Has anyone here published their own deck?

Chronata said:

no one would touch anything less than 1000 pieces.

Which is understandable if course...

Click to expand...

Yes, our printer here will sometimes do runs of 500 for people - but the way that printing works, a lot of the cost is the set-up fee and so 1000 decks may not cost much more than 500 in any case. I agree - it's a problem.

It's a pity that there often isn't much available in between doing it yourself or getting a printer to do 1000s. I know though that Hudson did find someone who did smaller quantities for her - maybe she'll say more about that?

Chronata - are you REALLY painting 100 boxes by hand? Woman you are crazy - but wonderful!

Our local printer could do any amount wanted, but they couldn't get the great card stock that would make it feel like a real deck of cards, just regular card stock. I had 500 printed up and those all sold in a year and a half (second printing was 300 decks, I was hoping to get them done up by Carta Mundi, but needed to fill orders coming in so went back to the same printer).

I know the Blue Moon was only a small printing, maybe 100? It was done on good card stock, over at a Waukesha, WI printer. She was happy with the results, but their quote to me for a printing of mine was close to $10 per deck, 100 minimum. Yeowtch!

The Tarot of the Crone, that was a small amount of decks too. The Ironwing was only a few hundred. And didn't that guy doing the Satanic deck limit his to something like six decks? It doesn't matter how small a print run you do, but the larger it is, the cheaper each individual deck gets.

Carta Mundi in their Tennessee office can do 1,000-2,000 decks. And I think Astra (?) used a printer in Michigan who did up 2 deck sizes, 1,000 decks each? That was back about 2 years ago I think.

Self Publishing ups and downs

My goodness short question - long answer ... I am going to give you the short version since I have discussed this at length in published reviews.

First always keep your copyright to all your artwork. If a publisher wants your copyrights - walk away. What you negotiate with them in contract is USAGE of your artwork.

If you go with a publisher you will make a lot less money because they will give you a small percentage of sales (read about licensing) after returns, deductions, etc. (7%-12% or more if you are both author and artist). The decks that are the most successful for their artistic creators (highest sales) are the ones that provide artists with the best opportunity to make a profit on their efforts.

If you self-publish the out of pocket risk is much higher but the profits are also much higher. To do so it is important to either have a complete tool box of skills in marketing, design, web production, illustration (unique illustrative style), writing, copy editing and sales or alternatively be prepared to hire people to do some or most of these tasks for you.

Now that I've finished my tarot (just 22 majors) I'm looking at self-publishing an extremely limited edition of about 5, maybe 10 copies.

Printing copies hasn't been an issue, the coating or laminating is the big roadblock at the moment. I've read through the laminating posts and the hot vs cold laminating isn't too clear as to usage vs longevity, so I'm still running some test copies.

A few printers I've looked at (a couple of local printers and a few on-line) seem to have very reasonable set-up/printing costs for black and white (I expect full color would be a lot more), it just seems that the price escalates very quickly for cutting, laminating and really jumps up for cutting rounded corners.

The "rule" in printing seems to be the more you print the less it costs per unit, which translates into more money you have to pay up front, but that is probably the way to go for large production runs as it would be a lot more cost-effective than having to go back for a second or third time.

Of course, there are many small production tarots out there that use neither a coating, lamination or rounded corners but I suppose that also depends on how often it would expect to be used and your particular aesthetic.

I've also found nice matching material to make custom bags and instead of the ubiquitous box I'm designing something a little different for the packaging

Since I'm doing a very small run it does open up a whole range of possibilities that just wouldn't be practical or cost-effective for something mass produced. I'm even working on a design for a OOAK, "special item" to go with each deck that one doesn't usually associate with Tarot

Pamela said:

If you go with a publisher you will make a lot less money because they will give you a small percentage of sales (read about licensing) after returns, deductions, etc. (7%-12% or more if you are both author and artist).

Click to expand...

an interesting point. I am no expert in licensing, but have read/heard a bit about it. the one thing that attracted me to licensing was the fact that if I just wanted to get paid for what i did and let someone else do the marketing and sales, then licensing would be a good way to go. this is of course with a good licensing deal, a great business partner (the one you do the deal with ) to make your product a hot commodity and thus you getting a great constant return on the sales for the rest of your life (or licensing time).

need more research on this.

@HudsonGray, i believe you are in Ontario, Canada? if so, i will be in touch with you if you don't mind, re: printing resources over there.

Actually I'm in Milwaukee, WI. You can email me, no problem!

HudsonGray said:

Actually I'm in Milwaukee, WI. You can email me, no problem!

Click to expand...

LOL!! why on earth did I think you were in Canada? Did i read that somewhere? on your posts about printers maybe?

oh well.

I am in the process of designing a new deck and will be going to take the self publish route.

For my specification, a print run of 500 decks is the smallest amount that hits [for me] all the correct financials.

I intend to self distribute and self promote firstly in the UK, and later to North America (if all has gone well).

Whilst it might take longer without a publisher, I am not beholden to them, and will not suffer from the possibilty of having the deck rejected or returned unopened.

Having our own retail outlet helps, as the worst case scenario is selling them all ourself. However I am quietly confident that this deck will become a good seller..... time will tell

Congratulations PsychicLord

I once thought I would only sell my decks in the US, but opening it up to international buyers was a godsend for me.

And there is nothing wrong with selling 500 decks yourself, because then you don't have to lose any money. Many companies who would sell for you, are going to want to buy them at wholesale cost. If you have that worked into your cost, then you will be fine.