My Turn:
Pricing artwork has a long history of utter confusion. Some advise adding up all of your overhead and expenses, deciding what hourly ‘wage’ you want to make and doing the math! Some pitch the “price by size” theory – so much per square inch. But whatever formula you decide fits your situation (retail pottery or a 60” x 36” abstract painting), there are some guidelines that really do make sense.

This week, Aletta de Wal, M. Ed, one of our smARTist™ 2008 Telesummit talks about pricing.

The Story:
From Aletta de Wal, M. Ed:

Fasten your seat belts artists – turbulence ahead! If it’s not the weather, it’s the economic climate you need to watch out for. This does not mean that it’s time to put on your brakes – in fact steady acceleration is what propels you around the turns safely.

Your strategies for creating income must be immune to all kinds of fluctuations. If you make art to make money, your only choice is how to ride out the turbulence – in your life, in your art making and in your art business. One way to smooth out cash flow is to have a resilient pricing strategy.

Pricing does not make or break the sale. Pricing is a marketing strategy that appeals to different segments of the art world. You can create a viable income from any pricing approach, as long as it suits the people who want your work. The first step is to discover your audience. www.artistcareertrainingblog.com 2/27/2008

Your Turn
What do you know about your audience that might affect your pricing strategy?

Leonard D. DuBoff responds to Professor Lessig’s TED presentation!

March 6th, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in Let's Debate! | 2 Comments »

My Turn:
Leonard D. DuBoff, the lawyer who literally created the concept of ‘Art Law,’ was one of 13 presenters at this year’s smARTist™ Telesummit 2008. He has a very different take on the YouTube TED presentation, which you just might want to watch before reading further. 

The Story:
Leonard D. DuBoff responds to Professor Lessig’s TED presentation:

I have reviewed Professor Lessig’s presentation which, as you know, he
has been making for years.  It is, as one artist who contacted you
suggests, very controversial. Professor Lessig, an articulate Stanford
Law professor who earns a significant salary and whose livelihood does
not depend on his creative endeavors, is arguing that copyright law is
creating a form of new prohibition.  In fact, there are numerous
distinctions between the copyright laws, which have been part of the
fabric of this country since its inception, and the prohibition laws
that attempted to take alcohol, which had been available for centuries,
away from the populace.

The core of Professor Lessig’s presentation is that people should have
the right to use the work of others without permission for “creativity’s
sake” and not for economic reward.  In other words, it is his position
that anyone should be permitted to use the creative work of others in
creating their own work, even though the owner of the work being used is
not being compensated for the use.

Thus he is suggesting that creative people, such as your readers,
voluntarily give up their means of livelihood for the good of society
and to aid young people in their creative endeavors.

This is easy for a prominent law professor likely earning in excess of
$200,000 a year, who enjoys job security through tenure, to say.  It is
also easy for creative people whose work is not in demand or
economically successful to do. But I suspect it is not easy for creative
people who would like to earn a living and who have achieved a modicum
of success to do. 

In other words, Professor Lessig is attempting to
play the role of a modern day Robin Hood but, in most cases, he is
suggesting that the “poor” or “modestly successful,” rather than the
rich, forgo their earnings for the benefit of all.  Perhaps that is the
role of today’s Stanford Law School “Robin Hood.”

Its also worthy of noting that Professor Lessig, who lost the case he
took to the US Supreme Court challenging the 20-year extension of the
period of copyright protection, has recently announced that he is
considering running for the US Congress.  Perhaps he feels that he can
achieve his goals through the legislative process.  We will see.

Your Turn:
Hmmm…now how do you feel about the well-received, well-executed TED presentation?

Copyright Protection…or… Creative Freedom locked out?

February 8th, 2008 by Ariane | Posted in Let's Debate! | 7 Comments »

My Turn:
Copyright Protection…or… Creative Freedom locked out?

The Story:
Jennifer of Inspired Home Office  sent me to this YouTube video that questions the validity of current copyright laws. After listening to the smARTist ‘08  presentation by ‘the’ lawyer who put Art Law on the map, Leonard DuBoff. I found this other presentation by another lawyer both inspiring and deliciously controversial.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/187

Watch it…and then….

Your Turn: 
…ask yourself…Are you ready to embrace this idea of voluntarily offering your images, copyright-free, for the democratic exploration of creativity in our New World of new technologies? And tell us, right here…Yes? No? Why?