Tarot of the Absurd .... FINISHED

[Barefoot Fool]

Originally Posted by tarot heart

... Are you planning to publish or self publish? I read in your journal that you are pregnant. You realize that once that baby is born, you'll have no time on your hands anymore...

AAAH! Of course, you are absolutely right. I read your post to my brother, who kindly does my website, & he laughed & rubbed it in. So I FINALLY finished the 7 of coins today, which I started 2 months ago & then I got artist's block. It should be posted on the site relatively soon.

I've gotten a few quotes from printers on self-publishing this deck and they're all horrifyingly expensive. I have to check out what other people have done about self-publishing and see if I get any better leads.

Partial interpretation of the 7 of coins (affirmation): Sometimes seven of coins can denote frustration. I have been working away at something and I am starting to feel concerned that I will never finish. Be patient and appreciate the progress I have made so far.

[Barefoot Fool]

I drew the king of cups today. He'll be posted on the site soon. I have one more card to illustrate. Which is the king of coins. So maybe I'll finish the deck before I have a baby, but it's getting close. I certainly won't finish the drywall or the numerous pillows I planned on making.

Check out the deck at http://barefootfool.com/tarot/
where you can also read some stuff I wrote if you're so inclined.

And now I have to figure out how I'm going to print it. I want high quality slightly oversize cards. Any suggestions on how they should look? I think I like lamination, but it's expensive.

[Barefoot Fool]

Okay, I'm looking for opinions if anyone has any.
(Just when I finally want an opinion, people run out!)

I sent my deck out to a publisher. She says she's pitching it at her next meeting. I'm really afraid that they'll publish it and I'll loose all control. I really like most of my images (some of the real old ones get to me and I STILL want to redo them) and I want to be able to print them on silly things like T-shirts and coffee mugs. I know if I print it myself I have total control, but gosh, where do I fit 500 decks in my house? And what if no one buys them and I'm forced to give everyone I ever know a TOTA deck as a gift for the rest of my life?

If I was buying my deck (which I will be, in great quantity), I would want it to be independently published and numbered is even better because it's personal. I was thinking I like those little folios that some decks come in, like the MRP Tarot of Prague, because they're sturdy, easy to locate on a shelf & easy to read & stack & don't smash like boxes. I get the feeling I'd end up making each one individually, which would be laborious, as I can't find a place that actually prints them.

Anyhow. At least I finished the deck before the baby
I'm hoping for April 1st on the baby

[Girl Archer]

I absolutely ADORE your deck, and would love a companion to it like most pointed out, which could maybe explain what inspired the imagery. When would this be available?

The B&W is awesome. never had a black and white one that did not seem over the top, so yours is just right...

[Barefoot Fool]

Originally Posted by Girl Archer

I absolutely ADORE your deck, and would love a companion to it like most pointed out, which could maybe explain what inspired the imagery. When would this be available?

The B&W is awesome. never had a black and white one that did not seem over the top, so yours is just right...

Thank you so much.

I would love to explain the imagery. It would be easy, because it all makes sense for me— or it did at the time I drew it and I could figure out what I was thinking. I really should work on that aspect more consistently on my blog instead of just trying to figure out how to read cards.

But oh gosh I have no idea when it would be out. I mean, even if a publisher did want it, would they still want it if I subversively did a *tiny* run first? After I asked them to publish it? Before I got an answer? Is this stage fright?

[trzes]

Originally Posted by Barefoot Fool

Okay, I'm looking for opinions if anyone has any.
(Just when I finally want an opinion, people run out!)

Although I find it hard to give advice on a delicate decision like that, I'll try anyway, just because I am so keen on getting a copy of your deck I love it, really, and it HAS to be published.

Personally I am in favour of keeping control over my work too. So I'd say: do it on your own account, if possible. 500 copies are roughly a cubic meter, it should be possible to store the decks somewhere. The other thing is to judge how many copies you will sell. Well, pretty much impossible I guess. The Gilded sold 1 Million times (if I am not mistaken), while of the last deck by Lynryd Narciso (sold by Adam McLean) which is no less brilliant I got number 60-something after a year's time or so. Weird.

I might be worth finding out, how much the printing costs go up per deck, if you only print, say, 200 copies in the first place. Possibly it wouldn't be that much of a difference.

And Good luck with your baby. Being a young father I dare say that your decisions about tarot will become less important very soon We will all wait patiently for the deck until your baby is grown out of nappies, won't we?

[Barefoot Fool]

Originally Posted by trzes

We will all wait patiently for the deck until your baby is grown out of nappies, won't we?

Oh, gosh, I hope it won't be that long...

Thank you for your advice & opinions and the info on size. One cubic meter is do-able. I think that sales have a lot more to do with advertising than brilliance. A self-published deck generally has much poorer advertising than one published by a big house: you have to be in-the-know to get your hands on one. How does that happen? I don't know. Also small runs are generally priced higher.

I like that people here buy small-run decks.

Thank you very much for your opinion.

[trzes]

Originally Posted by Barefoot Fool

I think that sales have a lot more to do with advertising than brilliance.

How true (sadly). I sort of keep forgetting this But Then, I mean: One single Narciso for almost 20.000 Gilded sold!

And yes, if you can get a publisher who is willing to take the sales risk without interfering too much with your actual work, then you will indeed have the chance for more publicity and more recognition. And you won't have to store a cubic meter of cardbord.

Two other recent tarot creation projects were funded via http://www.kickstarter.com/ where people can "back" a project with some money. But they only really pay the money if the project funded enough money to actually run it. I found that a very interesting idea, because it could provide an idea about how many decks to print when going for self publishing. One project can be found at http://www.tarotforum.net/showthread.php?t=162835 , the other is called "darkana tarot", i couldn't find the thread on a quick look, but it is also on ATF. The drawback is of cource that you need quite an amount of backers to join in within a limited amount of time to make it all happen.

[Shalyn]

Oooh, nice deck. I like it.

And good luck with baby! Congratulations!

[rwcarter]

Originally Posted by Barefoot Fool

Okay, I'm looking for opinions if anyone has any.
(Just when I finally want an opinion, people run out!)

I sent my deck out to a publisher. She says she's pitching it at her next meeting. I'm really afraid that they'll publish it and I'll loose all control. I really like most of my images (some of the real old ones get to me and I STILL want to redo them) and I want to be able to print them on silly things like T-shirts and coffee mugs. I know if I print it myself I have total control, but gosh, where do I fit 500 decks in my house? And what if no one buys them and I'm forced to give everyone I ever know a TOTA deck as a gift for the rest of my life?

If I was buying my deck (which I will be, in great quantity), I would want it to be independently published and numbered is even better because it's personal. I was thinking I like those little folios that some decks come in, like the MRP Tarot of Prague, because they're sturdy, easy to locate on a shelf & easy to read & stack & don't smash like boxes. I get the feeling I'd end up making each one individually, which would be laborious, as I can't find a place that actually prints them.

Anyhow. At least I finished the deck before the baby
I'm hoping for April 1st on the baby

Um, there's not really a question there. But if you print 500, I publicly state here that I'll buy at least 3! (I bought seven of the Transparent Tarot (4 at full price!), so you can believe I'm serious!)

If you do a special/limited edition that's different enough from the mass market (MM) edition (size, color vs B&W, borders vs no borders, etc), I don't believe any publisher will have a problem with that. (Look at Ciro's Gilded Tarot Deluxe. It's different enough from the MM version that his publisher doesn't care.)

Of course >> I << want you to do a companion book to go with the deck (I love to get the artist/author's view on the cards), but even I understand that with a new baby, you focus (and time!) will be elsewhere (unless you can write a whole lot in the next 11 days! ) And if you publish a limited/special edition BEFORE any publisher accepts the deck, there's not a lot they can say about it....

Rodney