The Gallery Management Manual

Rating:
Summary: All of her books are like this one... useless
Review: As a gallery owner, I was unimpressed by the quantity and more importantly the quality of information included in this book. I have ordered and read all of her books and unfortunately it just isn't worth the price, time or effort.

Rating:
Summary: The Gallery Mangement Manual
Review: I routinely receive letters in response to my four books but this one stands out. It is from a new gallery owner from Switzerland (English is her second language):

Dear Zella,

I was very pleased to meet you at this year's Art Expo New York. Last year I ordered your very intersting and useful books about selling art, building up collectors, and managing a gallery. I learned a lot from your books and I still do.

Thank you for all your precious suggestions! Please let me know as soon as you plan a trip to Switzerland. I could even offer you my gallery for presentations of "The Art of Selling Art" or "The Art of Managing an Art Gallery" and invite interested people.

Best regards,

Lucilla Hermann, Owner Kunstgalerie Artrivm Goethestr. 11 8712 Stafa, Switzerland Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]

Rating:
Summary: The Gallery Mangement Manual
Review: I routinely receive letters in response to my four books but this one stands out. It is from a new gallery owner from Switzerland (English is her second language):

Dear Zella,

I was very pleased to meet you at this year's Art Expo New York. Last year I ordered your very intersting and useful books about selling art, building up collectors, and managing a gallery. I learned a lot from your books and I still do.

Thank you for all your precious suggestions! Please let me know as soon as you plan a trip to Switzerland. I could even offer you my gallery for presentations of "The Art of Selling Art" or "The Art of Managing an Art Gallery" and invite interested people.

Best regards,

Lucilla Hermann, Owner Kunstgalerie Artrivm Goethestr. 11 8712 Stafa, Switzerland Tel: [phone] Fax: [phone]

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the money
Review: I was very disappointed by this book and think it is one of the biggest ripoffs I have ever seen. First the book is about 125 pages long, which includes the index. The book has unusally large top and bottom page margins, very large line spacing and indulges in switching to narrow column print pages, at a time when I presume the author thinks we small minds would have difficulty grasping the material. I make note of this because without these techniques the book, printed in a more ordinary type style and format would probably run no more than 30 pages at best. Add to this the authors annoying habit or constantly repeating phases such as gallery owner, manager or associate, sometimes within the same paragraph, we can probably chop off another 10 pages. This leaves the reader with about 20 pages of information which when gleaning out the outrageously obvious such as suggesting sales associates use slack time on the floor to make phone calls, we are left with only enough useful information to fill a small brochure. This little bit of information is hardly worth the price of either $50.00 list or Amazon's reduced price. In the end, a lot of paper but not nearly enough useful information for the price.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'd been looking forward to receiving this book. It's expensive - especially when having to pay shipping, handling and VAT outside of the US - so perhaps I was expecting too much.
But the tone is patronising and the information extremely repetitive. Even some of the "useful forms" are duplicated.
The most essential aspects of gallery management are glossed over, or not mentioned at all, and in addition the text is filled with typographical errors.
The book seemed so promising: the chapter headings are logical and appear to offer meaty, meaningful advice - what a pity to find instead that it's all rather vague.

Rating:
Summary: Solid Material For Managing Your Sales Staff
Review: It was good to see you at this year's Art Expo in New York. I wanted to write to thank you for your work over the years and to share with you the story of how much your books helped me during the early part of my career in the art business. Although I have been the Director of Retail for Martin Lawrence Galleries as well as owned my own world wide art publishing and management company (SPS Art), I began my career as an entry level art consultant on the floor of a gallery in 1985.

Two events led to me becoming a top selling art consultant and eventually to me taking the role of top executive and successful business owner. The first was an eye-opening experience with a big-spending client who forced me to fast-forward into my profession. The second event was the discovery of your books.

Imagine my excitement to see all of the ideas (and more) that I had formulated on my own in black and white. It was so refreshing to know that what I had stumbled upon was actually a tried and true method. Not to mention that your writings helped fill in the blanks of much of what was missing. The sharpening of what I had already devised and the added information contained within the covers of your book helped turn me into one of the top producers at the company and, moreover helped me make the decision to stick with what is often a trying career in an often frustrating industry. It was discovering treasure.

After all this time, I still recognize your art texts as the only ones that exist in the business and when asked by gallery owners for a recommendation for their staffs or by a person just joining the business for the best reference and training materials, I never hesitate and tell them to order your books.

I want to thank you for helping at least this beginner find his way in the big bad world of selling art professionally.

Daniel Crosby SPS Art & Art of the Game Galleries

Rating:
Summary: Solid Material For Managing Your Sales Staff
Review: It was good to see you at this year's Art Expo in New York. I wanted to write to thank you for your work over the years and to share with you the story of how much your books helped me during the early part of my career in the art business. Although I have been the Director of Retail for Martin Lawrence Galleries as well as owned my own world wide art publishing and management company (SPS Art), I began my career as an entry level art consultant on the floor of a gallery in 1985.

Two events led to me becoming a top selling art consultant and eventually to me taking the role of top executive and successful business owner. The first was an eye-opening experience with a big-spending client who forced me to fast-forward into my profession. The second event was the discovery of your books.

Imagine my excitement to see all of the ideas (and more) that I had formulated on my own in black and white. It was so refreshing to know that what I had stumbled upon was actually a tried and true method. Not to mention that your writings helped fill in the blanks of much of what was missing. The sharpening of what I had already devised and the added information contained within the covers of your book helped turn me into one of the top producers at the company and, moreover helped me make the decision to stick with what is often a trying career in an often frustrating industry. It was discovering treasure.

After all this time, I still recognize your art texts as the only ones that exist in the business and when asked by gallery owners for a recommendation for their staffs or by a person just joining the business for the best reference and training materials, I never hesitate and tell them to order your books.

I want to thank you for helping at least this beginner find his way in the big bad world of selling art professionally.

Daniel Crosby SPS Art & Art of the Game Galleries

Rating:
Summary: Great Sales Management Tools!
Review: The Gallery Management Manual is a solid book of tools that will help anyone get the most out of their sales team and client dossiers. The author is a well known industry expert in this area. I am continually impressed with how often she is quoted in Art Business News, Art Expressions and other trade journals on this very subject,"how to effectively manage your sales staff and client files."

Rating:
Summary: Great Sales Management Tools!
Review: The Gallery Management Manual is a solid book of tools that will help anyone get the most out of their sales team and client dossiers. The author is a well known industry expert in this area. I am continually impressed with how often she is quoted in Art Business News, Art Expressions and other trade journals on this very subject,"how to effectively manage your sales staff and client files."

Rating:
Summary: Absolutely not worth the price
Review: The large font and unnecessarily large leading and margins are annoying. It becomes even more aggravating when the author resorts to putting only 2-3 words on a line for no apparent reason! I felt insulted by the author's condescending tone throughout the book. This book does not teach anyone about gallery management. It focuses almost solely on sales personnel and even then pays far too much attention (and a lot of repetition) to the obvious.