“When you sell a man a book, you don’t sell him 12 ounces of paper and ink and glue. You sell him a whole new life.” Christopher Morley
Are you just selling your work, or are you making a contribution?
There’s a difference between the two, but only in your mind.
You can be really great at singing or writing or photography, but if you don’t make your talent available to the world, than you’re depriving mankind of it.
The way that you share your talent is by making it available to others. This is done through sales.
You sell your screenplay to a production company, you sell your paintings to a collector and you sell your sculpture to a city.
Some of us cringe at the word “selling” as though it’s dirty. Just the thought of the act of selling can take the art out of ART. It goes hand in hand with the business of art – it doesn’t come naturally to creative people.
But what if we look at SELLING in a different way?
What if we SHIFT our thinking and instead of calling it “selling” we call it “making a contribution?”
Let me explain.
The word “selling” conjures up images of a pesky person going door to door trying to sell something that someone doesn’t want. It brings up fears of rejection and the worry of becoming a nuisance and the unpleasant thought of shoving your ideas down someone else’s throat.
But what if you are solving someone’s problem with your talent?
Here are a few examples:
The City of Redondo Beach wants a tribute to surfing that will draw tourist to their town. A sculptor proposes (sells the idea of) a large bronze statue of a famous surfer. The sculptor creates a beautiful piece of art for the community and makes the city look good.
A painter hesitantly calls on an interior designer asking to show her landscape paintings. The interior designer is delighted, because it’s just what she’s been looking for.
You wrote a book that shows how to easily make mosaic tables from scrap materials. There are thousands of people in the world that would love to learn this, and now you’ve given them a tool that makes it easy. Thanks to you, they now enjoy the art of mosaics, too.
You could look at this in another way – the sculptor went to several cities with his idea. It didn’t work for all, but for Redondo Beach, it was a huge problem solver. The painter called on many interior designers. Not all of them were looking for landscapes, but one of them needed it badly.
Think about where we would be if Thomas Edison didn’t share his light bulb invention and instead kept it to himself. We’d still be reading by candlelight, or worse, by the glow of our cell phones.
Where would we be in society if artists didn’t share their creations with anyone but themselves: Do you realize that every single product we enjoy, from clothing to food to furniture, would be boring, plain and downright ordinary? There would be no music to listen to. There would be no plays or movies to watch. The world would be just bland.
Every musician that you listen to had to sell someone on their talent so that eventually albums could be made and sold for you to buy. Every screenplay writer had to sell their writing to an executive before we were able to watch their brilliance in a film. Every single piece of artwork that we see on every product imaginable had to be sold first.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that there is no such thing as selling when it comes to art.
There’s only the making of a contribution. If someone needs what you have than you are making an important contribution to that person. And that’s something to feel good about.
The next time you are nervous about selling your art, remember this: someone needs it. You are solving that need. Now go out into the world and make a contribution with your creations!
Maria xxoo
PS: Please comment on this article – I’d love to hear what your thoughts are on selling vs. making a contribution!
