#if local galleries have a million fans i am one of them etc etc
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Alex Paulus, All hail Plinko (2019)
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regarding your inexperienced w zines mod team- do u at least have somebody handling finances that has experience w a completed zine? that’s SUPER important, especially now, and I would urge you to reach out if not and find somebody to handle that positon. looking forward to this zine!
Hello anon,
I am Mod Dogfeathers*, and while posting directly to our socials is somewhat rare for me, I am This Simple Feeling's current Finance Mod, and so I thought it very important that I address your concerns directly, myself. I am very shy, I am neurodivergent, and I have severe social anxiety, and so most of the work I've done for This Simple Feeling thusfar has been infrastructural and supportive, somewhat away from wider visibility. However, I am extremely aware of the awesome responsibility that falls squarely on my shoulders as finance mod, and that the community around our zine– from my fellow mods and our potential contributors to the fans who will be cheering us on and reading issue 6 next year– must be able to depend on me to manage our finances through every stage of This Simple Feeling's production. The success of our project requires the community's collective confidence in me, and I am extremely keen to build that trust.
So, first, I want to apologize for the length of time that you've had to wait for this reply, and assure you we've been taking your concerns very seriously. Much of this time has been spent in deliberative reflection as to whether or not I should remain in this role. I love this project, and I have invested a prodigious amount of time and effort and affection into it since Head Mod @menecio approached me in early November 2020; I desperately want it to succeed. I have never wavered that I want to remain in this role, and my fellow staff have not wavered in their conviction that I should remain here, too. That said, I am aware that the success of our zine does not particularly care about what I want or what feels good, and so I took some time to seriously assess my own capabilities, to strenuously question my resolve, and to seek advice from people with zine experience who I trust. We have determined that I shall remain Finance Mod, but I want to stress that this was neither an easy nor an immediate decision– I did not let it be an easy or immediate decision, because what has always mattered to me is what's best for the zine. In the end, that determination was made based on the work that I've already done and the trust that my team has in my abilities.
Nevertheless, we want to emphasize that we continue to take your concerns seriously; we recognize that my lack of zine experience is both significant and reasonable cause for concern. We are taking additional measures to address that lack, beyond those that I insisted upon when I accepted this role. I will shortly lay out some of my relevant experience, but in recognition that it is limited and that it may not be sufficient to assuage your concerns, I want to make clear one of the additional measures that I requested during this period of consideration.
My husband and my partner of ten years, Tom, is a trained accountant, and he will now be supervising my work for this project directly. He had already agreed to assist me informally, and had– with supreme patience– already conducted a few intense, 6 hour long sessions to explain the ways that double-entry bookkeeping and Microsoft Access can be used to manage a project of this nature. He will continue to do that, but he will also be keeping an eye on my work and checking up that work periodically. I will still be managing our accounts, my name will still be on our books, and this will still be my job, but Tom will be actively present to confirm that I am doing this correctly. He does not have zine experience, he is not involved in fandom, and he does not have fandom-relevant socials– he has no specific pull towards fandom participation, the way I do– but he has worked for several years as one of two accountants for the library of one of the USA's top 40 public research universities, managing the extremely complex and surprisingly variable needs of such a massive nonprofit, and has been responsible for controlling several million dollars of public acquisitions spending in that capacity. (His way of describing this: "Each year we spent about the same amount as the budget for 10 Things I Hate About You, and I was in charge of a little over half of it.")
As part of this supervisory role, Tom is also going to maintain a presence in our server. He is not a mod and plays no part in decision making beyond occasionally giving us financial advice when asked, but he has appropriate server roles to provide direct access to mod discussions, so that he can be present to pay attention when I bring financial data to the team, and to answer our collective financial questions, should any arise that are beyond my personal capacity. When his schedule permits, he is also available to our contributors and mods to answer their questions directly in server.
What follows is a non-comprehensive, but hopefully thorough, summary of my relevant experience.
By training and professionally, I am a studio artist with an MFA, the terminal degree in my field. I manage my own studio practice. This is a complicated, variable job that requires a great deal of flexibility, responsiveness, and skill– most of which does not actually involve the hand-skills necessary to create the literal artwork the studio practice ostensibly produces. As an artist, I am a sole proprietor, and my studio is my business, but with very specific needs not necessarily found in other businesses, and I run it without assistants. I maintain my inventory and my supplies, I purchase and manage equipment necessary to create work, I manage my work through various states of creation and exhibition and– sometimes– publication, I take on clients for commission, I apply to shows (for which there is always a fee), I work with gallerists and curators, I research and make connections with different platforms and specialist logistics businesses (PayPal/money handlers, banks, streaming platforms, printers, data storage). All of those affect my studio's finances, and so they must be managed carefully, in addition to sales of prints and original artwork (thusfar handled privately, as is fairly normal– we are often encouraged not to maintain digital storefronts, because it can dissuade potential gallerists from representing us; I am in the process of threading that needle.) In this capacity, I have no employer: I am responsible for taxes– both knowing what they are and paying them– and fees, I am responsible for my costs, and I am responsible to my business partners. There is no external buffer– if I fail any of this, I am the only party responsible for making it right.
Because I believe in the transformative power of art (and, for that matter, fandom), I try to work with local arts organizations and nonprofits when possible, particularly when it comes to showing my work and engaging in community arts efforts. I prefer to support group projects that elevate multiple artists, and/or organizations that serve diverse communities. Prior to COVID, I was doing a volunteer-intensive residency with local community arts nonprofit whose mission is to bring art and heritage craft skills to communities that would not otherwise be able to access such training; COVID has necessitated a change in my ability to serve them, but I do still work for them in a more limited capacity, usually grantwriting.
Though I prioritize nonprofits, I have also worked as an assistant/intern for urban galleries using for-profit and co-op funding structures, which involved both basic work associated with gallery assistantship (manning desks, running errands, calling support businesses, promotion, show installation, etc), and sometimes work on specific projects that required knowledge of the institution's fiscal state and available funds (from contacting local businesses about the replacement of a gallery's floor and helping to plan the launching of a new residency, to more routine tasks, such as contacting local bakeries about catering or hosting satellite shows, and ordering promotional material from printers.) All galleries run on extremely tight budgets, and having been exposed to a variety different gallery funding structures (with concomitantly different priorities and audiences) gives me an awareness of the work and the precision required to achieve ambitious goals with extremely limited finances. They are why I price things out on three levels: the ideal, the nearly-ideal, and the most affordable that still meets our high bar for quality.
I have experience writing grants, both for myself and (more notably) for the nonprofit at which I am an AIR (artist in residence). The most ambitious of these grants has reached the second stage of consideration, which is notable both because the granting organization is not arts specific, the deciding board is composed mostly of bankers with deep fiscal expertise, and we were asking for funds significantly in excess of what that grant usually offers. That decision is expected in June of next year. Grant-writing is less of an abstraction on the skills necessary for a zine than it might initially seem: both involve my operation as an agent representing the organization for which I requesting money; art grants are usually for very specific projects with very specific constraints; they usually require that our funding comes from multiple sources that are then pooled to enact the project; the projects have a specific lifespan and a schedule on which key stages must be completed; they require extremely precise budgeting; we are directly accountable for both the project and the precise management and tracking of said funding; and we must be ready to provide statements and proof of the project's progress and funding at every stage of the project's active lifespan, as well as a summary report at the end.
I have curatorial experience with local and regional art shows, usually organized by a small independent team working closely with a local, preferably-nonprofit gallery who is lending us their space; those roles are very analogous to the XO/logistical role I am currently fulfilling for This Simple Feeling. Though we worked with local galleries, and could sometimes make use of some of their equipment (such as hammers and nails and– if we were very lucky– leftover paint), we were responsible for every aspect of the actual hosting of the show and associated costs. This included equipment rental, installation costs, costs to repair & repaint to walls from the normal damage of installation, catering, sometimes utilities and space rental, etc. All of those costs were additional to the cost of recruiting artists, hosting calls, managing the artists and their work, managing sales of the work throughout the duration of the show, managing the sales of any prints the artists or merch the artists wanted to offer alongside the work, and organizing any publications or promotional materials released for the shows. Each show had different financial needs, but they all required budgets prior to their beginning, modified when necessary as the project came closer to realization and new constraints presented themselves. The businesses we solicited quotes from and our cost-reduction strategies varied from show to show, but all of the teams I worked with were semi-formal groups of friends and collaborators, similar to the teams that design zines, and so we did not have a pool of institutional capital to use for funding– we had to generate or barter for all of that ourselves. We did it because we loved it and we believed in it, not because it was potentially lucrative (community art shows almost never are, even less than zines; the point is celebration of our community.)
And that, honestly, is one of the most relevant bits of experience I've accumulated to date, tangential but applicable to a project like this: the awareness that this kind of project is done for love, not money. Issue 6 is being produced for charity, but even wildly successful for-profit zines will almost never be able to make enough profit to adequately compensate the cost of the staff's time, which would be upwards of $20k, if you paid them $10/hr, which is below the cost of living in most parts of my country. The cost to hire freelance writers is, at minimum, $.10 a word. The artwork in zines would cost in the hundreds– and, more realistically, thousands– of dollars, in a professional illustrative or fine art context. The writers and artists who contribute to zines absolutely make work that reaches (and exceeds) the professional standards required to participate in those industries. Our contributors have trained for years to hone their skills, and they put those skills towards making work for us, for free; our staff similarly donate their time to accomplish very complex tasks to support that creative work; that time could be spent producing work for those professional contexts, but instead they give it to us, and they do that because they believe in us and our community, and they want to celebrate a fandom and a ship– Star Trek and K/S– that have brought us together, and (with Trek and K/S specifically) have supported fandom engagement for over five decades. They give that work to us, and the only thing they ask is for us to make a zine out of it. I am an artist and a writer, I have formal training in both disciplines, and I understand these costs: I cannot express how seriously I take the gift of their time and energy, and how profoundly I am humbled to be trusted with it.
If I sound zealous, it's because I am, and because I am excruciatingly aware that from the moment our staff begins working on this project and our contributors start making their works, the financial responsibility for taking all that gifted energy and skill and effort becomes solely my own. If I fail as finance mod, I do not fail only myself, as would be the case in my studio practice– I also fail my fellow mods and every single one of my contributors, and I fail the community responsible for the generation of work that has provided me solace for decades. If I fuck up as finance mod, it is solely my responsibility to make it right.
As I said before, your concerns are absolutely reasonable– I share many of them– and all of this experience is tangential, and zines are different projects to those that I've worked on before, with different constraints and needs. I have thus taken action and structured my own work as a mod to assuage these concerns in myself, in ways that I hope will concomitantly assuage some of your concerns as well. I am paying attention to my own inexperience, I am preventing myself from functioning on auto-pilot, I am taking nothing for granted, and I am being actively vigilant for the inevitable gaps in my own expertise.
That's easy to say, but what does it look like? Thusfar, it takes the form of huge amounts of research, and the connection to a extant network of experienced zinesters, both of which are repositories of information with which I am trying to plug some of my gaps. I know well, as an academic who also practices disciplines (art and writing) that are precarious by their nature, that there is a big difference between external research and experience– but if everyone starts somewhere, then I have gone to great lengths to map out the place where I'm starting as thoroughly as possible. I have read (and often annotated) literally every resource on the production and staffing of fandom zines that I could find. When I have a question, I check these sources and I also look for examples of whatever I'm curious about 'in the wild'. To determine the likely price of our zine, for example, I looked through seven pages of tags on popular hub/promotion blogs on Tumblr, and generated a comprehensive Excel sheet from one such session that allowed me to compare prices against the number of pages and the kinds of merch offered alongside the zines in question. To balance the holes in that mode of data collection, I have also sought contacts and tried to build a relationship with communities around zine production: i have close friends who work on zines (and who initially got me interested in this kind of project– you know who you are, and my thanks is infinite for your patience and your willingness to act as resource), and I regularly make a pest of myself by asking strange questions to folks in Discord servers dedicated to the topic (I am also grateful to these communities, in similar terms). When possible, or if the question is specific enough, I try to go directly to the source: when I was uncertain what, specifically, could be used to verify a PayPal account, and found conflicting answers in their documentation, I spent three days talking to various help desk personnel until I found a solid answer on which to proceed. All of this is basic, and deserves no accolades.
If I am anything in my personal art practice, it is a colorist, and so I already had fairly deep knowledge of color theory prior to my involvement here– however, because color accuracy is so important to printed artwork, and depends so much on printer technology, the capacity and setup of individual print shops, and digital color spaces, I have spent time researching this too. I have requested printing samples from 7 different printers, and I have peppered the ones that meet the zine's standards with esoteric questions about what kind of printing presses they use and what ICC profiles their digital presses are set up to handle. I have done this because when it comes time (very shortly) for our Art Mod (@i-drive-a-nii-san) and myself to make some final determinations on which printers we want to use, it is important to me personally that we have the most comprehensive data available with which to make that decision. The zine that we publish needs to be pragmatically affordable– but within the scope of that pragmatism, I want the best quality possible, so as to do justice to the contributions that will live on its pages.
I am aware that all of my experience is tangential, and that the direct relevance that it has on this situation is limited. I am aware that there are gaps in my knowledge. I am aware of the awesome responsibilities I have as finance mod, and that I am a potential bottleneck upon which this project either breaks and fails or through which it passes and succeeds. I am aware of the gift inherent in every work we receive and every moment of staff working time, and the legacies at play with K/S specifically. I am aware that all the book-learning in the world has limited bearing on the actual experience of doing something on the ground. I find my experience lacking, and for that reason, I very seriously considered stepping down. I am humbled by the responsibility required by this position; I decided to stay because the trust my team expressed in me was also humbling.
My experience may be tangential, but there is a final element that I strongly suspect is applicable to my role as finance mod (and mod generally): in a project like a zine, done for love and for community, there are a myriad ways in which trust matters, small enough to overlook but overwhelming in their accumulation. The trust of the external fandom/zinester community matters, and for that reason I am being as honest as possible, and almost ceded my position to someone with greater experience; the trust of one's fellow staff and collaborators also matters in significant ways. An administrative team that trusts each other– that has confidence in each others' abilities and convictions, that understands each others' outlooks and that communicates well, and that deeply believes that that they will mutually have each other's backs– that kind of administrative team is an awesome thing, and their confidence is often perceptible to the contributors in very real ways, who then trust the administrative team to have their backs and to support them as necessary. Collaborators and administrators who have established that trust with each other tend to work together more effectively, and produce stronger work as a result, especially in a creative capacity. Good work requires creative risk-taking, which in turn requires the certainty that administration can support the necessary risk-taking and facilitate its success. The establishment of such trust is not automatic– we must work for it, actively– but the team involved in issue 6 of This Simple Feeling has that trust in each other, and the willingness to build it with both our collaborators and the wider community around our zine.
My confidence in the rest of my team is unshakeable. They have, in turn, expressed their confidence in me, that I am able to do the tasks and handle the responsibility involved with being finance mod on a project as specific and complex as a fandom zine for charity; I will trust them, and I will continue to work to earn their trust. I will also trust the broad community of zinesters around me, and solicit their expertise to help me navigate unfamiliar waters, and I will trust the professional expertise of my partner, who I have asked to donate his time. I will not lie, and so I make no promise that I won't fuck up in this role– but I will absolutely promise that if I do, I will make it right, and I will do everything in my power to prevent such fuckups from occurring in the first place.
I encourage you or anyone else to contact me if you have further questions; I can be reached through the contact forms on my personal Carrds– both linked on This Simple Feeling's staff bio on the Carrd– or alternatively you can request my Discord handle via DM on This Simple Feeling’s Tumblr or Twitter.
- Mod Dogfeathers/42/booleanWildcard/NAB
* I write fanfiction under the name booleanWildcard, and I am known socially as 42 or */asterisk. I post drawings as Dogmachine. I sign my visual work as NAB, my initials.
* We are using Microsoft Access instead of Excel, because Access is more flexible and comprehensive with its ability to cross-reference multiple fields. We will use it to generate reports for release, including possibly ones that can be plugged into Excel/Google Sheets
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How To Be A Great Art Ally to your Creative Friends.
Slightly tweaked from my 2015 post How To Be A Great ART ALLY
I’ve been having a lot of heart to hearts lately with my friends who are authors and artists and we’re all saying the same thing: It is getting harder and harder for everyone who isn’t in the top 5% of their industry to get the word out about work they are doing.
Because of the way the industries are now, many artists are not getting the marketing and push that they deserve or need. Much of that promotion and publicity now falls on the artist’s shoulder. Your artist friend may have a good career, but unless they are crazy lucky, or have the “it” thing of the moment, your artist friend is probably really struggling.
“What. But they have so many books out! They are on tour all the time! They are always doing some wacky play!”
Sadly, about 90% of artists are struggling and barely making a living wage. According to the NY Times (1/5/19) The median wage for most authors is $20,300
Most of your creative friends have full-time day jobs on top of their full-time art careers. Or they are taking a lot of side speaking gigs, lecturing or school visits and other supplemental work to add to their income to meet basic needs.
Remember, every new project that they do is like starting from scratch.
For example, many of the people who I know who are not artists see all the stuff that I am doing and think that it’s going so great for me that I don’t need their help to get the word out about my books. But I do. All of your artist friends (even the most famous ones) need your support all the time.
To be a great Art Ally for any of your author/artist friends I’ve drummed up a list of things that you can do. I’ve focused on books, since I’m an author, but I’ve added helpful tips within to give you ideas on how to help your music, performer, filmmaker, comic book, visual artist and indie game maker friends.
1) Pre-order their stuff. Seriously. If your friend has a book (or CD or DVD or indie game or comic book) coming out pre-order it. Pre-orders give the publishing company an indication of interest and can help with print runs. Good pre-orders sometimes help a book because the publishing company may give a book a little push with extra marketing money and publicity based on those numbers.
2) Show up. If your friend has a reading or something, go to it. “But I went to it once for another book!” That’s great! You are a supporter! But, every book is a whole new thing! (Go to their rock show! Play! Art gallery opening! If your friend is in a film/made a film go opening weekend, that’s when the box office counts. Or order it on VOD the week it drops. Or buy the game the week it comes out. You get the idea.)
3) When you are there, buy the book. “But I already pre-ordered it!” Yeah, I know. But buying it at the store or the reading helps the bookstore and the numbers and will help your friend do another reading there the next time. This is especially important if your friend is doing a reading not in their hometown. (If your friend is a musician, buy merch because that might be how they are paying for gas. If your friend is an artist, buy a piece of art because that might equal a bag of groceries.) (comics peeps put your pals book on your pull list) (etc)
3a) “But argh! This is not my kind of book. I don’t read that genre. It’s not for me. I’m not a kid/teen.” Sure, that’s fair. The book might not be for you. But I bet you one million dollars that you know somebody that the book (or other thing) would be perfect for. Maybe a strange aunt? Maybe your weird nephew? Maybe your co-worker? And remember the holidays are always just around the corner! Why not get it signed? Think of it as a back up present. You can give it at a white elephant exchange. If all else fails, get a copy and donate it to your local library or if it’s a kids book, to the school library nearest you.
4) Signal boost their work. While it may look to you like everybody knows about your friend’s book, they probably don’t. Remember that we are all kind of in a bubble when it comes to social media. Authors (and artists of all kinds) are always looking for new readers/audience and you totally have a bunch of friends that your author/artist friend doesn’t know. And those friends might have never heard of your friend’s book, movie, game, music and it might be right up their alley. And those friends have friends that you don’t know. And so on. And so on. So every once in a while, if you like and in a way that you are comfortable with, an easy Art Ally action is to Tweet, Instagram, Pintrest or Facebook (or repost) something about that person’s art thing on the social medias! This signal boosting helps to get new eyeballs on the book (or art thing) that your friend is doing.
5) Review it / Rate it. Perhaps you are on Goodreads? Or perhaps you frequent Amazon or B&N or Powells? If you really are a fan of the book (or art thing), a simple way to help boost your friend’s work is by giving it a star rating or a review. (For musicians you can do this at those places as well. Also you can add their album to your streaming site and rate it! For films rate it on Netflix if it’s there! For games there are places to do this too!)
5a) For books, on Goodreads it’s also helpful if you add it to your to read shelf. It’s both helpful before the book comes out and when the book comes out. So if you haven’t done it already, go to it! Add all your friends books to your to read shelf. It’s not too late!
6) Make sure that it is in your local library branch! Libraries are the biggest purchasers of books! An author wants their book to be read! Libraries help with that! Maybe you are librarian? Or someone super close to you is a librarian? This is where you can really help to get it on the library radar by making sure that it is on the order list for your branch or for your system. Sidenote: Many libraries are too poor to purchase books this is a great place for you to donate that extra book!
7) Consider using it in your class! Many books have reader guides or teacher guides. Are you a teacher? Or is someone super close to you a teacher? If you love the book, Or if not that, you can donate the book to your (or your teacher pal’s) school library or classroom library for students to enjoy.
8) Book Club it. If you have a book club, suggest your group read your friend’s book. Or maybe just have a one-off book club and get a group of your friends together to read your friend’s book. If your friend writes for kids, do a mother/ daughter or father /son book club with a group of people. I’m 100% certain that your author friend would be delighted to come over (or if they live far, Skype) to discuss their book with your book club. (for musicians you could host a living room show at your house)
9) Ask your art pal to come in and speak! Maybe your school or library has a budget to bring in a variety of guest speakers for classrooms or assemblies? Your friend would be perfect for this. If your institution has no budget, you can still ask your friend to come and speak! Lots of authors have sliding scales and can organize a way to sell their own books and that can offset a pro bono visit. Also, it will help them to get new readers. Being an art ally is all about getting new audiences for your arty friends. (Your other artist pals would make great classroom / assembly visitors as well.)
10) Vote and Nominate. It’s possible that there are lists that you can vote on or nominate your friends for that they may be eligible for and deserving. This could be anything from your local publicly voted on thing to a list that is for professionals which you might be. It’s easy for everyone to remember to nominate the big best sellers of the year or the debut books that are getting the big pushes. But there are many midlist books that are wonderful and get lost in that shuffle. Make sure to champion the midlist! They really need help to be seen! (This is the same for all of your artist friends. There is always a thing that is going on where they can use your vote or nomination. You’ve gotten those emails / updates.)
11) Hand sell. Maybe you are a bookseller? Make sure that the book is on the shelf. And then, when and if you love it, hand sell it! You can also help by making sure that the book is still on the shelf once it’s sold. Many stores don’t automatically re-order a book if it doesn’t sell more than a certain amount. If you are not a bookseller, you can still hand sell by just talking up the book to people. (Talk up their music, game, comic, play, and movie.)
11a) If you work in retail anywhere and your pal is a musician and you like their music: Try putting their album on at work! Who knows? Maybe someone will ask you who that swell band is? Your pal may gain a new listener!
12) Be a Microphilanthropist. Support their Patreon/Kickstarter/Go Fund me. It really helps to get that support whether it be a small patreon contribution or a small contribution to getting that dream project done. Support their Indiegogo or Kickstarter or Patreon. For your other artist friends who are making movies, plays, albums, comics, indie video games support their crowdfunding or patreon effort. Really. You can totally afford the $5-10 level (even if you think the project is lame.) for a crowdfunding and $1 for patron. And it will really help them and boost morale.
13) Be a good literary citizen. If you are an author, remember to be a good literary citizen. Promote yourself, but also do stuff for the larger literary community. Participate and include others. There are many things you can do. You can organize events. You can pitch panels. You can show up to things. You can volunteer to be a judge for things or to moderate panels (be a good moderator if you do.) You can write essays about other works. Remember to extend past your own inner circle of friends to include people who you might not know. Being an artist is very hard. There are many ups and downs in a career. At some point everyone goes through a hard time and needs help. Avoid the cool kids table mentality. Be kind. When you are on the top, don’t forget to keep helping your community. Diversify your literary and artistic world. (Other artists, you know what this is in your own field. Art citizens for the win!)
14) Invite your friend over to dinner. Or buy them dinner. Or have a potluck. Everyone could use a good night out with friends and conversation. It’s a spirit booster. No lie.
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FREELANCE GUiDANCE: A 10-PART Series - PART 6 ESTABLISH AN ONLINE PRESENCE
In the olden days (and still taught by some art schools stuck in the mid 20th Century) we as new freelancers spent a TON of money on postcards, business cards, promotional materials, archival prints for our portfolios and then set about the hefty task of compiling a mailing and visit list of potential clients and then experienced the pleasure of mailing out all of that information and schlepping ourselves and those shiny new portfolios to art directors we were desperate to work for.
Some of that advice is still valid, but most of it is not.
BECAUSE THE WEB IS THE THING NOW.
If you're still in the pre-art school phase choosing a school BEWARE any professor who does not know how to use email, or who makes light of it. You'll need to be able to not only compose a professional sounding email but you'll need to know how to attach viewable sized files as well as fully comprehend and be able to upload completed files into a cloud portal for clients.
BECAUSE THE WEB IS THE THING NOW.
The BEST thing to come out of this world-wide web is that now the playing field is even. Now your client base is no longer local it's global. Your previously potential six clients in your metro area now become something closer to sixty million.
That means you have to know how to use it. During my tenure at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston where I worked exclusively with senior class students I was SHOCKED, SHOCKED I tell you at how many of them were NOT computer savvy. This is the 21st Century-- you kids are supposed to own technology. Many of the newer generation do not.
Change that.
First and foremost, forget how genius you are. Forget that the reason you're struggling is that your amazing talent has not yet been discovered, and approach it with this prism: you are offering a service in a business, the client needs to make money from you. Whether it be from more sales because your art graces the cover of their magazine, or through commission sales in their gallery, the bottom line is you will get work if someone thinks they can make money off you.
Cold and simple yes?
So approach it from a professional business angle.
EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE:
This iz NOT the time for U to use :(
Nope.
You need to handle business correspondence like you would a letter. Here's an example, let's pretend our editors name is John Q. Poobidickery-- your email should look like this:
Mr. Poobidickery;
My name is (fill in your name) and I am a recent graduate of (fill in your school), my portfolio is online at (fill in where it is) and I think my style suits your needs. I hope you can find the time to check out my work and see if you agree.
I have been a longtime (reader, visitor of their gallery, fan of theirs) and working with you would be an accomplishment of one of my major goals. (Cite SPECIFICS about the company so that they don't think this is a form letter).
Thank you and I hope to hear from you soon.
YOUR NAME
LINK TO YOUR ONLINE PORTFOLIO
One thing that I think goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway-- your email should be professional, and it should be recognizable to this editor that they can spot it and know it's you. I.e. if your email is [email protected] and your name is not KITTY FANUEL then you need to come up with a "real" email.
YOURNAME@YOURWEBSITE is best. Why? Because it says to the client that you not only are serious, but you believe enough in your talents to expend the energy and expense of having your own personal website.
My email is [email protected] << the killer there is that stupid T. I had to use the T because someone else registered andyfish.com so I had to add my middle initial. I could fill a stadium with the number of people who forget the T. It's not perfect but it's better than not having any.
It also helps that if you google me I come up first.
Gmail is your other option-- it's not ideal because gmail gets hacked a lot. Ever get a hacked email? It usually has a subject line of FROM THE NAME OF THE HACKEE-- you click on it and it tells you that Oprah is recommending this new weight loss solution and you should check it out.
Hacked email is an annoyance. The very last thing you want to be to someone hiring you is annoying.
ONLINE PORTFOLIOS
There are a lot of sites that offer free space to artists
Coroflot
Portfolio Box
Behance Network
CarbonMade
Cargo
All of these are pretty good, and they offer various levels of memberships. The most important thing about them is that art directors often visit, which is a plus.
You'll notice I didn't list Deviantart -- that was an intentional omission. If you want to hang out with a bunch of anime fans that's a great site, but I know at least a DOZEN art directors who have said over the years that if someone lists their work on Deviantart they won't even click the link. That's enough of a reason for me to say stay away from it.
You can also opt to build your own website (which I think is smarter) and then promote visits to it.
SquareSpace (I use this one)
Wix (Veronica uses this one)
Both of these are popular with artists and both offer very simple templates and design tools. You can be a layman and have a site built in a day using either of these.
Probably even more important than the portfolio is THE BLOG. This particular blog (in it's old incarnation on blogger) got somewhere near 60,000 visits a month-- and I think that owes completely to the fact that I update it EACH AND EVERY DAY. Moving the blog to my website where it is now has dropped the numbers off, but I'll rebuild it and regardless I like that it's now in one unified space.
But let's talk about that NEW EVERY DAY-- that scares a lot of people when I suggest it for their own blog, but it's the number one bit of advice I can give to help you succeed.
WHY?
1. Fresh content drives readers to your blog. If they know each and everyday there will be SOMETHING, even if it's not something they find incredibly engaging, they will create a habit and make a visit to your blog a regular part of their routine. Think about brushing your teeth-- you NEVER forget because it's a habit ingrained in you since childhood. But compare that to when you get sick and the doctor prescribes a pill for you to take everyday-- you have to set a reminder, you end up missing a day, etc-- because it's not a habit.
2. Fresh content improves your Google results. Improved Google results means people (especially art directors) can find you. SEO means search engine optimization and that happens with fresh content.
3. Fresh content is healthy for your blog. A neglected plant is a pretty sad sight isn't it? So is a blog that has the same old post from New Years eve 1998. If you're going to jump into the online world work at it and keep it updated.
Everyday is intimidating-- I get it. Use the scheduling device and write a bunch of blogs at the same time, like a Sunday morning or a lazy afternoon. Break long posts into multiple parts. Post pictures, post artwork, post process, post whatever you think of.
It works.
But the key to take away from this week's advice is to have an online presence that reflects your current work.
THEN drive people to it. Link your TWITTER, your TUMBLR, your INSTAGRAM all back to your blog. When you write something new (or when it runs) make sure it gets mentioned on those platforms too.
IFTTT is a great free resource to connect all your social media. It's easy to use and it lets you hook everything up. So when you post on Instagram it also posts on Twitter, etc.
Once you have your online presence established THEN and ONLY THEN should you consider using some traditional marketing methods like postcards and mailers. OvernightPrints.com is my go to choice for business cards and promotional items. They are very inexpensive and relatively fast in turnaround time.
RESIST THE URGE TO ORDER THE 5000
When you're ordering business cards or postcards you're going to notice that ordering 5000 is not much more expensive than ordering 1000 so you may jump on it. Don't. The trouble is 5000 is a LOT of cards, and there's a really good chance you'll still be shucking these cards in five or six years, and the work shown on those cards will be long out of date.
Things change, art changes, phone numbers change, email changes, websites change-- all of that will work against the 5000.
Order in quantities of 250-500 and then create a mailer. A mailer could be a postcard showing your best work and your contact info with your web address so a visitor can come and see even more of your best work. It can be in the form of a postcard mailed to art directors and editors, or it could be in an envelope with a few items and a business card included.
MOST important is to make sure you include a bit of personal correspondence, if it reads like a form letter it's going to get less attention than if you actually write something that connects with the addressee.
WHO DO YOU SEND THE MAILERS TO?
Go to Barnes and Noble (if they're still in business), grab a pile of magazines you'd like to be featured in, or you'd like to work for, and look for the masthead to create a master mailing list of people who put this magazine out.
If there is no art director or editor listed, a quick Google search might help, if that fails call the magazine and ask the receptionist who the editor is.
QUICK thought on calling-- once I had an editor shoot me an email after I sent in a package, they wanted to work with me and asked that I call them on Monday. Trouble was, going by email alone they had a very difficult name to pronounce. Rather than embarrass myself in the follow up call, I called the receptionist first, and asked them how to pronounce the editors name. They were happy to help.
ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be nice to the receptionist either in person or on the phone, they are your gate keeper and they deal with all kinds of person. Being nice will go a long way towards getting them on your side.
So go forth and attack the digital age my friends.
Andy Fish is a freelance artist and writer who has been living the lifestyle longer than there has been an iPhone on this planet. The advice given has worked for him, it might work for you, he hopes it does. But like all advice, take it with your own situation in mind. If you want to contact him shoot him an email [email protected]
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The 13 Most Overrated Tourist Traps on the Planet
Whenever I’m on vacation or visiting a city on a short break, I try and soak up as much of the real, local culture that I can – I find it the best way to really explore a new place.
I’m not a huge fan of crowded tourist sites where people aren’t people anymore, they mutate into clumsy beings with cameras attached to their faces – the best way to enjoy a vacation is not through a camera lens.
There are of course some exceptions to this rule, there’s a list of what I would regard as ‘stereotypical’ tourist spots that I’ve loved and would visit again (The Eiffel Tower, Ground Zero, Vatican City etc), but the majority of the ‘must-see’ tourist traps out there are overpriced, oversubscribed and ultimately overrated.
Want to know the ones to avoid? Or are they overrated, still iconic and definitely a must see?
Read on:
The Louvre Museum – Paris, France
Let’s face it; the only reason you are inside The Louvre Museum in Paris is to see Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ painting, right? Well save yourself the considerable entrance fee because the thing is just tiny. I mean like miniscule, barely bigger than a postage stamp. If you want a preview of the kind of view you’ll be getting, this second image in the gallery illustrates it well!
As that image accurately demonstrates, not only is the painting small there are also a ton of other tourists blocking your view, who are desperate for their picture of probably the most disappointing piece of art in history. Be warned.
Stonehenge – Amesbury, UK
What is essentially a bunch of big stones in a field, Stonehenge is yet another ancient monument completely mugging off unsuspecting tourists. Don’t expect to get near let alone touch the stones (you can’t), don’t expect to see anything interesting in the immediate vicinity (there is no accompanying museum or tourist centre), and certainly don’t expect good weather (it’s England).
The Colosseum – Rome, Italy
We continue our stay in Europe by ‘visiting’ the impressive Colosseum in Rome. Unlike visiting Stonehenge the weather will most likely be good as it tends to be, all year round in Rome, but you’ll have to consider queue times and predict what the climate will be like when you actually get inside – average queuing times can be 6 to 8 months (okay not quite that long, but it’s a seriously long time to wait just to get into a building site). Plenty of time for the notorious local pickpockets to strike, then.
Do you like queuing? We do not! Read here how to avoid long queues for sights in Rome.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa – Pisa, Italy
What’s that? You have a genius idea that you’d like to go to Pisa and take a picture of yourself leaning against the tower? Nice. No-one’s ever thought of that before.
The Statue of Liberty – New York City, USA
The Statue of Liberty in New York is an iconic and symbolic monument, but yet another massive disappointment. You’re better off spending your time looking around the infinitely more interesting neighbouring Ellis Island, the gateway for millions of immigrants to the US during the early 1900’s.
Still want your classic tourist photograph of Lady Liberty? Take the (free) Staten Island Ferry from Manhattan to (you guessed it) Staten Island to see fantastic views of the New York Bay as well as your beloved Statue of Liberty.
Mannekin Pis – Brussels, Belgium
One of the most photographed statues in Europe, featured on practically every postcard in Belgium, the Mannekin Pis really ought to be a lot more impressive that it is. It’s just a little boy taking a leak into a fountain, right? Or am I missing something?!
The Astronomical Clock – Prague, Czech Republic
The Astronomical Clock located in beautiful Old Town Prague, is apparently the third oldest astronomical clock in the world – very interesting. What is not so interesting and is in fact incredibly irritating are the huge crowds that swell at the base of the clock every hour in preparation for the bell to chime. Seriously, that’s it. Anything that boring that results in such needlessly big crowds has to earn a place on this list.
The Great Wall of China – Badaling, China
Wherever on this planet you happen to call home, you’ll probably be familiar with the concept of walls. If walls interest you, then perhaps the Great Wall of China is an advisable vacation destination. If, like me, you don’t regard walls as all that impressive and certainly not visit worthy, I’d give this particular excursion a miss.
The section of the Great Wall at Badaling is especially well known for being a tourist nightmare – merchants harass you non-stop to buy their overpriced tat. It’s probably more interesting to look at from space than up close and personal.
Find here the best place to see the Great Wall.
Las Vegas – Nevada, USA
Las Vegas seems to be a popular destination amongst tourists, for absolutely no logical reason at all. Want to lose your savings gambling? Want a place to have a cheesy, shotgun wedding? Want to visit a place that is wall-to-wall soulless casinos and tasteless hotels? A city that is no more than a tacky theme park with neon lights? Las Vegas is the ticket.
The Grand Canyon – Arizona, USA
While you’re in Nevada not visiting Las Vegas you can also take a 6 hour drive east and not visit the Grand Canyon, too (this guide is helpful if nothing else). I presume that the recent opening of the ‘Skywalk’ attraction (pictured here) can only be to tempt the paying customers into ending the sheer boredom forced upon them whilst visiting the Grand Canyon.
Better have some more time and do the Rim to Rim hike.
Little Mermaid – Copenhagen, Denmark
Mention to anyone that you’re planning on visiting Copenhagen, and you’ll probably be advised to check out The Little Mermaid statue located on the coast of the city. My advice would be, don’t. What’s so special about it? Perhaps the mermaid is in some way related to the Mannekin Pis?
The Hollywood Walk of Fame – Los Angeles, USA
Don’t expect any glamour on this famous street in the heart of the City of Angels. It’s an otherwise ordinary street with huge crowds taking pictures of the sidewalk. Around them are celebrity impersonators and tacky souvenir shops – no, you won’t spot any real celebrities, just other clueless tourists as confused as you are as to what they’re doing there.
London, UK
Okay, so maybe it’s just me having lived in London for a time and also having frequented it many times in my life, but seemingly everywhere I go, there are tourists EVERYWHERE. What’s the deal?
Seriously tourists, London’s not all that special; it’s crowded (no thanks to you), it’s stuffy in the summer, freezing in the winter, its transport system is notoriously slow and unreliable, people are not friendly, traffic is a nightmare, things are expensive and the traditional tourist sites are frankly boring. Buckingham Palace? Really? I wouldn’t bother if I were you, but I hear that Paris is beautiful this time of year…
But maybe these travel tips are worth visiting London.
Travel tip shared by Harry Peters
www.justtheflight.co.uk
The post The 13 Most Overrated Tourist Traps on the Planet appeared first on Tripstations.
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How to Be a Great Art Ally to Your Creator Friends
Slightly tweaked from my 2015 post How To Be A Great ART ALLY I’ve been having a lot of heart to hearts lately with my friends who are authors and artists and we’re all saying the same thing: It is getting harder and harder for everyone who isn’t in the top 5% of their industry to get the word out about work they are doing. Because of the way the industries are now, many artists are not getting the marketing and push that they deserve or need. Much of that promotion and publicity now falls on the artist’s shoulder. Your artist friend may have a good career, but unless they are crazy lucky, or have the “it” thing of the moment, your artist friend is probably really struggling. “What. But they have so many books out! They are on tour all the time! They are always doing some wacky play!” Sadly, about 90% of artists are struggling and barely making a living wage. Most have full-time day jobs on top of their full-time art careers. Remember, every new project that they do is like starting from scratch. For example, many of the people who I know who are not artists see all the stuff that I am doing and think that it’s going so great for me that I don’t need their help to get the word out about my books. But I do. All of your artist friends (even the most famous ones) need your support all the time. To be a great Art Ally for any of your author/artist friends I’ve drummed up a list of things that you can do. I’ve focused on books, since I’m an author, but I’ve added helpful tips within to give you ideas on how to help your music, performer, filmmaker, comic book, visual artist and indie game maker friends. 1) Pre-order their stuff. Seriously. If your friend has a book (or CD or DVD or indie game or comic book) coming out pre-order it. Pre-orders give the publishing company an indication of interest and can help with print runs. Good pre-orders sometimes help a book because the publishing company may give a book a little push with extra marketing money and publicity based on those numbers. 2) Show up. If your friend has a reading or something, go to it. “But I went to it once for another book!” That’s great! You are a supporter! But, every book is a whole new thing! (Go to their rock show! Play! Art gallery opening! If your friend is in a film/made a film go opening weekend, that’s when the box office counts. Or order it on VOD the week it drops. Or buy the game the week it comes out. You get the idea.) 3) When you are there, buy the book. “But I already pre-ordered it!” Yeah, I know. But buying it at the store or the reading helps the bookstore and the numbers and will help your friend do another reading there the next time. This is especially important if your friend is doing a reading not in their hometown. (If your friend is a musician, buy merch because that might be how they are paying for gas. If your friend is an artist, buy a piece of art because that might equal a bag of groceries.) (comics peeps put your pals book on your pull list) (etc) 3a) “But argh! This is not my kind of book. I don’t read that genre. It’s not for me. I’m not a kid/teen.” Sure, that’s fair. The book might not be for you. But I bet you one million dollars that you know somebody that the book (or other thing) would be perfect for. Maybe a strange aunt? Maybe your weird nephew? Maybe your co-worker? And remember the holidays are always just around the corner! Why not get it signed? Think of it as a back up present. You can give it at a white elephant exchange. If all else fails, get a copy and donate it to your local library or if it’s a kids book, to the school library nearest you. 4) Signal boost it. While it may look to you like everybody knows about your friend’s book, they probably don’t. Remember that we are all kind of in a bubble when it comes to social media. Authors (and artists of all kinds) are always looking for new readers/audience and you totally have a bunch of friends that your author/artist friend doesn’t know. And those friends might have never heard of your friend’s book, movie, game, music and it might be right up their alley. And those friends have friends that you don’t know. And so on. And so on. So every once in a while, if you like and in a way that you are comfortable with, an easy Art Ally action is to Tweet, Instagram, Pintrest or Facebook (or repost) something about that person’s art thing on the social medias! This signal boosting helps to get new eyeballs on the book (or art thing) that your friend is doing. 5) Review it / Rate it. Perhaps you are on Goodreads? Or perhaps you frequent Amazon or B&N or Powells? If you really are a fan of the book (or art thing), a simple way to help boost your friend’s work is by giving it a star rating or a review. (For musicians you can do this at those places as well. Also you can add their album to your streaming site and rate it! For films rate it on Netflix if it’s there! For games there are places to do this too!) 5a) For books, on Goodreads it’s also helpful if you add it to your to read shelf. It’s both helpful before the book comes out and when the book comes out. So if you haven’t done it already, go to it! Add all your friends books to your to read shelf. It’s not too late! 6) Make sure that it is in your local library branch! Libraries are the biggest purchasers of books! An author wants their book to be read! Libraries help with that! Maybe you are librarian? Or someone super close to you is a librarian? This is where you can really help to get it on the library radar by making sure that it is on the order list for your branch or for your system. Sidenote: Many libraries are too poor to purchase books this is a great place for you to donate that extra book! 7) Many books have reader guides or teacher guides. Are you a teacher? Or is someone super close to you a teacher? If you love the book, consider using it in your class! Or if not that, you can donate the book to your (or your teacher pal’s) school library or classroom library for students to enjoy. 8) Book Club it. If you have a book club, suggest your group read your friend’s book. Or maybe just have a one-off book club and get a group of your friends together to read your friend’s book. If your friend writes for kids, do a mother/ daughter or father /son book club with a group of people. I’m 100% certain that your author friend would be delighted to come over (or if they live far, Skype) to discuss their book with your book club. (for musicians you could host a living room show at your house) 9) Ask your art pal to come in and speak! Maybe your school or library has a budget to bring in a variety of guest speakers for classrooms or assemblies? Your friend would be perfect for this. If your institution has no budget, you can still ask your friend to come and speak! Lots of authors have sliding scales and can organize a way to sell their own books and that can offset a pro bono visit. Also, it will help them to get new readers. Being an art ally is all about getting new audiences for your arty friends. (Your other artist pals would make great classroom / assembly visitors as well.) 10) Vote and Nominate. It’s possible that there are lists that you can vote on or nominate your friends for that they may be eligible for and deserving. This could be anything from your local publicly voted on thing to a list that is for professionals which you might be. It’s easy for everyone to remember to nominate the big best sellers of the year or the debut books that are getting the big pushes. But there are many midlist books that are wonderful and get lost in that shuffle. Make sure to champion the midlist! They really need help to be seen! (This is the same for all of your artist friends. There is always a thing that is going on where they can use your vote or nomination. You’ve gotten those emails / updates.) 11) Hand sell. Maybe you are a bookseller? Make sure that the book is on the shelf. And then, when and if you love it, hand sell it! You can also help by making sure that the book is still on the shelf once it’s sold. Many stores don’t automatically re-order a book if it doesn’t sell more than a certain amount. If you are not a bookseller, you can still hand sell by just talking up the book to people. (Talk up their music, game, comic, play, and movie.) 11a) If you work in retail anywhere and your pal is a musician and you like their music: Try putting their album on at work! Who knows? Maybe someone will ask you who that swell band is? Your pal may gain a new listener! 12) Support their Indiegogo or Kickstarter or Patreon. For your other artist friends who are making movies, plays, albums, comics, indie video games support their crowdfunding or patreon effort. Really. You can totally afford the $5-10 level (even if you think the project is lame.) for a crowdfunding and $1 for patron. And it will really help them and boost morale. 13) Be a good literary citizen. If you are an author, remember to be a good literary citizen. Promote yourself, but also do stuff for the larger literary community. Participate and include others. There are many things you can do. You can organize events. You can pitch panels. You can show up to things. You can volunteer to be a judge for things or to moderate panels (be a good moderator if you do.) You can write essays about other works. Remember to extend past your own inner circle of friends to include people who you might not know. Being an artist is very hard. There are many ups and downs in a career. At some point everyone goes through a hard time and needs help. Avoid the cool kids table mentality. Be kind. When you are on the top, don’t forget to keep helping your community. Diversify your literary and artistic world. (Other artists, you know what this is in your own field. Art citizens for the win!) 14) Invite your friend over to dinner. Or buy them dinner. Or have a potluck. Everyone could use a good night out with friends and conversation. It’s a spirit booster. No lie. You have the power to be a great ART ALLY! Champion what you love. From all artists everywhere, I thank you for your support!
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