As a deck creator how do you contact reviewers?

I dont know if anyone has any suggestions or even contacts, but am constantly finding it impossible to reach deck reviewers with popular blogs.

Having decided that I will budget to send them a deck for review, I then seem to find contacts on webpages etc repell my messages.
I have self published and am working on my social media presence.
Also getting replys from online shops is proving tricky.
It is all rather frustrating.

I wonder if there should be a thread in the Tarot professionals forum which deals honestly with the problems encountered by self-publishers with getting their deck taken seriously.
When one is trying to promote a deck it is very hard to speak honestly about this as one risks tarnishing the deck with a whiff of failure.

Would any one be interested in this?

Ps. I made Bonefire Tarot and am very greatful for the reviews and support I have received here.

I don't have the answer yet, but I might soon. I'm launching a Kickstarter for my own deck in a few weeks, and I'm working on a press page on my website, which I can refer reviewers and bloggers to when I pitch to them. I'll let you know when I have more information- I have an extremely well-connected and social media savvy friend helping me!

Hope you find what you need.

The quality and usefulness of a review of a tarot deck depends on the point of view of the reviewer, of course. Good reviews can elevate an obscure deck to cult or must-have-at-any-cost status, of course. Poor reviews can diminish sales to zero and devastate the creator's ego.

But what do you want or need? Are you looking for post-production evaluation or help to refine your work to make it more marketable or appealing before you commit to the print run? Will you compromise your artistic integrity to attract more sales or do you just need to be reassured that your artwork will interest some with similar tastes? Do you need to know if your interpretation of tarot conventions are acceptable? Are you concerned about the inks, cardstock and box?

Usually deck reviewers find you. They might be people who use your deck, and want to write and tell you how they felt about it, in which case you can use their unsolicited comments on your website, with permission.

Or they might be tarot writers or bloggers, who are always on the lookout for a fun tarot angle to write about, such as a new deck to praise or pan. Google around, write to a few, and see what happens.

Most tarot deck news is word-of-mouth, as one enthusiastic user tells someone else about the new deck they found. Or, of course, Aeclectic. There are a few other tarot-centric spots online, but this is far and away the most comprehensive and well-run.

One thing you might do, though, is provide a deck to Solandia, here at Aeclectic, who pretty much runs the place. She will review the deck from the point of view of where the deck sits in the universe of other tarot decks and write a few paragraphs about it to place here at Aeclectic. She tends not to be effusive or emotional in her reviews, but she knows whereof she speaks.

You can find a few of her reviews by looking at the top of the page here for 'Cards', and checking around (among the three zillion decks that are current these days) until you find the ones written by her. Contact her by email first, and she'll very likely give you a street address to forward a deck sample to her.

Thanks for the replies guys. They made me really think about what I feel is required, or at least would be great for Tarot creators.
I was not clear in the OP, I self-published Bonefire Tarot in May this year, it's creation is well covered here, so the decisions and risks have been taken. Thankfully the deck has sold well, it has just faltered slightly. I am away from home and unable to really push the deck to find new people.

I would love to build a an online environment perhaps a website or even a facebook page purely for tarot/oracle design and production. A place where tarot artist may go to discuss, swap ideas and contacts and speak openly without the fear of being judged as a professional within the field of Tarot. This would be a great support and I think, many well judged, well produced decks would emerge from such a place.

Making a deck for me was a year and a half labor of love, for many it is longer. promoting the deck and all that has followed is not labor of love, just labor.
This is not a financial issue, thankfully Bonefire broke even ago while ago, but I do have ambitions for the deck. I love it. I want it in as many hands as possible....As a self publisher this is very hard to achieve.

Bonefire was made in the light of Aeclectic and most of my sales came from here. For this I am so thankful to people here and i will never forget the experience and the support.
My experience Is, reviewers do not find you, if they do not know you exist, word of mouth is not sufficient to achieve anything more than 'a flash in the pan'. I want more than that for Bonefire, I imagine all creators feel similarly.
A place where we can gather, our decks can be found there, when complete- providing somewhere for collectors and reviewers to know they will find non-mass produced decks.
A place where to be a 'professional Tarot creator' is encouraged. We are not in competition with each other, though it can feel that way.

Each and every deck is conceived with the artist's muse burning bright and long. The four elements working together in a rare harmony to birth the deck. It is a great pleasure for the artist to find this inside them. For me, this makes Bonefire a powerful tool to contact the unconscious.

All this said, I was not able to find a publisher for the deck, or even receive a single acknowledgement of my submission, so self-publishing or on-demand was my only option, not my preferred. It was very difficult to find out answers to practical questions, such as
"how many decks would be too few to sell?'' or ''Who are the most influential reviewers and what is their email address?"

So any creators out there interested in making a safe environment to discuss the practicalities and put all our decks together. A self-published decks destination. I would love to hear from you.

I feel an manifesto coming on!

On Facebook there is a great group, Tarot Deck Creators, and in that group a file of willing blog reviewers.

Publishing Tarot Decks

I totally agree with you. My experience with publishers has been equally disappointing - and confusing. Some feedback I got was that my deck wasn't commercial enough, others that it needed a broader distribution than that publisher could provide. But at least those replied!

I am now going to self-publish on TGC. I have set up a facebook page where I do a daily profile of one of the cards in my deck. I've had a lot of good feedback and people quite keen to get their hands on the deck.

With the new world of POD and Crowd Funding we are moving into an age where self-publishing is entirely possible. A site like the one you suggest could be really helpful, not only for the artists themselves but also to put some pressure on POD to expand their tarot offerings - different shapes, different card stock and more importantly into countries other than the US. Postage is devilishly expensive, and with their current problems who knows what effect that will have on their ability to deliver?

We could support each other in developing, critiquing, and marketing our decks and take some of the hard work out of weaving through the morass of obstacles this implies. Like you, I would rather spend time doing my art - the rest is all just hard work!