I get this question a lot

How I sell my work and what I could be doing better

Do you make money with your photos? I get this question a lot. Here is a backstage pass into how I sell my images.

It started with deciding to sell my work

Selling your art is a very personal choice, many artists aren’t looking to make money from their work, and I get that. Choosing not to sell doesn’t make the work any less important or any less joyful. Nor does it make you less of a professional.

June 2009: that’s when I officially started selling my photographs as prints on Etsy. My mom had been on Etsy for a few years and she believed that my photos were sellable. She was the one that helped me get started with my shop and it did well. I sold lots of prints and handled all of the work (printing, shipping, customer service) myself. Until then I hadn’t considered selling my photos but once I did I was hooked. I liked getting paid!

Pottery Barn (aka the big break)

Thanks to the Etsy shop that my mom helped build I got a big break: I was found by a Pottery Barn buyer. One day I had a message from a woman claiming to be a buyer for a new program. At first I thought it was a scam but an internet search revealed that she was real, and a real Pottery Barn buyer! They licensed about a dozen images to sell online, did all the printing, shipping and customer service, and paid me royalties every quarter. Sales were good, and it was relatively easy work. The relationship with William Sonoma (the parent company) lasted ten years and it was a great experience.

Serenity was previously available on Pottery Barn

Freelancing, getting an MFA, and selling art

I only worked part-time while in grad school getting my MFA. During that time I continued to sell my work but transitioned from the Etsy shop to Fine Art America aka Pixels. They are a print on demand website where all I have to do is upload my digital files and they take care of the rest.

Getting a day job

Years ago I took a class with a financial planner. At the time I was struggling as a freelancer and had very little income. I was cutting my spending to the bone and I had reached a point where there was nowhere else left to cut. The only way to do better was to make more money. So in spite of preferring to be my own boss I got a day job. That gave me the financial stability I needed and peace of mind for my creative life. I now have a (different) day job that I enjoy and the income allows me a lot of freedom when it comes to my art business. I realize I am privileged because I don’t need the art income in order to cover basics.

How I make money now

Fifteen years after the Etsy shop, I’m still selling my work. My monthly art income varies from $0 to hundreds.

• Sale of prints: This is where most of my art income comes from and I do it only through Fine Art America. It’s not perfect, but it works for the amount of time and effort I have to put towards printing, shipping, and customer service. The blog post that went viral almost eight years ago tells me that a lot of people are still looking to make money from their FAA accounts. It can be done but it takes work.

• Licensing: I wish I was doing more of this. Currently Minted and West Elm license three of my images. Getting on these platforms is hard. They hold several challenges a year and if you are chosen then they license your work. While I enter all of the applicable challenges it’s been a while since I’ve been picked. I’m currently exploring other licensing opportunities. Fingers crossed!

• Substack: A new source of income, Substack is proving to be really good. I’ve grown my audience since moving my newsletter from Mailchimp and it’s great to be able to have paid subscribers which wasn’t an option before.

How I get the sales

Fine Art America (like all other online marketplaces) has thousands of artists on their website so it’s up to each individual to drive traffic to their site. I drive traffic with social media, my own website, and my Substack. It’s slow, but it works.

The bottom line is that you have to let people know that your work is for sale and you have to do it often. That doesn’t mean being obnoxious and sales-y. What it does mean is that along with sharing my work online, there may be easy links to click to buy if you are interested. For example, I might write a post about my favorite images and add shop links to the photos. I also include links to my online store in as many places as I can; in email signatures, online profiles, etc.

Once you make a sale in FAA, that work gets seen more often and it creates a compounded effect. A friend gave me a tip when I first started: have someone purchase from your site. That first sale got the ball rolling and from there it has kept moving even if sometimes it’s painfully slow. In this blog post I mention other helpful tips.

Missed opportunities (there’s a lot of these)

Here’s the thing: last year I saw a significant drop in sales because I put less work into selling. At times I had to step away from social media in order to take care of myself. There were also times I stopped creating altogether. There’s an ebb and flow to being a creative and I’ve learned to accept that I can’t be on all the time.

When Life Gives You is licensed by West Elm

Another missed opportunity is not doing any in-person events. It’s been a few years since I’ve been at an art fair or First Friday type of event. I also haven’t participated in many calls for art. The benefit of having your work “out there” is that even if someone doesn’t buy right then and there they may think about it and then visit your website or send an email. You just never know what’s going through someone’s head at the time.

Pinterest. Oh, Pinterest. I know that this will work to bring traffic I just haven’t figured out a way to make pins quickly and effectively. Work in progress.

I have also missed opportunities to promote and sell my work because of my mindset around sales. Thinking that selling is pushy and annoying, that art is a luxury that people can’t afford, or that they already know that my work is for sale and they simply aren’t interested is the kind of thinking that stops me before I even start. Selling art isn’t bad and if something doesn’t sell it doesn’t mean the work is bad.

Closing comments

This is a long post, but I hope you found it helpful.

Know that your mileage will vary. Find the ways to sell that work for you, your personality, and your work. Talk to other artists and learn from what they’re doing. Join an art group and ask questions. We can all learn from each other.

And lastly, always be learning and adjusting your approach. What works today won’t work tomorrow. But also have patience and know that it doesn’t happen overnight.

Thank you for reading Photographs and Stories! If you enjoy my work, here’s a link to where you can shop my images. You can also contribute to what I’m creating by getting a paid subscription (button below).

PS: I’m working on something really cool for paid subscribers. It’s called The Book Report and it’s a continuously growing list of book reviews, interesting classes, and other resource recommendations. Upgrade your subscription to get access as soon as it launches!