Presentation advice?

Astra

I'm in the middle of putting together my presentation package for Llewellyn - all cards finally working in CMYK, and hopefully more or less to spec.

My problem is that I'm not used to puffling my own stuff and I'm having a really hard time saying things about it. I can do this for other people, no problem, but I've got an uphill battle when I try to praise my own efforts. Early training, I suppose. Normally I don't notice the lack, and I know I have to learn, but would anyone be willing to take a look at the completed cards, or a selection of them, and give me either suggestions or a blurb or two I can use?

I'm not at all averse to quoting other people who think the cards are good, so if you're willing to be quoted directly, please say so.
 

mercenary30

This stuff if right up my alley.

Unless you have a reason, I would suggest putting a link out here and let people take a peek. You will get more responses that way. If you only show by request, than anyone who would be concerned about giving constructive criticism, won't even ask.
 

M-Press

take a look at the Llewellyn Guidelines

Hi!
I think you are missing the right path here...
Llewellyn have a VERY specific list of guidelines, and it does not include any need for fancy text about your style, the cards or anything like that... They really don't expect you to evaluate the cards-they will do that! :)

What they want is straight, describtive stuff, that it will be very easy for you to fill in when you look at their guidelines. It sure takes time to fill in, and it feels like a chore, but at the end they do get what they want from it, information wise.

The most challenging thing about it, is the bio stuff!!!!!!

I also reccomend that you don't send ALL teh cards, but like 20 best ones (they talk about that too).

BEST OF LUCK with it!
:)
 

Astra

Actually, M-Press, their guidelines have about a page in them on "in 300-500 words, Tell us why you (the consumer) should use this deck", list major points of value, think in terms of advertising copy, develop some advertising blurbs .... I've got it in front of me right now.

The cards up on the website aren't the final version. I've just finished that up, and although I'll be posting on the site in a day or so, I won't be putting up the whole deck, so I thought I could put together something specific to for this.

But mostly I wasn't thinking at all when I posted this - only if I didn't ask for help with this before I panicked completely I wouldn't ask at all - and I've spent most of the hours since posting panicking. Of all the garbage I didn't expect to run into inside my own head! was the feeling that I simply couldn't either praise my own stuff or ask for praise from other people (or even help, I think). A fine time to have it happen, no? (Well, better now and here where I can admit I'm panicking, I guess.)

I think that Llewellyn is not only evaluating the cards - they must get a huge number of decks - but also the ability of the creator to handle and contribute to the whole publicity process. I suspect that if they have a number of good submissions the choice may go to the person who looks as though they're best able to help in promotion of the deck, because it can make the difference between profit and loss at year's end, especially with so many decks on the market. And I have to admit that if I were them, I'd be inclined to do it that way myself, now that I've thought of it.

Which means I've got some personal revising to do, now that the deck is solid. Whether I go with Llewellyn or not, it's shown me a large hole in my current ability to keep coping if things are going WELL.

I'll add a note to this when I've got the revised cards posted, either on the site or on a hidden page somewhere.

Thanks for all of you who've replied so far.
 

M-Press

I think that you are going through, panicking, confusion, anxiety, is all a part of this process, and it's completely normal!!! :)

Lwellyn look first whether the decks suitable to their target market, which is mass market. I'm sure they would love you to prepare all the marketing copy though...

My advice, is not to send anything till Sep 27, when Mercury will be out of his retro, and Mars as well...
This is no good time now to generate new products, and there is all this mis-communication going on anyway!

Good Luck!
 

Astra

I've just posted a selection of the final revisions (half size) to
http://www.worldtreeproducts.com/tarot.htm. The greyscale files used for the readings still need to be updated, but for the most part they will be the same, since changes in color values didn't affect the greyscale much. Still, there are about 20 cards with major changes, and I'd better get them up soon - gotta sleep first, though.

If anyone wants to look at full size, please ask and I'll figure something. (like email?)

M-Press, at least you gave me a chuckle - I used to keep a button around that said "It's NOT MY FAULT! Mercury was retrograde". I tend to figure that, if the retrograde actually makes a difference, the thing to do is not to wait through it, but to work that much harder at accurate communication.
 

Destiny

Any News?

Astra

I hope you managed to do your presentation.

Did you have much feed back from Llewellyn?

I heard soooo many stories about the big boys not even replying or getting their work back.

I hope yours was a success story

Good luck!
 

Ironwing

To save yourself some stress, why not think about sending a query first, instead of the whole package? You would only need to provide printouts of some of the cards and general information about yourself and the deck, not the detailed advertising stuff, and you would probably get a faster response. If you are fairly certain that your deck fits in with Llewellyn's technical requirements and their market, I'd go with this.

If you aren't sure, and you just want to know if it's worth going through the formal submission process (complete with advertising copy etc.), then you might try an e-mail query: a brief description of the deck, a bit about you, and a link to the deck page. Of course this won't get you a definite acceptance, but if your deck is entirely unsuitable, you can find out quickly.

That's what I did. Because it's B&W (and for other reasons), my deck is a VERY long shot for mass-market publication. But there's no harm in trying, and even a rejection can be informative. When I queried Llewellyn, I got a detailed and professional answer within 24 hours. Although they didn't want the deck, the quick response allowed me to get on with my life and begin exploring other publishing options.

Good luck!

Lorena/Ironwing
 

Astra

Got an absolutely boilerplate, no-reasons given, turndown from Llewellyn. Within a week of submitting the package. Which leads me to think that something's rather odd, actually.

I know the artwork isn't bad, and I know the deck reads well. It may be sheer egotism on my part, but my suspicion at this time is that that the deck is too standard, in the sense that if it sells, it won't bring in extra sales from fringe categories, but might pull from the Robin Wood, which is their bread and butter. Which makes turning it down a positive thing for Llewellyn, and may make buying it a positive thing for someone who wants to compete with the RWS and Robin Wood.

Of course, I may be totally off base on this, but thinking this way gives me a direction, at least. Now I'm compiling names of pubishers and thinking about the next submission.