In the Art Marketing Minute Podcast, you’ll learn how to sell your art, how to market your paintings, and everything else you need to know in order to have a successful art career. Each episode answers questions from artists by host Eric Rhoads, author of “Make More Money Selling Your Art,” publisher of several art magazines and newsletters, and author of ArtMarketing.com.

In this Art Marketing Minute, Eric Rhoads gives advice on quitting your “day job” to become a full-time artist, and the best way to approach established art galleries.

Listen to the Art Marketing Minute Podcast: Episode 22 >>>

Submit Your Art Marketing Question:

What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.

FULL TRANSCRIPT of the Art Marketing Minute:
DISCLAIMER: The following is the output of a transcription from an audio recording of the Art Marketing Minute. Although the transcription is mostly correct, in some cases it is slightly inaccurate due to the recording and/or software transcription.

Announcer 0:02
This is the Art Marketing Minute with Eric Rhoads, author of the Amazon best selling book, “Make More Money Selling Your Art.” In the marketing minute we answer your questions to help your art career brought to you by artmarketing.com, the place to go to learn more about marketing. Now, here’s your host, arts magazine publisher, Eric Rhoads.

Eric Rhoads 0:23
Thank you Jim Kipping. And thank you for joining us today. My goal is to eliminate the idea of the starving artists. So let’s get right to today’s questions. Here’s a question from Barbara H. of Suffolk, Virginia. My art is selling and I’m becoming better known in the art world. When is it time for me to quit my day job and go into art full time. Well, I did a product. I don’t mean to hype you on a product here but I did a product how to quit your job and become a successful full time artists and I go into about three hours of depth in how to do that and what the time is. should be. And basically the idea is you want to have this overlap, you want to get to the point where you’re consistently replacing close to your or maybe all of your other income as a part time artist, or at least having the confidence that you’re about to get there. Because starting out, you know, you’re gonna have to spend some money on marketing. And it’s better to spend that money on marketing. When you’ve got a job and you got some extra income. You got to build yourself up, you got to make sure that you’re working all the all the different angles. By the way, I’m going to talk at the plein air convention about a guy I met recently had lunch with just a few weeks ago, who is making $5 million as an artist, and it’s a great story, and he does everything the opposite of everything everybody else does. And I’m going to tell that story on stage in art marketing Bootcamp, because it’s so interesting and I learned so much from him and how he built his business to $5 million. This is a guy and artist and $5 million. I mean, you know, he’s rolling in it, this guy is rich. So anyway, not that it’s all about being rich, but it never hurts, right? So, you know, if your works being represented by a gallery, or you lost a gallery, maybe you can get the gallery person to give you a recommendation or a letter or something if you have to switch galleries. The other thing is you never want to have all your eggs in one basket. Because if you’re in one gallery, and they go away, guess what happens to you. Now you’re scrambling and now Now you’re going to have weeks months without any sales until you get somebody till you get them up to speed until they can market you and get their people familiar with you. So I like to have three. I think three is a nice manageable number. You can have more than that, but not too much more. Some people do four or five, but it depends on how much work you can produce and how much quality work can produce. So you want to have a couple so you have some security. And you know, if you want to get into galleries, then well the best way to do it is to get invited in that means they need to invite you That’s not you calling them because, you know, there’s a sense of begging. And by the way galleries get dozens, sometimes hundreds of calls and emails and packages, and they just kind of get sick of it. So you want them to reach out to you. And I have a lot of strategies in my book and some other places in my videos that where I talk about how to get them to reach out to you. So one of the ways to get them to reach out to you is to get referred in so find other artists who are in the gallery and talk to them and get to know them. And then maybe at some point, once you’re comfortable with that, ask them if they’d make a recommendation, and they oftentimes well.

Eric Rhoads 3:35
Next question is from Sandy, in Colorado. Hi, Sandy. All right. So one day, we got to figure out how to get these people to actually call in and do it like a talk show and then I’ll, be able to interact with them. That’d be more fun. Anyway, Sandy says I’ve been in a series of local galleries that have closed, what is the best way to approach major established galleries? I think I just answered that question in the The above. But you know, you got to get references you got to get invited in, you’ve got to ask the owner of the gallery to contact people who purchased your artwork, if a gallery goes out of business, at least you could do is see if they’ll possibly give you the list of people who bought your artwork, so you can contact them direct or give them to another gallery. And I like to have the galleries Give me the names, I have an agreement with them as I’ll never approach them or I’ll never violate the agreement with the gallery but I like to send them a thank you card. And so they’ll they’ll send me the note and say, I’ll write a note to them and and send it on and then I have the address and I’m not going to ever do anything with it until the gallery goes out of business. And I don’t anticipate my gallery going out of business knock wood. But anyway, I think that it’s a good practice. And you also want to put your website and stuff on the back of the on the panel and burn it in there with a wood burner so it doesn’t get covered up and that way people can kind of go to your thing, get your newsletter, get on your list and stuff like that. So I hope that helps. And anyway, I wish you luck. Sandy in Colorado.

Well, this has been the art marketing minute with me. Eric Rhoads. My goal in life is to eliminate the idea of the starving artists to help your dreams actually come true. So if you want to submit questions, simply email [email protected]. And to learn more about marketing ideas, you can visit Artmarketing.com. Thanks for listening.

Remember to Submit Your Question: What questions do you have about selling your art? Email Eric today at [email protected] (include your name and where you’re from) to hear your question answered on an upcoming Art Marketing Minute Podcast.