Through the years I have designed, printed and sold hundreds, nay, THOUSANDS of little cards. “Notecards”, as I refer to them, are perfect to say “thank you”, “hi”, “just one more thing”, “I appreciate you”, or even “I’m sorry”. If you write real big, you can get by with just one sentence.
Designs come and go; sometimes I redraw something and then get rid of the older version. Other times, it seems as if a design has run its course and needs to be retired. Sometimes I have too much inventory, so I let a design run out for awhile. And sometimes a design that really grabs me just doesn’t speak to the buying public.
I used to sell my cards in many stores around the county. Most of those stores are now closed. Even if the stores were still around, my costs are so high that if I sell them at a wholesale price to a retail store, there is zero profit for me. This means that I am working for free. That’s just dumb business.
Nowadays I sell the cards here on my website, occasionally when I do a bazaar or if I am having an art showing or exhibit (what’s the diff? I dunno), and on consignment at a very few places. “Consignment” means that they pay me after the cards sell, which means a lot of checking in, rewriting lists to keep current on supplies, making bills, sending the bills, paying attention to what has sold and what needs to be restocked.
It’s all part of the business of art, which involves many decisions. Most of those decisions would be better if I had a crystal ball. Lacking that, I look at the history of sales, look at the current economy, look at the venue and think about the customers. If consignment, I look at the store’s record of payment, if the cards are getting shopworn and need to be repackaged, or if the store hasn’t been displaying the cards in a manner that the customers can see them.
The business of art is a complex and delicate blend of science, art, and guesswork.
3 Comments
One must work very hard and very smart to be a self-employed artist (audio or visual). I admire those who muster on because they love what they do!
Also, people just aren’t writing thank-you notes anymore (I guess that makes me not people). But I still say that sending a text message that takes 5 seconds, reading, “Hey, G’ma Tnx 4 the sweatr! C U soon” just doesn’t cut it, right?!
Sharon, thank you for thinking I am “very smart”.
Polite people do still write thank you notes, and I want to contribute to those efforts by providing cards and the tip about writing big.
I saw a great cartoon that said this: “It is ‘before’, not ‘B4’. Around here we speak English, not Bingo.”
Ha Ha, great cartoon. And I agree! This abbreviation stuff began when every text message was charged by the character (yeah, I’m that old that I remember those days) so B4 and C U L8r was cheaper than spelling it out. But these days there is no excuse for lazy texting!
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