Art, Inc.: The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist (Art Books, Gifts for Artists, Learn The Artist's Way of Thinking)

Of all the books that I have read on the business aspect of being a successful artist this book is, by far, the best. Lisa Congdon gets right to the point on letting you know what it takes and what you need to succeed financially as an artist. There is no fluff or pipe dream talk here. This book gets right to the point and stays on it from start to finish.

I found it very helpful as I'm starting to work on making my hobby into a business. I definitely recommend it. I do have some things I wish I had understood before buying it, so I'm offering that here for other people to consider. First, I bought the book instead of the kindle version assuming there would be examples of the artwork done by Lisa and the other artists interviewed. There is not. I ended up having to look up artists on my laptop to see examples of their work, and going back and forth with the book. If I had known this when ordering, I would have ordered the kindle version. I do think the book would have been better if they had included a few pics of the artists and their work in the printed version, but perhaps there were copyright issues (the irony!) or concerns about print costs.The business information is quite helpful and to the point but it's not detailed. If I want to understand how to set up an online shop for example - there are 3 suggestions on where to go for hosting and an brief outline of what I might want to include, but most artists will need more instruction than that. Same goes for licensing, copyright and all the other nuts and bolts. This is understandable as the book was written by an artist, not a web developer or lawyer, etc. The social media section, where I would have expected this artist to have a bit more to say, was too generalized. People buying the book should understand this is not the only book you will need to start your art business.What they book does offer is information from other artists on how they did it -- went for the dream of being a professional artist who makes her living from art. The stories are simple but powerful. After reading the book I now have a plan to start my business, where before I just had a wish. Thank you, Lisa!

For artists, paring business and art might seem like an oxymoron, but nowadays, if you do things right, art can become very lucrative for an artist. I like this book, very informative.

If you love Lisa Congdon then you’ll need to get Art Inc. If you don’t love Lisa Congdon, or you don’t know who Lisa Congdon is, then… aside from needing this book you also need to wake up because she is such an amazing artist and inspiring human.Full of great advice given from the perspective of some of today’s most sought after designers and artists who’ve actually walked the walk.Art Inc is a great resource from start to finish for anyone out there living creatively.

Personally, I regret buying this book and can imagine myself having done just as well without it. I did go to art school for illustration and have been researching avenues of self promotion for the past year or so and have only begun professionally marketing myself in the past couple weeks (having a tumblr doesn't really count). I suppose I was expecting something more business oriented considering its title, perhaps something that could help you create systems for accounting, keeping track of orders, deadlines, best and most efficient ways of marketing, social media management etc. There is little to no specific information in this book and I have found it rather useless in that respect. As for all of the inspirational artists included in the book, I rarely found myself inspired as I often didn't like the artist's work. The business side of these personal stories was maybe a bit more inspirational for me, though I know that releasing a calendar of my work isn't exactly an avenue that would make sense for me. Still I think that the idea of being open minded to creating something you wouldn't imagine to be profitable could end up surprising you. If you move 20,000 units of anything its going to be decent money. Art is very (pretentiously) reputation based though, so if you're looking to make a name for yourself as a serious artist I might refrain from selling calendars as it would mark you as having low aesthetic value/ brand image. I don't feel that much new information was given to me though it could be helpful to someone who is a bit more fresh in getting their footing with making work, promoting, and selling it, hence my neutral rating.

This book was well organized and full of practical and helpful tips for anyone interested in the business of art. I made a lot of highlights and took a lot of notes. This is a great place to start with getting more organized with growing as an artist.

Others have written FAR better reviews than I ever could, but I wanted to add my voice to the chorus of those very happy w/ this book. I've read a lot of books on the subject and often, they just have the same things to say and just aren't really helpful. This one is different. I read most of it on a flight to Disney World where I often get creative inspiration and it really had more to offer about what I should be looking for within myself and moving forward than I ever expected. It really caused me to evaluate my own "issues" of stalling and self-defeating before I even begin a project and it had loads of positive advice and case studies to encourage and inspire. I really recommend this book to anyone making a living as an artist. Whether you starting out or seasoned. Iv'e been doing art in one for or another since I graduated college w/ a BFA in '92 and this book STILL had wonderful information to share that was thought provoking to me. I'm going to share it w/ all my artist friends and even gift it to a few.

I like the way this book asks questions of Artists to learn their artistic process, thoughts and feelings about their art practice.I am using the book to ask myself these questions to better understand my own art process, style and practice. A good, easy read.

Lisa has created such a valuable resource for any budding artist to find success in what is a confusing and competitive art world. I wish this book was available when I was younger and contemplating an art career, now much older it is finally possible!

Just what I needed. I'm now inspired to make the most of my talents, to create the life I dream about and to provide a more enriched life with my family. Thanks Lisa. 👌

Fantastic! Although I'm not an artist I do find much of the info useful for my small business.

I don't often write reviews but on this occasion I though it might be worth the effort. Art inc. by Lisa Congdon is a book advertising itself as "The Essential Guide for Building Your Career as an Artist" and to be honest it does not quite live up to that initial promise. Okay, first up I guess we can talk about the design of the book. Essentially what you get is a book split into the white sections, which have all the guide stuff; and the red sections which include interviews with various working artists. There is an argument to be made that the font size is too small and particularly in the red section (white text on a red background) it can be difficult to read in less than optimal lighting. Not a terrible crime but an irritant. What I found more peculiar was the almost complete absence of artwork or even photographs. In a book by a visual artist you'd expect more visuals, particularly as this book is aimed almost exclusively at visual artists. I understand that from a practical standpoint it doesn't add anything vital to the book in terms of information, but a few diagrams here and there would help with understanding (we're dealing with visual thinkers after all) and it seems almost criminal not to include some artwork samples from the artists featured in the interview sections. Just for the sake of context at least, or to break up what sometime feels like a singular unending wall of text. So in conclusion, functional but it feels a little cheap. Like the book is only willing to give the bare minimum. Now, let us discuss content. Which, like me, is probably the bit you're most interested in. Essentially what you have is seven chapters, each featuring 2 interviews with professionals, and ranging from the vaguely inspirational "You Are An Artist" to the more specific "Illustration And Licensing". It's this aspect of the book that is perhaps the hardest to gauge; as how you judge the content will depend largely on the depth of information you are looking for. Myself, I was looking for a fairly comprehensive guide to how the industry works and how to get started getting my artwork out there. To that extent, the book wasn't that helpful. There is a good range of art careers discussed but none of them really get more than a surface level introduction and if you're lucky maybe a glossary of industry specific terms that might be useful if you're an absolute beginner. It's all quite vague and quite often you will find yourself wishing there was just a little more information to get your teeth into. A special mention has to go to chapter two while we're here too. Chapter two ("Getting Down to Business") is perhaps a little more detailed than the other chapters and benefits greatly from it. What you get is a fairly decent beginner's guide to running your own business; with guides to time management, legal issues such as copyright, branding and a fair bit of other stuff too. Chapter two is admittedly useful and will introduce you to some aspects of being a professional artist that might have otherwise come back to haunt you later on. Don't give up your day job quite yet being possibly the best advice I've seen in a guide like this. The only slight hiccup is that some of the business stuff is only really applicable to the USA, so if you're not in America right now then it might not be as useful. The interviews in each chapter are also something worth considering as you might hope to glean a little extra information from them on the details of their careers, particularly how they started. There are some useful nuggets of interest in there and you do get a couple of potential suggestions of blueprints of how you might start your career. But as the book goes on they begin to seem a little repetitive and it feels increasingly like perhaps a little more diversity in the people being interviewed might have been beneficial. I may be being a little unfair and it could just be that the format of the book amplifies the feeling of déjá vu I had; but to me at least, it started to feel a little tiresome. And seriously, if you are interviewing an artist I expect some pictures for context at least. So at long last we reach the conclusion. It's not a terrible book, but it's not a great one either. For an absolute beginner with no idea of how the art industry works then this is probably okay. It will give you a decent idea of how the industry works and while there is little in the way of practical help it will certainly help you decide if making a living as an artist is something you really want to try out. It is a worthwhile attempt at a beginner's guide in that respect - it asserts than money can be made and gives you a rough idea of how that might work. What it does not do, is provide you with enough information to actually pursue that career once you've decided that that's what you want to do. In that sense it is not essential and a little disappointing if I'm honest. If you have already made the decision to pursue a creative career then something like the "Writers' & Artists' Yearbook" may be more useful, with it's detailed advice on virtually every part of the industry and for the business side of things, maybe a more general book on running a small business would be useful. So would I recommend it? If you're at a point where you're wondering if an art career is the career for you then yeah, you could do worse. If you're looking for something a little bit more detailed to guide you through those first few stumbling steps into life as an artist then no, it's not really a good fit for what you want. It's not a terrible guide, just maybe not as essential as it's name might have you believe.