One MORE Deck Hits The Table???

Ferrets in history

http://www.doctorbeer.com/joyce/ferrets/frhistpg.htm

I just found this site!

If you ever want to do a book, maybe some of these interesting historical paintings might be a fun companion search for people. with your deck.

Best wishes,

Mari Hoshizaki

P.S. If you get a contract for your deck, it might be useful to compare with historical examples or tarot-based art. It wasn't until I started looking at the Mantegna cards, Leonardo Da Vinci's painting of the Lady with Ermine, that I became more aware of people and ferrets.

HudsonGray said:

Got 2 more pictures posted, this time with the official framing & font style we're going to use.[/url]

Click to expand...

Those are so cute! I love them.

I came to this folder today, because I'm thinking of making my own deck, and wondered about the feasibility. These really raised my spirits. You created such great images.

I went to the main publishers' sites and checked their 'artist submissions list' and FAQ where they have a list of what they want and don't want. One doesn't do theme decks. One doesn't like black & white decks because color sells better. A lot prefer serious ones with historic style of art, etc. I sort of had mine eliminated from the big three pretty much in their submissions guidelines.

That's ok though, I sort of expected it to be a self published type of deck mostly because it's not artsy or professionally done in color--I draw, I don't paint or do computer art.

Networking has been pretty easy. I talked to the guy via email who does the Hello Kitty deck, got feedback from him (I think I posted that on another thread), and with a few others in the past who did their own (one of the ladies from the Ancestral Path Tarot was at a spirit fair here & we talked for 20 minutes). I'm ok with knowing mine may never be carried at Barnes & Noble *sigh*. Not all of us can make it to the bigtime.

But then again, I'll be in the front line selling them with no middleman, too. I was part of the production of a home done board game called The Con Game (based on science fiction convention goers) back in the late 1980's, and helped coalate someone else's self published tarot deck, and talked to a couple of people who do their own comic book (the artist of Sheba just this last August, and Donna Barr with her Stintz comic, via email). The hill isn't insurmountable. And there won't be a middleman. It's amazing how far word of mouth can get. A few decks offered up on ebay will help, too.

Well, it's been a year since the Ferret Tarot was printed. Out of the original printing of 500 decks I've sold 375 of them and given away 16 more (for various reasons). That's exceeding expectations, I'm happy! You never know what kind of market there is out there for anything until you give it a try, you know?

Hudson...
as a continuation to the other post regarding the Chat du Marseille/Cat of the Marseilles Tarot, I again must say that the way you handle the business part of this, is really impressive.
yes, not all decks need to be biggers, not all of them need to show up in Barnes and Nobles, and not all of them need to cost a fortune (to the buyer and creator as well).

I think this is something taht many tarot creators should be aware of. There are many ways to do it, and to me Hudson sure shows a great example, and a very sensible one!
It's what I call "dig a hole that you can fit in". And then you can choose to make it deper, or dig another one!!! this is the most important thing!!!

This is it! The first printing of the Ferret Tarot has sold out.

The last deck out of 500 sold on August 17 of last month at Pennsic War, I'd taken the last few with us to sell at our merchant tent. So from a start date of Oct. 22, 2003 to middle of last month, that's all the time it took to sell them out completely.

Not to worry -- I was at the printer this past week, since I have orders now for 23 more decks from people, and will be picking up the SECOND printing of the deck on Monday, in two days. Finances weren't high enough right now to do a full 500 printing again, but 300 should be ok for a while. Same printer, same card stock, so they'll be identical but not numbered or signed this time. They still get a pouch, cheat sheet and LWB.

I did a breakdown on where they all sold, and almost 30 decks went to countries outside the US. A whopping 30% sold at wholesale in groups of 10 or more, and the rest were retail. That's a different breakout than I thought it would be, I didn't think wholesale would be that large of an amount. I totaled up the numbers going out and it seems the printer printed 516 decks for us, but I stopped numbering them at 500, to be fair.

The second printing decks will be available soon as I pick them up next week.

Thanks, thanks, thanks for all the interest folks!

Great News, Hudson Grey! How much will you be selling them for?

Great news Hudson!
I'm always amazed how you do it "your way"...!

Do you think you'll ever make a run of colored ones? That would be SO nice...
Maybe print a whole big "poster" in digital printing and then cut them? Would that be too expensive? I think that some of this technology has gotten better AND cheaper lately...

Anyway, I'm sure you'll figure it out... Color your own is still great fun!

Best Wishes for your second printing!
It's quite an achievement!

Thanks!

Well, with the lower number they're 65 cents more per deck to print, but I'm not changing the price on them, so they're still the $14.95 plus shipping. I'm not going to quibble over stuff that's under a dollar.

Color would be nice, I've been looking at different mediums, but there's such a color difference between scanned stuff and how it ends up on CD (I'm a technologically uninformed artist when it comes to the computer part).