Why is Pricing Your Art SO HARD???

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Art pricing is SO hard.  It’s the number one question I get asked.  How?  What?  How will I know when it's right?  What if I can't make money at the price people want to spend? 

I came up with  7 reasons why it’s one of the trickiest obstacles artists face when they are trying to sell their art and today I'm going to unpack them

Welcome to the Josie Show, where it’s artist-to-artist chat about making art and selling art, because I think artists should get paid!  In fact, one of the first steps to selling your art is pricing it correctly, and that’s not easy!  I put together a pricing worksheet that takes the mystery out of pricing art and will help make your pricing irresistible! Find it HERE

Peer Pressure

People have all sorts of opinions, and feel free to share them openly.  Many people are shocked at art prices and often think art is too expensive. People are used to Walmart prices, not handmade, unique item from your blood, sweat and tears. First, those people aren't your target customers--but that doesn't stop Aunt Betty from telling you SHE could make it at home much cheaper.  This is tantamount to telling someone their efforts, talents, and hard work are lousy.  It can be tempted for some artists to drop their prices to attempt to coax the Aunt Betties of the world to drop a few bucks, but don’t do it.  You’ll be working for free and probably lose money on supplies. 

Taking it Personally

Another reason that it’s hard to price our art is it’s easy to Take it personally.

 It’s your soul—how can you put a price on the beloved work of your heart and soul, your baby, your interior life, your sweat and tears, your passion????  When you’re pricing art, it’s incredibly emotionally loaded.  It’s not just “what is the value of this thing?” it’s “what is the value of ME?”   Sadly, the main trend I see is that people undervalue their art but occasionally radically over-value it. That might be because so often people artists encounter feel free to say things like “You’re charging HOW MUCH for that?” Or “I could make this at home”, thus completely devaluing the artist’s work.  That stuff hurts, and it’s easy to

Love, Not Money

Here’s the 3rd reason why we can struggle to put a price on our art: We Make it because we love it, so getting paid for it seems like an afterthought. Most artists do not start a passionate art project thinking about how much it will eventually cost or who will buy it.  We make art because we love it.  When someone wants to buy what we have made, we discount the time we spent on it because it was so fun!  Well, I would do it anyway so even though I spent 40 hours making this, I’ll just charge you $100 for materials”. Many artists do not even get paid minimum wage. 

The Race to the Bottom

Here’s another fatal flaw with art pricing strategies, it’s Thinking People Buy Art because of the “value”. Here’s the thing:

I buy toilet paper that’s cheaper.  I buy gasoline at the cheaper station. I price compare hotels.  Unlike those things, my art is not a “commodity”—it’s a luxury.  It’s not that my budget and thriftiness doesn’t apply—I simply cannot afford some art.  But, like Rolex, Prada, and Tiffany’s, the price of the thing tells the story of its authenticity, excellence, unique importance in the world.   

Money is Dirty

Here’s reason number 5 why it’s hard to price art: Money is Dirty

The prevailing myth, it’s understated but it’s there, in a lot of the world that money is “dirty”, that frank discussions about money are lowbrow, that displaying your art’s prices are tacky. All of these are closely linked to a myth I was taught which is this,” If someone wants to buy it, it must not be good/edgy/interesting.” 

No Obvious Pricing Standard

Reason number 6, With art pricing There’s no easily understood standard—

Because art is not a commodity, the forces that go into create art pricing and art markets are very mysterious. Any given website or art gallery or artist can have pricing from affordable to insane, and there’s very little way to really understand where the value comes from.  Some artists are very well known, and can charge a lot more for their art.  Some artists are just starting out, and their work will be more affordable.  But no one can keep track of everyone who is "known" and everyone who is "new", so ultimately, if you’re not in the know, the pricing just seems kind of arbitrary.

No Transparency

And finally, reason number 7 why it’s hard to price your art: There's no transparency. 

Why do other artists choose the prices they chose?  No one talks about it.  As far as I can tell, there's a bit of a taboo about talking about money, but how are we ever going to learn?

I hope this list clarified some of the reasons you might struggle to price your art!  If you haven’t done it, download my guide on art pricing!