Trade Shows are Coming – some advice from an experienced exhibitor for artists wanting to walk the shows
I feel like Paul Revere – “The trade shows are coming! The trade shows are coming!” Well, in reality, 1 down and 3 to go! Hopefully the Atlanta Gift Show was a huge success for the artists who exhibited. Next up, CHA then SURTEX in May and the Licensing Expo in June. So there will be many discussions and questions about how to decide which show would be best for your business, how to go about learning about the shows, what to do you if you attend a show, etc.
To me, the most important thing is to be extremely conscious and considerate of the exhibitors and their time and investment in any of the particular shows. I’ve exhibited at more than 11 shows and have seen some crazy things. I’m not an agent for others yet some artists want me to spend a lot of time looking at their portfolio and telling them what to do. (That is what coaches are for, and not on a show floor.) Or others want to take my promotional materials and say to me, “So I can do mine just like yours”. That isn’t really a complement, it’s copying. Or one time and artist literally stood in front of my booth, rocking back and forth on his shoes saying, “Yup. I’ll be in a booth one day and you will have to compete with me.”
I don’t think most artists are mean-spirited in what they do or how they act, they just don’t know better. They get such tunnel vision about why they are there and wanting to learn that they forget the exhibitors have spent a lot of time, money and effort to be there – and not so someone can block your booth rocking back and forth on their shoes. 
But don’t take my word for it – here is some great advice a fellow artist shared with a new artist wanting to learn what to do or not to do when walking a show.
She refers to SURTEX and a few of the details are specific to that show but overall, the advice is sound for any show.
I’ve done a booth at Surtex for a long time and mentored a number of aspiring artists. I remember how many questions I had and how eager I was. May I offer you and other new artists an arm around the shoulder about this? If you’re a newbie, there are so many ways you can step on toes without meaning to.
Sometimes when we’re so full of enthusiasm and want to learn so much, we can accidentally do things that make us seem rude and offensive. This happens often at Surtex. You may not realize it but those of us in the booths have spent thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours preparation to be there. We MUST make it pay. We are there to meet present clients and prospective ones. Our money and sweat has paid for that huge venue and brought those people into the building.
So while I know you’d never try to take advantage, you can understand why we ask you to walk down the middle of the aisle and not approach our booths. We don’t want people taking photos because we have struggled to dream up something that’s ours- we don’t want you to copy it. You must find your own vision, dream up your own wonderful and unique booth, not copy mine.
We exhibitors would ask you not to walk over and engage us in conversation unless we make the move first because if you are standing at our booth, proper show etiquette means that nobody else will approach us. Others do not know this is just a friendly, non-business conversation and if we’re just having a pleasant chat, prospective clients will walk by because that is politeness in this industry. They will not interrupt what might be a business meeting. You may unintentionally be wrecking our show. We may be wishing you’d leave but too polite to ask and make it awkward.
The same with portfolios. It is absolutely a no-no to start looking at another artist’s portfolio unless they invite you. Sometimes artists look through another artist’s portfolio to steal ideas. Of course that is probably the last thing you’d do. But if you innocently start looking through a portfolio, you are likely to have the artist respond by asking you to stop immediately. This happened to me a dozen times last year and after the first time or two I’m afraid I wasn’t particularly sensitive in the way I said it.
As to the $150 fee to walk the show, if you are planning to go you should pay it and consider it a cheap education. That’s only fair. We who have paid thousands for our booths have asked the show organizers to do this to make it more fair. Why should we pay all those fees so that others can walk in and take photos, meet clients, peek through our samples… all for free? If you look at it from the exhibitors’ point of view (and we after all are the ones who fund the whole show) why would we put out all that energy and money so that others can have it for nothing? I know that’s not the intention, but it’s how you will look at it when you have a booth, too. We are not major corporations, we are small design shops for the most part, individuals just like you. And we have to make it pay.
If you pay the $150 fee, you should wander the show and look at everything. Walk those aisles for hours. Smile and some of us will chat with you when it’s quiet and we can do so. But for the most part you are there to observe and learn. Don’t take photos, don’t approach busy people, and for heavens’ sakes don’t bring your portfolio and plan to whip it out and make a deal in the aisle. Bring a little stack of business cards and your most comfortable shoes, a notebook and pencil. If you see an agent you are interested in, note their name and you can contact them after the show. If there’s an artist you admire, write their name down and send them a kind email when you get home. This way you’ll build a reputation for being appropriate and considerate. You may make some valuable contacts and you’ll have gotten a good education.
I hope I haven’t offended anyone. I am only trying to offer you the advice someone should have offered me when I was starting out.
I wish you joy and success walking the show. If you come to Surtex, wave at me from the middle of the aisle and smile and if I can I will step out and greet you.
Thank you so much for letting me share this (you know who you are!) and I, too, wish everyone a great 2011. We all want to do what we love, be successful and get the economy and industry back to where it was. Let’s be professional, optimistic and work hard to make it happen!
– Tara Reed
Catch a creative wave by listening to the Ask Drew and Maria Brophy replay – it’s free!
Another great call with our latest art licensing experts – artist Drew Brophy and his wife / business mind, Maria. There were 80+ artists listening live – were you one of them?
Here is what we covered…
- How Drew Brophy got into art and licensing
- What’s the most important thing you’ve done to connect with/market to customers in your niche to create a fan base?
- How important do you feel your work connecting directly with consumers is to your ability to get licensing agreements?
- How important is it that you create art that will fit on certain products vs. just creating whatever you feel and letting art buyers decide what to do with it?
- How do you choose what a new designs to create?
- Where do you go or what do you look at to recharge your creative batteries?
- How do you stay motivated if things are slow?
- What gives you the most joy in what you do?
- How do you deal with rejection?
- Maria, what was your 1st year at licensing Drew’s work like? What was some of the things that you did to get Drew’s work visible.
- What are the most important first 3 steps to set me on the road to learning to license my art?
- How can you figure out which licensing market one’s style of artwork would be most appropriate and succesful in?
- How can one be sure he or she is getting a good “deal” when negotiating a first contract?
There wasn’t a lot of action on the Facebook page during the call but quite a few artists were tweeting away – here are a few of the comments:
“Loved listening to @mariabrophy and @DrewBrophy talk art, licensing biz and surfing! Thanks @ArtistTaraReed! #ask”
“@ArtistTaraReed @mariabrophy knowing that perfection does not have to be met for success…#ask”
“@ArtistTaraReed: @DrewBrophy talks abt being unemployed every Mon morning – u have 2 figure it out! < yes! #ask” Keeps us on our toes!”
“People want to be a part of your story as an artist” – @DrewBrophy #ask
“I love this call so much-I’ll be replaying it for inspiration! They are so grounded, relaxed, smart and thoughtful!”
If you missed the call, the mp3 replay is available for free at www.AskDrewBrophy.com.
Thank you Drew and Maria for sharing your experience and insights – truly appreciated by all!
– Tara Reed
P.S. Coming up next…
Wednesday, February 16, 2011: www.DebbieMumm.com/askDebbie/
Art Licensing guru Debbie Mumm got her start and stays true to her fabric and quilting design roots. Over the years she has expanded and built her business to include just about every product imaginable. This is an amazing opportunity to listen and learn from this talented artist and business woman – submit your questions for consideration!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011: www.AskTaraReed.com
The Ask Drew Brophy (& Maria too!) Call is tonight… will you be on the line?
Tonight night I will have the pleasure of talking with both Drew and Maria Brophy about their art licensing business and their advice to others about following their dreams, staying positive and succeeding in art licensing. They will be answering the questions submitted by artists like you tonight.
If you’ve signed up for a call before, you should have received the dial-in details by email yesterday.
If you’ve never participated, head over to www.AskDrewBrophy.com and sign up. Since we have already organized the questions, you can just put “no question” in the box then fill in your name and email and you will get the dial-in details.
The call is at 5:30 pm Pacific / 8:30 pm Eastern and will last for an hour. It’s free to listen live – the replay will also be free since this is their first call – we’ll email you when it’s ready!
We look forward to chatting with you tonight!
– Tara, Drew & Maria
P.S. Don’t forget! Let’s get social on Twitter (use #ask when tweeting so we can find you!) and Facebook during the call. CLICK HERE to download all the details.
P.P.S. Want to see Drew’s story again? Here it is!
Last Day for the “Black Friday” week-long savings
Have you taken advantage of these rare, sweeping discounts yet? Well today is the last day so carpe diem…
With the holidays coming up – I want to make it easier for you or those that love you to give you the gift of art licensing knowledge.
Today is the last day you can get 20% off your order of $100 or more on any eBook, Ask Call Audio Replay, teleseminar replay or The Goal Wheel for Artists. (Those by ArtLicensingInfo – not affiliate products) You decide what combination of things will help your business, put them in your shopping cart and use the code BLKFRI to get the 20% off.
To help you with the math, that means $20 off an order of $100 or $40 off an order of $200 – way better than a set amount wouldn’t you say?
All Inner Circle Artists get 25% off – so go login and get your code! But remember – no sharing – this is your bonus for becoming members of 
ArtLicensingCommunity.com (Of course if you want the extra discount, you can always join! 
)
So click away, don’t dally because this sale ends TODAY!
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. Now is the time to stock up on Ask Call replays – prices will be going up slightly in January 2011.
P.P.S. If you signed up for the smARTist Early-Bird list, check your email. I believe your window of opportunity for the discount is now as well…
the smARTist telesummit early bird discount will be released soon – are you on the interest list?
I don’t know the exact date but a little birdie told me to remind you to get your name on the list – it’s no obligation but can save you $ if you decide the smARTist telesummit – the only artist professional development conference of it’s kind – is for you!
The discount will last only 6 days once it’s released – and the telesummit is only open to the first 500 artists to register. So watch your email! Click here to get on the list: www.smARTist.com/tara *
Here are some details about the event – to be held in January 2011:
After you register you get a private website Inside The smARTist Telesummit. This is where the action happens. It’s where everyone who comes to the conference gets to:
- Upload a juicy profile with 2 images of work, a photo of the artist and a summary of the most recent success story – and we have a public version you can link back to your website or blog to let people know just how serious about your career you are!
- Complete a unique “Vision Questionnaire,” which helps you focus conscious attention on both your art and your art career
- Have access to a calendar for all 7 days, with instant recordings if you have to miss any of the 13 sessions, all the handouts that I require each speaker to prepare, and the written transcriptions of each presentation
- Read full bios of all the speakers, leading authorities in each of their respective fields with amazing backgrounds you have to read to believe!
- Take part in the “Stay-on-Track Program,” with workbooks that prepare you to immediately identify which piece of new information fits the area of your art career that needs it the most
- A FAQ page that keeps all the info you need the most in one place
- The Alumni Lounge – for returning smARTist participants with a number of special goodies just for this very committed group of artists
- A “Hot List of Books” area where all the books that a speaker mentions in their presentation, including books the speakers have authored, are immediately available to you (no wondering…”now, what did he mention?”)
- And The Best: The smARTist Forum, where artists hang out and answer each other’s questions, get to ask me questions one-on-one (something only my private clients usually get), share resources, horror stories, ask for help, YaHOO each other’s successes. This place never fails to amaze me each year with its generosity of spirit – truly worth the price of admission all by itself.
I’m honored to be the art licensing expert in the telesummit this year. Will you join me and the many other experts that will open your eyes to many ways to diversify your art business?
Click here to get on the list: www.smARTist.com/tara *
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. If you want to download and listen to the hour long audio replay with Ariane – the founder of the smARTist Telesummit, CLICK HERE.
Art Licensing Info is jumping on the “Black Friday” sale bandwagon!
Am I dating myself if I say I remember Black Friday sales being related to… and only to… Black Friday? As in, the day after Thanksgiving here in the states? Not starting 2 weeks early and not ending 2 weeks after… it’s really weird to me. Call it a holiday sale.
But I won’t fight psychology – I’ll join it!
My marketing analytical brain has been pondering this issue – and I’ve decided that we as consumers are like Pavlov’s dog – trained to believe that a “Black Friday” sale is going to be one of the best ever so we pay attention. We don’t care if we have access to the sale on a Tuesday or Wednesday, as long as the perceived value is there.
With the holidays coming up – I want to make it easier for you or those that love you to give you the gift of art licensing knowledge.
From today (Black Friday – 11/26) through Friday December 3rd, you can get 20% off your order of $100 or more on any eBook, Ask Call Audio Replay, teleseminar replay or The Goal Wheel for Artists. (Those by ArtLicensingInfo – not affiliate products) You decide what combination of things will help your business, put them in your shopping cart and use the code BLKFRI to get the 20% off.
To help you with the math, that means $20 off an order of $100 or $40 off an order of $200 – way better than a set amount wouldn’t you say?
All Inner Circle Artists get 25% off – so go login and get your code! But remember – no sharing – this is your bonus for becoming members of
ArtLicensingCommunity.com (Of course if you want the extra discount, you can always join! )
So click away, don’t dally because this sale ends on December 3rd.
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. Now is the time to stock up on Ask Call replays – prices will be going up slightly in January 2011.
FAQ: Do you need physical product samples to succeed in art licensing?
This question comes up now and again, recently arriving in my email inbox from Lori Kirstein – Resident Artistic Lunatic. (I LOVE her title – I could certainly borrow it!)
Lori asks…
“I have my images up on Cafepress, but when it comes to product in hand, I don’t have any because the final products of my work are Photoshop-manipulated. Do I need to attend to getting “real world” samples – and figure how to do that best – before I get your book?”
(She was referring to the “How to Find, Interact and Work with Manufacturers Who License Art” )
In case you aren’t aware, CafePress is a Print-On-Demand website where anyone can upload art or digital files and when they are purchased, CafePress creates and ships the product.
The answer I gave Lori was “No.” In art licensing you don’t need to have physical samples to get an art licensing deal. Sometimes artists will do digital mockups, to show how their art would look on products, but it isn’t a requirement.
When you do get your foot in the door and get a licensing deal or two, it can be helpful to show those products. Lori could also purchase a product or two from her own CafePress shop if she wanted a photo of an actual product or two for her website. I’ve even known artists to go to pottery stores and hand-paint samples to show – but that does require time and money. The most important thing, in my opinion of course, is to be clear about whether any physical products are licensed or mock-up samples and available to be licensed. I often add a note like this: “These are samples of how the art could be applied to products but are not licensed at this time. Please contact me if you are interested in this collection for your product line.”
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. If you want to create digital mock-ups of your art on products in Photoshop, check out “Product Mock-Up Magic” – we’ve done the hard work of taking photos of products and getting rid of the backgrounds, as well as creating video tutorials to help you learn how to apply repeat patterns to them and more. Take a look at http://www.artlicensinginfo.com/mockup.html
P.P.S. To give Lori some “link love” for her question, you can see some of her work at http://www.cafepress.com/LoriKirstein
85 people listened to the “Ask Tara Reed” call live – were you one of them?
My sister, Christine, who many of you have met over the years at SURTEX or who you may have heard on the Trade Show Tactics Teleseminar, helped me on the July Ask Tara Reed call. We always have a lot of fun together – including her pre-call threats to do one of the following:
- forget the call completely and leave me stranded
- be asleep and if she woke up, she’d be groggy and hard to understand
- swear and embarrass me in any way she could come up with
- use different accents for each question
She didn’t forget and behaved very well. The only problem reported was that we sound so similar that sometimes people had a hard time figuring out who was talking. (We get that – especially over the phone. Lots of fun to tell our dad it’s “His favorite daughter” and listen to him pause – trying to figure out who it really is and then say the others name!)
Here is what we covered on the July 21st call:
- What are the first steps you should take before you try to license your art?
- Do you need an agent to license your art?
- Is it better to email or snail mail submissions to agents?
- Is there a “set” advance price for artwork?
- What types and sizes of files should you submit to agents or manufacturers?
- Should you follow online submission guidelines to the letter or make follow-up calls?
- How do I make calls to companies without sounding like a newbie?
- What are the pros & cons of a contract with a “worldwide” territory?
- How can I build marketable character-based art without having a Saturday morning tv show?
- Trade show preparation strategies / tips
- How do you use social media (Twitter, Blogs, LinkedIn) in your art licensing business.
Thank you so much to Laura for her fabulous question about cold calling and willingness to let us tease her (we are twitter friends so I knew it would be ok!)… we are now applying peer pressure to get her on the phone and then to report back on how it was, on the blog. Send her a message of encouragement on Twitter – she’s @CreativeGirl – to keep her moving forward.
Facebook was a little quieter than usual but on Twitter it was so cool to see people joining forces to stay accountable! Social media is such a great connector!
If you want a copy of the audio replay, it is $15 through 7/31 and $25 thereafter. We appreciate your support in purchasing these calls – it helps us continue to attract and create the great content artists have come to love and expect each and every month!
What’s coming up next…
Wednesday, August 18, 2010 – Attorney Cheryl Hodgson will be back to answer your legal questions. www.AskCherylHodgson.com
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 – NEW EXPERT Dena Fishbein will be answering your questions. Head to www.AskDenaDesigns.com to learn why I’m so excited to have Dena join the ranks of Ask Call Expert.
What outdoor coolers and art licensing have in common
You think they have pushed coolers to the limit… until you see the next innovation. Then you say, “What a great idea! Why didn’t they think of that before!” Here is my theory on the evolution of coolers…
- Someone puts ice in a metal box, adds their food, goes on a picnic. Others at the picnic who brought their food in a basket are envious of the new invention, they have cold food and drinks!
- Fast forward many years and insulation processes are added. The box itself insulates the food – keeping the cold inside. You don’t have to add as much ice. Easier to transport. Awesome!
- Now someone invents those blue things that stay cold but don’t melt and create a pool of water at the bottom of the cooler. Better yet!
- Plastic… wheels… handles to pull your cooler…. each time we think – this is the best it can get! How can you improve on that? And it’s good enough, so why try?
- But innovation continues…
Last week I saw these new “Party Stacker™” coolers from Colman.
I had one of those “What an amazing idea!” reactions. They come in a variety of sizes colors (only one size shown in the photo). They stack together – like building blocks of refridgeration. You can have your beer and soda in one and food in another. No more sandwiches looking like they were made on pita bread because they got mashed between the mayo and Uncle Ted’s 6-pack.
I found these to be so cool and innovative that I almost bought some. I have no plans to go camping or need coolers mind you, I just thought it was an amazing idea.
So what does this have to do with art licensing?
We, too, must reinvent the proverbial cooler. Year after year, manufacturers want new art for many of the same themes. Santa – can’t get enough of him. How do you do a Christmas collection every year that is fresh and different? If you’ve done it 10 times – shouldn’t it be good enough? Nope.
In art licensing, you must constantly come up with a new twist – a new catch – something that will make a manufacturer have a “What an amazing idea!” reaction. Then the reaction needs to hit the consumer so they pick up your product and buy it, allowing you to receive royalty checks so you stay in business to create yet another Santa the next year.
The ability to re-think, re-work and re-create a concept or theme that the rest of the world thinks has been done more than enough times is a valuable asset to any artist interested in licensing their art. So head for the woods and think outside the cooler… I hope you come up with something amazing!
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
Magic Art Licensing Fairy Dust available here!
And if you believe that, I have some magic beans too…
There’s been an interesting thing going on and I decided it needs to be addressed. Believe it or not, I don’t have all the answers. I have no secret short-cut. I can’t look at your website and magically tell you if you should find an agent or if you would be successful on your own. If you want to work together I can help you as a coach, but a quick glance won’t give you the golden ticket.
Unfortunately I can’t respond to every artist who emails me telling me their story then asking me to look at their website and tell them what to do. I must be honest and say that it is especially frustrating when people say things like “I think my art would be good but I don’t have much time so can you tell me what to do / who to contact / etc.” Umm… ok. So do I have somehow unlimited time? There are over 360 blog posts about what to do. There are eBooks, audio recordings, tutorials. There is coaching that tells you what to do. And surprise! It all took time to create.
There is no magic fairy dust my friends!
No matter what you want to do, be it license your art, raise a great kid, run a marathon – TIME is required.
Who wouldn’t want to have someone say, “do x, y and z and you will have a million dollars in 3 years.” I know I’d love that kind of information. But it doesn’t work that way. Like everything else in life, you have to put time into learning, perfecting your art, making the connections. Respect your own time and respect the time of others. If you really want to build your business, how much time are you spending DOING the things you need to do? How much time are you spending talking about how it’s too hard or how everyone else has it easier than you? Really think about that for a minute – it’s a rut most people fall into at one point or another, so check yourself often – I do.
I spend a lot of time blogging, networking in the art licensing industry to bring you new experts for the Monthly Ask Call Series, creating information products and more. So please – look to these resources – it’s a gold mine!
Now, in the interest of time, here are some quick links if you are feeling pressed for time:
45 minute Beginner Basics audio – this is a great place to start! For $20 and 45 minutes of your time (you can listen while you do something else if you want!) – you can decide if licensing might be a fit for you.
How to Get Started in Art Licensing – this is the intro eBook that gives you the basic overview of what it takes to get started. You can even get the first chapter for free.
eNewsletter – it comes out twice a month and keeps you up to date on what’s going on. Highly recommend you sign up!
Free monthly calls – experts put in a lot of time to create these monthly calls where we answer questions submitted by artists. The link will get you to the page with the upcoming call schedule and the list of free and $25 replays from past calls.
Coaching – there are currently three artists (myself, Paul Brent and Jill Seale) who offer individual coaching for artists wanting one-on-one help with their business.
of course… an overview of everything available can be found at www.ArtLicensingInfo.com
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. You don’t need magic fairy dust – with consistent time and effort, you can do this!
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