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Selling Your Creative Work In Progress

If you’ve ever worked on a big creative project you know they can take a while. For startups and creative teams and individuals this can pose a challenge. A new product, service, book, film or creative work may take months or years before it is released. How do you generate income in the meantime? How can you build anticipation and excitement amongst your audience when you can’t show them the finished work just yet? The answer is 400 years old and I call it the Rembrandt Technique for selling your creative work in progress.

In 17th Century Amsterdam there lived a painter and printmaker called Rembrandt. Rembrandt liked to take his time when creating art and this frustrated his patrons, those who bought from him. His work was in demand but there was only one Rembrandt. So in order to satisfy demand he came up with the idea of selling his creative work in progress.

Work In Progress

Let me first explain what I mean when I say a work in progress. When a comedian is developing a new stage show they will often do a series of ‘work in progress’ shows to test out their material on an audience. For example, a few years ago I attended a ‘work in progress’ show by the comedian Ricky Gervais which took place in a small North London theatre. Every night Ricky would try out new ideas and jokes and gradually sculpt a live show which a few months later he performed in huge auditoriums and also filmed for Netflix. The audience at these small ‘work in progress’ shows paid a lower ticket price than those who attended the final big tour. Ricky Gervais was selling his creative work in progress.

Rembrandt Technique

Rembrandt did exactly the same thing. Rembrandt's etchings, not his paintings, were responsible for the international reputation and fame he enjoyed during his lifetime. He made nearly 300 etchings and they were subject to frequent changes with some having up to eight different versions. These works in progress etchings were turned into a profit because impressions of each of these different versions of a print could be sold as individual works in their own right.

Rembrandt’s biographer Arnold Houbraken said that thanks to Rembrandt’s method of putting in slight changes or small additions to his etchings, his prints could be sold as new. The demand was at the time so great that no true connoisseur could be without the Juno… with or without the crown - or Joseph with his head in the light and with his head in shadow.

How To Sell Your Creative Work In Progress

Rembrandt’s son Titus was tasked with selling Rembrandt’s creative works in progress. For a tenth of the price of the final version, you could have a small print.

Now think about your creative work. How could you profit from your work in progress?

If you are a non-fiction writer working on a new book could you sell separately all of the interviews you did while researching the book? Perhaps you are developing a series of new corporate workshops or live in-person retreats. Could you sell a series of virtual ‘workshops in progress’ for a lower price than the in-person ticket while you develop the content and format? Maybe you are developing a new app that uses artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and augmented coding. Could you unbundle and sell individual features as distinct products as you develop them to go into the main app?

By opening up your mind to selling your creative work in progress you can generate new revenues from your creative iterations.

Selling your creative work in progress turns your trial and error into dollars and cents.