Publishing Tips

publishing your cards

Hi

There's sooooo many of you that have designed your own tarot cards/ still in the middle of it, but have you thought about getting them published??
Have you??did you?

I would love to know!

Funky

well, im making a buffy deck...i think a tarot deck would fit in well with the kind of..theme of products (?)

but i dont think I'd be interested in publishing it...i'll use it for myself and other people's readings, i think if the company that do the products for buffy were interested they'd take the idea and the base design for the cards and just get someone to re do em all and screw me over. heh. cynical much?

but i wouldnt trust them....and really, this is just a kind of..practice deck to make, that i can work easily on.

Wow...what s/he said...word ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Really...I'm doing a Harry Potter deck, and tarot also seems to fit into a line of products for that one (they have a potions class kit for kids, tarot cards could be the divination class kit)...but this is my first deck, I'm cynical as well about being screwed over, just want to get a feel for designing cards this time, plus I don't really feel like going through all the work and red tape it'd probably take to get them published.

Hi

I think that there are some Harry Potter tarot cards already out......sorry.

Don't let it put you off re: big Co's stealing your idea, just make sure tou copyright everything before you send it off. But i know what you mean.

I knew someone who had a really good card game and it took him 2 years to do it and in the end he didn't bother taking it to a publishers or games Co. because he just thought that someone will just take all credit for his ideas, design and everything.

Go on give it a go!

I still havn't started my cards but I sure will take them to a publishers after all the hard work.

Good luck anyway!!

When I first started working seriously on Major Tom's tarot I thought about publishing.... somehow during the creation process it didn't seem so important so I decided I would not.

I suppose it's about reward for your efforts.

I've found the transformative nature of the tarot deck creation process to be worth more to me than all the money in the world.

Having said that - it might be fun to make a deck for publication...lol

Oh yeah the money helps but that's not the main reason why I want to do it.

For me it's something that i've been thinking about for years and never had the time to do it, but know I've nothing to stop me. I now it will take some time too. It's just a self rewarding thing to do + I've quite creative.

How long did it take you Major Tom and what sort of process did you go through?


Funky

Funkpuss:

My ex-wife (a good friend and an artist) keeps encouraging me to publish my deck, but I have reservations about doing so.

For one thing, I'm very much an amateur artist, and when I look at some of the new decks like, for instance, the Vertigo, by the great professional artist Dave McKean, I feel really intimidated about putting my stuff out in front of the world and saying "look at this." On top of that, my deck is weird: 74 cards instead of 78; French suit signs (hearts, clubs, etc.) instead of the usual Italian ones.

I'm not unhappy with my cards; they express my conception of tarot perfectly. And I got what I wanted -- a serviceable deck of my own creation that I can use.

As for money, I think even for people who are really artistically good, publishing a tarot deck is probably a money-losing proposition, because there are so many out there already.

I'd like to see your cards, and I would like to be able to post mine, one at a time when relevant situations arise, here on this forum.

Dave B
(Catboxer)

Hi catboxer,

I know what you mean bout drawing skills, I'm a designer/clarvoyant but my drawing skills are very poor, but there are ways around it. You don't have to be good at drawing, it's just developing your own style. Don't be put off by other cards that you have seen, just make yours different.

I'm still working my ideas for my cards, which has taken long enough!! I think it will take me a few years, once I get my finger out.

Just remember you must of seen some very poor cards and wondered to yourself how ut they manage to get their work published, when you know that you could do much better. I'm not putting other artists down but, you should know what I mean and as I said I'm not at all good at drawing. May be you should find other ways of expressing your work. ie stencils, tracing, abstact art, computers, photograpy etc.

Also I would need about £10,000 to get them printed or Icould go to a publishers but I know that they would want to change a few things just down to personal choice rather than the markerting point.
Go for it!
Funky

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Funky

well...if one DID want to publish a deck, how would they go about it? who would they send it to, and how?