Artists Need to SELL Their Art!
I recently did a survey of my friends. I asked them about how they feel when people post their art on the web and it is obvious it is for sale but there is no price listed.
I had no idea I would get such intense emotional reactions to my question.
I will preface this post by saying that everything here is my opinion and if you want to do it your own way and not listen to me, then that is great.
Here is what it means to the general public when you post your art without a price on social media.
- The piece costs more than $500.
- The piece is sold, not available for sale or is in a gallery and so is not available for sale directly from the artist.
- The artist does not know how much to sell the piece for and discussion about price is going to be weird for the customer.
I have talked to a number of artists who post on social media about their pieces and HOPE that someone will reach out to purchase their pieces.
I have seen a number of paintings on social media that I LOVED, and I have not reached out to ask if they are for sale or what the price is because I have been burned by doing this in the past. If I think “Oh I love that and I would spend… $400 on it!” And then I reach out and a person tells me it is $15,000, it is AWKWARD for me. This has literally happened to me.
I have no idea how many hours a person spent on a painting. I can’t put a subjective or objective price on someone else’s creation because I have no idea what went into it. Maybe they worked on it for 2 hours and maybe they worked on it for 1000 hours. And either way it is their right to put whatever price tag they want on it.
My personal policy now is that unless a price is posted, I won’t reach out. I will just assume it is above my price range and move on.
If I was advising an artist, I would tell them to post their prices if they are interested in selling a piece. At least for their more affordable pieces. This can either be posted in a social media post or on your own website. You can also post something like “Inquire for prints. Price range is $250-$1200 depending on size” and then at least people will know that they can reach out in order to get more info if that price is acceptable to them.
If you aren’t getting sales and you are an artist who doesn’t post prices on your social media posts, consider doing a once a week post that includes prices and instructions to purchase. “PM me to purchase, I accept PayPal, Venmo, cash app, and I have payment plans available” is something that will likely make some people reach out to you. Or “Website to purchase in the first comment” can also be useful.
If you don’t tell people how to purchase from you, they won’t purchase.
How many times in your life have you wanted to do something and then not done it because there wasn’t a quick and easy way to do it?
Make it easy for your clients to buy. See example here and click on the image to go to my shop. 🙂
