- What Is Artpreneurship?
- What Makes Artpreneurship Unique?
- What Will I Learn?
- Who Is Artpreneurship For?
- What Guarantees Do I Have?
- Who Is Behind Artpreneurship?
What is Artpreneurship?
Artpreneurship is a book written to help you create art on your own terms.
Artpreneurship means recognition for your hard work and an eager audience that looks forward to your next piece. It means the funding to pursue new art projects at your leisure. It means mixing stability with creativity and spontaneity.
No other book packs as much value for the aspiring or established artist.
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What makes Artpreneurship unique?
Artpreneurship was written differently, for you, right from the go. The book assumes you have no background in business and customizes all its advice for the artistic mind. Expect lots of art-centric examples and, certainly, colorful illustrations.
Artpreneurship has three parts designed to help you learn everything you need to know about making it in the arts. You’ll be in and out of the book quickly, so you can start applying what you learned with no delay.
Here are the three parts that make up Artpreneurship:
- Core Concepts: This is the foundation of Artpreneurship and consists of 65 ideas that will teach you everything you'll ever need to know about business. You'll learn about everything from how to price your art to how to manage your time.
- Successful Artist Interviews: This section of Artpreneurship contains four interviews with successful commercial artists. The point of this section is to give you different perspectives and lessons. Artpreneurship is about creating a unique path and reading so many viewpoints will help you mix-and-match advice to customize your art career.
- Coaching Session: At the very end of Artpreneurship is the transcript of a coaching session with a young up-and-coming artist. Consider it the ultimate example in applying the concepts of the book to your own projects. Artpreneurship connects the dots from theory to reality for you, so you don’t have to wait for those “eureka!” moments.
The beauty of Artpreneurship's three part structure is that it also makes the book into a resource you can refer to again and again. The core concepts are laid out like an encyclopedia, the interviews give you timeless advice and resource links, and the coaching session is fun for a quick refresher.
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What will I learn?
The heart of Artpreneurship is in its rapid-fire business concept introductions. This section takes the best advice from dozens of dense business books, lectures, and anecdotes and then tailors all that advice for the artist with no interest in business.
To give you a rough idea of Artpreneurship's flow and content, below is a list of the titles for each core concept. Some titles are more descriptive than others but this list should illustrate the breadth and depth of the book.
- Lead Them By The Hand
- "You're A Sell Out!"
- Make A Bundle
- Stay On Target
- Hold Your Position
- Segmenting Your Audience
- Know Thou Self
- Family First
- Stay Away From The Cookie Jar
- It's About YOU, Not Your Art
- Focus, Focus, Focus - The Menu Problem
- A Recipe For Art
- The Point Of No Return
- Once Upon A Time
- Don't Be A Commodity
- On Advertising
- How To Build An Audience
- What Are You Fighting For?
- One Foot In Front Of The Other
- Fire In Your Belly
- Anchor Ahoy
- Your Environment Matters
- Success Loves Company
- Intelligent Collaboration
- How To Properly Negotiate
- Measure Everything
- Don't Put Them To Sleep
- Lunch Is The #1 Meal Of The Day
- Play The Expert
- The Synergizer Bunny
- Finance 101 - Money Ages
- Finance 101 - One Egg Per Basket Is Difficult To Carry
- Finance 101 - Risk/Return Opportunities
- Finance 101 - Bottom Up Vs. Top Down Planning
- Shine Unique
- Death By A Thousand Paper Cuts
- Evolve Yourself
- A Positive Science
- The Pareto Principle
- Stop Waiting For Permission
- Can Artpreneurship Be Taught?
- Never Give Up (But Morph Your Losses Wisely)
- Sell To Groups
- Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal
- Competition 101
- Quality Not Quantity
- Brainstorming
- Artpreneurship Skill #1 - Seeking
- Artpreneurship Skill #2 - Opportunity Focus
- The Busier The Better
- Without Exception
- Love To Say No
- On Excuses
- Escape Your Comfort Zone
- So-And-So Told Me You Were Awesome
- Don't Permit Extremists To Dictate Your Actions
- I Highly Recommend
- I Bet That Testimonial Is Fake
- Power Naming
- Creating Your Own Solutions
- How Much Am I Really Spending?
- Just In Time! The Inventory Problem
- How Much Do I Charge?
- Where Does The Time Go?
- "I Didn't Come Here To Read!"
- Upgrading Yourself
Each concept is between one and three pages long and was born through academic or observational insights and field tested personally. Because you probably want to "integrate" your life, there is also a focus on how to juggle the demands of being an artist with the demands of being a successful artist.
To add a little flavor to the readings and to help you remember the lessons of the book, there are also extensive examples featuring a colorful cast of characters. As the book itself says at one point, people don't remember facts and figures, but they will remember stories.
Is artpreneurship for aspiring or established artists?
Both really, but depending on how much experience you have, you’ll learn different things from the book.
If you dream of one day earning a living from your passion, then reading Artpreneurship is probably the best first-step you can make. You’ll save yourself from a number of mistakes later on, you’ll learn about the challenges an artist will face, and you’ll get to read about the experiences of older artists. Artpreneurship can also help you start making a side income from your art, which can help you “test the waters” of an art career and fund more interesting projects down the road.
If you’re an established artist, Artpreneurship can help you do what you already do better. The book contains dozens of business concepts that have been in use, successfully, for decades. You probably haven’t heard of many of them just because they’re spread out among so many artist-unfriendly books and courses, so the advice won’t just be “common sense.”
Artpreneurship doesn’t expect you to revamp your life. It just
offers a lot of small tweaks that, as a whole, will lead to more
success in your personal and professional projects. Whether you’re
an aspiring or established artist, Artpreneurship is a great read,
with integrity.
What guarantees do I have that artpreneurship will work for me?
Artpreneurship was written with the sincere goal of helping you live a happier, more fulfilling artistic life. As an artist you have enough to worry about, so consider Artpreneurship a risk-free read. If you read Artpreneurship and don't absolutely LOVE it, then let us know and we’ll give you a prompt, no-questions-asked refund. You can even keep the book as a reference, a gift for giving it a try.
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Who is behind artpreneurship?
My name is Adam Ghahramani. Simply: I'm obsessed with helping artists. In case you were wondering what would qualify me to write a book about business and art, here's a quick bio:
I grew up with a family of artists, studied business in college, worked at a high profile startup, at a large corporation, founded numerous popular websites, including the second most popular art-sharing website online, and self-published a very popular "how to draw" book. I've coached artists, worked with artists, and even fancy myself to be an OK graphic design artist.
I don't pretend to be a "know it all" guru, which is why I've also included four interviews with amazing artists in the book, but I do have a ton of ideas and experience in this realm and am 100% confident you'll be thrilled with the book.
The idea came for Artpreneurship came after coaching an artist friend of mine. She remarked: "You're good! When will you write a book?" Here it is.
Many thanks to Gail Brightbill, her husband John Brightbill (the book's illustrator), Brett Rogers (the book's editor), and Michael Jolley (the web and logo designer).
E-mail me if you have questions, feedback, want to request a review copy for your website/blog, want to schedule an interview, or simply want to say “hello.”
In a hurry? Download our free, 66-page lite version of Artpreneurship. No fuss. If you love it, come back and consider investing in the full version.
"Solid Book"
A really good, solid book that achieves its purpose without missing the mark.
- Hal Galbreath (Illustrator)
"LOVING Artpreneurship!"
LOVING Artpreneurship! If you EVER want a testimonial from me, I'd be happy to give one.
- James Burns (Graphic Designer)
"Nice Read!"
A very nice read! Your book is chock full of invaluable information – and kept my interest all the way through with your witty and insightful delivery.
- Echo Chernik (Illustrator)
"Quite Good"
I've been reading your book, and I must say it's quite good. There is a lot of great advice inside. Good book, good advice!
- Tracey "Milky Cat" (Illustrator)
"Opened My Eyes"
Really opened my eyes to the world of art and business. I'm a business major but have always loved art...this book seamlessly blends both.
- Aiyana (Student)
"Absolutely Brilliant"
I was very impressed by your last book (Art Of Otaku), but Artpreneurship is absolutely brilliant. Not only is it informative, but it's actually entertaining to read. The examples are vivid and well grounded. I would definitely recommend this book to any aspiring artist.
- Carrie Butler (Marketing Coordinator + Student)
"Valuable Lessons"
Even if someone wasn't an artist, I'd still recommend this book to them. Artpreneurship contains valuable lessons that can be applied to any business and any life. The first lesson is an especially great tool for artists who sell their work at local conventions.
- Nicole L. (Student)
"Great Ideas"
Being a person that loves just about every type of art out there and just getting to a place where I can start selling my works, Artpreneurship gave me some great ideas.
- Lacey (Drawer/Painter/Graphic Designer)
"Must Read"
This is a must-read for any artist who wants to be serious about their art and make some money. Filled with practical advice and examples, I'd be hard pressed to find a more comprehensive and easy-to-read book about the business of art.
- Cassie Richoux (Author, Otaku Survival Guides)