A Survey of Selling Your Work
/WCA member Chris Nielsen sent us this message containing a survey about selling your work. This looks like it could gather some interesting data, check it out below!
Dear WCA members—I’m curious how other people market their work and how they’re doing. I’ve put together a short survey and would appreciate responses. It’s obviously self-selecting and unscientific, but it could still be interesting. I’ll compile responses in an anonymous, numerical way and share the results. If I only get a few it won’t be informative, and in that case I’ll just report that without going into the details. Note that I’d also like to know if people do not sell.
By way of background to this, I moved to Shoreline in 2005 after having been in the Oregon Potters’ Association for ten years. OPA’s annual Ceramic Showcase was a big focus of its work, and involved a lot of very professional potters. I’m only semi-professional, probably like most of us. I’ve had work in a number of galleries in this area and Portland, and in several regular sales. Both galleries and sales have come and gone over the years, and my sense is that selling opportunities aren’t what they used to be. I’ve even wondered if pottery is going out of fashion—maybe it’s a boomer-hippie thing? What’s your impression?
Please email your response to chris@cwnielsen.us .
Survey questions:
Do you sell your work? (If not, please say so and respond, and skip the rest of the survey)
Where do you sell your work? Note all that apply.
o Galleries (details optional)
o Sales sponsored by organizations or other businesses (details optional again)
o Studio sales
o Online
o Other (__________)
Which of these generates the most income for you?
Do you consider pottery sales to be an important source of your income?
Have your sales been increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same over the last few years? Say if you don’t know.
How about your sales venues?
Have you made efforts in the last few years to expand your selling opportunities? How?
Thanks for participating,
Chris Nielsen
Please email your response to chris@cwnielsen.us .
