Business
Hey, If They Can Do It Maybe I Can
Do you had dreams of writing or illustrating children’s books or young adult novels? I certainly must recommend the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). SCBWI is a huge organization, and you are bound to find a chapter in your area. Join the chapter and you are joining the national organization. How cool is that? But you don’t need to join to attend their local meetings. What are the benefits of joining?
Meet people who are struggling and have insecurities-just like you.
- Meet people who made it after struggling and share in their excitement. You will be saying, “Hey, if they can do it maybe I can.”
- Learn about your craft.
- Cull from vast amount of resources and information that is always part of a professional group.
- Get inspired.
- Stay inspired.
Get connected- Join a group!
The Society for Children Book Writers and Illustrators National website.
Find a chapter near you
My Houston Texas Chapter of SCBWI
LinkedIn For Those In The Arts?
I created a recent post HOW DO I MAKE A LIVING BEING CREATIVE AND DOING WHAT I LOVE?
I asked a friend who is beginning a new career if she was on LinkedIn. She is working hard at a masters degree, and she would like to become a science writer. She told me she did have an account but did not know what to do with the account. I thought I would try to write a bit about LinkedIn and how to use it.
We are probably all familiar with social networks, especially ones like Facebook. People find you on Facebook, “friend” you and you get to have connections to long lost friends, old classmates, relatives you have not seen since you were two or whatever. Linked in is a social network but there is a difference. Facebook is a big open party and LinkedIn is like going to a networking social for your business. You would act differently in each setting; therefore, your profile should be different, as well. Consider LinkedIn as a way to present yourself as a professional.
NOTE: LinkedIn, in some ways, is not like Facebook. I will friend just about anyone on Facebook, but I covet my LinkedIn contact. I only link to those I know or those I really want to know and that I feel I have something to offer. Remember, those who you link to have access to all of your connections. Think of it this way, you are at a cocktail party with all of your LinkedIn friends. Would you recommend them to your best connections?
Many of the sites below will tell you how to get connected with others on LinkedIn. It may start as simply as connecting to those who are in your field or that you know through your work in that field. Don’t forget those who you have worked for. If you are a student then do try to connect with your advisors or with the places where you intern.
If you are trying to learn how to use LinkedIn LinkedIn has a New Users Start up Guide
There are many articles on the Internet that tell you how to use LinkedIn.
- Here is one from the linedinelligence.com website titled 100+ smart ways to is LinkedIn.
- A blog talk radio show by Nicolette Tallmadge giving LinkedIn Tips for Artists.
- Here is a wonderful article title Artists Online Presence- How one artist does it? by Moshe Mikanovsky. It talks a great deal about marketing int he arts and some on LinkedIn.
- Renee Phillips talks about Getting Linked on Linkedin
- Merly’s Notes talks about LinkedIn
I hope this helps to get you started. Your marketing goal for this week might be to spend time pulling together your profile and a designating a few hours reading about using LinkedIn. The point about all of this social networking is getting connected.
______________________________________________________________________________
Bridgette Mongeon-Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
HOW DO I MAKE A LIVING BEING CREATIVE AND DOING WHAT I LOVE?
I know of several people who are searching for work in the arts. In this economy, it can be difficult at best. Here, are some suggestions to assist you in, “Making a living while living a dream.”
LINKED IN
Are you on Linkedin? If not, create a professional page for Linkedin. You can also link your blog and twitter account to Linkedin, however, if you are tweeting crap or “woe is me” posts or “someone hire me stuff,” then don’t link it to Linkedin.
If you do create an account, and have people that you have worked for that, are also a member of Linkedin, ask them for a recommendation.
If you are a student and have an internship, ask the company that you are interning with for a recommendation on Linkedin.
NOTE: Linked in is not Facebook. I will friend just about anyone on Facebook, but I covet my Linkedin. I only link to those I know or those I really want to know and that I feel I have something to offer. Remember those who you link to have access to all of your connections. Think of it this way. You are at a cocktail party with all of your linked in friends. Would you recommend them to your best connections?
NEVER LET THEM SEE YOU SWEAT
“Never let them see you sweat.” “Bullshit until it becomes real.” You can disagree with me on this one, and I am stepping out there by saying it, but I think it is important to make it look like you are a sought after creator. Avoid blogging or posting any negative stuff, or things that say, I am trying to be a whatever. Instead, find information that will be of help to those looking for you or find someone that does what you do and post about that. Find those who you love who are doing what you are doing. Write a blog about what they are doing and how much you like their work. Link to their blog. They will get a ping back and be thankful that you wrote about them. ( A pingback is a a notice to a blogger that their blog has been mentioned somewhere on the web.) Is it your favorite author, or illustrator? Ask if you can put their work on your site. It is a terrific way to contact those in your industry. While you are doing this, you are giving positive information that others will want to come back to your site to see.
BLOGS
Some people are overwhelmed by blogging. Blog posts don’t have to be long, a 500 word post is a good length. It is also good to bullet items or provide some graphics. The eye gets tired of reading long posts, and bored. Short posts may help you to contribute to your blog on a regular basis. Also posting about others work gives you content. How often should you post? Once a week is a terrific start. Try to work yourself up to 100 posts.
Be sure to link your blog. My blog is linked to several different sites. It is linked to my Facebook (warning Facebook is temperately in this. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not.) I also have my blog linked to several other sites. That means, when I update my blog about five different sites are being updated at the same time.
Search engines search Blogs, so if you can put keywords in your blog it helps. Keywords are words that people will search for when looking for your services.
DO I HAVE TO CONFORM?
The hardest part about being in business with your art is that we want to create what we want to create, but the government determines if it is a hobby or business by our ability to conform to the needs of clients. Sorry creatives, we will have to do some conforming. That means we need to evaluate what the market needs and create what they need in order to market ourselves and get work.
GET CONNECTED
Social media offers a host of ways to get connected. Again, find those who are doing what you love and talk about them. Take the focus off of what you don’t have and put it on to their success. You can also do this concerning the tools that you are using. Do you have a favorite software or medium? Talk about using that medium or tool. Do this through posts on Facebook, blog posts and Twitter. Find those who you love and read their blogs, follow them on twitter, retweet what they are tweeting. Take the focus off of what you don’t have (work a career) and put it on to what someone else is doing or how you can help. I promise you it will come back to you.
LINKING
I hope some of these suggestions assist you in your creative marketing endeavors. Please drop me a line and let me know if they do. You are also welcome to repost this article in your blog or online. Please give me a link back when you do. My last suggestion, when you link your articles or blog or when you are linking to others it is best to link a phrase or key words to your post instead of just the url. For example, you could link this article like this. This is a wonderful article about marketing for those in the arts. Or, help yourself get employed in the arts by following Bridgette Mongeon’s suggesting. That is much better than saying Here is an article.
These suggestions may take time, but they may also help you to develop a business with your art that feeds your soul. Good luck and be creative.
______________________________________________________________________________
Bridgette Mongeon-Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
The Internet is Great, But Sometimes You Need Hard Copy. My Suggestions For Three Printers
The Internet is great for marketing, but sometimes you have to have things printed. There are advantages to having hard copy. You can hold it, save it, file it and put your hands on it when you need it. The studio is working on several different snail-mail marketing campaigns. It is important to have things printed. I thought I would share with you the three printers that we have been using.
This printer does a great deal of wonderful photograph printing in a variety materials. Christian Sizemore at Diliberto Photo Design had recommended them. WHCC does some nice work.
Color Printing Central is doing all of my printing on the marketing material we are creating right now. In this economy, price is a strong factor and Color Printing Central gives me the best price. My rep there is Jenny Gilchrist.
We just sent off the new marketing brochure to Color Printing Central.
OVERNIGHT PRINTS
Again, when price is a factor, I would check with this company. Like Color Printing Central Overnight Prints is quality printing at a good price.
There you have it. Three suggestions of printers to use for your print work. Happy marketing!
_____________________________________________________________________________
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
College Art Association- Looks Like A Great Resource
The College Art Association organization and website has just been brought to my attention. It looks like it offers quite a bit including a job search for those looking for a position at a college. It is definitely something to check out. Here is some information from their website.
Founded in 1911, the College Art Association:
- Promotes excellence in scholarship and teaching in the history and criticism of the visual arts and in creativity and technical skill in the teaching and practices of art
- Facilitates the exchange of ideas and information among those interested in art and history of art
- Advocates comprehensive and inclusive education in the visual arts
- Speaks for the membership on issues affecting the visual arts and humanities
- Provides publication of scholarship, criticism, and artists’ writings
- Fosters career development and professional advancement. Identifies and develops sources of funding for the practice of art and for scholarship in the arts and humanities
- Honors accomplishments of artists, art historians, and critics
- Articulates and affirms the highest ethical standards in the conduct of the profession
______________________________________________________________________________
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Very Excited About New Marketing Brochure
We have been working diligently on a couple of different marketing plans and target markets. The first is a brochure that is going out to architects, landscape Architects, Interior Designers, and Landscape Designers.
I’m thrilled because it introduced our new digital sculpting services.
This is a tri fold brochure.It has been created by the new intern, Tiffany Post Actually she is not my intern she belongs to my husband’s company, MD Communications next door, but she has been on loan to me for the last couple of weeks. Tiffany is graduating from The Art Institute of Houston. She hopes to get a job in design. I am sure she would be open to freelance work if anyone needs anything, and at a good price. Great way for her to build a portfolio.
It can be a self mailer,
but who could put a label over that lion.
I really like the way the back came out.
Good thing the cards come with envelopes.
The printer we are using on this job was recommended by designer and photographer Christian Sizemore. She also does freelance work. WHCC has reasonable prices and does some nice work.
I would love to hear what others think about the brochure. Will be sent to printer next week.
______________________________________________________________________________
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Come On Facebook- Get It Together —”We Couldn’t Find a Feed Using The URL You Provide”
Perhaps you are also frustrated trying to get your blog feed to go to your personal or fans page. Are you continuing to get the response that I am? “We couldn’t find a feed using the URL you provide”
Well I had that problem with this blog feeding into my personal page and found a suggestion on the internet that helped. It said to go to your Word Press blog and reduce the amount of entries that the RSS feed will send. Reduce it to one if you have to. I only had to reduce mine to 3 and then Facebook started to import this blog. If this works for you…. KEEP AN EYE ON THINGS. I have heard it can drop you just as quickly. I would like to say that this work around has worked for the God’s Word Collectibles page on Facebook. This is an important page in that all of our podcasts are sent there. However, I have to resort to posting each podcast on the site as Facebook is not letting me use this work around.
One other suggestion in trying this work around is to not just keep trying it, instead
How to try and import your blog settings.
Go to notes
Click on notes to see all notes. At the bottom of the page on the right hand side you will see something that says “Edit import settings.”
After setting your import setting to be 3 on your Word Press blog RSS feed then put your feed in this Web URL. Word Press users can get their feed by clicking on the feed button. Usually it is the name of your blog/feed. To be sure the feed really does work. Put the url in a browser window and see if your feed comes up. Don’t forget to click the little button that says you represent and have the rights to publish this blog.
Then press start importing.
If you get the error mentioned Try clicking on the button “Back to ” that send you back to your Facebook home page and then start again. Say a little prayer, cross your fingers etc. It may or may not work. I also mention this along with the links to send complaints in a post on my forum. Feel free to post your suggestions here or on the forum. This is very frustrating for many people.
New Year- Getting Organized
The new year is already around the corner and I find myself compulsively trying to get reorganized. 3 tasks sit ont he forefront of my to do list.
1. Backup Big Mac-
I have ordered a new internal hard drive for my Mac. I have encountered a failing hard drive and will be backing up items both on discs and through time machine. This job is really a housecleaning project.
2. To Do List?
I’m not real happy with the way my mac organizes my day. Or maybe it is me organizing my day. I want to set up goals and project and have a step by step way of completing them. I am a list maker and love to see things corssed off. Hubby says, “What is wrong with a notepad?” That does work to some extent but it gets messy very quickly and the pages get torn off and lost. So I’m reviewing software that will help me stay organized. The software of choice Ominfocus.
3. Novel Writing Software.
It has come to my attention that Word just is not doing what I need it to do when trying to complete or clean up a novel or book. I have about 3 book projects going at this moment. The two software programs I am looking at for this job is Storymill and Scrivener.
I guess I’m leaning toward Scrivener as everyone seems to rant and rave about it, plus instead of having just a educational discount they are offering a 50% discount for all of those who participated in National Novel Writing Month and finished. I’m proud to say ia m one of those. I’m also looking at Story Mill, as I really like their timeline feature.
I must not be the only one that really likes the timeline feature in Story Mill. As Tom Borowski says in this this comment thread on an article that compares Story Mill and Scrivener.
______________________________________________________________________________
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon
Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a list of all podcasts.
Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Google— A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing?
I know that the digital world is changing how we read and how we distribute books. I have a few problems with this. The first one is… my general mistrust of Google. Why should this lovable company who changes their artwork every day to make my searching enjoyable, be mistrusted?
I think they are getting too big for their britches.
belong to them. Artists and writers beware.
Left and right, artists are making waves about what Google is trying to do. According to my research they are infringing on the rights of artists and photographers.
“Artists Sue Google Over Copyright Infringement.” They are also the backers behind the Orphans Work Act. If you do not know about this and are an artist, you absolutely must learn. I mean it. Stop what you are doing and research this. What happens with this will change your income for the rest of your life. I have written about it before in an article for Best of Artists and Artisans, and there are links in the article for further information. If we are not careful, Google will become the God and keeper of all.
In a nutshell, Google wants to take the books that are out of print and make them available. Sounds real sweet, but watch out for that wolves teeth. As my southern friend says, “Katy bar the door.”
First of all, if I write a book, and it is out of print, what gives them the rights to reproduce that book without permission? They are also proposing that this be done with artwork, have a depository of artwork that people can come and browse and use. If artists do not claim their artwork and step up and say, “No, you can not use it, or this belongs to me,” then well tough poop for you. This puts the burden of copyright ownership on the artists. As it stands right now, artwork is copyrighted the moment it is created. I don’t have to search for my artwork all over the place. I don’t have to go to a Goggle provided website and pay to have my work protected and say it is mine. It is mine. PERIOD! For more information on this please read the article that I wrote for Best of Artists and Artisans 2008.
I may be lulled to enter blindly into the idea of digital books lovingly created and made affordable and accessible through Google, but I have a genuine mistrust of them. And what is sad is that I feel like they are my own child. I nurtured them. I still do. They are a part of my everyday life. Yet, they have too much control.
I am never one to spread discontent. However, in this case, I will stand on my soap box, behind my artists table and computer. I’ll give a very suspicious glance at Google as the writer/artist in me speaks, no shouts loudly. “ARTISTS AND WRITERS BEWARE! There is a wolf in sheep’s clothing!”
So what are your thoughts?
______________________________________________________________________________
Sculptor, Writer and Speaker
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker. Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com. She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a listing of all podcasts Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast
Marketing Information For Artists/Writers with Blogs
I have been very busy with my other blog on my collectibles website. For those interested in marketing and the Internet here is a little crash course in what I have learned.
For several years now my God’s Word Collectible series has been at Network Solutions server. However this is a shopping cart, and according to Network Solutions having a blog on a shopping cart is not a good idea, therefore they don’t offer it. ( I think this is the way they are coding, but a different article entirely)
This has been extremely frustrating for me. I know from this Creative Sculpture website that often more traffic comes through my blog than through my front page. We also have a podcast that we created and is sponsored by the God’s Word Collectible series.
So how can we direct people to listen to the podcast and also direct traffic to our site?
To remedy this situation I have a list of the podcasts on what I call the Host Bio’s page. This resides at http://www.godsword.net. I really like this page and it serves a purpose that no other page does. It shows all of our podcast all the way back to 2008 with a description and a link so that you can listen to them. It also has short bios about our hosts.
However ,a blog with my podcast offers so much more. I can post information, news, ideas, and thoughts. I can also post pictures of my guests and their books, videos of their work and a variety of other material, so a blog was necessary. Well my only recourse was to put a blog on Blogger and link to it from the godsword.net website.
Years ago I hired someone to make the blogger header look like the website. The idea behind that is that people would not know they left the site and they could still do such things as “return to shopping cart.” Which if they clicked on that link in blogger just sent them back to the God’s Word Website. Are you following me?
I did feel like my hands were tied with the rest of the “look” of the blogger blog and was really too embarrassed to post anything else there. Or to advertise it. The good thing about having the blog is that I linked that blog to God’s Word Collectibles Facebook Fans page and therefore, when I would post the new podcast on the blog the God’s Word Collectibles Facebook Fans page would automatically be updated. I loved this, and I love that people can listen to the podcast from Facebook. The bad part of having my blog on Blogger is that if I did get any traffic to the blog the godsword.net website was not getting the Search Engine Optimization Blogger was!
I had to have a blog connected to http://www.godsword.net!
I have wanted to switch my shopping cart to something else entirely, but that is something I am researching right now. For the time being it will stay at network solutions as a shopping cart. Tto resolve the blog problem I am adding a blog with this domain name http://www.blog.godsword.net This will actually be housed at an entirely different server than the shopping cart. It will be hosted on Host Gator. We consolidated all of our websites into one resellers package at Hostgator. It is a lot cheaper in the long run. Eventually- somehow once I figure it out God’s Word Collectibles Shopping cart it will also be switched to Hostgator. But I’m still looking for the appropriate shopping cart system.
HERE IS MY ENLIGHTENMENT!
I had not known that I cold have the same web address, URL or really something similar that would reside on two different servers. Note http://www.blog.godsword.net and http://www.godsword.net are a bit different.
I have put a Word Press blog on my host gator server at http://www.blog.godsword.net. Host Gator has done some magic in the background so the blog will not go live until I am ready and I can work on it. I imported the 3 years of posts from my blogger account. This was quite simple to do and was really just a click of the button. I have spent about 2 weeks finding a theme ( the look of the blog there are so many “skins” to choose from), arranging items, and presently, I’m fixing all of the posts to look better. Yes, 3 years of posts.
I’m also trying to work with optimization of the blog. What does that mean? Well I’m simply making use of all of the wonderful things Word Press has to offer to make my website come up first in search engines. That means making sure all of my photographs have everything they need behind them, in the code, to get searched. This sounds a lot more complicated than it is. Word Press offers you ways of doing this quite simply.
For further explanation here is an article by Krista Kopetsky at Interent Marketing Tips & Tricks on SEO For Word Press Image ALT Tags.
How about optimizing each blog post? Well here is a great resource Black Hat Source on How to Improve SEO of your WordPress
So just tweaking each post to make it look pretty is not all I’m trying to do. There are a lot of things on the back end.
I have also not used categories or tags for my posts before this. I will be working on that and posting some hints and helps on the best way to use those for optimization. This is a huge task, but not as big as changing this present Creative Sculpture site of 108 pages and 300 images over to a WordPress website. That is what I will tackle next year. A HUGE undertaking.
Hope someone finds this article helpful. Yes, marketing and spending time marketing is important in the arts. I look at my time in the last week and think, boy, it would be great to get back to the art. This time will pay off. Time well spent.
______________________________________________________________________________
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer and educator as well as a public speaker. Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com. She is also the owner and creator of the God’s Word Collectible Sculpture series Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter twitter.com/creategodsword Facebook http://www.facebook.com/bridgette.mongeon Listen to The Creative Christian Podcast or the Inspiration/Generation Podcast Click on Podcast Host Bios for a listing of all podcasts Listen to the Art and Technology Podcast