Over at ArtAdvice.com, Sylvia posted an article titled, “Face the Facts – 5 Facts Artists Have to Face to Succeed in Business“.  She sheds some great insight on some common misconceptions that people have about artists and that artists have about themselves, their art, and their business.  Definitely take a moment to read it.

The five facts are:

1. You will not get “discovered”
2. You will not find a gallery that “understands your work” and feels as passionately about it as you do.
3. No matter how original you think your work is, it has been done before.
4. Just because your work looks just like Jackson Pollack, (or, fill in the blank) doesn’t mean it’s as good, or that you can price it the same.
5. You will not be able to make a living off the sale of your work.

I couldn’t agree more with facts 1-4, but I completely disagree with fact #5.  You definitely can make a living of the sale of your work, but this requires that you be a marketer first.  Refer to my post a few months ago about focusing on marketing.

The truth is, you can make a boatload of money selling your work.  You just need to be a better marketer.  My course, Over[Exposure], will be coming out in Q2 of 2009 and will teach artists (photographers specifically) how to get massive exposure and crank serious revenue by marketing effectively on the web.  Its easier than you’d think, but of course it still takes some effort.  I’ll be breaking it down to simple, actionable steps that anyone can follow.

Stay tuned.