List Tarot Deck Publishers?

HudsonGray

The trick with finding how many are actually interested is in locating WHERE these potential buyers are.

If you stick with just tarot bulletin boards, you've reached a limited number of people. If you find ethnic bulletin boards with Native American & Inuit interest, you've gone further.

If you get your website into an art webring that focuses on similar art styles that you use, you've expanded again.

Posting emails to any new age stores listed online can get you more interest (you might have to search by state with the visitors bureau to find them).

It's hard to figure where all the people are who would have an interest in your deck, Ironwing, but thinking outside the box widens the customer base.
 

Ironwing

market research

I guess I sounded more negative than I intended. A local women's bookstore has agreed to carry the deck/book on consignment. They already carry some tarot decks as well as self-published and small-press books. They used to sell my jewelry years ago, and I look forward to working with them again.
I should be able to sell/show/offer readings in a nearby town that has frequent small festivals and lots of art galleries. I would also like to offer a couple of workshops on working with the deck, but still have to find a place. My health limits all this stuff, which is another reason I'd rather put my limited energy into new art projects rather than a heavy marketing effort for 1000 decks.

The deck has accumulated a few avid fans in odd places, mostly people who know nothing about Tarot! It appeals to outdoorsy types (hikers, firefighters, naturalists) but is too dark and earthy for the local urban New Age/shamanic healing crowd.

Lorena
 

HudsonGray

What about the Goth crowd?
 

FearfulSymmetry

Re: market research

Ironwing said:


It appeals to outdoorsy types (hikers, firefighters, naturalists) but is too dark and earthy for the local urban New Age/shamanic healing crowd.

Lorena


How strange. Well, I guess there are all types! It seems to me that earthy and shamanic/new age and pagan would go together but maybe that isn't so? A lot of New Age types are a bit Airy or Watery, aren't they LOL.

I would think your deck would sell far more than 100 copies, but I hear you on not wanting to spend time on marketing.

All I know is that I want a copy, and I think your deck is a very, very positive addition to the tarot tradition. Doing a quick inventory in my head to double check for accuracy, I would say that your deck is the most shamanic out there and the one with the most earth energy. Not to mention that it is beautiful and genuine.

Marie
 

Ironwing

Marie,
Thanks for the kind words. You have hit on the most important thing about the deck for me - it isn't just about shamanism, but comes from within a shamanic perspective and a personal connection with nature. Remaining true to that and keeping it "real" is essential.

Lorena
 

RiccardoLS

I have just been browsing here and there (drifting may be a more accurate word).
Anyway Lo Scarabeo does usually print with three different printers (depending on product, quotations, etc...):
- Carta Mundi
- Modiano http://www.modiano.it/
- Trefl Krakow http://www.trefl.krakow.pl/

We usually do print booklets and tuckboxes locally.
And obviously we do much bigger run (and on more products... we are a repeat customer)...

Anyway for what I have seen the 5.8$ a deck quotation you have received was expensive. I'm afraid I keep myself as much away as I can from money and quotations, so I can't be of more help.

Riccardo
 

HudsonGray

I think Astra ended up going with Delano -- http://www.delanoservice.com/ -- but they had a minimum deck amount required also. And it came with boxes.

Where was that thread that we had a while back where someone mentioned we needed to find a good printer who could do small deck numbers at affordable prices? We need to find someone like that.
 

Astra

HudsonGray said:
Where was that thread that we had a while back where someone mentioned we needed to find a good printer who could do small deck numbers at affordable prices? We need to find someone like that.

Yeah, but. The problem with doing good printing in the first place is that the majority of the costs for the first printing are setup costs - get the proofs right, make sure the dies are correct for the cards and the boxes, etc. Once those are out of the way, doing more, or doing it again, gets substantially cheaper.

For that initial 1,000 order, about half the cost is setup. My worry with a printer who could do small runs at affordable prices would be that it was because they didn't understand production costing, and they wouldn't be around a year or two from now to print another run, having gone broke in the meantime.
 

psychicbody

I wonder if it's worth checking out who prints up those baseball cards they still sell, or those Yu-gi-oh cards, though that one is probably in Japan & you'd have to worry about import fees & such. I did hear Japan can do some amazing color work on the cheap since they have such a huge field of anime going, but getting it across the ocean & shipped to you would be costly.

Still, SOMEONE is printing up game cards and doing a good job of it, they can do tarot cards as well. Might be worth a visit to a comic book or hobby shop to see what the names are printed on the cards

That is not a bad idea, but I dont know if they work with individual authors.
The name of the company that does Magic: The Gathering is Wizards Of The Coast. They might also have something to do with the distribution of Yugi Oh, but their main company I think is Konami. You might also like to check with TSR, who publishes for games like Ravenloft and D&D.