The Tricky Labyrinth of Publicity!

Hi folks,

As some of you may know, my best friend and I have been working on a God Tarot for quite some time now, and we're currently just over the halfway point with both book and cards. We want to start publicizing it, but are also aiming to send it to publishers such as Llewellyn... We are wondering if our chances of getting it published by such companies would be lessened if we publicized the deck on the internet?

We are also considering self-publishing a (very) limited edition of a Majors-only deck and seeing if we can get some reviews of it online: again, would this lessen our chances in the long run of mass publication?

Our other concern is (of course) theft. Whilst we can see the benefits of showing cards on a website, we are wary of doing so - not so much because people will steal the images, but because people may steal the ideas.

So, I'm looking for advice - with view of mass publication later on, what would you guys suggest as a realistic publicity campaign?

Thanks in advance,

Kiama

Hi Kiama, the only thing I can think of that might be helpful is the example of the Victoria Regina Tarot and the Pythagorean Tarot, both of which started as online decks which were subsequently picked up by Llewellyn. Victoria Regina also was printed as a limited-run edition by the artist before the mass-market publication.

-- Lee

edited for typos
oh, and I think the Tarot of the Dead was privately printed before being picked up by Llewellyn.

I think most publishers now are more than happy to see the author/artist doing some publicity and I can't imagine why this would lessen the chances of getting it published - quite the opposite I'd expect.

So go ahead and show the deck would be my advice - but put a clear copyright on the site - it isn't strictly necessary these days to have a copyright notice (copyright is automatic) but it can't hurt!

(edited as I keep making typos)

ooh! A GOD deck! Finally! I am so excited about this, Kiama!
The world of tarot really needs one!

My thought is that you should show them off!
Get a wonderful support for them early on, before you take them to any of the publishers...

Because I am thinking that if I were a publisher (and somedays I really wish I was!) then I think I would be more interested in publishing a deck that already has a following...and a fan base...

then one that is "untested" with the public!

And I also think a limited edition would be allright too...that way you have produced a version exactly the way you want it to look.

From what I have heard...publishers like to change things, like borders and fonts...and even names.

Looking very forward to seeing your creation!!!

Right, it seems to me that the first step is a web site. Any suggestions here? Do we show the entire deck? Or just some cards? (It will only show the completed cards so far anyway, but at some point there will be 78 cards to show.)

Thanks for your help so far folks!

Kiama

Hi Kiama

First, let me say I'm very happy seeing you posting here at last.

I'm guessing you've got the message that doing your own publicity isn't going to hurt your chances at publication and in fact may help your chances.

As to your question whether or not to show all the cards on your website, it really depends on your own comfort levels. Do you want to risk pirating? And even pirating doesn't destroy your chances of publication as we've seen with Retrokat's experience. You can take steps to minimise that risk by only posting lower resolution versions on your website. Some go as far as to add a watermark to the cards displayed.

Speaking strictly from my own experience, I chose to display all the cards at low resolution with a clear copyright notice on the site. But it really does depend on your comfort level as to what would be best for you.

Good! Very glad to know we'll see the cards , looking forward to it.

We used to always show all cards, but recently as I've redone the sites I've fallen in love with using slide-shows rather than absolutely every card. I don't think it matters hugely either way, as long as people see the majority of the cards. Whatever works with your web-design should be fine.

Pirating IS a problem, but mostly in a very minor way, we've had cards popping up on other websites without permission, but personally I don't worry about that as long as a link is given. (I will not even begin to describe the recent case where an article on our site, and that took me a good while to write, was copied, authorship and links removed - though not all our photos - and a new copyright added by the thief - I kid you not! But that's a whole other story.)

In general I'd go for it and not worry too much. The value of the feedback you get will probably outweigh any other issues anyway.