Artists🎨, We Have a Problem

I’ve seen the story play out time and time again: “I want to be a full-time artist, but they don’t make any money!”

In fact, earlier this year, in the waiting area of a diner, my mother-in-law struck up a conversation with some nice old ladies to pass the time. The wait was quite long, after all, and there wasn’t much to do. When my mother-in-law went off to the bathroom, leaving us to entertain these three old women, they asked us what we studied in college (because that is where we met). When we answered that we studied theatre and art, respectively, one of the women laughed at us and said, “So now you probably ask, “Do you want fries with that?”, right?”

I almost bit her head off right there. Instead, I just countered with the simple facts: “Actually, we make a living off of our art.”

That shut them right up. Of course, then they didn’t know who William Burroughs was… or any of the Beatniks… or a variety of other popular American authors, but they still had favorite authors and artists. Their lives are still actively enriched by the art & culture industry, but they don’t think that artists should make any money doing that.

First of all, what the fuck? Where did this story come from? Who decided to frame art as something that was somehow outside of the realm of economic activity? Serious question, if you know please put it in the comments. I just want this stupid fucking narrative to die.

So, there you have it: consumers of art don’t think art has value.

Again, I don’t really know why this is the case. We see art everywhere, all the time, and it constantly affects our experience of pretty much everything: from city architecture to the art on the walls of bars, to the art that fuels our scrolling on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Artists assist almost every industry, and then there’s graphic designers and technical writers or even those indisposable souls who churn out good copy at the pace of an AI.

But if you enter any of these industries, you’re basically guaranteed to get paid like shit. Only a tiny fraction of artists make serious income, and they’re in very specific fields. How many painters can you name that make more than $100K a year? In contrast, how many actors can you name (and almost certainly, all of the ones you know make at least that much)?

Instead, we have publishers that make multi-million dollar monstrosities while paying their employees a pittance. And that’s not to mention crunch and other company culture problems.

And then, we have freelancers/independent artists, who constantly undercut themselves because they don’t have the business sense to understand what their project is actually worth, and are actively kept in the dark on how to get that knowledge. I went through college and studied art. When they talked about “the business side” in class, you know what I learned? How to file taxes. Not how to get clients, nor how to build a brand identity, nor how to structure an artist portfolio website. How to get an agent? Nope.

How to file taxes.

Well, guess what? If you’re below the poverty line, you don’t have to file taxes. Thanks a lot. (And once it became necessary to, I got in touch with my financial mentor instead, who offered much better advice on navigating the system).

What we have in the arts is a culture of complete ignorance regarding business, which means that we get taken advantage of constantly. This is definitely on purpose: ignorant creators cost less to hire. The entertainment market has been manufactured at all levels to get us to believe that our work is too niche to market, that our prices are too high, that we’re only true artists if we work for free, etc.

That is all bullshit, and we have to move away from it if we want our careers to be sustainable for the rest of our lives. If you’re too afraid to advocate for just yourself, then advocate for the next generation of artists, who will have to replace us when we eventually die.

So, what the hell can we do about this? There are various pragmatic approaches that we can take. Sadly, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. Every discipline has a different set of considerations, and your place within that discipline will affect what you can do to improve your economic position.

However, here are some strategies for freelancers/small businesses that I have used, that I think are good:

1) Start thinking of your business as a business.
If you get paid to do art for people, you’re in the business of art. If you just want some extra hobby income to buy merchandise or something else, then you might not care about growth or paying your bills. But if you start to feel like you’re working two jobs, it’s time to switch your framing, because you’re working, whether you want to believe it or not.
Running a business is hard work. It’s risky, and requires a set of skills that you essentially can’t learn in school, only through trial and error. However, there are many useful tools, models, and frameworks at our disposal. The internet has a wealth of free information, and websites like skillshare have classes that can teach you all kinds of things. Moreover, there’s probably someone in your industry that has posted “how-to” videos or articles documenting their process. Gate Zero (and Vexsys) will be doing this once we’re more confident in our model. If there aren’t small creators who have done this, you’ll have to take the lessons and stories told by larger creators and apply them to your situation. You probably don’t have the reach that Penguin publishing has, but you can certainly learn something about the industry from their business model!

2) Stop competing! Network with other people in your industry instead.
I think one of the reasons that the business of art is difficult is that people haven’t really figured out how it works yet. One of the unique things about this industry is that there is always a market niche that cannot be taken away from you: your unique style! Even if you copy famous stuff, your art will still be different, your writing will still be different. Even if your stories are cookie-cutter, there’s a huge market for that! If you can understand what makes your work different, all the better, because then you can market yourself to new people more effectively. Ideally, you highlight the similarities as well as the differences.
By connecting with other people in your industry, you can find out what tools worked for them and what to avoid. Moreover, you can make moves as a unit and hold each other up. Cooperation works.

3) Failure is inevitable. Learn how to fail as efficiently as possible.
You’ve probably heard this before. I was a perfectionist for years and it was one of the reasons that I was so afraid to really commit to thinking of my work as a business, but that fear held me back completely. The simple reality was that I couldn’t avoid these skills, because my goals didn’t allow for that. Once I started failing, I also started succeeding, too. And you wanna know the reality? I had already been failing for years and years, and if I hadn’t committed to failing again and again, it would have actually been for nothing.
You can learn to take risks effectively without sacrificing your entire bottom line. But if you never commit to an action, or let your perceived stability get in the way, then you’ll never get to where you want to go.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, and the fastest path forwards is through experimentation and skill-sharing. If you feel “seen” by this post, come to Deadlines or email us and Vexsys HQ will do all we can to help you out! And pass this post along so that you can get your own group together!

Written by V & Andie.