Does it add up
In the last week or so I been looking at my cost, as to what I should be charging for my artwork! You have to be careful as you may find it does it add up and could be cutting into your profits! Let me explain!
Big market
There is a very big market out there for anyone selling art, from your website to online galleries to craft market to art shows it a minefield out there!
Prices of prints
I have noted that the prices of print have gone up a lot in the last few years! This is good news for us, photographers or artists! Part of the reason for this I feel is that more people have access to bye more artwork! Also, the artists have to make a living or some of you’re doing it more for fun and to make a little extra money!
Online gallery
If you go to an online gallery to may be paying for a listing fee then a percentage on the sale and a transaction fee top or it may be strat commission on the sale?
The craft market is just normal a fee for your table and anything you make is yours! The art shows charge a fee for you to have a stand (this depends on the size you go for) then they may also charge a commission on top!
Now, this sounds quite simple for you to work out your price what you’re like to sell your artwork! It, not just work out the cost of your art to add on the commissions for the sale job dun! No, it may not that simple?
Last weekend craft market
So I was looking at my prices last week and work out some price for last weekend craft market I had don!
So how I worked out my print cost as following, A would be the cost of getting a print don then added a percent on for commissions I may have to pay the percentage fee for the agent or space that would be B then some time for myself that would be C for taking and editing the work as that could be the biggest part of creating the print!
Adds up OK
So I thought I would take another look at my sums to make sure it all adds up OK this week.
So with using the above A+B+C great the total then I decided to take of B to see what my total would be, to my surprise it works out a lot less! Let put that into figures say for example I make a print and sale for £10 and the commission 35% + = £13.50 say it takes me 1 hour so add £20 on so it a total of £33.50 then if you make a sale take of the 35% it works out to be £21.78 so I am making a loss because the total cost of making the print was £30! I tried again working out by adding the cost of the print and time then add the commission it works out as a total £40.50 – 35% work out to be £26.33 so that not as big hit!
The percentage bigger
So how would I overcome this, so I then thought if I made the percentage bigger to see if that would work out right? I found out if I add 54% on for commission it works out the same So A+C = £30 +B = 54% + =£46.20 the – 35 % = £30.03! Now every commission may be different so you have to work out every price different one, but if you do this in an excel spreadsheet you have a record to look at so take the hard work out of it.
To sum up
To sum up, this is my look on how to do my pricing, and everyone will be different, but it is worth keeping in mind that the fees you pay for online or even display space are an expense you have to allow for!