E-Book Suggests Ways to Price Fine Art Prints

Cover of How to Price Digital Fine Art Prints by Barney DaveyARTISTS. A new 46-page e-book from art-print expert Barney Davey can help you determine the “sweet spot” price range for your art prints. Once you find the “sweet spot,” you won’t lose sales because your work is overpriced or lose revenues because your work is underpriced. In other words, you will get fair value for each art print you sell.

Entitled “How to Price Digital Fine Art Prints: Tips from Top Art Marketing Minds,” the e-book offers useful information on how to price digital reproductions of original art (giclées) , fine-art photography prints, and digital fine-art prints (prints of digitally created art). The book offers insights, advice and experiences from a variety of experts in art marketing, digital printmaking, art-print publishing, and digital arts.

Their insights reinforce the fact that pricing giclees and digital fine art prints is a subjective undertaking. Although you won’t find a magic pricing formula that works equally well for all artists, you can read a range of viewpoints and ideas that can guide you in creating a pricing strategy that works for you. Below are some of the questions addressed in the book:

  • Is pricing by the square inch the best method?
  • What are some other ways to price prints besides per square inch?
  • How important is consistency in pricing art prints across different distribution channels? For instance, does it harm an artist to have different prices on an artist website or blog, galleries, juried shows, online venues, art fairs and so forth?
  • Should pricing for sale through galleries and dealer always be considered? In other words, if an artist is not in a gallery now, should her art prices include the markup to galleries? Or, only if there are plans to include galleries for distribution.
  • Is there a range or formula for pricing open edition prints versus limited edition prints? In other words, if an open edition print from an artist sells for $200, should a limited edition print of the same size sell for $500, or 25% more?
  • Does it do any harm for artists to create limited editions in different sizes?
  • Can an artist number open editions?
  • Should artists give galleries exclusives on certain images?

In the introduction to “How to Price Art Prints,” Davey admits that “Lining up your work and making decisions about what they are worth is a daunting task, especially at first.” But he says, it can become easier over time, especially when you start working with established criteria to facilitate the process.

“To be successful at pricing your work, you have to learn to remove your personal feelings about your work from your actual observations of its current market value,” states Davey. While this can be difficult to do, developing a system for pricing your prints can help you be more objective. Many of the ideas in the book can not only help you make smarter decisions about pricing your fine-art prints, but also your originals as well.

Barney Davey publishes the popular Art Print Issues blog and the online magazine Giclée Business News. A previous post on this blog discusses the recently updated version of  Davey’s popular book: “How to Profit from the Art Print Market.”

LINKS

E-Book: How to Price Digital Fine Art Prints

Book: How to Profit from The Art Print Market

RELATED POST

Learn How to Profit from the Art Print Market

 

Learn How to Profit from the Art Print Market

Book Cover How to Profit from the Art Print MarketARTISTS. As traditional methods of selling visual art continue to lose luster, effective new distribution channels are springing up to replace them. Thanks to advances in e-commerce and digital printing technology, you can completely control how printed reproductions of your works are produced, priced, and marketed. You can use this power to financially support your passion for making art in ways that were unavailable to previous generations of visual artists.

These are some of the themes discussed in the 2nd edition of Barney Davey’s best-selling book “How to Profit from the Art Print Market.”

In the book, Davey observes that visual artists who organize and execute workable plans around achievable goals are the ones who enjoy the greatest success today. This includes understanding how the rise of print-on-demand technology, e-commerce, and social-media marketing have wreaked havoc on the old style of marketing art through galleries and dealers. In addition, a stark economy has forced a record number of companies from the market.

So even though these conditions may seem daunting, Davey reminds readers that growing a successful career in the art market was never easy. While he still sees some opportunity for artists in traditional markets, Davey believes visual artists must use available technology to be self-sufficient and sell as much art as possible direct to collectors. He considers this the best way for artists to secure their future.

The 16 chapters in the 302-page book explain the major steps involved in selling direct to collectors. Topics covered include:

  • Goals and Vision
  • Understanding Art-Print Media
  • Traits and Attributes of Self-published Artists
  • Economics of Self-publishing
  • Exemplary and Successful Self-published Artists
  • Finding and Working with a Publisher
  • Copyrights and Certificates of Authenticity
  • Trends and Inspiration
  • Business Marketing Basics for the Self-Published Artist
  • Publicity, Promotion and the Power of Self-Belief
  • Websites for Artists
  • Online Marketing and Social Media
  • Galleries, Dealers and Alternative Spaces
  • Licensing
  • Giclées and Digital Prints

You’ll learn how to generate repeat sales of fine-art reproductions in any economy and coordinate publicity, social media and email marketing to ratchet up your sales and sell art online. The book also features a list of 500 business and marketing resources for visual artists.

The book will retail for $39.95, but can be pre-ordered for $24.95. You can download a PDF of “Chapter One: Goals and Visions” for free from the website: http://www.barneydavey.com/download-chapter-one-free/

About the Author

Barney Davey has been intimately involved in the art business since 1988. As a sales and marketing executive for Decor magazine and its sister Decor Expo tradeshows, he consulted with hundreds of the industry’s leading art publishers and self-published artists regarding their art marketing and advertising strategies. He met leading self-published artists and art publishers, and observed the best practices.

In addition to his art marketing consulting, he does public speaking on art and Internet marketing. His newest venture is BarneyDavey.com, a media company that publishes books, blogs, online newsletters, workshops, and webinars for visual artists, including fine artists, fine-art photographers and graphic designers.

A Prolific Blogger

To stay on top of what’s happening in the art-print market, check out the three blogs Barney Davey currently publishes.

Art Print Issues is a business blog for visual artists. The blog covers a range of topics, including these posts on selling techniques:

The Giclee Business directory includes more than 500 listings of giclee printers and fine art business resources for visual artists. Categories include: website services for artists and photographers; artist business software; art licensing; art marketing services; art supplies and picture-framing services for artists, selling art online sources; fine art legal resources; art trade shows, art events, and art fairs; fine-art printmaking services; and home, hospitality and healthcare design resources.

Giclee Business News is a new online news magazine about the digital fine art market. It includes news about artists, technology, art events, learning opportunities, and more.

LINKS

Book: How to Profit from the Art Print Market, 2nd Edition

Blog: Art Print Issues

Online Magazine: Giclée Business News

Online Directory: Giclée Business