If you are in it to make a living, run. I know these modern day poets will tell you, “Oh but you can have it all!” No. No great artist has ever figured out how to make a living out of his art if only how to make a living. That is the key. I know very little about making a living off of my art in a monetary sense and a whole lot about making a living off of meaning and of course the difference of what I offer in my work in comparison to all the other countless “starving artists” out there in the world. People have made the difference in my life. Not money or things or exposure or deals etc. It has been actual relationships that have formed my “career” as a poet. And I’ll tell you, it has a lot more to do with a philosophy, a way of being, a sense of responsibility to your craft than it does to the actual means to an ends of making a living. If you want to make a living, make one. Art is not in the business of business and when it is, I argue something very true about art is lost. Perhaps, the world today in all its Warhol frenzy will make something art that isn’t and tell you, you are in fact, buying art. But true art, the finest art, is in the living. It is the art that can only be experienced, seen or felt, and never bought or sold.
Sorry, I don’t have a more rewarding answer. Perhaps, this is why I am a horrible financial advisor and an even worse artist.