When it comes to selling your work, where to sell it is one of the first questions you must take up. Whether you're a professional craftsperson or a skilled hobbyist looking to recoup expenses, you will undoubtedly consider exhibiting at a show as one possibility. While there are quite a few variations in types of shows -- wholesale or retail, indoor or outdoor, country versus fine crafts, for example -- many shows, and certainly the best ones, are juried. This means you must compete with others in your category to earn a space.

When you apply to most juried shows, you will be asked to submit slides of your work for review; occasionally, photos will be accepted or requested. Unless the application specifies photos only, slides are preferable. Whether projected on a screen or backlit on a light box, they provide a more vibrant image. Also, if the show promoter likes your work enough to use it for advertising the show, s/he will get better reproductions working from slides than from photos.

There are two types of juried shows: self-juried and panel-juried. For the self-juried show, the promoter and/or the promoter's staff view the slides (or photos) and make the decisions themselves. The images may be viewed either sequentially or simultaneously. Slides may be projected on a screen, but it's more common for promoters to view slides on a light box with a loupe or magnifying glass, and to view them for as long as is necessary to form an opinion about the work.

For a panel-juried show, a promoter pays a stipend to a panel of jurors to review work and decide which craftspeople will be allowed to exhibit their work. Generally, the panel consists of a group of three to eight independent professionals who may be craftspersons (though not always in your particular discipline), gallery owners, or media people. A jury panel typically sits silently in a dark room viewing all of your slides simultaneously from multiple projectors and scoring the entire set according to guidelines specified by the promoter.

During the first round of jurying, your slides may be seen for as little time as 10 seconds before the next set is projected. Although most applications request a brief description of each slide, don't count on these descriptions to make your case. They are rarely available to the jury unless requested, so be sure your slides can stand on their own.

How important is the quality of your slides? I can't overemphasize it. In fact, it's unfortunate but true that mediocre work presented on excellent slides can and too often does beat out great work that's been badly photographed. Don't take your own photos or slides unless you really know what you're doing!

Roy Helms of Roy Helms & Associates, producers of the Contemporary Crafts Markets shows, says that the most common faults -- and he sees them over and over again -- are under- and overexposed slides. Other typical amateurs' errors include slides that depict a tiny object in the middle of vast space and its corollary: so many objects on one slide that no individual piece is seen clearly.

For many craftspeople, the services of a professional photographer are a worthwhile investment. To choose a photographer, ask to see samples of shots depicting work similar to your own. Be sure s/he understands that you want a jury slide and what you mean by that. Props and artful backgrounds can add interest in an advertising spread, but they will merely distract a juror's attention from your work.

You want a background that is plain or possibly of a graduated color, with minimal or no texture. If, for example, a necklace requires a neck form for optimal display, the form should be as unobtrusive as possible -- avoid live models! Upon that simple background should appear a single piece of work that occupies most of the frame and is centered, perfectly focused, and well lit.

Experienced jurors have told me that it's best when one person's slides are either all horizontal or all vertical. If you must include an odd slide in your group, place it at the beginning or end, not in the middle. As trivial as it may seem, anything that forces the eye to make adjustments or acts as a distraction can hurt your chances under the circumstances in which jury panels must make decisions.

Here are a few additional tips. Before making your final selection on slides to submit, screen them, and if you don't have a slide projector, borrow or rent one. Ask a friend you trust to view your slides with you. You know what the piece is supposed to look like, and your eye will unconsciously compensate for minor problems in the slides. Your friend's eye will behave much more like a juror's. Also, follow the instructions for each application to the letter. The best shows have so many people vying for booth space that the slightest technical error can get you rejected.

If you do everything right and still fail to make the cut, don't be discouraged. To win a place in a juried show, you need to create outstanding work, submit perfect slides, and be lucky. Just don't get too lucky when you're competing against me for that last, coveted slot!