Another way to promote your arts or crafts is to publish a book about them - how to make them, the history of the craft etc. After publishing six books, I know that the road from idea to seeing your book in Barnes and Noble is a rocky one that involves much back work and support from the publisher.

If you are interested in being an arts/crafts author, the publisher behind the Harry Potter books is rolling-out a step-by-step online guide to getting published. Their program costs  GBP99.99 (excl. VAT)  and is called 'How Strong Is Your Book Idea?'.

You submit a synopsis and a sample chapter of your work to have editorial and marketing experts evaluate your book idea in two weeks and provide advice on whether the idea is strong enough to appeal to a publisher or agent.

If your arts and crafts business has employees, you need to give them a W-2 by January 31.   If you have even one employee for your arts and crafts business, you have to submit Form 941 four times a years.

Check out my tutorials showing you how to prepare a Form 941 and Form W-2.

If you work in the jewelry crafts, particularly fine jewelry, you probably already know that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) is the creator of the famous 4Cs (Color, Cut, Clarity and Carat weight), as well as the International Diamond Grading System™.

They have a ton of great info on their website about educating your customers  about the 4Cs, which will help close your sales. Check out their iPad app,  downloadable for free on iTunes. 

Plus don't forget that GIA offers many fine classes and programs in this field.  If you don't have the time to learn in one of their brick-and-mortar classrooms, they also have some great distance learning classes.

Image Diamond © GIA and used courtesy of GIA

Building on the fruit or flower by month business model, I found an article with a clever idea about starting an arts and crafts subscription service.  This article discusses KiwiCrate's target market which is parents looking for children's projects. 

However, this can be modified for many types of arts or crafts.  How about a jewelry-making subscription service for adults or a cooperative where many artists and crafters participate and the subscription service is sort of a creative potluck for the subscribers?