12 Reasons Why Your Art Doesn’t Sell and Solutions

Kevin Hayler: Professional Wildlife artist, author, and traveler.

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Ever wondered why some pile of talentless crap gets all the attention when the good art remains completely ignored? I’ll tell you why your art doesn’t sell.

Most people buy pictures, not art. The buyer is not invested in you, your talent, or your message. Your time and effort mean nothing to them. Why should it? They don’t know you and they won’t care about your art UNTIL they care about YOU!

This teaches you one important thing.

Art doesn’t sell itself!

It doesn’t seem right, does it? It’s not fair and there’s no justice. You won’t find merit instantly rewarded, not even in the art world.

What are all these other guys doing that’s supposed to be so damn special? How the hell do they do it?

The answer is simple, they know how to tell a story.

They can neither draw nor paint very well, yet they still manage to sell their work and even get to teach what they don’t know! People actually pay them to paint badly.

But now you know what they are doing, it’s time to follow their lead and do it too.

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1. Your Art Doesn’t Sell Without a Good Story

Art doesn’t speak for itself, the artist does, and you sell your artwork by selling yourself. If you can tell a good story you are halfway home.

Selling your art is all about your backstory. People want to know about you and your journey. They are intrigued by the artist’s mystique, so give it to them. In the eyes of the public, you are an enigma. What you do and how you do it is a complete mystery.

Explain your work to people:

• What gave you the idea?
• Where do you begin?
• Why did you choose the subject?
• What materials did you use?
• Where were you when you did it? 

People love to know what happens behind the scenes.

If writing daunts you, listen to Sun Yi and learn how to tell your story with ease. Find his class on Domestika

To make my story interesting, I talk about my travels. I talk about seeking new subjects in far-off places and the wildlife I encountered along the way. My mission is my unique selling point.

Read this: How to Sell Your Drawings: 10 Steps to Success

When you learn to self-edit and cut the story short, you keep the audience with you.

I talk about my life and my work but I also ask questions. I want to know if my prospect and I have anything in common. The more we chat, the more I discover and the greater chance one of those threads will lead to a sale. 

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These are tips from my guide and there are many more!

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2. Your Art Doesn’t Sell Without Good Captions and Titles

You cant rely on capturing people’s attention for more than a second or two so to maximize your chances of keeping your visitors engaged they need to have something short and pithy to read.

The title sets the mood, and the caption gives it context.

Do not dismiss this as trivial, it’s anything but. You must entice the viewer to spend as much time with your work as possible.

How to Write a Good Picture Title

The title is like a headline. It needs to resonate with the viewer.

The best titles strike an emotional cord. If you can conjure up a turn of phrase or an idiom that both fits in with the picture and applies to the customer’s life in some way you will secure more sales.

This is worth reading: How to Name Your Art and Make More Sales – Copy This!

Try not to rush yourself. Although a bland title is better than no title at all, it’s better to hold on until you have a lightbulb moment.

I keep an open ear for potential titles and if I hear something good I’ll jot it down for future use.

I’ll use alliterations such as these which are all titles I’ve used:

• Cat in the Cool
• Potted Palm and Puss
• Bamboo Breakfast

And common idioms such as these:

• Fingers and Thumbs
• Best foot Forward
• The High Life

And family references:

• Father Figure
• Jumbo Family
• Siblings

The title must be short and sweet and roll off the tongue with a rhythm. I get people going through my whole portfolio just for the joy of reading them.

How to Write a Good Picture Caption

The caption should also be brief and offer an insight or story concerning the work. A few lines will do. Write enough to engage the reader and possibly invite a follow-up question, but keep it short enough to encourage your browsers to read several pieces.

• Don’t waffle. Edit down to the fewest words needed to make your point.
• Avoid arty-farty jargon, it will only alienate people.
• Use simple English, no fancy long words.

Keep it light but be careful with your jokes, we don’t all share the same sense of humor.

This one works:

‘I’m constantly amazed when people assume that I must be meditating while I work. There’s a myth going around that artwork is in some way relaxing. Well, I’m sorry but let me put the record straight. This drawing took me three weeks and did my bleedin’ head in.’

I know which caption is being read as soon as I hear a laugh.

It’s not enough to have a stand-alone piece of artwork. People want a brief background to explain what they’re seeing and to know something about the artist and this takes me on to my next tip.

3. Your Art Doesn’t Sell as Well Without a Good Bio

I have my Bio prominently displayed in center stage and on the last page of each portfolio.

Follow this guide: Write an Artist About Me Page: A Great Bio in 4 Easy Steps

It’s a condensed summary of my life and written as a journey; from factory worker to world-traveling wildlife artist. It’s constructed to intrigue the reader.

I include some shortcomings as obstacles I overcame, such as being self-taught, broke, and colorblind. I include only the briefest outline, presented as a story. No one wants to know all the boring details.

If you can construct a transformative life journey and present it as a narrative you will win the audience over. Think about it in 3 simple steps,

1 Your Dreams 2 Your Hurdles 3 Your Success

Make sure to include a smiling photo of yourself, and finally, don’t make the font too small. Older people need reading glasses and if they can read without them they are more likely to linger.

4. You Don’t Have a Business Mindset

Successful artists know how to promote themselves. They reach out, network, and follow through. Art is a business

They work hard, meet deadlines, turn up on time and they’re true to their word. You know what I mean… NORMAL stuff.

It’s the stuff that should be taken for granted but sadly it’s often lacking with artists and creatives.

Get to Grips with your Art business with Katy on Domestika

Being unreliable and letting people down means you lose money, quite apart from being disrespectful.

Yet many artists seem to think they are a world apart from the constraints and limitations of the commercial world. Why is that I wonder?

5. You Are Too Self-Centered

Many artists have a selfish approach to the world combined with an identity that relies solely on being seen as an artist. It’s a fragile house of cards.

They need constant praise and approval to prop up their self-belief. They seek reassurance and compliments and cannot face criticism in any form. A critique is seen as a direct attack on them personally and not just a subjective opinion about their picture.

Many artists have been brought up being told how amazing they are, deserved or otherwise, and it comes as quite a shock when the outside world doesn’t agree.

My point is that nobody but your friends and family really cares about your art!

The lives of strangers are not centered around an unknown artist, why should they be?

Read this related post: Most Artists Fail! 5 Reasons Why Things Go Wrong And Your Solution

Successful artists put their clients at center stage and take pride in pleasing others, and not in pandering to their own insecurities and fragile egos.

6. Your Art Fails to Meet a Need

When you present your art for sale it must meet the needs of the customer.

These are common requirements when I customer is looking for a picture:

• It’s a gift for someone
• It’s to fill a bare wall
• it’s to fit a frame they have
• It’s to complement a color scheme
• They collect the subject

It might be more accurate to swap the word ‘need’ for the word ‘want’ because art is very much a discretionary buy. No one really ‘needs’ art.

In order to supply their demands, you must stop thinking about yourself and your desires and concentrate on the wishes of your prospective customers.

Talk to them, listen, and meet them at least halfway, and you will make more sales.

Life is about compromise so why should art be any different?

It’s not about you, it’s about them. So what do you do?

• If your art is an awkward size then change it.
• If the colors are too strong, tone them down.
• If your art is too sad, lighten it up a bit.

It’s not a big deal.

7. You Feel Like You’re Selling Out

Selling art is not about selling out. Don’t be precious about it.

If all you want to do is make and create statements with clever metaphors then don’t expect the world to beat a path to your door.

When I started my ‘career’, my gallery owner would tell me what she found easiest to sell. It was like having an insider’s brief, I could use it to focus my efforts productively.

What happened? Within a year of leaving the factory, I was earning a living.

Don’t kid yourself that you will be famous, it’s a pipe-dream. You might as well play the lottery. Concentrate instead on making a living. If you manage to make and sell your own art full-time, you’re a success.

Create dreams for others to enjoy but be realistic about your own.

8. You Haven’t Found Your Niche

Don’t be a jack of all trades and master of none, you will get nowhere.

Like it or not, your collectors will return to you for very simple reasons:

• They love your style
• They love your techniques
• Your colors
• Your medium
• Your compositions
• Your subjects

What they all have is consistency. They all conform to a recognizable ‘brand’. You may not want to hear that, but it’s true. They want more of the same.

Don’t kid yourself that you can switch between mediums and genres as you pleaser. No one will follow you, it’s a lone path. It’s a luxury only amateurs, the famous, and the wealthy can indulge in.

Choose an area of art you enjoy, mine is wildlife art, and give it 100%. Be the best you can, and when you hit on a winning line, milk it for all its worth.

9. Your Art Prices Are All Wrong

There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to pricing your art. Don’t believe ther formulas you see online, they don’t mean anything really.

Your art is worth what people are willing to pay. That’s it.

There are no ethical considerations. All the prospect needs to know is how much you are asking and it’s up to them if the cost is a fair exchange for the pleasure it gives them.

Read this: How to Price Art Prints: A Practical Guide For Beginners

There are no investments to make. The chances of your art increasing in value are so remote that it shouldn’t even enter your mind.

All you need to do is factor in the psychology of selling. If something is very cheap the instant reaction of the public is to wonder why? What’s wrong with it?

Cheap art is devalued. That’s not to say you can’t sell cheap prints, you can, but only as a selling strategy with other more expensive addons or upsells.

Likewise, your art can be so expensive that no one sees the value in it for them.

Your prices will be determined by so many variables, one size will never fit all.

My approach is to sell cheap open editions, upsell to more expensive but affordable limited editions, and sit on a premium price for my originals. I can afford to because my prints drive my revenue.

10. You Don’t Really Want to Part With Your Artwork

I see this often. Artists become so emotionally attached to their art that they can’t bear to part with their baby. It’s part of their life and it’s like parting with a chapter of their lives.

They have no desire to sell their art and that is reflected in it’s exagerated price. To deter customers.

Thankfully, I’ve never been struck with this millais but plenty are. I’m a perfectionist and I don’t get emotionally attached because my next picture will be better than the last.

It’s like chasing a rainbow. I’ll never reach the pot of gold so parting with one of my ‘failures’ is fine. Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean I don’t value my work, it means that my art is part of a journey and I like to look forward.

When a customer wants to pay for an original I’m pleased as punch. It’s not just the cash, it’s the validation that my art is appreciated.

A sale makes art worthwhile, compliments are two a penny.

11. No One Knows Who You Are

Exposure is everything. Let me correct that, the right kind of exposure is everything. If you are going to make sales people must see your art.

That means marketing yourself and your art in anyway you can. There is no excuse for not trying. The very least you can do is to use social media to promote yourself.

Better still, get out and about and meet people. Get your art into fairs and exhibitions, introduce yourself and network.

There is nothing better than plonking yourself down with your own art and chatting with people face to face. You will learn more by presenting your own work and gauging the reactions of perfect strangers than you will in any other way.

I sell from a market stall and believe me I’ve heard it all. it’s scary when you first start but after a time you begin to pick up what people like and just as importantly, what they dislike. Try it.

Knock on doors, no one will ever knock on yours.

12. Make it Easy to Buy Your Art

When you are representing yourself you must act professionally. Sales must be as seamless as possible and in this day and age you must take card payments.

It’s so easy to lose a sale and so hard to gain one. The easiest way to lose a customer is to make it difficult to pay instantly.

Most sales are emotional and impulsive. You must sieze the moment and follow through with an easy transaction. Any delay or glitch can scupper your sale and break the spell that created the desire in the first place.

In practice that means:

• Having a card reader with a good connection
• Having the right change for cash buyers
• Having a receipt should the customer request one

Confidence is everthing. If you have never used the card reader before, familiarize yourself beforehand. Have your written receipts pre-filled and ready.

Make it easy to carry your art:

• Have you got practical packaging?
• Have you got a waterproof bag?
• Will you deliver?
• Will you personalize your picture with a message?
• Will you sign it in front of them?

Customer service goes a long way to making a memorable sale.

Why Your Art Doesn’t Sell: Final Thoughts

Why doesn’t your art sell? Because the public doesn’t care enough about you. Care about them and they will care about you in return. It’s reciprocal.

• Try giving, not just taking.
• Make others feel good.
• Sell the story and the romance.
• Learn to listen.
• And don’t forget to smile.

When you make the shift from pleasing yourself to pleasing others you will find much more satisfaction and the sales will follow.

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If you like the way I draw and want to try things for yourself, this is my basic kit: (paid links)

• Pentel Mechanical Pencils 0.3mm
• Derwent Graphic Drawing Pencils
• Daler-Rowney Heavyweight Cartridge Paper
• Jakar Battery Eraser
• Tombo Mono Eraser Pen
• Faber Castell Putty Eraser
• Blu Tack
• French Box Easel

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If you’re serious about selling your art, but you don’t know where to start, I can show you how to do it, Step-by-Step! Take a look

If you found this article useful you may like these too:

• How to Negotiate the Price of Your Art Prints and Make More Money
• What Kind of Art Sells Best? All The Secrets Revealed
• Is Your Art Good Enough to Sell? You Need to Know This…
• Can You Copy Art and Sell a Painting of a Painting? I Found Out
• How Do Wildlife Artists Make a Living? Copy This and Get Started
• Pricing Art For Beginners: Originals, Art Prints, and Formulas
• How to Make Prints of Your Art – Printing Art Explained in Detail
• What Size Art Sells Best? Frames and Apertures – FREE Chart

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