A small PSA regarding up-front payment in art sales.

motsaenggin:

Hello.

Before I start talking about this, I would just like to post a bit of a disclaimer saying that this is merely my own personal experience with this type of art sale, and that some of you likely have better experiences than what I do. That having been said, here are my thoughts on selling your artwork through organizations who are not willing to pay you up-front.

I am honestly not certain what this type of sale is even called in English, but some organizations will only agree to sell your product if you are willing to not receive payment for it up-front. 

You may, for example, get the offer that you will receive a certain percentage of each sale, once your artwork actually starts selling. This essentially gives the organization through which you are selling your product an absolute 100% risk-free transaction, in that they don’t have to pay for a product that they are not sure will sell. Additionally, they will receive a (potentially) substantial amount of money for your product if they do end up selling it. 

You, on the other hand, as an artist, are left having to make sure that this organization actually sells your stuff, you have to make sure money is transferred to you with every complete payment, you have to advertise and market that your product exists in that exact location and so on. 

Today I lost almost 300 dollars worth of sales because I sold my first publication like this. To list off why this didn’t work out is due to a variety of factors, some of which I will list below:

  1. The organization through which I sold my artwork changed leadership frequently, and the agreement between me and said organization was conveniently forgotten between each switch.
  2. I was completely new at the market, and I was rather crappy at marketing and advertising myself. The organization, due to how our agreement was shaped out, did not feel the need to market anything.
  3. Due to poor communication between me and the organization I sold my artwork through, I did not catch on that they were apparently closing down permanently a while back. As a result, the artwork I had exhibited there is now gone, just like the organization itself.

I should note at this point that the artwork I sold was a small drawing booklet, and that I didn’t give away too many copies of it. I thought that a gallery would provide me with a good place to start off my hobby career(?), but I did a ton of mistakes in assuming they would do any of the marketing work for me in promoting what I had made.

TL;DR: new artists, please be very careful in agreeing to sell your artwork without receiving payment up-front. You might lose out on a lot of money, and there is a ton of headache involved in making sure that the people you sell your stuff through are doing their part in promoting your stuff. 

Again, this is only my personal experience, and I am certain that some of you will respectfully disagree with the picture I paint here. Please take it as a heads-up rather than a “DON’T YOU DARE EVER DO THIS”, because I am certain there are serious businesses out there who are more than willing to help you out with kicking off your art career!

Thank you for reading, and have a nice Easter!