art-as-business

business cards for writers

I have something cool to show you.

But first, some background.

Years ago, I used to take pictures, usually of flowers, sometimes of homeschool projects, often of my kids.

Then I got lazy. The camera was too unwieldy to take everywhere, it was too much of a pain to get the pictures off it, and my husband got an iPhone so it was easy for him to pull it out and snap a picture or two.

I got used to this, so when my cool new business cards arrived, I said (as usual), “Dear, can you pull out your iPhone and snap a picture of these?”

My obliging husband er… obliged, and took this picture:

Oh, dear. The brown background gave the black-and-white cover of Shattered an unfortunate sepia tint (not to mention my husband and his cell phone are usually only around after work in the evenings, when one has to use artificial lighting anyway–which can be trying).

So I asked him to take a picture with a light background.

He did so.

The Shattered cover looks closer to normal, but there’s that flash glare on the Rainbird one…

At this point my husband gave me the no-more-pictures-do-it-yourself look and went upstairs to give the youngest child a bath. I toyed with idea of posing the cards one more time, perhaps even unearthing the digital camera out of the depths of… wherever it is, fiddling with cables and getting into the photo-managing software.

That sounded tiring, even to me.

So there you have them: cell phone pics in trying lighting of my new business cards, which are ten times cooler than what they look like in this picture.

Pertinent details:

I used Moo for these cards. They came in two packs of 50. The “I break fairy tales” version comes with the Shattered cover. The “I fuse fantasy & science fiction” comes in Rainbird and Mourning Cloak flavors.
Perhaps I should have gone with rounded edges? Any thoughts on that for next time?
The QR codes go straight to my website. If I’d been clever–or had more time–I could’ve set up a special business-card-exclusive page on my site for goodies, but I didn’t. Note to self: Remember that for next time. However: QR codes! Eeek! I’ve always wanted them!
They came with a 15%-off coupon code for first time card orders, so if you want it, leave me a comment and I’ll email it to you.

The reason why I hurried up and got these is because:

a) I meet people in Real Life. Sometimes I even tell them I’m a writer. Sometimes they even ask about my books and seem interested when I tell them. Sometimes I wish I had a business card to give them. Well now I do!

b) I’m going to Balticon at the end of the month! With the husband. Who will have his cell phone. So there will be pics. Trying pics, probably, but pics nonetheless.

Do you have writer business cards? Take a picture (with a cell phone, of course *wink*) and share them with us! Do you have other offline marketing tactics to share?

cartoon jaguars talk art and business

Last week, I talked about what I’ve learned from my favorite how-to freelance book, The Freelancer’s Survival Guide by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The week prior to that, I shared 4 things I’m doing as a working writer.

Now that I have a writing-as-business theme going, I’m going to continue it.

Back when I first self-published Shattered, I had little clue about how to go about running my brand-new business. Luckily, I stumbled on to another of my favorite art business resources, this time by author and artist M. C. A. Hogarth. She uses three cartoon jaguars to illustrate business principles, first in her columns and most recently in a webcomic. What I love about Hogarth’s approach is that she puts both the right and left sides of the brain to work for the professional artist.

Hogarth separates the roles of a working artist into three: Artist, Marketer, and Business Manager (hence, the three jaguars). This trichotomy (oh look, it’s actually a real word) makes it easier to put needed walls between the various roles–and also the doors that act as communication channels between them.

Hogarth has a ton of great insights, but my single biggest takeaway from her columns (we’re talking about fireworks going off in my head, people) is this one.

Ready?

copyright M. C. A. Hogarth, used with permission from the artist

Every artist should internalize this principle–preferably before you bring your work into the marketplace (or else the economic realities might well crush your very soul).

Every piece of art–a one-of-kind costume, a story, a musical composition–has inherent value. Its value is in what it means to the artist and/or the emotional response it evokes in someone who experiences it. This is not a value you can put a dollar price on.

However, what you put on the marketplace is not art, but a product. A short story that sells to an anthology is a product. A song available as a digital download is a product. The handmade doll on the vendor’s table at the Renfest is a product. And products are subject to economic realities like demand and supply to determine their prices.

Making that distinction is helpful because it separates artistic merit (or value) from monetary compensation. It keeps the Artist part of you from sinking into a funk because you put the novel that took you a year to write on sale for 99 cents. It keeps you from tying your artistic identity too closely to sales and money.

It also helps to realize, as Hogarth explains in a different column, that a single piece of art can be the basis of many products.

Before reading the three jaguars columns, I had the attitude that once I sold a story, it was gone. First rights had been all used up, and there was nothing else I could do with it. If I was very very lucky, and the stars were aligned just so, an editor might ~~ride up on a white horse~~ contact me for reprint rights, but I wasn’t holding my breath.

Hogarth’s examples showed me how limited my thinking was.

Today, thanks in large part to a changing industry, I can create many different products from that one short story I sold to the anthology. I could bundle it with other short stories and sell it on Amazon. I could license its audio rights to a podzine. I could have it translated into different languages. I could sell it to a magazine that accepts reprints.

Each time that one story is re-released in a different format or venue. One story becomes many products.

I’m currently serializing Quartz, a science fantasy set in a sunless world, using the same model Hogarth uses for her serials. Quartz updates weekly on Tuesdays, but a $5 donation gets you an extra episode on Saturday. Once the serial is run, I’m going to have it formatted into an e-book and put it up on Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo and all. Someday, I might even hire a narrator to do an audio version. One story becomes three products–each reaching a different market.

This concept also takes the pressure off me as an artist. I’m working on increasing my productivity (mainly by plugging my biggest leak, the Internet), but I can also enlist my Marketer’s help in finding new places for my existing work. Artist’s output may vary from month to month, but it’s the Marketer’s job to impose regularity in the production schedule.

All of Hogarth’s columns are well worth the read. Also be sure to catch the webcomic’s current storyline about why any artist being paid for her work needs to pay attention to the business side of things. It could save you a world of trouble.

right brain meets left brain in art business book

I was first introduced to M.C.A. Hogarth’s work by Liana Mir. At that point, I hadn’t quite made the decision to self-publish Shattered. I knew that I was interested in going into business for myself, but I didn’t have a plan, I didn’t have any tools, and I didn’t have the mindset of an artist-entrepreneur.

Enter Hogarth’s Three Micahs–cartoon jaguars who understand the creative process and make business principles fun and accessible. Hogarth is pretty amazing–she’s a writer and artist who has also held down day jobs in the business and technology fields. Over the years she’s experimented with interactive storytelling, serialized fiction on her blog and small press publishing, not to mention creating visual art (fantasy illustration and cartooning) which she’s productized (yet another word I learned from the Micahs!) in her Zazzle store.

People, this lady has a lot of experience in combining the creative right brain and the analytical left brain into a career as an artist-entrepreneur, and she’s shared a lot of her insight in (free!) monthly columns.

And now she’s running an Indiegogo campaign to turn her columns into an actual book (with extra chapters! and worksheets! and more cartoons!).

To say I’m excited about this is a wee bit of an understatement. So, if you’re interested in making money off of whatever kind of art you do–be it writing or costume-making or jewelry design–you should run, not walk, to see what Hogarth is offering. Check out the Three Michas columns that started it all (Roles, Products, and Plan) and if you’re convinced, help support her campaign.