Marketing, Margins, And Selling

How do you all make a living reproducing for so cheap? Most people here donīt make a living from it. Just an extra income, or a hobby.

when all you have to do is create the art - and the POD -Print on Demand - does the rest of the work - you can reduce the price you charge because you aren't having to pay for the printing, mounting or shipping. IF you were not only creating the work - but paying for the printing, mounting and shipping - then you would charge that amount to the buyer - you aren't really charging that much. IF you had the ability to sell signed/numbered limited editions - you would charge more - again - because you are paying for everything.

I charge more for my fine art digital abstracts - because the purchaser is getting a very limited edition of my work - (of course - it depends on MY integrity) there is only that first printing by a 'collector' and I reserve for myself the right to reproduce it one time - after that - the image is no longer for sale as a stand alone image - perhaps in a published art book, but not again in a full size for another collector. My Fine Art Digital Abstracts

On the other hand - I have an account here on FAA that is strictly for my photography - I don't charge near as much - mostly because there is not that much creativity involved, nor am I as attached to that method of 'creating' fine art photographs. That is not to detract from those that are 'serious professional photographers', I just don't have that attachment to it. My Photographs

Welcome to the world of FAA. You have some wonderful work. Wishing you well.

rd

Definitely hobby. Make sure that you will make it ;) I am moving to The New Zealand to work and of course paint...but I am doing it for hobby.

This is not the high volume of a museum gift shop. Don't price thinking you'll make it up on volume. Also ignore the people who price because they will be thrilled just get a sale someday.

Some good insights here. I realize some people are hobbyists and part-timers who are just happy to sell something once in a while. I'm a full-time artist and I'm looking to expand my means of doing business, because selling originals is inconsistent and difficult. I thought it might be nice to have a means of some passive income, and also be able to make my art available at a price point that more people can afford.

Here you are providing images for prints. As said, you are not having any of the dealings with these sales and no production costs other than the initial photo, scan, uploading. People do not expect to pay 100 for a greeting card, for instance.

That being said, the art here is not to be given away either and your sales will be dependent on marketing you do, time of year, world events.

So do not make your markup too small but not too large either.

Average out between what others in your genre are asking and you will be fine.

it will vary from person to person. so far people pay the prices i charge, maybe i'm still too low, hard to know. because these are prints, and they aren't signed by you, numbered etc, you will get less for them, but there is no solid formula unless you make one. the real deal may go up in value, but a print - i don't think people buy them as investments.

---Mike Savad

and of course nothing is set in stone, you can adjust. i keep my small size fairly cheap, and increase as it gets larger. i adjust prices bit by bit when there is a lull in sales. i'm not sure what the limit is of what someone will spend on it. but if they like it then they like it ... however - you have to advertise your pieces, that's the main thing, or you may not get any sales.


---Mike Savad

Welcome aboard!

FAA is a small sampling of the over all, open edition, print market. POD sites are only a small piece of that larger market.

There are publishers and distributors that have been around for 30-40-50 years and looking at their price structure is going to give you a better example of what the market, in the USA, is.

To get a good idea of how you should price your prints, you need to get outside of FAA and see what the over all market place is doing.

You need also understand that open edition prints are not fine art. They are reproductions of fine art, but in and of them self they sell as a regular commodity in the decorator line.

You should read my blog: Pricing Your Artwork http://fineartamerica.com/blogs/pricing-your-artwork.html

Your competition on this site are people who are not trying to make a full time living unfortunately and who crave recognition of their work. That's very hard to compete with and is why the work is selling mostly at cheap or inexpensive figures. Perhaps the idea of this site is to give people who love art in any form the opportunity to buy at prices they couldn't afford if they where to get it from a gallery and as with all web sites these buyers can sit at their computer and shop without having to drive around looking for something to fit their wall or their clients wall. In my opinion this type of site will only expand which I think is great but I think it would be a better site if it were juried as much of the work is quite amaturish both visually as well as technically which just clogs the site. Though there is some very fine work here too. Your work in my opion would definintely pass any jury as it's quite nice but I'm very much in doubt that this is a site that you can sell anything for as much as $5000,. FAA does allow the returning of prints which is great as most of my prints really can't be appreciated unless they are printed larger than 16X20 so when viewing them on most monitors they really don't get the true effect which I've hopefully portrayed. FAA screen image size is too small and believe it would be beneficial to allow a buyer to see a full screen print. This and the fact we are needles in a haystack make it very hard to sell images here. Good Luck!

I started pretty low and have been raising prices since starting on here. It's not a full time gig at this point but that's the goal.

If you have a following you can probably charge more.

I assume that when someone buys something that they will get a frame and also incur the cost of shipping the framed or stretched canvas print.

When adding a markup, especially on the larger sizes, the higher the print markup, the less the shipping and framing charges are in relation to the art itself.

It would seem odd to me to spend a lot more on shipping (especially) and framing than the actual piece that is going to go in the frame.

Sales go from thousands to nothing and back from month to month so there isn't enough data to figure out what makes a difference but higher prices don't seem to deter sales.

I'm new here as well and appreciate hearing the perspectives and information offered.

One of the things that drew me to this site was exactly what was mentioned by Peter: "to give people who love art in any form the opportunity to buy at prices they couldn't afford if they where to get it from a gallery." Most people who are in the arts pretty much fit in that category. I love and appreciate the art of others but doubt that I will ever own many originals.