(Image is of Istanbul and a part of my “12 City Project” )
I’ve been having some conversations recently with local artists and photographers about showing, marketing and selling artwork or services. It is something that every artist comes up against at some point and everyone has to explore the subject and find their own solutions. But it doesn’t do any harm to share books and other resources that have been useful .
Two books that I’ve found helpful, more with regard to my portrait photography have been “ The Brand Called You “ by Peter Montoya and “Selling the Invisible” by Harry Beckwith . Although artists may not tend to consider themselves a brand a lot of the information in these books could equally be applied to art marketing.
As you get to grips with what you want your brand to represent or when you are preparing press releases or artist statements you might find this book useful ” Brag – The Art of Tooting our own Horn with out Blowing it” by Peggy Klaus. I worked through it last year, as I was preparing press releases for my exhibition and I’ll be repeating the exercise again this year. She also has the basic 12 item questionnaire available online at www.bragbetter.com to get you started straight away.
My favourite artist specific book is still “I’d Rather be in the Studio “ by Alyson Stanfield. She does a weekly podcast with tips and advice and even if all you did was listen to this and act on it, you’d move your art career along at a good pace. Find it at www.artbizcoach.com
Another older book, but still valuable is “How to Survive and Prosper as an Artist” by Caroll Michells. A good portion of this book contains lists of other useful resources, publications, organisations or websites. I have an older edition but I notice it has been updated last year.
And finally, specifically with regard to press releases, Joan Stewart has great advice at her website The Publicity Hound with a great weekly newsletter too.
Do you have a favourite art marketing book or resource that you’d like to share ? I’d love to discover some new ones.
(Also, with a bit of luck my ezine will finally launch next week. If you’d like to be with me from the first issue you can sign up from the link on the right or from here – and receive two downloadable postcards )