No Honor for the Starving Artist

There's nothing honorable about being a starving artist.

We all agree that charging way too much for something is wrong but it's possible that charging way too little is even worse.

That's because we use cost (whether in money or time or emotional investment) as a symbol of value. The less expensive something is, the more throw-away or replaceable it is. The more expensive it is, the more significant and irreplaceable it is. We take expensive things more seriously.

So if you underprice (and therefore undervalue) your art, you are sending a message that your art (and sometimes, by extension, other people's art that is similar to yours) is less valuable than it really is. You're saying it's not to be taken very seriously (when it is!). You're saying it's cheap, replaceable, and insignificant (when believing that means your customers never get to appreciate its true value).

There are people who could be touched, people who could be changed by your art, but they never will, because you were unwilling to stand up and say, "Here, I made this, and it's worth your time and attention and money, both to be touched by it yourself, and to enable me to keep making things like it so other people can be touched, too."

In a way, underpricing your art is the most selfish thing you can do.

Stop shortchanging your customers. Stop shortchanging yourself. And stop blaming your customers for not taking you seriously when you haven't even done that yourself.

You have incredible work to share with the world. Make sure they know what you have to offer.