If you’ve ever wondered about adding prints to your art business, then this post is for you! We’ve seen artists in our community build impressive revenue streams by incorporating affordable prints with what they already offer on their websites. It gives collectors who are not yet ready to invest in an original work of art options to still be able to support you and allows you to continue making money from pieces that have already sold. So how do you get started? Enter Printist - a company created to assist with all of the logistics of launching and running your print business successfully. We spoke with President and Co-Founder Jacob Wallace to learn all of the ins and outs of the services offered through Printist.

Many artists inquire about adding prints to their business but are concerned that it will be difficult to manage and take up time that they could be spending making art. How do you set it up to work efficiently?

There are a few things that you can do to make the process easy to manage. First, get your site set up to accept print sales. Whether you use Squarespace, Wix, or something else, you want to set up a way for customers to check out online without having to contact you. Managing your sales through emails and DMs can be a huge pain and can become impossible to manage the more successful your sales are.

Second, consider if you want to manage prints yourself or outsource them. If you don’t sell prints regularly, it usually doesn’t make sense to invest in the needed equipment. The printers take up a lot of space and need to be used regularly to operate well. If you do sell a lot of prints, it may make sense to do your own prints from your home (check out the online course from Laurie Ann if you want to go this route). However, it will take time from your day to do prints. You’ll have to print, cut, and package the prints. You’ll also have to handle shipping them. While you can save money by doing all of these things yourself, it will mean less time for creating your art.

What’s the most hands-off option for doing prints?

The most hands-off way to do prints is to outsource them entirely. Printist offers that option.

By outsourcing prints, you can make it so that when an order comes in, Printist is automatically alerted. We’ll print, package, and ship and then automatically update your store with tracking information. It doesn’t get easier than that.

What if the artist doesn’t currently have a website that they can sell their prints through?

If you don’t have a site with ecommerce capabilities, or you don’t have a website at all, we put together our own online marketplace called printist.io. You can list your work there and people can see your pieces and make purchases directly. Even if you do have a website, you can list through printist.io to supplement your sales and get access to some cool new features we’re working on like getting your work listed in retail stores.

What are the upfront costs for getting started on printist.io and taking advantage of the features you mentioned?

None. That’s the great thing about on-demand printing. Traditionally, you’d need to guess what would sell and order a bunch of prints in advance. If you didn’t guess right and they don’t sell, you’d have leftover inventory that you can’t get rid of. With on-demand printing, we don’t print until there’s an order, so you don’t have to pay anything upfront.

Does an artist need to have high-quality image files of their artwork already done to use Printist?

No! Printist offers image capture services. If you’re local to our headquarters in Colorado, you can bring your pieces into our shop. If not, you can ship them to us and we’ll take care of it. When we capture an image, we edit the file to color match our print outputs to your originals. We then provide you with a high-resolution file that’s yours to keep, even if you end up using a different printer in the future.

If artists prefer to provide the images themselves, do you only accept professionally shot images or scans?

No, we actually have a few of our artists that provide us with files that they take with their phones. Usually, there’s a limit to how big we can print with those files, often around 11x14, so that is something to consider. But, those files can definitely work and save you money since there is a cost to image capture depending on the size. If you choose to go this route, make sure to get as even of light as possible with no glare.

A lot of artists take great pride in their packaging, often including handwritten notes and signing each print. How does that work with Printist dropshipping?

This is a trade-off that artists need to think carefully about. When you outsource prints, you will lose a touch of personalization. We can insert a digital signature on prints, but you won’t be able to hand-sign each one. Similarly, we can include your postcards, business cards, stickers, or anything else that you‘d like with the prints, but you won’t be able to handwrite notes. Of course, the upside is that this process becomes completely hands off for you. With the insertions we can do, the finished goods can still look really nice, so many artists find this to be a trade that works out great. If you have your own custom tape or packaging, we can usually add that to the envelope and we’ll also put your name on the shipping label, so your customers won’t know that it came from us - they’ll just think you have a super professional shipping process.

What about artists who would prefer to offer limited edition prints?

This is really common and something we can easily accommodate. We can hand-number the prints and include a certificate of authenticity if you’d like.

Great, thank you so much for sharing more about your business! What are the next steps if an artist is interested in working with you?

Reach out and let’s chat! We can answer any questions that you may have. From there, the most common next step is to do a round of print samples if you already have files. The first round is free if you’re in the US and it gives you a chance to see your different paper options.