Could You Publish or License Your Art? : Experienced Artist Jan Weiss Flips Open Her Brain

by Guest Blogger, Jan Weiss

In the art business or when I meet artists and tell them I am a published artist, I typically end up with a load of questions and they ask to “pick my brain”. So over coffee I lay the groundwork; an overview of publishing and licensing and how to get found in a sea of artists all wanting the same thing.

I have been in this business for over fifteen years with experience in publishing, wholesale and retail sales, ecommerce and licensing; in addition I blog regularly about artists – especially emerging artists as I feel they need the most exposure right off the bat.

The questions I receive generally fall into these categories:

• What is publishing and licensing?
• Is there much money?
• How can I get posters made of my art?
• What are the latest trends?
• Do you think my art is publishable?
• How can I get noticed?

I’m going to review all of these questions and give you a simple straightforward – and honest answer to each of these questions.

What is publishing and licensing?

Publishing and licensing is about making your art available for derivative products. Art publishing is about turning your art into a poster or limited edition art print. You can publish them yourself by working directly with a printer or licensing your images to a publisher who will pay all the up front costs including printing and marketing and pay you a royalty on the sales of the print; usually 10 to 15%.

Licensing your images to a product manufacturer is another way of earning royalties from your creations. These images may be licensed for product such as textiles, table-top, home accessories and apparel. The manufacturer pays you or your agent/ publisher a royalty and you receive a percentage of that royalty.

Is there much money?

There can be. I have known some artists who earn $75,000 to a $100,000 a year but they are the rare ones. Royalty payments generally run $200 to $1000 a month and if there is an order for a high volume sale you may go much higher than that. Truthfully – most artists have other jobs to supplement their art income.

How can I get posters made of my art?

You can have posters made of your art through online sources such as Imagekind.com, Fineworks.com or Artistrising.com. Artists do not go through an approval process for Imagekind and Finerworks – you simply upload your high res file and pick a size for the art.

You or any customer can go through these sites and purchase your art and you will receive a royalty. Artistrising.com requires an approval process so be patient. It is up to you to market your work for on-line publishing sites such as these so be persistent. Post on Facebook, Twitter, blog about it and include it in newsletters.

What are the latest trends?

I use catalogues such as CB2, West Elm and Crate and Barrel for trend inspiration, and it is well worth your time to read design blogs. A complete list is on my site, The Art Planet – just scroll down the left navigation bar; these sites are filled with inspiration, ideas and design trends.

Do you think my art is publishable?

This question is the hardest and requires direct and sincere answers. The fact is – not everyone who wants to be an artist has the talent to get there-be objective and proceed with caution. Ask yourself if your work is unique and original or is simply an interpretation of the hottest trend so it will sell because right now everyone wants that look?

Have you had professional instruction? Learning from professional artists is worth every dollar spent. These people have their experience to share and will teach and instruct in styles and techniques that you may have no experience with yourself; benefit from the knowledge of others. I have had many people tell me they are self-taught and display this as a badge of honor but what publishers really want is someone with a firm grasp in techniques and execution – skills taught in the classes and workshops.

How can I get noticed?

And finally we come to social networking – one of my favorite subjects. This subject cannot be understated – it is truly essential and imperative that you do this…daily.

Take advantage of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon, Google, Orkut, Digg, Delicious, Kaboodle and many many others. When you upload a new poster or add products to your Etsy site or Zazzle site tell people about. The best art in the world will never be found unless consumers and art lovers are allowed to see it through the art of social networking.

Start a blog and upload your work; share your inspiration for the piece and medium and price. Blogger offers a very easy, intuitive free blog site. The more sites you post on the more your name will show up in search engine marketing and the better chance you have of being discovered.

Creating art is like using your muscles – you must create continually. Be inspired by others, learn from others and build upon your experience to become a brand on all your own.

© 2011 Jan Weiss

Artist Bio – Jan Weiss

Jan Weiss, a northern California native is a freelance writer and artist specializing in home decor. With a strong background in art publishing and art trends, Jan shares this knowledge with the trade as well as individual artists.

Weiss has just completed her first eBook for artists, titled: The Coexistence of Art and Money; interested buyers can find this book as well as her art through several on-line galleries such as Artist Rising, Image Kind and Etsy. Jan’s style is a mixed of collage, digital creations and abstract landscapes that will appeal to the hospitality buyer. She lives with her husband, cat and dog in the Bay Area and enjoys organic gardening, cooking, reading and making stuff.

Reposted By:

Adam Brown

Osio-Brown Editions Website

Giclee Printing FAQs

The Importance of Quality Scans

Helena Nelson-Reed, a dear friend and client of ours, recently posted this informative blog post about the importance of quality scans when it comes to your art.

To check out this post, please visit:

http://dancingdovestudio.blogspot.com/2012/02/importance-of-quality-scans.html

How to Increase Traffic to Your Artist Blog

(Brought to you by our friend Kristin Royce)

Using blog specific online marketing techniques, you can promote your blog to a target audience and build quality traffic to it…for free.

1) Submit to Blog Directories

• A list of the top 35 blog directories with direct links to submission pages and inclusion requirements is available at http://www.theartrepreneur.com. Keep in mind that the process of submitting to directories is often long and tedious, but will absolutely prove its return on the time investment.

• Make sure that the information you submit to the directories is consistent. Meaning, always submit the same title and description for your blog. The title you submit should be the title tag and meta description for your blog - both written using optimized copy rich with your blog's keywords.

2) Ping Blog Services

• "Pinging" is a way of letting blog directories and search engines know that you have updated your blog. By sending a ping to each service, you let them know that a new post has been published so they can come check you out.

• Bookmark Ping-O-Matic - a site that lets you ping many blog sites with one click: http://pingomatic.com/

3) Optimize Each Blog Post for Search Engines

• Getting visibility in natural search for a blog post is no different than getting visibility for a web page. The same rules of "writing for search" apply - meaning keyword rich titles, content length, optimized hyperlinks, alt tags, etc.

• Identify your keyword phrase. Is it something people actually search for? If not - phrase it differently.

• Blog Entries should be at least 300 words long.
• Your targeted keyword phrase should appear 3-5 times in the entry (once in the title, in the summary and throughout the blog)
• Use the keyword phrase in any hyperlinks you have in the blog as well as in any bulleted list.

4) Build Links to Your Blog

• A link building campaign is the best way to get quality and relevant traffic to your blog. These methods, although time consuming, are the best ways to get links pointing to your blog.
• Link to your blog from the main page of your site.
• Use your blog as often as possible in the "related links" area of articles published on your site.
• Post legitimate comments on other blogs with related topics and include a link back to your blog with your signature.
• Offer to exchange links with other similarly themed blogs and websites.

5) Email Signature

• Use your mail program to create an email signature file that will be included in every email you send. Keep it short with your name, email address, blog title and URL. This little trick will work wonders!
• Become an active member of a relevant online community forum and add your blog title and URL to your signature line at the bottom of each message you post.

Building traffic to your artist blog is not a scientific process. It takes time, hard work, and persistence to build a loyal audience and create your niche interactive community on the web. Tracking your success is a key motivational tool that will help get you through some guaranteed trying times that come with building a successful blog. Be sure to benchmark the current state of your traffic, your rankings on the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) and the visitor commenting activity on your blog before implementing these free online marketing techniques.

Reposted By:

Adam Brown

Osio-Brown Editions Website

Giclee Printing FAQs

Is Twitter the Best Place for Artists to do Business Networking Online?

When people think “business networking online” they probably think of LinkedIn. (LinkedIn has pretty much been regarded as the premier social network for professionals ever since it launched in May of 2002.) But for artists, I don’t think LinkedIn is the right network for making business contacts—I think Twitter is. Of course, it’s just my opinion, but from my experience on both networks (and Facebook, too) Twitter has proven to be a much easier place to connect with other artists, especially when you have a specific business need in mind. Twitter imitates real life better than any other social network does. Take a look at the traditional workplace (or at your health club, or church, etc.) People always gather to talk, usually in small groups of two or three, sometimes larger. And if you’ll notice, in every instance, there are a few people who are the life of the conversation, no matter what group they’re in. These are the topic starters, the “final-worders,” the ones who control the flow of information from group to group. People gather around to absorb the news/gossip/jokes because those people are always on, entertaining, educating and connecting. You might express a problem to one of those people, and they’ll mention it to someone else—or have someone in mind who can fix it for you—and BAM, before you know it, the problem’s on its way to being solved. That’s what Twitter does, too. It connects you and me with “people that know people.” These folks may be halfway around the world from you, but it doesn’t make a lick of difference. They can still help you meet the people you should be in contact with. So for me, Twitter is now becoming a very cool business and networking opportunity. Much more than LinkedIn or any other social network. Maybe more than in real life. Sound crazy? I don’t think so. As artists, our networking options are limited. Generally speaking, we don’t see other people from the “art biz” when we go to our day job, or as we’re painting in our own studios. The art network is scattered. But Twitter can make that network appear—and it also makes it very easy to connect with others in it.

How to Be a Successful Art Blogger

As a blogger for over two years now, I know firsthand that creating a successful art blog has a lot more to do with planning and hard work than with being a great writer. Of course, I’ve always enjoyed writing—a definite plus if you’re planning on starting your own art blog—but that isn’t enough by itself. So whether you’re just now starting an art blog, or you’re simply looking around for ways to improve at blogging, here are my five strategies for building a successful blog: 1) Create an Art Blog That is NOT a “Personal” Blog It’s very important that your art blog is not perceived as just a “journal” or some kind of diary of your life in general. A few personal posts every once in a while are OK, but for the most part, people are searching the internet for very specific things—so keeping your blog from being a hodge-podge of material will encourage the right kind of readers to keep coming back. I’d suggest having a ratio of 80/20 where no more than 20 percent of your posts are personal or off the topic of art, leaving the majority of your blog to be about your art, your process, or about art in general. 2) Treat Your Blogging Time As Business Time This means setting working hours for your blog (the exact amount needed will vary for each person) and giving yourself a “paycheck” of some kind for each blog post. . . in other words, reward yourself for posting. I’ve also found that it helps to make sure your spouse, your kids, your friends, and anyone else important to you KNOWS that you’ll be blogging at a set time each day or each week, and that it’s part of your marketing plan—not just a hobby. 3) Keep a Schedule of Upcoming Topics To Write About Having a schedule is great for both yourself AND your readers. Planning ahead will help you publish new posts on a regular basis and will keep others interested in returning to see IF and HOW you follow through on your plans. This may be as simple as saying, “For the month of January, we’ll be looking at Degas’ work,” or as complex as a monthly schedule with specific titles and short excerpts from each future post so readers know exactly what’s coming. Either way can work. 4) Point To Good Resources Whenever You Find Them There’s no reason to be stingy about linking out to other websites from your blog. Sure, it may seem that by linking out to other websites you’re losing visitors, but it’s much more likely that folks will start viewing your blog as the go-to place for finding good stuff, whether it’s on your website or not. 5) Re-Read & Edit Each Post Before You Publish It Before you hit the “publish” button, ask yourself a few questions: Are you interested in the post you’ve just written? Does it fulfill a need? Is it inspiring, educational, or at least entertaining? If you answer “no” to any of those questions, don’t publish it—rewrite it! Take another look. Are any sections confusing or ambiguous? Have you repeated yourself unnecessarily? Would your spelling or grammar get less than a “B” from your high-school English teacher? If you answer “yes” to any of those questions, spend 10 minutes cleaning up the post before publishing. Every post on your blog has the potential to make a great first impression with a future art collector—that’s why it’s worth it to make each post as good as possible. Good luck, and keep on blogging! Adam Brown Osio-Brown Editions Website Giclee Printing FAQs

What Exactly is a “Limited Edition Print?”

The concept and language use of the term “limited edition print,” is often confusing and misunderstood. So, to begin with, let’s take a look at the terms “limited” and “edition” in hopes that we can gain some insight.

The word LIMITED indicates something that is small in range or scope. This one is pretty straight forward, meaning that there is a finite number of things in question.

EDITION refers to a collection of prints from the same original and usually printed at the same time. So if you print 50 images all at once, those 50 images are part of the same edition. If you print 30 more at a later time (and maybe at a different size or on a different medium) that would be considered another edition; not part of the original first edition. (See Wikipedia for more information.)

So when we combine “Limited” and “Edition” it implies that a small set number of prints were made from the original art at the same time and of the same size, implying that no further prints will be produced.

WIKIPEDIA’S PERSPECTIVE

Wikipedia defines a “Limited Edition” or “Special Edition” in the following way:

Limited editions have been standard in printmaking from the nineteenth century onwards. There is a genuine need for the concept here, as many traditional printmaking techniques can only produce a limited number of top-quality impressions, as copies of prints are known. This can be as few as ten or twenty for a technique like drypoint, but more commonly would be in the hundreds or thousands. But here as in other fields, the use of the concept has become largely driven by marketing imperatives, and has been misused in parts of the market. In particular, lithographic, photogravure, rotogravure, and computer reproductions of prints, derived from photographs of an original print, which are most unlikely to have any investment value, are often issued in limited editions implying that they will have such value. These need to be distinguished from the original artist’s print, carefully produced directly from his work in whatever the printmaking medium is, and printed under his supervision.

THE HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE

The concept of “limited editions” is a byproduct of historic printmaking techniques. Prior to modern photography, artists were limited to a range of printmaking techniques to create multiple reproductions of an art piece. These techniques typically included a plate of some sort that was used to create impressions on the final print medium. These plates were physically incapable of lasting indefinitely and many were only capable of producing a small number of prints before deteriorating past a usable state. The prints derived from these plates were also usually created at the same time because of the process involved to do so — it just wasn’t as feasible to create one at a time based on demand.

And so limited editions were not a marketing ploy to impose scarcity or even something that the artist chose to do. It was a burden of necessity based on the technology. The artist would make their prints, number them, and possibly sign them. And that was the end of that.

In today’s digital age, things are not so cut and dry as they once were. In order to avoid confusion or disputes with potential buyers, it is important to be careful about the terminology you use to describe your work and your limited edition prints. Always be forthright and honest as to the edition size and if there are any current of future editions of this original work planned. Finally, choose wisely in your relationship with your digital atelier or printmaker. Their knowledge, expertise and reputation can go a long way is assisting you and pointing you in the right direction.

Adam Brown

Osio-Brown Editions Website

Giclee Printing FAQs