This falls a bit under marketing but not quite. The marketer has to stimulate demand for a product and the salesmen has to sell it. The artist plays the salesmen role when they are able to part with their creation and get money in exchange. By the time someone wants to buy one of the artist’s pieces then it’s up to the artist to be able to close the deal.
Some artists are not in charge of this because they may be displayed at a gallery where the gallery personnel can negotiate and sell the painting to a prospective buyer. Let’s say you are not in a gallery or your in a complete different field of creativity like music. Well there are galleries there as well — for example you have premiumbeat.com where one can purchase a music track with a license to use personally or commercially and one never has to deal with the artist but rather they deal with the web service that is hosting this file that you want to get your hands on.
Then there are artists who sell to their audience themselves and I have seen payment plans put in place for some of these pieces so the buyer can afford the price over time. What the artist is really selling is value. They price it at whatever value they want for it but this does not mean anyone in the market for a painting or a song or whatever the creation is, will buy it. So artists have to be great salesmen and great salesmen know what the buyers want. They are not pushy and they provide space for the buyer to make a decision. If the buyer has questions then they answer them.
Buying a car is a lot like this… ever been to a car lot and the salesman comes out and lists every spec for the vehicle you are just glimpsing at — you don’t even want to buy it. The salesman already annoyed you and frankly you feel pressured now. Well this is the case with the artist and their creation. The audience that is ready to buy will buy it and if they have questions they will ask them. Until then, artists need to focus on creating and need to have a price in mind when making a decision on the value of their work.
You have to be sure of the value and you have to know your audience. You can’t overprice it and don’t underprice it. Selling is an art itself.