This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "Show Your Work" by Austin Kleon. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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Do you want to turn your hobby of creating art into a career? How can you promote your art online?
Making art is fun and exciting, but it can be a little difficult to get your work recognized. Artist Austin Kleon has a few tricks that will help get your work out there for the world to see.
Here’s how to promote art online from Kleon’s book Show Your Work!.
How to Promote Art Online
Kleon offers specific insights on how to promote art online. He recommends first and foremost engaging with social media platforms to showcase your creative process and help people find you. In addition to social media, he recommends having your own website. Here we’ll explore specific ways you can start sharing your work online.
(Shortform note: In the time since Show Your Work! was published, numerous studies have found that social media has profoundly negative effects on mental health. Kleon’s advice to use social media as a primary means of sharing your work should be considered with this in mind. It’s still valuable for advancing your creative career—in certain fields, such as the fashion industry, it’s even considered a requirement—but it’s important to monitor its impact on your well-being. One study found that limiting social media use to 30 minutes per day can significantly improve your mental health.)
1. Make Sharing a Habit
Kleon advises you to make sharing a habit, preferably a daily one. A practical way to do this is to post on a social media platform such as Instagram, Tumblr, or Youtube every day. He encourages you to try out new platforms as they emerge—if you find something that works for you, stick with it. Whatever platform you use, make time to do it daily. Regular posts generate a steady stream of content for people to see, which creates more opportunities for people to connect with you.
2. Document Your Progress
Before you can start promoting art online, you must gather material, claims Kleon. A way to do this is to simply document your work. Use your smartphone or some other device to record what you’re doing at any stage in the process. Not only will such photos and videos serve as material to post online, but they’ll also help you study your methods and develop your skills and techniques.
According to Kleon, posting to your blog or sending an email to your subscribers are also effective ways to share on a regular basis, and they give you even more control over the content. For instance, certain social media platforms limit the number of characters you can use in a post. By contrast, in a blog post, you can write as much as you want. Consider adding blogging and emailing to your routine.
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Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Austin Kleon's "Show Your Work" at Shortform .
Here's what you'll find in our full Show Your Work summary :
- How to succeed at your creative endeavors
- How to make money off your creative work
- Why you should share your creative process
