Making Money with your Art.



There seems to be some sort of understanding that to make money in art you either have to "sell out" or that you must have another source of income to subsidize the art.

Many artists buy in to this sort of mindset. I was reading a comment on blog the other day that said "if you are good at selling your book you probably aren't putting the writing first and it probably isn't your passion."

What a defeatist attitude. Is it not possible for a person to be good at, excel at more than one thing?

April Lindfors is the photographer who illustrated my poetry book "Wind Rhymes; Poetry from the Breeze" and I think you'll agree that it's beautifully done. So she couldn't be good at anything else? She couldn't possibly be an incredibly talented poet in her own right? There is no way she can play guitar and it's obvious she couldn't possibly be a talented singer/songwriter. She certainly is all of those things and an incredible woman in many other ways as well!





Christian Jules Le Blanc(above) is the actor who plays Michael Baldwin on the Young and the Restless. He also just held his first art show in his home town of New Orleans. Anyone who has ever seen Michael on television would find he is an incredibly talented actor(I'm always afraid he'll be lured away from daytime). He is also an amazing artist. Two talents, one man.

If you truly believe in your art, believe your work is good I don't think selling it is that difficult. I don't find it very hard to talk about my writing because it's my whole life and through presenting it through readings, this blog, being excited about my work, I sell books and make money. I don't mind speaking in public and I've been told I'm good at it. I like talking to people in general and my work is my favourite topic.

And to go one step further, not only are many artists quite capable of selling their work, they have an obligation to do so. If I don't sell my work and earn a living I can't afford to continue writing. I need an income so that I can share my poetry, my novels, my screenplay(new project for next year) with the world because it is how I get my message out, it's how I project my viewpoint that this world is more amazing than awful, more loving than hateful and more perfect than imperfect.

I could just say it, but my voice is my writing and but I prefer to show it though my poetry and other writing.

So if you make art of any kind, put a price on it and make it available. Market it and brag about it. Your message and your medium is valuable. Once you know that, it'll be easy to sell it.

And keeping with the spirit of this post my book is available on Amazon.com
or by emailing me at breezedaze@gmail.com to make paypal arrangements for a signed copy!


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Comments

Shadow said…
i'd have to agree. humans are multi-talented beings...
Karen said…
Great post. I think many people have a misguided idea about the arts that they need to be completely "pure" and separate from anything commercial. But being an artist is a profession just like any other...even in the past, the great artists were aware of this.