I’m lucky enough to be friends with many artists, giving me a courtside seat to all the trials and tribulations that come with the career. One friend, after an especially successful year, was encouraged by a gallery they worked with to increase their prices by more than 30%. And then…crickets. Sales slowed to a frustrating drip, especially compared to the prior cadence.
I know this is not a one-off. I’ve heard similar worries from other artists, and seen price jumps play out from afar.
Part of it might be a psychological adjustment: Even if fewer works are selling, there’s still the potential you’re making more money. This is also a chance to play with supply and demand: less availability isn’t a bad thing for your market!
But if, after more than a year, work still isn’t selling at your preferred pace, and you’re making less money, it might make sense to try and reassess prices to a rate that feels palatable to the market.
While art world “best practices” declare you should never lower your prices, that’s not always feasible. Sometimes you simply make a mistake when setting prices and need a way to course correct! In other industries, this happens all the time without major fallout. Although I never recommend lowering prices without serious consideration, there are a few ways you can lower your price in a way that maintains the integrity of your market:
This is part of Art Forecast’s ongoing series on ARTIST PRICING. You can read parts one through three here:
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