The world is full of talented people. Many of them are known only in their small circle of friends. Unless these artists either have patrons or else live close to the bone, they have to have second jobs to support their first love. If these artists were able to promote their work effectively, they might be in the position to sell their work and thus fuel additional creativity.

Alyson B. Stanfield's new book offers a series of hands-on tasks to remedy this situation, to teach artists business skills that will allow them to (hopefully) support themselves through their art. The book is arranged by eight typical excuses followed by one to three actions to counteract the power of that excuse. No airy-fairy inner child work here; this book is very hands-on. Once you read it, you'll find that the only thing between you and success as you define it is your willingness to take a few simple steps. "Like your art, [self-promotion] is something you do every day," Stanfield says.

And simple steps they are. For example, the second excuse is "There aren't enough hours in the day to do it all." Stanfield counters this excuse with two actions, both of which establish systems to free up time to make and market your work. The first action is to organize your information. Stanfield offers brass tacks suggestions for organizing electronic and paper information, keeping accurate inventories of the work, and maintaining an up-to-date mailing list. The artwork inventory is especially detailed, including categories for name of artist, title, location, an image, date, types of materials, where printed or cast, technique, size, sales price, materials cost, etc. Can you see how helpful this drilled-down inventory would be in the event of a gallery show? A possible sale to an interested collector?

The book's sections on systems and routines to ease the time crunch especially interest me as a busy writer, teacher and musician. By establishing routines, we can manage our time more effectively and avoid activity creep: that mysterious thing that happens when you avoid something useful by allowing something mindless and easy-to-do to use up your time. As a writer, I sometimes focus on extraneous activities like housework or surfing the 'net for one more source of information for the article I am writing.