here we go again

Next week the Directory of Illustration should begin shipping around the country. I took an ad out this year and am anxious to see the final product. It is always a crap shoot whether the investment pays off when one chooses to advertise in the big books of art. Sometimes it feels like you just get lost in a sea of lines, colors and patterns. Other times it feels like a necessary part of promotion and the dividends are that the ad pays for itself and then some. The test in the 'year of the crappy economy' will be whether it really is good to advertise when no one else is. Not that no one else is advertising, but I am fairly certain that the book isn't as thick as when the money flows freely. Maybe that counts in my favor. Maybe not. Maybe the people who get the book and buy art won't be buying this year. Only time will tell. Thank God for itemized deductions!