Why do compliments, awards, and social media engagement not guarantee that my art will sell?

These are vanity metrics that don’t reflect actual market demand. People telling you your work is amazing, winning awards, or getting likes and comments on social media cannot predict sales. Only the market—actual buyers spending money—can validate whether your work will sell. The celebrated transaction, where money changes hands with someone who isn’t family or friends, is the only true test. You must take your work to market and attempt to sell it to strangers to get real validation.

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Asked by artists seeking validation without sales · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2020-08-25