Well, I'm getting all my last minute planning, drawing, sign-making, printing business cards and the usual nit-picky stuff out of the way before I take part in stART on the Street: Spring Edition which will be happening on Main Street this coming Sunday May 16th.stART has become one of my favorite shows since I started taking part in them around September 2006. For me it's been a huge help in promoting my work and between stART, the shows at Borders and the Worcester Art Museum it's also been a huge help in connecting with other artists from the Worcester area.
Not only that, I have a lot of fun at the show!!
A couple years back stART did have a Spring Show at Beaver Brook Park which was great fun. This year they decided to do something similar to the Park Ave show but this time having it on North Main Street in Worcester.
I'm not entirely sure why they chose North Main Street instead of Park Ave but I think it's a good idea that they did. It helps to give the Spring show it's own identity by having it in a different location than the late Summer/early Fall show.
And I hope this becomes a yearly thing. Because it means not only do I NOT have to wait so long to take part in stART but I get to take part in it TWICE in the same year!!
Well, now I'm going to try and get ten or twenty new illustrations done in time to sell them at the show. It started out with me as a way to sell the artwork that wouldn't sell on my E-Bay Auctions. And I've practically sold out on all my leftover E-Bay art.
So now I have to create pieces JUST for the show. Which isn't a bad thing.
I will also be selling and signing copies of Diary of the Black Widow, The Adventures of Polly and Handgraves: A Sinister Aura and Sherlock Holmes: The Painful Predicament of Alice Faulkner.
I am completely sold out on Confessions of a Peculiar Boy... and Other Stories and The Spaghetti Strand Murder.
If you live around and about the Big Woo, the only places you can get copies of those two books is at Cormier Jewelers in Spencer, That's Entertainment in Worcester (although I think they're completely out of Spaghetti Strand Murder last I looked) and Borders Books and Music in Shrewsbury.
Or you can order your copy of either of those books on Amazon.com and I would be very happy to sign them for you the day of the show.
But Sunday promises to be a lot of fun and I hope to see all y'all there. Hopefully, I will be able to resist the temptation to want to scoot off to the Armsby Abbey and get a pint of one of their tasty beers during the show ;-)
7 comments:
Good luck getting all the final details in place, Bret. I hope to see you at StART this weekend!
Any advice for a StART on the Street rookie (we'll be at one of the sidewalk spaces w/ our books)?
Ah! I waited too long to look for "The Spaghetti Strand Murder"!
I'm with cherylcory11, any advice for a stART newbie?
I'm always happy to help rookies and newbies alike :-)
1.) Bring plenty of money to make change. Lots of $1's and $5's in particular. I've found I go through those the most when I'm making change.
2.) You might want to consider selling your books without change. This will make the whole process of making change so much easier. You can go two ways with that. If your book sells for $12.95 you can sell it for $13 adding the signature as extra. Or you can sell it at a discount price just for the event. Kind of a Catch 22 because you're not getting as much for them but you might end up selling more of them.
3.)People love original artwork and prints. For the past year or so I've been selling pen and ink sketches on E-Bay for about $9.99! I had gotten the idea from Andy Fish who had gotten it from one of his students. The idea behind it is giving people the opportunity to own original artwork and not have to mortgage their first born doing so. I've had a lot of pieces that just never caught any interest in the auctions so I decided to sell them at the show and they sold!! Usually I've sold them at a discounted price from what I have sold through E-Bay. In your case Cheryl, if you still have the cover art you drew from your original print run of Must Have Done Something Good, you might want to consider making prints of them this week and sell them at the show. There's a place on Park Avenue called PIP right across the street from Peppercorns that does excellent work. You can tell them Bret recommended them to you because you were told they do excellent work on prints.
I usually make 10 prints total and sell them for about $5 a piece. Since PIP's is very affordable, you can easily make your profit back on the printing cost :-)
3.) Always be upbeat and courteous. Which I know is very easy for the both of you :-)
DON'T IGNORE PEOPLE WHO COME OVER TO LOOK AT YOUR WORK. You have to remember that the only way to make people interested in your work is to make them interested in you. Be engaging but at the same time you don't have to look like you're visiting the dentist office ;-)
The thing I constantly think every time someone meets me at a show is even if they don't particularly care for my work I want them to say "I met Bret Herholz at this show and he was really nice". Just because they may not care that much for your work, they might know someone who would be interested.
4.)Don't be discouraged if you don't make the mega millions. Each year I've looked at it if I make back just as much or more than I did on the table then it's something.
Don't let a slow day your first time out discourage you from doing another stART show. It can be a mixed bag. I've had certain shows that were a complete bomb and then I've had shows that I've made a killing. So, never judge your experience on one show.
5.) NEVER BE RUDE! Just because someone might not like your work or might say something that sounds very insulting DON'T BE INSULTING BACK!! Mainly because what you could see as an insult might not be an insult.
And if they are being insulting it's not going to help your work to be the same way. Because these people could turn around and start saying nasty things about your work to people.
It's one of those being slow to anger and water off a duck's back sort of things.
AND FINALLY...
6.) HAVE FUN!! stART is a great time!! Just have a blast chatting with the people and the other artists. stART on the Street has been a huge help to me for getting my work out there and I hope you both have a lot of success selling your books and artwork at the show. And I hope it's the first of many for you.
Wow, Bret...thank you for all the excellent advice! I appreciate you taking the time to help out a couple of newbies!
Like you said, I'm really looking forward to StART and plan on having a blast, regardless of how sales happen to go that day. :)
One more StART question, if you don't mind: do you provide bags to customers?
I try to when I can remember. It's a good idea to bring some because people ask.
Thanks, Bret...noted!
I heard it should be 70s and sunny on Sunday. :D
That's what I am hoping for :-)
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