Selling Original Art on Handmade at Amazon

I promised I'd update you about Handmade.  Well, here we are the last few days of September, on the cusp of the Christmas selling season and it hasn't launched yet.

English Bulldog Portrait by Robin Zebley

Most of us who were juried in have gotten a one week's notice to get our items listed, so hopefully it's close.  The problem is it is very, very time-consuming and Amazon has just piggybacked Handmade onto it's regular programming, making it confusing for those of us who are not in the business of importing widgets and reselling them.

The shipping is a nightmare.  You can't adjust for items easily.  You have to use a confusing spreadsheet to upload a base price and then adjust it from there in the item, using percentages and MATH.  Which many of us artists are not the best at.  I had three dedicated sessions before I figured it out, sorta.  What I'm doing is using my most common shipping price and just adding into my largest paintings selling price.

There is no copy function.  Regular Amazon has this, I guess the programmers thought that handmade means we are all making all kinds of items, none of which are similar.  You literally need to start with picking a category for every single listing.  Now, there is a hack to save SOME of your info, but listing on Amazon, with all its boxes and no copy function, is quite time consuming.

There is little Amazon presence in the forum, which would seem to me to be better than fielding tons of phone calls.  So the forum is full of rumors and advice given by volunteer "regular" Amazon sellers who have some different functions that we do.  Like, they can copy, we can't.  

And lastly, their Terms of Use are confusing and have frightened off some really good sellers who would be an asset to Handmade at Amazon.  They are aware of it and have chosen to just post reassurances that they will not use your intellectual property even though the language in the TOU says they can if they want to, forever.  They would do well to revisit the TOU and have a IP lawyer help them from the seller's side to clarify and make the site work for the very cautious.

On the plus side:  TONS of space to add search terms.  For me, that's not as important as for others.

Also, no silly matching of search phrases to title for the algorithm to be able to find you.  This Etsy-only exercise in moving one pile of dirt to another is a hard habit to break, but refreshing.  At Etsy, the mistagging is rampant, so that "original oil painting" shows reproductions OF original oil paintings.  I hear Amazon's search will not produce those kinds of results AND that mistagging is punished.

And I'm really excited to sell here, I can't see a downside personally and am looking forward to being able to paint instead of fixing listings constantly to conform and optimize for Etsy's latest change, in order to get eyeballs on my portraits. 

The buzz is also starting, I was interviewed for a story thestreet.com is doing on it (hopefully I won't end up on the cutting room floor!).  There is a lot of attention and focus from financial and business press and blogs, and every one of us who is signed up NOW can benefit from that.

So, our hope is that within a week, we'll get the promised 48 hour warning and that the zillions of Amazon buyers and buyers who never thought about buying original art or handmade will be shopping with us!

House Portrait Watercolor Painting by me, Robin Zebley

Handmade At Amazon vs. Etsy for Artists

Handmade at Amazon or Etsy?  I know how Etsy works for me at this time and both Etsy tomorrow  and Handmade at Amazon are unknowns.  Etsy has inserted a bizarre partial list of categories at the top of every page.  One that hides Art.  With a drill down that doesn't include portraits.  So I am 

Bulldog Portrait by Robin Zebley

expanding into Handmade @Amazon and hoping for the best.  I was honored to be selected in the first round of artists to open there, and am working on my shop.  It's not an easy transition, it's a whole different experience to list there and set up, but Amazon APPEARS to be embracing the hand made and art and Etsy's still intermingling the handmade and art with the factory goods.

Here's my Etsy shop for portraits: CustomPortraitArt and for my woodblock prints and other paintings and drawings, Robin Zebley Art. I will be watching the progress of both venues carefully and let you know what happens!

I'm artist Robin Zebley, specializing in custom portraits of children, homes and pets.  I also like to make other art!  My portrait art can also be seen at here at Robin Zebley Portraits I sell at Etsy, too, and am about to be shown at Handmade at Amazon.

EMaze Review, Stroll through my Virtual Art Gallery!

I just created a video of a virtual tour of my custom portrait and paintings in a gallery setting using the presentation platform, Emaze.com.  I saw it in my Twitter feed and decided to give it a whirl. It was free, and for someone like me who is not technically minded, fairly easy. Here's one wall of the gallery.

Custom House Portraits on Gallery Wall in EMaze

What attracted me to this was that it automatically "walked you through" the gallery, which I would have no way of knowing how to do myself.

It was easy to change the pictures from their stock photos to my photos in some of the pages of the template I chose. Others I could not figure out how to do, so I had to paste my photo over theirs.  That's what you see in the top left.

I also had some trouble fitting the display above the scroll bar on the bottom because that wasn't visible when loading.  Some I made too high. All of which, I am sure is fixable on my end if I just spent a bit more time.

My MAIN problem though, was getting it to play automatically, walking you through the gallery.  I'm still not sure it works when you go there directly, if you share, you can click a button to activate the automatic looping.  But even that takes a few seconds, and I'm not sure most people would wait around for it.  Here is is: http://goo.gl/3gQ5IU, did it work for you?  Did you feel like you were walking through a gallery or was it just a slide show?

Custom Paintings from Photos on Gallery Wall in EMaze

You can pick colors and things. I went with what they had because it's pretty representative of a gallery.

EMAZE CUSTOMER SUPPORT

I first tried the "live chat" box but nobody answered and I had to get to work.  I tried the email for support next and within a few hours had my questions answered, along with links to presentations (of course!) on how to do what I wanted done.  Liam is the customer support person.  I tweeted about my issue also and was directed to Liam.  

I have the free version which includes the watermark, but that doesn't bother me.  I don't know if I would need to upgrade, but whenever I test drive a site, I put a lot of stock in how they treat their freebie customers, it's a window into how important supporting existing customers is to the company and the likelihood I'll be happy paying for it if I need to upgrade.

BOTTOM LINE ON EMAZE PRESENTATIONS

I would love this if the automatic stroll through the gallery started fast enough that people wouldn't feel they were supposed to hit the arrow on the right that just takes them to the next slide without the panning through the rooms.  I think it's a nice addition to an artist's toolbox for self promotion.  I plan to clean up my presentation and install it on my website, http://robinzebley.com. as a gadget and am thinking of other ways to use it.  I posted it on facebook, we'll see the reaction I get there, also tried twitter.

I hope they can speed up the starting of the automatic playback, that would make this site a perfect 10!  What do you think?

Cat Portrait Demo, details, details, details!

More progress since last time!    I've been busy finishing commissions, which always come first for me,  so my apologies for the gap in time.  You must have wondered if I forgot all about our orange tiger tabby and his vintage chair!  Anyway ....First on the chair,  I put a new layer all over of muted turquoise, then of chocolate in the farther away spots to pull it back and start the process of drawing more attention to the star, our kitty cat!    And ... speaking of our star,  lots of work on him.   But back to the chair, I also began adding in the chipped away paint, exposing the dark wood underneath the turquoise paint job.  A few areas are hit by sunlight and I've left that, and fuzzed the edges on the chair as well.    Again, I don't want this portrait to be of a chair that happens to have a cat on it, but a cat that happens to be on a chair.  So, he's getting the lion's share of the detailing.

I started with drawing in his paw pads, adding the dark cast shadows under his head and bent back ear, and along his body and leg.  I am purposely making the back legs less detailed.

The whites are either reinforced, or darkened with a gray blue.

Next up, his face.  I am an early bird and need to take advantage of my early energy so that will have to wait til next time! 

Meanwhile, I also wanted to mention that I am in an unusual situation for me, I'm fresh out of commissions!  So I'm having a summer sale to get busy again!  If you've ever thought about purchasing a portrait from me, now is the time, and a perfect time to get a jump on Christmas shopping.  Use the coupon code "SummerPortraits" at checkout of any size custom portrait from my Etsy Portrait Shop for 25% off!  This offer only good til I get busy again, hopefully for just a week or so! 

Anyway, any questions or comments on my work in progress of the colored pencil cat?  Just ask! Robin