NEW YORK, NY.- For years, the formal gallery system has acted as a gatekeeper between artists and the people with money and influence. Now there’s a new generation of artists who treat their art career like a business and are succeeding beyond anything they could have imagined. The Internet has knocked the gate down and savvy artists are seeing opportunity everywhere, even as art galleries close left and right. There are independent artists making six and seven figure incomes doing what they love.

In How to Sell your Art Online: Live a Successful Creative Life on Your Own Terms (Harper Design; On sale: June 28, 2016; $14.99 ISBN: 978-0-06-241495-3), Cory Huff dispels the myth of the starving artist, introduce artists who are earning a successful living, and teach readers how they can do the same. He provides details on effective business strategies, including: how to find your niche; what makes an effective artist website; email marketing; blogging; social media marketing; and paid advertising—then explains how to tie all these online activities into offline efforts.

But the biggest challenge that artists face when learning to market themselves is learning how to tell their stories. Every artist has a reason that they create the art that they make, but they can’t always articulate what they are doing and why. Huff provides exercises artists can do to capture the thought process and emotional process that goes into their art, and turn that process into stories they can tell online and in person, and from there, how they can use blogging, and social media to build their art business.

Using successful artists’ stories as examples, thoroughly explaining how art is sold today, and providing tips on how to build connections and use social media, Huff illustrates the countless ways you can take control over your creative career and sell your work without selling out.

Cory Huff is the founder of TheAbundantArtist.com, where he teaches artists how to dispel the myth of the starving artist by learning to treat their art career like a business. Huff’s writing and lectures have been featured in art magazines, newspapers and blogs the world over. Prior to running TheAbundantArtist, Huff worked in digital marketing strategy for various technology startups. He has experience working at the bleeding edge of markets, seeing new opportunities emerge, and spotting new ways to leverage emerging tools in business and art. Huff has consulted on technology and marketing for some of the world’s largest brands, including MTV, Universal Music, Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Rodale, and others. Huff holds a BFA in acting from the University of Utah. He lives in Salt Lake City with his wife.