I understand quite well the way you are feeling (I think so anyway).
Too many times I feel as a customer... when things I consider basically crap gets promoted and may be found everywhere, while things I value are routinely neglected.
I guess we all understand that Briteny Spears wll always sell more than jazz, and than Ocean 12 will get more money than a David Linch movie. I - on my side - still hope that this is not SO true.
I still can't understand the true extent of the market laws. It seems that everywhere, whatever the product (I'm not talking Tarot) the pespective buyer is never informed, is very conservative, and unimaginative. From clothes to food.
If I were to read this thread and this thread only, I would say that the Serio Marseille will be an incredible success, with almost a 100% appreciation rate. However, all considered, in LS we have received just three mails regarding the deck.
Even on Aeclectic that - with all defects - is a sanctuary for people that love Tarot, and really really love it - the deck went almost unnoticed. If there were two hundread mails... maybe it would be different.
I'm not making an excuse out of it... I'm not saying that unless LS can do tons of money, a deck should not be done. But decks that are a going to cost more than they gain have to be carefully balanced.
I must admit that we would prefer to consider some experimental "new" deck, in this direction, rather than a new take on same old. And yet we could be open.
But certainly not now.
We want Andrea Serio make a new Tarot deck (and then more) and the TdM would be the best way to make sure he will never do another.
There is a suggestion to ask Tarot Garden for marketability of the deck.
I open the TG website and what I find: "your source for unusual, hard-to-find, rare collectable decks". Unusual, hard to find and rare... it is the very definition of a limited, niche, elite market.
I could have given a more "company-wise" answer... so full of promise and vague.
My perception is just that we are on some level "opposite" to each other. We publish, you buy. On another level we are "friends", and we can collaborate to Tarot.
The only answer I can give is "not today, maybe tomorrow".
We - all of us - need decks that are something special.
But none of those decks will ever be on the bestseller list.
(
When the north American market (or any other market) will really be opening to Marseille decks on a broader basic we will see it reflected on sales. We will jump at the slightest signal.
So I must say I'm sorry.
The book wanted to illustrate what we could do.
Of course, you all know very well our faults, but I hope than the book has ignited at least in someone a spark of what could be a vision from above of the Tarot world.
Possibilities, and roads that may open, and may lead someplace new, we have still not jet discovered.
Regarding the multilingual decks... again while I see a definite opinion here on Aeclectis it does not reflect on sales. Quite the opposite.
If a distributor, for example, in France orders 1000 copies of a deck... he would only order 500, if there are no French titles.
Please, have a look at the decks we have produced in the last years.... and see how many had not titles. (that was a cost to LS. A cost in order to follow what we perceive to be the most advanced par tof our customers. A cost to improve and to keep going. Still a cost, anyway.)
All the best,
a sad Ric
that of all the people who've exclaimed about the Serio TdM in this thread, that only two people other than me took the time to email Lo Scarabeo! 