Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is one of those books with exciting chapter headings like 'the mysterious world of grants' that you expect will de-mystify the process- but basically it is train station schedule telling you about different trains you can board to reach a destination (this book contains no destinations)... what I mean by that is this book is basically a reading list of a million other books. The information that is in this book is very minimal, everytime you think she is about to tell you something valuable she says "to learn more read this book or visit this website". She doesn't provide the information from those books in hers. For a 300 page book, the only meat it provided in and of itself was a soapbox for the author to dog the whole gallery system and encourage artists to sell their own work. Which is lovely but I felt like I wasted time reading her big book when I should have been reading the other books that actually have the information I am looking for in them. If I was this author and had read all of those books myself, I think I would have written a more comprehensive one-stop guide for the artist to save them some time and energy- but maybe her book was sort of a collaborative effort where she gained something from mentioning these other books as opposed to learning from them. That is really what it felt like- a bound collection of buisness cards. If you really want to do a lot of reading- this book is certainly a reading list, but I would bypass it and go straight to some other books. If you DO want to bypass the gallery system and make money off your art on your own, I recommend Brian Marshall White's book 'Breaking into the Art World'. You can read it in one night and use all the info, apply it, start earning some money from your artwork. He not only provides a useful biz plan for the artist, he also includes the numbers of all his sources for printing, packaging, credit card set-up... it is the only book you would need to start making and selling prints of your work.