Product Description

Offering advice on how artists can gain maximum exposure for their work at minimal cost, this guide provides strategies for developing their reputations and increasing their work's value. In this guide, now revised to cover digital resources, a successful artist reveals his guerrilla tactics for building an art career through the intelligent and masterful use of the media. Readers will learn to create publicity videos and press releases likely to draw media attention to art events; use colour slides and other photographic reproductions to get their work into the public eye; maintain copyrights; assemble proposals, grants, articles, and CVs; exhibit and publish work in the US and Europe; attain eligibility for arts-in-education residencies; and function as their own press agents. This volume offers money-saving tips on where to stay and how to get around when travelling in the US and abroad, and how to seek help in bolstering one's art career. Also offered are listings of exhibitions, organizations, services, publications, and other vital resources for artists.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #334848 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-01
• Released on: 2003-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781581152814
• Condition: USED - GOOD
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Library Journal
These two new books guide the novice through the often painstaking but rewarding process of self-promotion. Vitali has successfully made a living from his art since 1979. Here he provides a comprehensive approach to organizing and building an art career. He includes information on everything from producing your own high-quality promotional slides to the best places to park when delivering a work in New York City. He offers tips on grant writing and working with the media for maximum exposure. Although the annual Artist's and Graphic Designer's Market and Photographer's Market are still more comprehensive references, there should be room on the shelf for Vitali's amazingly detailed and practical guide. President of a publishing services, product development, and licensing consulting firm, Moore describes strategies for success mainly in the commercial world of greeting cards and gift wrap. She gives advice on analyzing the market to discover what is most likely to sell to manufacturers and the general public. Negotiations of license agreements and the pros and cons of hiring a licensing agent are discussed. The second half of the book provides samples of various work-for-hire, license, and agent agreements. For licensing information in a concise form, libraries may want to stick with Caryn R. Leland's Licensing Art & Design (Allworth, 1995); the only advantages of Moore's book are additional sample agreements and a chance to see things more from the giftware manufacturer's viewpoint.?Judith Lesso, West Virginia Univ. Libs., Morgantown
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"Author Julius Vitali demystifies the press (media) and the relationship artist can have with it." -- ArtSource Quarterly

"Plenty of strategies and examples are included in this guide to marketing and self-promotion techniques which tells fine artists how to survive and build a successful art career. Enjoy an excellent guide which surveys successful techniques to achieving goals." -- The Bookwatch

"Whether you've lots of experience or are just starting out, you can learn a lot from this book about making a career in the arts. Author Julius Vitali shares knowledge acquired from successful daily practice and provides the right combination of factual information and inspiration to prepare beginners for a life of living off one's wits as an artist. This should be required reading in courses for students entering the fine arts, and more experienced artists will learn a lot from Vitali on using media to advance an art career.

The author encourages artists to think of themselves as small business entrepreneurs, like painters of the Renaissance who ran their studios as businesses. There are important chapters on making a career in Europe and obtaining corporate support. . .Vitali provides lots of tips. . . without losing sight of the main point, the art itself." -- School Arts Magazine

Plenty of strategies and examples are included in this guide to marketing and self-promotion techniques which tells fine artists how to survive and build a successful art career. Enjoy an excellent guide which surveys successful techniques to achieving goals. -- Midwest Book Review

From the Inside Flap
"Artist/author Paints True Self-Promotion Picture"

By Jodi Duckett
Of The Morning Call

The word appears again and again in Julius Vitali's book, ''The Fine Artist's Guide to Marketing and Self Promotion,'' revised edition.

Persistence.

Persistence, Vitali writes, is a hungry artist's ally. Call and call and call. Write and write and write some more. Don't stop until you've talked directly to someone and then check back again.

The man knows what he's talking about. This article is about him, after all.

Vitali, an Emmaus resident and former executive director of Allentown's now-closed Open Space Gallery, has spent decades honing the techniques of self-promotion.

''I have been a professional artist living off my wits for more than 24 years,'' he writes.

His Fine Artist's Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion (Allworth Press, $19.95, 239 pp.) serves two goals. It's a way to help people who are important to him -- fellow artists. But it's also a treasury of publicity for himself. The book includes the story of Vitali's life and his work and numerous photos of that work---digital photography and painting.

Marketing and self-promotion is essential for artists, Vitali says. No matter how good their work is, artists can't make a living if they don't have a place to show it or expose people to it. And that's particularly tough in today's economy.

''It's entirely possible you could have your work on a street corner someplace and be at the right place at the right time. But the odds are so high against that happening,'' says Vitali.

''I usually tell people that with the proliferation of arts degrees -- there must be 2,000 to 3,000 people who graduate a year -- the market has become hugely competitive. In order to be able to rise from those numbers you have to be able to know techniques and strategies.''

''The Fine Artist's Guide,'' first published in 1996, was long overdue for an update. Technology and the Internet have changed everything.

''When I was writing the book, Windows 95 was the operating system that was out there. You didn't have much memory or RAM. Now everything is much more sophisticated. You pretty much have to have access to a computer and a digital camera to compete as an artist,'' says Vitali.

For example, paper press releases and slides used to be the modus operandi. Now it's e-mail and digital images.

The book provides, in almost exhausting detail, the nuts and bolts of such things as:

Preparing press releases -- how many words, how to design them.

Describing and documenting your art -- quality of photos, types of images.

Setting up a home office -- necessary equipment and postal rates.

Finding exhibition space -- resources for research, types of exhibition/gallery opportunities.

Alternate sources of income -- freelance writing about your work, selling photographs.

The book also includes profiles of artists -- including Lehigh Valley artists such as Cynthia Rodriguez, Berrisford Boothe and Barnaby Ruhe. Vitali hopes the profiles will provide insight into the process of promoting yourself. They reveal, for example, how a small notice in a newspaper can lead to a a gallery show, which can lead to a grant, and then a show in a big city.

Vitali tells the story about how he created a buzz around his ''puddle portraits,'' which led to grant money, which led to an article in Newsday, which led to an appearance on ''The Late Show with David Letterman.''

Vitali says he believes most artists have ''some sort of rudimentary understanding, but there are refinements that my book gives people.''

Copyright (c) 2004, The Morning Call

"The Fine Artist's Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion" was also recently featured in

Detroit's Metro Times
Salisbury Press
Business Lehigh Valley
The Artist's Magazine

Customer Reviews

Do You Want To Know How To Sell Your Art?
As I am married to an artist, I can well appreciate the immense difficulties artists face when they are endeavoring to sell their art- work.
It is with this in mind that I decided to read and review Julius Vitali's updated edition of The Fine Artist's Guide To Marketing And Self Promotion.

Vitali's question in his introduction- how do fine artists create a reputation and career that will ultimately allow commercial galleries to sell their work- sets the tone of this extremely informative book.
We often hear the common complaint of artists that they have been rejected so many times that they might as well throw in the towel and forget about selling their work. A simple reply to the artist would be to persist and don't be discouraged. However, unfortunately this is not enough.
They must realize, as Vitali points out, there are other factors contributing to making an artist known, such as knowing about publicity, marketing, a clear and articulated aesthetic vision, networking, timeliness, and yes, a certain amount of luck.

Vitali deals with all of these elements in his eleven chapters that clearly point the artist in the right direction. In addition, the reader is also provided with brief profiles of thirteen successful artists, who have implemented to a lesser or greater degree many of Vitali's guidelines. When I was growing up my parents always told me that you learn from the best not the worst. In other words, find out why certain individuals are successful and learn from them. This is basically Vitali's motive for including these thirteen profiles, wherein the reader may be able to implement some of what worked for these artists.

There is also no shortage of interesting advice scattered throughout the book. As examples, did you know that making personal contact with magazines and newspapers is the most effective way to achieve success with these publications; be careful if you exhibit in the same area and repeatedly send media releases, this may turn off reports and reviewers; that more people listen to radio than ever before and this is an excellent opportunity to be known.

In addition to receiving some excellent tips as to how to market and sell yourself, the author provides timely resources pertaining to grants for individuals and special projects, corporate support for the arts, exhibiting your art professionally in a variety of venues, assembling a résumé, portfolio, and letters of recommendation.
A useful appendix at the back of the book deals with digital resources, Internet security and other related Internet topics, useful software, printers, ink and paper, and publishing.

Julius Vitali is a well- known international artist who has exhibited all over the globe, and his work appears in numerous public and private collections.
Artists who will devote the time to thoroughly read and probably re-read chapters that are most appropriate to their situation have the most to gain from Vitali's advice.

Norm Goldman Editor of Bookpleasures.com

Making a Living as an Artist- The Real Deal
My copy of "The Fine Artist's Guide to Marketing and Self-Promotion" by Julius Vitali could not have arrived at a better time. I needed to approach numerous manufacturers to evaluate state-of-the-art video equipment for my own book project. The chapter on corporate support for the arts provided the right combination of factual information and inspiration that let me know I could anticipate a 75% favorable response to a request for product support.

This book prepares beginners for a life of living off one's own wits as an artist.It contains reasonably priced, low and high tech ways to promote your art on your own. It's required reading for anyone seriously planning on making a career in the arts. Art professors would do their students a big favor by making this book a required text.

Julius Vitali encourages artists to think of themselves as small business entrepreneurs, like painters of the Renaissance who ran their studios as businesses. In this revised edition, there are important chapters on running a home business efficiently, using media to get your work into the public eye, Internet marketing and making a career in Europe. Other chapters contain helpful strategies for exhibiting, grant writing, assembling a résumé and portfolio. I've been making a living as an artist for more than 25 years and this book taught me a lot of new strategies and unorthodox methods for marketing and self-promotion. It contains realistic information that could only be acquired from successful daily practice. Why start from scratch when you can get this type of help?

Making a career in the arts takes an aggressive approach to selling. Julius Vitali shows it can be done and how anyone can do it with straightforward, no-nonsense advice.

Good information
I am a artist and bought this book to get more information on better ways to market and promote my work. This books offers very useful advice that is easy to understand and follow. If you are looking for ways to promote yourself and market your work this is a must read.