Advice column: How do I market my art without social media?

This is the advice column, where I respond to your questions, ponderings and predicaments regarding the creative life.

If you have something you'd like my advice on, email me at louise@louisestigell.com, put "advice column" in the subject line and ask away. You can be anonymous if you want. 🖤

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“Many people I admire have said that social media is necessary in this day and age, but if there is a way, I want to get away from it. It has not only changed my artistic approach but also my personality. I can feel how I'm getting more and more stressed, cynical and even straight up anxious at times when I look up what's going on in social media. “

This question comes from a multi-passionate comic book artist, storyteller and freelancer from Germany. They are sick of social media and of barely making ends meet with freelance work, but they wonder what the alternative is. "If I'm not marketing myself on social media, how else will people find me?"

That's a very good question, so let's dig into it.

First off, some real talk. Selling art is hard for everyone, professionals and beginners alike. There are no easy answers or success formulas. Anyone who tries to sell you one is lying, or deluding themselves. They are likely relying on outdated strategies and tactics, and using their own, individual and probably highly luck-contingent success as proof that "anyone" could do the same. That's not true. Even though we can get useful ideas from other people's success, some of which might work for us, ultimately success looks different for everyone. And a lot of very talented, hard working artists never see much success.

This is a depressing fact that we all need to get comfortable with as artists. We live in a world where "making it" as an artist is more difficult than ever. Not impossible, but very difficult. Because there are more of us than ever before in history, and we all "compete" on the same global arenas. And everywhere are greedy middlemen who steal the lion's share of our (already measly) income. The situation is pretty bleak.

You write:

"I can only do this because I can live for free at my mothers house if I am being honest."

I hear you. 🖤 I can only do this because my partner has a well-paid, steady job and can support us both if need be. This is the reality for a lot of other creatives as well, even though we prefer not to talk about it. It's nothing to be ashamed of, it's just reality. Being (or trying to become) a full-time creative demands humility and incredible sacrifices.

Should this scare us away from making art? Or prevent us from trying to earn money from it? I don't think so. But we need to set reasonable expectations. Living off of selling original art full-time might not be possible for the vast majority of us. Earning some occasional extra money, or even a part-time income is much more possible. Especially if we broaden our scope a bit.

There are many more ways to earn a living off of our art, apart from selling the actual art. For example, I mostly earn my living from teaching art, and writing/talking about art and creativity. I still get to practice my art and show it to people, even though I don't sell a lot of it. This all depends on what your preferences and possibilities are, of course. Most creatives I've known and heard of don't solely make money from selling their art directly. Most of them also either teach, freelance for businesses, or create other types of content or products.

Regardless of what that might look like for you, step one is to get very clear about who you want to sell to. Who are your ideal clients? Are they private consumers, publishers, video game or board game studios, or other types of businesses? Why would they want your art in particular? Where would they be most likely to come across it? Backwards-engineer the entire relationship to figure out how you might best reach these people.

Social media is the "shotgun" approach to marketing and selling art. We put our art out there and hope and pray that someone will stumble over it and will want to hire us or buy art from us. This approach might have worked back in the day, for some. But even then, many successful artists I've read about have said that a miniscule amount of their sales or leads have come from social media. Their actual income have come from pitching collaborations or projects directly, or by meeting people face to face, or via word of mouth. Social media today is a losing game. Anyone who claims that it's a viable use of your time as a business person clearly doesn't know our business very well, and hasn't been paying attention the past 5-ish years.

The opposite of the shotgun approach is the "sniper" approach. It means getting super-clear on who our target client or customer is, and aiming directly for them. Setting up a booth at an event where we know our ideal byuers are going to be. Sending our portfolio directly to the companies or brands we want to work with. The approach will look different depending on what type of art you make and who you want to sell to, but you get the idea.

You write:

"In the last years I have only drawn what sells but I want to develop my own world and characters more and make people interested in that. So I don't really have a full product to sell...I can sell the insight in my world, my approach to character design and later on my stories, but it is not really a specific product, it is more the process that I'm trying to make people interested in."

People don't know what they want until you put it in front of them. Nowhere is this statement truer than in the arts. There is so much you have inside of you that people would love to buy, but they need to see it first.

So I say: Develop your own world, and characters, and stories. Create a product to sell. Stop playing it safe and holding yourself back, and do whatever you can to start pursuing the highest possible manifestation of your art. Even if it means less commissions, less income, right now. Take a part-time job somewhere if you have to. Whatever buys you some time each week to actually live out your full potential and create something you're truly proud of. Because that’s when that other stuff (sharing the insight and the process) becomes really valuable to people. In fact, it will raise the value of everything you make. Skills can be impressive. But skills + accomplishments is what draws an audience and sells products.

Trying to make a living on our art can become a trap of sorts. We feel forced to go where the money is, and serve people what we (or they) think they want. But most of the really successful creatives have made something no one knew they wanted. Because they followerd their heart, not because they listened to the market. Demanding that our art support us financially can make us tamer, safer, less than we actually are.

You mention starting a Ko-Fi account. That definitely seems like a great option. It's good that there's a membership option, and not only one-time donations. And if people can also buy products from you there - amazing. Just make sure that you have some way of owning and accessing the contact information of your supporters, so you're not beholden to yet another platform. You want to build an on-going relationship with your supporters and fans. In exchange for their support, you can share your process and your knowledge. This becomes even more valuable if you are pursuing a big, exciting, personal project. A lot of people would want to follow you on that journey.

How would you market your art then? (And your Ko-Fi page.)

Don't underestimate word of mouth. Simply by doing your work and putting it out there, speaking from your heart, helping and inspiring people, word will spread. Your supporters will want to share your stuff with others. The more people who find you, the more of a momentum you will build.

With that said, we can all use a boost to our organic reach, especially in the beginning. That platform for me was YouTube, because YouTube is a search engine, and everything I put there has a long lifespan. A lot of my email subscribers first found me through one of my videos there. Writing a blog is another way of building a body of work that can passively get discovered by people. Or starting a podcast. Or being a guest on other podcasts. Or putting out classes on Skillshare. Choose an arena that allows for some organic discovery (by your ideal clients!), and where you can publish stuff that you would enjoy creating. (As opposed to posting on Instagram.)

Think quality over quantity here. Rather than sticking to some insane posting schedule, take your time creating fewer pieces of really valuable content, and those will likely do much more for you than a vast quantity of social media posts.

The thing to remember is: you art comes first. It has to come first. If we don't spend enough time developing our skills and building a body of work, we won't have anything worthwhile to share, or to sell.

You asked me how I advertised my short stories. I didn't, really. I had basically no following at the time, (this was back in 2017.) But I put my stories on Amazon, where they were discovered and read by at least some people each month. And I told the very small audience I had on Instagram about them. Sure, I could have paid to advertise my stories. Or pitch them to be reviewed by people. Or otherwise make a bigger splash. But they were my very first stories, and frankly, I wasn't confident enough in them to take that kind of risk. I figured I would just keep putting out new stuff, get better and better at my craft, and if my stories were any good, people would get on my email list, and the larger my email list, the more predictable sales I would make.

Of course, I put my fiction writing career on hold before I could test this theory for myself. So I can't really speak from personal experience on this. I have never committed to selling fiction, and so I've never earned more than pocket change from that.

I do know that this how most indie authors operate though. They simply put out the best possible stuff they can on a regular basis. They make sure that their readers know that they have an email list, so that those who love their writing can stay in touch with them. And whenever the author releases something new, they have a loyal audience eager to buy it. It all begins with putting out great stuff though, which is why I say that the art has to come first. People won't care about you when you're a "nobody". Creative success never happens overnight, it takes many years to build up an audience and a (somewhat) predictable income.

Don't stress about it. Just continue to do your work and build your skills. Put out your first product, and talk about it everywhere you can. Have one place where you publish content that will let strangers discover you, and another place where you serve your existing, loyal audience.

And then just do your thing. If this is your heart's work, you can allow it as much time as you want, while you do whatever you need to do to support yourself in the meantime. You're no less of an artist just because your art isn't your main source of income. It can even be liberating not to have it that way. I for one would rather take a boring part-time job if it allowed me to be wild and crazy with my creative projects on the side. I would rather live cheaply and humbly, so that I can afford to take risks in my art.

If we continue to pursue our passion, develop our skills, and build our audience, our income will grow exponentially overtime. And that, to me, is the most exciting part of my job. I don't earn a lot - only little more than part-time wage right now, but I get to do what I love most and what I do best, and my income grows a little bit each month. And that, I believe, is possible for many of us.

In conclusion: Don’t worry too much about marketing tactics at this point in your career. Set up a simple system - a weekly and monthly rythm of creating and sharing your work that allows for some organic discovery as well as support from your fans. Get a first product out there. And then you can start getting more serious about doing PR, advertising or marketing campaigns.

I hope my advice was helpful, and wish you the very best in your creative career.

Do you have something you'd like my advice on? Email me at louise@louisestigell.com, put "advice column" in the subject line and ask away. You can be anonymous if you want. 🖤