How many galleries did you pitch before one said yes? I'm at 9 with zero replies
Ok I need to hear real numbers because I'm starting to think I'm doing something wrong.
I've sent out 9 emails to local galleries and small co-op spaces since February. Heard back from 2. Both no, and honestly one of those was so polite it still stung. The other 7 just... nothing. Crickets.
Meanwhile I keep hearing people say "it only takes one yes" and I want to know how many nos that one yes came after. 5? 30? Did anyone here get in on their very first try and just never mention it because it sounds obnoxious?
I'm not trying to complain, I genuinely want the real numbers. If the answer is "40 emails and a year" I'd feel a lot better about my 9. If the answer is "2" then I'll go rethink my whole approach.
So: how many before your first yes, and how long did it take? Bonus points if you tell me what finally worked.
(I'm acrylic, landscapes and still lifes, mostly local fairs so far. If that matters.)
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9 is genuinely nothing, don't panic yet. i'm on like 30-something over a year for my vessels and got maybe 5 replies, one of which was a "we loved it but our ceramics slot is full through 2027." that one hurt more than the silence honestly.
the thing nobody says out loud is the emails themselves are half the battle. first batch i sent were basically "hi here is my work, do you like it" and no wonder. now i attach 3 real photos, one line about the piece, one line about why THEIR space, and no attachment over 2mb. reply rate went from nothing to like 1 in 6. still mostly nos though. that's just the math.
also small co-ops and studios that do group shows are way more likely to bite than galleries with a stable roster. got my first real wall that way. keep going, 9 is warm up.
The email advice is correct but I want to say something from the other side. For many years I have been sending my paintings to cooperatives and small spaces, and mostly in the old way, through people who already knew the work. Strangers replying to a cold mail is a recent thing and not natural for our kind of art.
What helped me more than the email was one person in Delhi who had seen a painting at a craft mela and then spoke my name to a gallery owner. One introduction did more than fifty mails. So please also show the work where people can touch it and remember your face, not only inbox.
And the ceramics reply hurting more than silence, yes ji, I understand that fully. A polite no with a reason is still a no.
The Delhi story is what gets me, because I can picture exactly how that happens and I still keep opening my laptop instead. One person saying your name carries so much further than a hundred well written emails.
And you're right that the cold email thing is new. I think I leaned on it because it's the part I can do at 10pm after the kids are down. Showing up somewhere in person takes a Saturday and a sitter and actual nerve, which is probably why I've been avoiding it.
I do have a spring fair coming up in April, small one. Maybe I stop treating it like just a selling day and actually talk to people. Thanks for this.
Ok the "we loved it but our ceramics slot is full through 2027" is brutal, that's worse than silence because you know they actually looked. Sorry about that one.
But the email thing, that's the part I'm taking. Mine have been basically "here's my work, thoughts?" and now I'm cringing at all 9 of them. 3 photos, 2mb limit, one line about why their space specifically. Did you write the why-their-space line from scratch every time or did you have a template you tweaked? Because I could see myself getting lazy about that by email 12.