Maintaining Your Reputation as an Artist – Repost

Maintaining your reputation as an artist is crucial if you intend to have a steady base of customers. As such, I felt it prudent to repost this experience of a near major boo-boo on my part.

My mistake in not removing an old listing was my fault. My doing right by the new buyer was my only choice to protect my Etsy reputation.

Of course, my reputation as an artist is important to me. I always use archival materials that I know will last over time to prevent fading. My work is sprayed with a fixative to prevent smearing and also to aid with light fastness. When I mail work, it is wrapped in a clean sheet of velum and sandwiched between cardboard to prevent damage in transit.

But something happened recently that would have almost certainly damaged my reputation as an artist. A small oversight, but one that could have cost me.

I have some of my work listed on eBay and Etsy. But I happened to go to Etsy in search of a gift for Father’s Day. I noticed that I had a message, which I thought was odd because I never got a notification of the message. The message in a nutshell was from May 8^th, the date of an order of one of my drawings. The buyer was wondering when I was going to ship the drawing because it was for Father’s Day.

Cold fear hit my gut. Did I even know where the drawing was?

I moved recently. Was it even in the house or out in the garage, stored in a box? I found the stack of drawings I had on Etsy and eBay, but the drawing she purchased wasn’t among them. I realized that it had been sold on eBay a while back and I never removed it from Etsy.

Crap! Now what?

What would that do to my reputation as an artist on Etsy?

Do I apologize and give her a refund?

I just couldn’t do that to her. I know what it’s like when you’ve found the perfect gift for someone, especially a parent. So, as much as I didn’t want to do a duplicate drawing, I set to work recreating the drawing for her, figuring I had just enough time to complete the drawing and send it priority mail with enough time for her to get it before Father’s Day.

I mailed it yesterday. Expected delivery date is Saturday.

Disaster averted.

If you’re wanting to sell your artwork, or maybe you already have an Etsy or eBay presence (or perhaps another platform), your reputation is everything. If people leave negative feedback, it can warn buyers away from your shop, even if your prices are better than others.

There’s another reason why you’d want to protect your reputation. People who buy art have a higher rate of coming back to the same artist the next time they want to purchase art. I personally have several buyers who continue to come back to me year after year. That isn’t likely to happen if you don’t cultivate good business ethics and principles.

Even as an artist, in the world of business, reputation is everything.

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