Alyson B. Stanfield's book: I'd rather be in the studio: The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion
Readers know that I regularly read and refer to Alyson B. Stanfield's advice on this blog. I have taken her e-courses and found them to be among the best going for great interaction, for useful and accessible information and for meeting new artists on-line. And yes, I have this book and keep it by my desk as a ready reference.
Thus, you will know how thrilled I am to be hosting Alyson on the blog tour for her book: I'd Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist's No Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion. In addition to the tour, Alyson is giving away a free copy of her book, and any one of you lucky readers could be the happy winner!
At each stop along the tour, Alyson takes one question from the host and answers it (free coaching!). Needless to say I had many, some of which have already been answered at other tour stops, but we finally narrowed the left overs down to one:
Alyson, I have not been able to find anyone to write an article with me for a trade magazine like Ceramics Monthly. I would like to do a PR piece, somehow, including one of my own authorship. I've tried the interview route (pretend you're interviewing someone and do yourself). For whatever reason that doesn't work. When it comes to writing formally about my own work, I get tongue-tied and the writing comes out stilted (I can't even get past journaling and then taking something from that).
What are 3 baby step suggestions you have for someone who can blog regularly about art but is totally intimidated about putting together an article for a magazine?
1. Look at your goals for the article in relation to your long-term goals. What do you want the article to accomplish? I understand that sometimes you just want an article to have an article – to see your name and images in print. But maybe it's more than that. Maybe you want more students in your workshops, comments on your blog, queries from galleries, or sales. Knowing what you want will help you put together the content.
2. Figure out your hook. Why should people be interested in hearing your story? What makes you fascinating? And don't say you're not. Everyone can be fascinating! Consider the artists you enjoy reading about. What draws you in? What makes you remember their stories? Bottom line: Know why people should read your article. And know the audience you're writing for.
3. Go through your blog posts and group them. Fortunately you have them already kind of grouped under your Categories. It's helpful to look through these from time to time in order to find common threads that you could make into an article. Once you have these all in one place, you can spend time with them. Maybe just an hour a week or 15 minutes a day. Spending time with them will force you to get to know them with new eyes. Who knows? You might even fall in love with your works all over again.
And that, dear readers, is why I stay tuned when Alyson writes. She is the master of "3 baby steps" toward any goal and I am reminded over and over that breaking things down can make them much more manageable. Also, having more than one head working on an opportunity can really open it up!
"You asked for 3 baby steps," Alyson continues, "but I would add a fourth and very important step. That is to research potential places for your articles. Magazines are great, but it might be a nice baby step to post articles online. maybe you could offer your articles to other artists for their blogs or Web sites. Or to an avenue in your niche market. You can also post at places like http://www.ezinearticles.com."
Ok, everyone, don't just take my word for how great Alyson's book is. Reader Sue, from Artful Adventures, bought the book and says this on her blog: "My copy of [I'd Rather Be In the Studio! The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion] arrived last week..There's something magical about it, seems to work by osmosis! Seriously, just having it in the house makes me feel accountable for some strange reason. I won't lie & tell you that I've read it all the way through, because I haven't. But what I have done is to keep it handy, pick it up a dozen times a day, page through, read a little here & there…Some new habits are being established…"
Don't forget! You can get a free copy of I'd Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion. Just visit this site, read the instructions, and enter. Increase your odds of winning by visiting the other blog tour stops and entering on those sites as well.
thought for the day: It always helps me overcome overwhelm when I have a good plan that reveals my priorities. Big abstract ideas are broken down into manageable action steps on a business roadmap. Suddenly, it all seems to make sense. Something magical happens when a plan is on paper. Written words seem official and carry a lot more weight than those floating around in our heads. We're often more committed to our intentions when we take the time to put them in writing. Alyson B. Stanfield,I'd Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion.
12 Comments
I'm looking forward to hearing your progress on writring an article! Let's put those baby steps into practice.
Baby steps. My Dad always told me to do that when I would stress out over a school project. He always said to work on it a little every day. Alyson's blog tour has been very enlightening for me. And today's article has inspired me to think about ways to break my work down into smaller steps so that I will actually be more productive. Believe me, I would rather be in the studio every day instead of going to the job I do to make money. (Lucky for me, it's a great job, where I do at least get to be creative) But I find myself doing everything other than that because I always feel like there isn't enough time to finish anything.
I have also been wanting to write a book for some time now. I have been keeping journals for years and I would be willing to bet that just following these baby steps will get me on the path to actually getting that book done and a lot more painting!
Good luck with your writing. You know you can do it!
I've really benefited from the words in this blog. It reinforces what I know I need to do, but never quite seems to get it into practice.
Thank you.
Here I am 😉
I love the baby steps, which I think can be applied easily to writing in my blog 🙂 I especially love #2 because we can only ever be our own story and the art and artists who speak to me are the ones who are telling their own story, evolving over time and outside the bounds of fashion and trendy.
Sorry I haven't been commenting recently, I've been keeping my voice reeled in due to something negative going on, but I'm stepping over that obstacle.
I love that Heron connects us – whenever I see one I think of you 🙂
NO wonder I was thinking about you all day yesterday! We were out of the house & away from the computer most of the day, couldn't remember if your blog tour was yesterday or today, well now I know. Great advice! The 3 step attack really makes what seems like an insurmountable task, appear very "doable", amazing! I'm still hauling Alyson's book around with me from room to room, and sometimes it makes a road trip with me in my purse:) But hey, whatever works, and that works for me!
Tammy,
You are so right! Alyson's ability to make a workable plan with baby steps cures the overwhelming tasks of where do I start or how do I do this and targets viable reasonable just plain do-able steps.
How funny, I've just signed up to be a correspondent for an arts and craft magazine! So these are great tips. My thought was it might be easier to get the hang of good writing and interviewing of other people as experience for trying to get my own promo writing out there. The blog entries idea is a great one though! Now I have no excuse not to start something.
Tammy I would love to always be in the studio, and have it on my list to read since I have no blog at this time. Alyson Stanfield gave me inspirational looks into why anyone would be interested in me, and my artwork. I have dedicated this year to my self discovery, and looking at things from a new point of view. I recently talked to an art school and knew ir would only tak manybe 2 curse for me to start making 30.000 dollars mre a year, I could complete the courses and get that better job, but will that take me closer to where my heart is as an painter? No.
I have re-evalualuated myself since yesterday and know now, I want to know what courses to take to make me a better painter, a painter with a future, A new path to follow that will make me happier, not take me further away from that happiness for 20.000.00 more. I should be abl to fine my way, and what i have trained myself for, and let that new job take me further on my path closer to my heart.
How did you know I needed to hear this today? I'm seriously about to cry at my little puter here… I needed to be reminded that art is a part of me, and I need to give my inner artist some love… and some beads. (Not buying more, because tomorrow I plan to go to yard sales and look for random crazy stuff to make into art… but just some time to play with beads, or yarn, or glue, or…..)
Also, any time you want to post an article, I'll post it on my blog.
I'm gonna go make art now. Not just stuff to sell… I'm going to make ART.
Wow, just when I decided to sell my photo art cards I come upon this wonderful book that will surely help me achieve my success in this area! What luck is that? And now a whole blog tour to visit to learn more of the facinating knowledge to be found in the book "I'd rather be in the studio! by Alyson Stanfield.
I too would LOVE to WIN this book!
And Tammy it was great discovering your blog in the path as well.
Great answers! I've been wondering about this for awhile and wasn't sure where to start. This was helpful.
I posted about Alyson's book here: http://www.creativeeveryday.com/creativeeveryday/2008/05/id-rather-be-in.html
I'd love to win a copy!
This was an excellent question and good answers! I very much liked the #4 answer because most of us are 'used' to writing on line in one form or another and this would just be an extension of that. I also liked the quote at the end about having a plan. I have an overall 'life' plan (which is mostly centered around my art) but am not doing too well on the daily/monthly plan leaving much of it to take care of itself (which of course it never does). Thanks once again Tammy (and Alyson of course)!!