The Marketing Beast

I have been reading Show Your Work, the follow-up to Steal Like an Artist. I can't say I am as enamored with it as I was with his first book. I was really hoping it would be full of interesting tidbits that would spark interesting conversations and future blog posts.

But all it has done is make me feel depressed about how much work it will take to get my work known; especially outside the rather insular (but fun) toy photography community. 

Here are some samples of what he recommends:

• Show your process, reveal what is going on behind the scenes.
• Share something on social media everyday.
• Build a website to showcase your work.
• Share what inspires you.
• Tell good stories about your work.
• Network every chance you get.
• Teach what you know.
• Listen as much as you speak.
• Make connections and turn those connections into real life friends. 

Ok, I confess, I really like this last one. But the rest of the list makes m feel exhausted before I have even begun. If you want to pursue the details you can buy the book and see if I missed anything relevant. 

Marketing is a lot of work and honestly this is where most artists fail. You have to spend about 10 hours of marketing your work for every hour you spend making it. Personally I would rather be out photographing, editing (re-editing) and printing my work than writing blog posts and working the social media channels. But the world we live in now requires this of me. 

I tell my photographer friends (who are much better than I am) that they are nobody because they don't have an internet presence. Is this true? Of course not! 

Or maybe it is.

~ xxsjc

How much time do you spend marketing your artistic creations?

Do you agree or disagree with me?

I'm Fiddling While Rome Burns

As I watch world events unfold in the media I continue to take and edit photographs of toys. This feels a little bit like playing the fiddle while Rome burns.

I have no answers to the many crises that face the world right now...all I know is that it all seems to be building at a rather quick pace. Yes, I do know that our world has always been fraught with a certain about of war and conflict - but right now there seems to be a heightened sense of impending doom. It feels as if we are poised at the edge of something ominous and dangerous.

Is it right to be spending energy taking toy photographs and trying to creating art that makes people smile? Am I turning a blind eye to the elevated levels of human misery on this planet because it is easier?

I have no answers to anything right now. I am not looking for justification to my behavior, but I do wonder if my time could be better spent on a worthier endeavor.

~ xxsjc

Since the toy community spans the globe, do you think about your internet friends who may be in living in danger? 
Does local or world events effect your work?