Any of y'all subscribe to this? If so, did you go traditional with it showing up in your mailbox or digital? Is the mag worth the price?
I did a digi sub to The Crafts Report Magazine. Though it is geared more toward fine art I have still learned from it.
TIA
Replies
The one thing everyone must remember about SA. The "top 100" show ratings are based on sales numbers only. And that info is gathered by the people who send in their audits. So a flea market can get in merely by people making lots of money and letting SA know about it.
Country Folk Art was once ranked #12 and they have always been at least 50% B/S.
I subscribed when first into this endeavor in the late 70's. For me, it had little value, the reviews were absurd beyond belief, the articles were trite and trivial and poorly written. I was next to a "contributor" who reviewed a horrible show with a 7 of 10. He sold nothing, I sold very little. His rationale was that the folks who ran the crappy little show were nice. I agreed that they were nice people and told him his review had little value to me and did a disservice to anyone looking for a show in that area. It did no good and the "magazine" continues to disappoint on those very rare occasions where I would waste my money on it.
Of course I will never purchase any more of these and will never purchase anything from anyone who would advertise with them. My opinion only of course, but never understand how on earth anyone can find value in it.
I second Larry's reasoning. We always subscribed. It has such an extensive listings that are helpful filling up a show schedule. And they have good articles very much geared to our business, including Larry's recent one. Once, some years ago they even did a profile on me when I was a show director. There is solid in depth info.
And, for me, since I spend so much time on this computer, I prefer an actual magazine that I can carry with me.
Larry and Conne,
Thank you for the information. It is helpign me decide if I want to sub. Larry, thanks for the link you sent. Will look at it later this afternoon.
So Larry, SA mostly lists shows and not much else? Does it have articles as well? What I like about Crafts Report is reading about what others do ... for inspiration, never to copy .... and the other articles related to the business.
Yes it also has articles and show reviews. In fact, I wrote an article on how to photograph your booth for the September issue. Here's a link to the article on my web site:
http://bermangraphics.com/blog/photograph-your-booth/
Larry Berman
I've subscribed to Sunshine Artist for the past 35 years. In the past ten years with all the alternate methods of looking for show information, their readership has dropped off some. But though most of the mainstream shows advertise elsewhere also, it's still a good source for the tons of smaller filler shows. And those smaller shows may be mainstream for a lot of artists who don't apply to the Ann Arbor/Cherry Creek type shows.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100