Over the last few years I have been accepted or invited to many erotic art festivals. At first I submitted art to all of them flattered at the chance to get my work seen. Grateful for the exposure. But now that I have done this for a while I have noticed a difference in the festivals. Some are all about having artists decorate a party to sell tickets and others are about selling art. And the worst are just there to make money of submission or jury fees.

This difference in priority has a large effect on how much art I sell. In some I spend a jury or hanging fee and then print and frame pieces lastly crating and shipping them in hopes of a sale only to pay for the return shipping later on. I usually get a nice note thanking me and reminding me how many people saw my work and how grateful I should be for the exposure.

With others I send my work with the full expectation that it will sell or at least 2 of 3 pieces. The purveyors really work hard at selling the art. And even if mine does not sell well I know that was their focus and they tried.

The range is incredible. One erotic art festival returned all of my work except 1 $20.00 print. I called to ask why I sold so poorly at such a large event 1500 through the doors according to their PR and they reported I was the second highest selling artist. A friend that attended told me "I did not know the work was for sale". Basically they asked me to spend about $1200.00 after printing framing and shipping to decorate a party.

Then there are the ones where I sell well over $2000.00 worth of work in a weekend. They have people trained to talk about the art in place all day and evening. The sale of art is a focus and they are ready to close a deal when the buyer is ready They orient their marketing not towards ticket sales but towards art buyers.

I guess the punchline is that 10,000 people who do not buy art is not exposure. 100 people who do is. I think we artist need to be more choosy in who we trust our work to and when.