As artists, many of us find selling our pieces a deeply emotional one to say the least. From the very moment we consider selling our work we may feel a little intimidated.
Several questions may be racing through your mind at this point.
“How much do I charge? Where do I sell my pieces? How do I get paid? How do I ship my work?”
These are all great questions for understanding the basics and taking those first steps to making money off the skills we've spent years honing.
Gauging how to charge for your work can be a frustrating task, every artist has their formulas that vary widely from one another. Sometimes the best course of action is speaking with other artists with experience selling their work and expertise.
“I personally just work from an hourly wage plus estimate my materials cost. I'll start with going ok. My 24”x48” regular wood panel cost me $70.99 so there's my starting point. worked on it for 5 hours, hourly wage of $40. I'll usually do a flat material cost of $80, which fluctuates based on the work (someone wanted a coat of epoxy, or a specific colour/product I don't own, so you adjust as needed). So all in that's $350.99. I consider that a 'wholesale cost' as there are always other factors to consider when pricing. Other things to consider are, experience, emotional connection, schooling, and time as some people just plainly paint/draw faster than others. So personally, I think after I come up with my 'wholesale cost' I sit with what other factors I'm considering. While in Art school, I considered that I was an 'up and coming artist' so that will affect my price. Now out of school, having a few shows under my belt, commissions, etc. I want to price myself more fairly based on my experience currently. So you can adjust your hourly wage according to your factors you're considering for each particular work.” - Emily G.
“I’m primarily a digital artist so my overhead and material cost is rather low, well minus the cost of the computer and programs and all that.
Since I do character art, my prices are based on a few factors. How many characters, how much of the character I’m drawing, how complex the design is and a few other charges that can affect the cost like editing fees.
So for example if I’m drawing one character, full body and in full color I charge $100usd. If the client wants an additional character then the price would be an additional ⅓ of the sum ($30usd). That charge would repeat per how many characters are added in so let’s say the final piece ends up having 3 characters in total it’d come to $160usd.
How I chose these prices was largely based on what other artists have done, since digital art is super competitive, It's really important to price yourself that’s fair to the clients and yourself.” - Chantal C.
The next big step is figuring out where to sell your work. Luckily, we have hundreds of options to choose from.
First you need to decide if you’d rather sell in-person, online or both. You can always change your mind later, but it’s important to know the pros and cons to these options before jumping in.
In-person
Pros
- More engagement with potential clients
- Clients can see and feel the physical piece
- You have the opportunity to bond and build
- You can make connections with clients and vendors
- Save on shipping costs
- More up-sale opportunities
Cons
- It’s a time commitment
- There’s more labour involved in packing, travelling and setting yourself up
- You need to carry physical stock. When coming to an in-person show, customers want to buy now. Not order online.
Online
Pros
- It’s convenient
- Less time is required for set up
- Can sell to a more targeted audience
- You can reuse images, posts etc.
- Once you’re set up, you’re set up
- Online apps
- It’s always working, when you’re away or when you’re sleeping
Cons
- Lack of personal connections
- Customers can only see your products digitally
- Customers will have to pay for shipping
we've also asked Angela, a seasoned vendor, to comment and give her advice.
“If you had to give any advice to a new vendor (in-person) what would it be?”
“Don’t sit behind your booth, on your phone, disinterested. People came there because they want to know about your stuff. Get off your butt, say ‘Hello’. Greet them, ask how their day was, even if they keep walking you at least engaged and said hello. If you got the opportunity to give out a business card or catalogue, do it. Don’t ever charge for them, some people charge for them. You want to have your stuff, your info, in people’s hands’ and it is a business write off don’t ever charge for it. Try to make a personal connection. Listen to what they’re saying, relate to what they’re talking about. If you got samples, encourage them to try them and or take them. And smile.”
“What about online, what would you say to something looking to sell online”
“So online, make sure your images are clear and crisp. Make sure your blurb is like- don’t have spelling mistakes. Grammatically correct. If you’re going to use slang, just make sure it looks neat and clean. Don’t get too wordy. If you can put humour in it, get humour. If someone can make a personal connection, like for me being a busy person, no time to plan or cook, things like that. Always leave how they can reach you. And every comment, and every question, respond to. Unless of course it’s one of those emoji things, like you can send one back or whatever. But respond to everybody's questions, comments or input.
If you’re in an online show and you're there for a couple days, or a week or whatever a month long show. Some of them run that long. Make sure you check in every day on those comments and on those posts. Make sure they post if you use an online scheduler. Sometimes the schedulers muck up, you’ll want to watch that, and use a scheduler. Don’t try to do it all on your own
Purchase or look a good quality free one, I personally use Cinchshare. You can set up your entire show, program it and it will post automatically. So if you’re not home, if you’re away whatever. It’s working for you."
I think my biggest thing would be: Respond, make sure your posts are engaging and catch the eye, and use a scheduling app. Those are my three.” - Angela C.
If you’re selling in-person you can accept cash, e-transfers or use something like PayPal or Cash App to receive payment.
If you’re selling online then some of the previously mentioned ways to get paid still apply (e-transfer, PayPal, Cash App).
Additionally, you may be commissioned to create a custom piece of art for a client. We recommend using an application like PayPal that comes with an invoicing feature.
Invoicing is secure and allows you to put your terms and conditions into writing.
Remember to always accept payment for your work upfront! There's nothing worse than putting hours of work on a piece only for the client to never pay you.
When shipping and packaging our artwork we need to consider several factors. From personal experience we can break it down to four factors: where, weight, size, and fragility.
Where: This step may seem obvious but at first but where your piece is going can drastically affect who you ship with.
For example if you're shipping within Canada you can use Purolator and Fedex.
If you're shipping to the United States it's far cheaper to use Fedex since Purolator is more exclusive to Canada.
If you're shipping over seas you'll need to use DHL. Please note that DHL requires a lot of information from both yourself and the receiver. You will need to have an address, email, phone number, postal code, city or district.
Weight: most shipping locations have a limit of 30-50lbs per package. Be sure to call ahead and double check with whom you'll be shipping with before bringing you work in.
Size: much like weight, shipping locations will have limits on the sizes they can accommodate.
All the factors listed above will affect the total cost of shipping. Another factor that isn't widely known is the time of day you make your shipment. Sometimes prices will fluctuate between the morning and afternoon. Not many people know or are aware of this fact but it's always worth asking if the employees notice what times offer the better rate.
Fragility: this is what you are mostly responsible for ensuring. There is always the risk of wear-and-tear when you ship out your work, which is why picking the right materials and packaging is important to reduce that risk.
Bubble envelopes are great for smaller works. These envelopes are lined with bubble wrap, and an adhesive seal and are waterproof.
Boxes come in a variety of sizes which makes them more versatile. However you need to consider they have no built in protection, nor are they water proof. to protect your work you can use bubble wrap, packing peanuts, shredded or paper/cardboard. Additionally to better waterproof your work wrap it in a layer of plastic and taped the edges down, you can use plastic garbage bags for this.
Plastic/paper bags are another form of packaging. Please note that this doesn't refer to the plastic bags you get in store. These bags are optional from the shipping provider. While they are great quality they lack the additional protection and in most cases are only provided if your package meets the specific requirements for it. For example using FedEx Express as opposed to FedEx Ground a bag can be provided to you.
It's an amazing feeling selling your art. Hours of hard work, sweat and maybe even a few tears to make something amazing. The emotions of saying goodbye to your art as you pass it off to the hands of someone who loved what you made so much to put it up in their home. It can be bitter sweet, but all in all it's a moment of pride for you as an artist!
Explore, have fun, and be amazed by the creativity within you!