"review" copies - what do you do?

It was actually sparked off by one very recent request the details of which I won't go into but which did - as you can see - make me cross!

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Ah, it's always the one cheater/charlatan who triggers the need for rules change, affecting all the honest people! But you're right to be cross, having to be on your guard takes away some of the fun of creativity.

And what about the deck designer here who said all her card images were stolen off her website and the deck produced by others! That was a horrible theft. Be it ever so dismaying to realize the necessity, I think artists should be careful about printing "sample" or something across their web images.

Imagemaker said:

And what about the deck designer here who said all her card images were stolen off her website and the deck produced by others! That was a horrible theft.

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Yes, I think it's the Golden Tarot you're talking about. That was outrageous. It's theft plain and simple. I really don't mind people taking our images to put on a website as samples for instance (though one Russian site recently put the whole of our deck up on a tarot site without asking us - not very polite, but they were not making any money out of it). But to have images taken for a money-making enterprise is terrible.

I did find that after putting one of our Baroque Bohemian Cat images on my blog it was suddenly all over the place. In a way that's really flattering, but I'm careful now to put up a clear copyright notice.

The sad thing (but we've discussed this before here) is that it means no-one can risk putting up high resolution images of all their cards - and some decks (like ours) just don't look their best in low-resolution. But that can be partly solved by showing a few close-ups - I notice the Gilded Tarot site does that, and it's a good compromise if you really want to show detail.

Hi there!
I hear your frustration baba, and it is so understood...
I really have no experience regarding the review copies, but i think you should consider "how many" you would like to give out for this purpose.
Maybe you can create a downloadable form, that whoever wants to review needs to fill up (so, you spend time on it, once). There you can ask whom they write for, credentials and all that. Also, make a note that says: not all forms "will be accepted" due to a limited number of copies available for that, and then you do what you decide. I think that free copies for promotion is a valid expense, and this is why you can have it under a "budget".

After the story I heard about the Golden tarot being stolen and printed, i don't think i'll ever put my whole deck up, at least not before it gets published.
It's a creepy world out there, with no respect of artistic copyright. We , artists have the reputation for not defending ourselves enough though.

Some friends of mine, started a site with their baby's pictures, calling it "the Prince", and put up an illustration of a company that does clothing for babies. they didn't ask for permission, and they didn't create a link leading to that site. According to them , they didn't "steal" anything, because they didn't try to make money out of it, but here is the problem! (I got so mad!!!!)
It's up to us, and ONLY up to us, to explain HOW WRONG THIS IS! This is our trade. Even if you make no money from it, you can't just take it....
Unfortunately, we don't seem to have the resources (or energy), to have somebody run after people, go and claim our right.

Honestly, make the copyright tags even bigger-better being paranoid and educational on the issue, than naive, and not taking responsibility on how we want our art and our rights to be taken care of.

Ok, now i'm "warm" too...

Re: review copies

mota said:

To cut down on the number of bogus review requests send review copies only to media addresses. If the reviewer says they work at home and to send it to their home address, then you might consider further verification of their press credentials.

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Good advice mota, but you will probably find that a surprising number of reviewers review for no company: they review for online sites, since that is really where the Tarot 'world' is currently located, and where such reviews get the most attention.

Nearly all the Tarot deck reviewers I know do something like this, get paid no money for their work, and write from home.

Blessings,

Kiama

Kiama is right about this.

The thing that really annoys me about the bogus requests is that they make me suspicious sometimes of people who turn out to be really good reviewers just doing their job - and there are lots of those.

I don't think reviewers should have to fill out forms and so on - I don't think they would anyway (I have a couple of freelance journalist friends and they are usually terribly busy). It's hard enough work doing a review, getting the deck should be easy - ideally.

Anyway, it's an insoluble problem really - and all part of the increase in spam and so on that we are all drowning under. But it just makes me feel better to share with some people who understand!

My advice is, ignore the reviewer's name what is the publication? If they can't give you the name and the phone number of the relevant editor then you can probably cut them off...

Hi Baba,

In LS we have a very very short reviewer list.
The name on it vary from 10 to 15 persons, and I do not send - except to a few *specials* - any and every deck.

My opinion is that You should try to find Your own reviewers. It is such more worth if You ask someone you know, or trust (or both) for a review, rather than to wait for requests.
Did You met a good journalist on some serious magazine? Do him a phone call, and send him a deck.
Choose a few reviewers here and there, and send them a deck.
Ignore the others.

I have the advantage I can pool from a much larger number of decks... so I can afford to be wrong with some reviewers. I can, after all, just stop sending decks.
But for me, reviews are much more a matter of Serious, Professional feedback than advertisment.
I tend to prefer reviewers that teach me something about the deck. And - time permitting - I love to discuss the deck with them.

best,

Ric