Saturday, September 22, 2018

Book Review: The Profitable Artist

Artists want to create work that is original and relevant, but we also want to make a living doing it. 

A handbook called "The Profitable Artist" is designed to help us succeed with the business aspects of our journey. It focuses primarily on marketing, law, finance, strategic planning, grant writing, and pricing. This second edition has been updated to include some basic common-sense advice on social media, crowdfunding, and some new information on launching start-ups.  

The book gives an overview of general contract issues facing not only visual artists but also writers and performing artists. It touches on gallery art, but doesn't get into the business details of specific sectors of visual arts, such as illustration, publishing (or self-publishing), concept art, or animation, and it's not a pricing guide or a book of sample contracts. Without that granular information, it has some value as an introductory guide, but not as a reference book.

Recommended books that focus more on detailed business issues faced by visual artists include:
Kirsch's Handbook of Publishing Law: For Authors, Publishers, Editors and Agents
Business and Legal Forms for Fine Artists
Art, Inc.: The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist
If you're already published as an author, you can join the Author's Guild, which has a lot of helpful printed guides and services to help with publishing contracts.
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The Profitable Artist: A Handbook for All Artists in the Performing, Literary, and Visual Arts, published by the New York Foundation for the Arts, a non-profit that supports

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