Should you monetize your art?

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.

I want you to make a living doing what you love.

I love making shit. Writing shit. Creating shit. I think you do too. So I write a lot about making a living by making art.

I want to have conversation upon conversations about this topic. Because I want artists to be out there getting paid, feeling wealthy, connected, safe and abundant. It is, quite literarily, my favourite thing to talk about. But I always feel the need to caveat this conversation with a long digression about why you DON’T need to monetize your art.

This morning, I wanted to (and I will) write an article about selling your art without selling out. As I began writing, I felt myself prickling with annoyance because I felt the need to write several initial paragraphs about why you dont HAVE TO sell your art. I sat with the prickles. And here are my thoughts.

A small analogy. I have been reading a lot of books and listening to a lot of podcasts about the crisis of masculinity. I have a fucking huge heart for men who want to make art and have sparkly creative lives, but feel they need to be the “serious” breadwinners, who show no vulnerability (art=vulnerability). I have a huge fucking heart for so many of the issues men face as our culture and economy shifts. BUT, whenever I listen to a man talk about this topic, I absolutely must have them caveat the conversation, even if it is just for one sentence, and give credit to the women’s movement, to feminism, to the girlies. Otherwise, I simply don’t trust the speaker. I need to know that they have a nuanced and complex view on the topic, otherwise I worry he’s a fucking meninist who hates women. He might not be, but I still won’t entirely trust him. I need a quick line or two, so I can feel safe listening to his thoughts.

When I talk about making money with art, I understand that I must also inform my reader—that my views are expansive, complex and that I value art that isn’t made for commerce. Artists who don’t make money with their art are serious artists making serious impact. Maybe I don’t need to write several paragraphs on the nuances of the conversation every time I talk about it but I do think I always want to flag it. I want my readers to feel safe.

Anyway, I’m way more than a few paragraphs in now, so let’s just keep going and talk about why selling your art, and not selling your art are both fucking REVOLUTIONARY and BEAUTIFUL.

Not selling your art is revolutionary, holy and important.

The truth is, we don’t need to sell our art for it to be incredibly valuable.

GDP, the main measure economists use to determine the size of an economy, doesn’t account for experiential value: the wondrous amount of value we get in the experience of creating. Capitalism only cares about financial value, or what economists call “exchange value”. And so if you’re not profiting off of your art, the great machine considers this to be very odd. An anomaly. An adult acting like a child.

“Why are they wasting their time in a fantasy land?”

To be legitimate, art must produce profits (and don’t even get me started, because when you do profit off of it, you become a sell out; art, according to the culture, is never a legitimate way to spend your time). And yet, why is meditation or going to the gym such an acceptable past time when they don’t make any money? While creativity, arts, making shit, is deemed something that can only be legitimised through monetisation? Art is too messy, too childlike, too frivolous, apparently, in a way that running on a treadmill isn’t.

There is ample, delicious¹ research that says, clear as day, creating art is as good for your body as exercise, it is as good for your mind as meditation. Furthermore, it doesn’t only have medicinal purposes (ie., It is not just a modem for healing from physical and mental pain.) It is preventative. It enhances our wellbeing. Making art makes shit way way better. Mood improves. Communities feel more connected. We are healthier and more joyful when we create and consume creations.

So FUCK the idea that you must sell your art in order to be a serious artist. Take art as seriously as exercise. Take art as seriously as your daily meds. Creativity is the missing pillar in self development. You do not need to monetize your practice to legitimize it. It is so fucking legitimate.

When we don’t recognise the value of art beyond its financial potential, we ignore the vast, expansive, magic of art beyond the merely mundane.

Alright … now comes the other side. And please know, I believe in both sides so fervently that I feel literarily out of breath.

Selling your art is revolutionary, doable and HOLY.

You may remember an article I wrote recently about not wanting a job, about how all I ever wanted to do was create and write, and enjoy my fucking time rather than go to work in an office. I spent all of my twenties trying to make it work financially as a writer. Accounting for the negativity bias, It felt like ALL I heard were comments about how it would be very unlikely that I made it as a writer. I felt inundated by warnings, pessimism, bitterness and scepticism. I had people writing me emails and dms trying to tell me that, Amie, this would never happen for you. Please, just get a stable and safe job. Please just write for fun.

In the face of the constant, “artists don’t make money” noise, I promised myself that if I ever “made it” (read: made a sustainable income off of my art), I would be the voice of HOPE. I would put the ladder down behind me and say, hey I figured some stuff out, let’s see if it could work for you.

I refuse to add to the millions of voices warning off artists from trying this professionally. It makes me fucking RAGE when I see pro artists telling others not to try. After all, I made it work, why shouldn’t you be able to too? Why should I not, at the very least, support you as you strive for a life that sparkles? Whenever I speak to the topic of making money with art, I become the person I needed when I was struggling. A hopeful voice. A voice that doesn't want to sink into what is currently wrong, but what could be possible. A voice that says, this world doesn’t support us as creatives, but I am building one that does.

God it actually feels so good to have both these passionate feelings put into one essay. To see them sit side by side and to truly sink into the fact that they are not opposing.

We live in a culture that polices why art is made.

Damned if you sell it.

Damned if you dont.

Fuck this culture. Artists are building our own culture, one where we realise that whether we sell our art or not we are doing something fucking HOLY, important and deeply serious.

I cover the value of art, both sold and unsold, in detail in my book We Need Your Art, out on March 11th in audiobook, e-book, and hardcover. THE MARTHA BECK bestselling author of The Way of Integrity who, by her own admission does not lie said this about it:

“This book is desperately needed medicine for our hearts, our lives, and our culture. I will read it over and over until its many truths sink into every one of my cells. If you have ever felt the slightest impulse to create anything, I urge you to do the same. Well researched, beautifully written, and powerfully healing, WE NEED YOUR ART is not only a great read, but a manifesto for our personal and collective freedom. Thank you, Amie McNee!"“

Absolutely cannot handle this, huge Martha fan. Dead.

By the way, Martha also has an amazing book out about creativity and anxiety (my two professions). Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity and Finding Your Life's Purpose, out now.

1. note from James the editor: I asked her to cut this word.