Pricing and editioning your work | Francesca Genovese
Francesca Genovese is a curator, artist and academic in photography. She is dedicated to providing opportunities for a wider audience to learn about and enjoy photography within a gallery setting. She is passionate about mentoring the photographers she works with, supporting them in their artistic careers.
Francesca's gallery for contemporary photography, represents and exhibits the work of emerging and established artists. The gallery is dedicated to providing opportunities to experience, acquire and collect photography.
Francesca Maffeo Gallery opened in June 2016 with a permanent gallery space in the heart of Leigh-on-Sea, hosting 17 exhibitions and amassing a strong press profile, securing its reputation as a thriving gallery for contemporary photography.
During this time they have forged strong relationships with private collectors as well as contributing to public collections. Francesca Maffeo Gallery provides a bespoke service to both new and established collectors.
Francesca’s advice on the how’s and why’s of pricing and editioning:
Researching price
When considering pricing your work the place to start is conducting your own research: it's important that you have a look at your peers, look at galleries, observe pricing structures, read artist's profiles and see where you feel you fit in with the information. Artsy is really good for you to look at lots of other galleries and get price ideas. Some people have pricing by application, but there's lots of information there for you to really gather a sense of the market. There are general brackets to look out for when you're researching: try to notice the patterns of under £150, then the £300 and £500 bracket followed by the £1,000 and £3,000 mark.
There's no formula or structure for how you price artworks. So you'll need to stick to some really fundamental rules. The most important rule is once you set an edition and a price, you need to stick to it. This is because in order to keep the industry reputable. You cannot change that edition. Prices can go up and there are a lot of examples of where editions sell out, the prices go up, so that's absolutely fine to increase prices. What you cannot do is change prices at your own kind of will.
Artists who are without galleries or trying to set up selling prints independently should have a real think about where they might sit in terms of pricing alongside their peers.
What is a limited edition?
It's effectively a number of prints in certain sizes that are signed, have an edition number and sold at certain prices. A great starting point is choosing three sizes between a small 10 x 8" size, right up to a larger 40" size. A small print is commonly known as a 'domestic size'. They tend to be quite popular. Once you set a small size you can add a larger size if need be. But of course, and this is really important, don't try and pigeonhole your prints into certain sized structures. If your work looks good small - and needs to be seen small, don't think you have to offer larger sizes. So it is really dependent on your work.
You tend to have a little play around the prices and feel what's right for you. You have to be able to stand by that price. So for example from a gallerist’s point of view, if a collector asks, "Why is this artist more than this artist?" they have to have some concrete reasons. Those reasons tend to be based on the exhibition profile and publishing profile, age, education, everything career-based. If you're an emerging artist / a recent graduate, by that very nature, your prices will be lower than someone who has been working for many years and has a higher publishing profile. You need to be very, very careful and sensitive to that.
Your prices can go up, so start lower, see how it goes, then of course you can increase it.
A recommended way to naturally increase your prices is to do something called a stat pricing. So let's say you have an edition of five, your first two are a lower price, then the next two are higher, and the last one, the final one in the edition is even higher. There are no set rules to this but it's common to add a 20% increase. Once you've had a play around with the kind of sizes and prices, then you're ready to think about the size of the edition. The smaller the number of images in your edition the better. If you're working with limited editions (numbered, signed as they're editioned) it's good to keep the edition numbers small, if possible.
Open editions
Some artists like open editions and they're a good way to sell work at a lower price. You would have one image or three images from a series at one size and they're unlimited. So once you've had a little play with the sizes, you can play with the prices as well and have a think about that. Moving onto then consider which images from a series you want to set as editions and unlimited editions. That's a really, really complex process. Don't ‘unlimit’ every project and every image in every project, don't go crazy! Pick one project that you feel is strong, that you feel has a kind of saleability or it speaks to a broader audience. It's good to start with something quite safe in those terms and pick a small selection of strong images from that project. It can be overwhelming for people when they're looking at a project, and if you've got a large series of 30, they don't know which one to buy and will be paralysed by choice and end up not buying anything. So do some of the work for them.
Promoting your images
There are some really, really great ways to promote your prints. Obviously, social media is wonderful. You could also research if you're able to plug-in a commerce function into your existing website. If you don't have a commerce platform option stand-alone stores like Big Cartel or Shopify are good. Often these platforms frequently extend their free trial to 90 days. They are very easy to use and the best way to learn is to jump straight in and have a play. Also, there's the question of do I publish my prices? That's entirely up to you. If you are unsure and sitting on the fence, you can perhaps say, 'prices from' or 'enquire about prices'. But what's important is to have that information ready. If someone enquires, you can answer instantly with what editions are available and their prices, and it's all about planning and preparation and not being caught out.
Selling as a peer group
One other really nice idea is to work with your peers and form a bit of a collective. Together you could launch a smaller platform. If your work has similarities, then you're able to come together to create a nice collection. You could create a collection in response to COVID-19 or what's happening in isolation or at home. You can work together and create a platform and use each other's skills. Print sales can be daunting for artists, but it's a time where you can be empowered, where you can take control and ownership of it. You are artists and this is what you're working towards, having your work shown, making money from work, but it brings people so much joy to live with art works. It really does. Collectors are overwhelmed when the work is received and it's up on their walls.
Production
It's important to factor in production, and not just printing production, but the time it's taken you to make the work. People work in very different ways. So of course you may make your work quite quickly, so it's not hours and days and months and years. Other people, it's performance based perhaps and it's very staged. You have to factor in the making time. You are a maker, that's your craft. So do not undersell yourself. Again, use the support around you, ask questions, look at other platforms.
Finally, if you're still struggling, set yourself some boundaries. Sell something for under £300 or £150 if it's a larger edition.
Francesca Genovese
Founding Director - Francesca Maffeo Gallery