I was thinking of making a bunch of artwork (each picture will be in full color, and have a black and white version, the only thing being in color in the BW version is the embedded sigil, but can be made BW if requested) of various spirits.
Now, I’m having trouble deciding if they should be large enough to put as wall posters (which would take more time, and be more expensive, but look much more badass!) or have them as regular 8.5 x 11 paper size, or maybe smaller (Which falls in with the original idea of them being sold as “altar accessories”).
I would be selling them as high res digital files to also cut down on time and cost… And that eliminates the worry of the artwork being messed up, stained, torn, etc during shipping.
if you did them as files that’d also offer some flexability in terms of size as they can be resized depending on the wants/needs of the person printing them (oviously there’s limits if you want to maintain quality but you have a pretty nice range before that’s an issue), but it would be harder to actually charge for them since once someone has them they can very easily be shared.
Sounds great!! Why not make the images to the highest file-size & resolution possible, then give people a choice of sizes - Cafe Press and other print-on-demand servces do things like that I think, you can buy the image you want in all sizes from A0 to postcard size, I’ve bought quite a few things that way.
A4 is my preferred size because frames are easy to find and they fit into most domestic settings, so if you only have one choice that would be the one I personally think is best, but I’m not sure if that’s true for everyone who might be a customer.
Thanks, and yea I did worry about people ripping them off, but that happens with just about any form of art, especially with music too. Even if I do put a watermark on the preview, like you said once someone actually buys it, its out.
I might be in luck depending on how that plays out… Unless someone, somehow makes torrents I cant really see too many people sharing it themselves after buying it… unless its for a friend?.. because first thing they would feel is “why the hell am I paying for it and you get it for free! screw that!” you know?..
And that’s what I planned to do if it were digital, draw them large first, that way even if it’s small, its still crisp, and there’s more options
the cards idea is pretty good, also then you could package sets for different things and do a bulk-buy discount type deal, like a pack for healing related, a pack for money related, on top of the option to buy the individual card you want to use if you only want 1 sigil.
Once you let the digital file out you lose all control of it and it will be hosted and re-hosted on the types of sites that offer “free wallpapers” etc. as a way to draw people to their site and (hopefully) click on ads - if you offered hard copy through a physical print-on-demand service, like Cafe Press and there are a few others (and also you can get Tarot decks printed, I looked into that a while ago) people are just buying a product and are extremely unlikely, for the reasons TieguaiLi states, to bother scanning it themselves and uploading the file.
Don’t sell yourself short and throw your hard work out to the sharks!
Once you have some made, send a review copy to respected occultists who run busy blogs and YT channels and ask them if they’d consider giving you a mention and a review, that way you’ll reach far more people than a simple advert. Cross-promote/review other people’s stuff too, don’t be a dead-end street or people will lose interest.
Join and post on forums that allow advertising and/or a link in your signature (this forum allows a link in your profile) and be reasonably active on those, maybe write a bunch of posts and hit the forums every few weeks plus start your own blog and update it when possible - same with Facebook if you can handle them.
Thanks for all the tips! and you know what? I’m going to entirely focus on putting them in the card format, also for the reasons you said, and thinkng about it, it would be much easier to mass produce and get more from it than say, keeping it as a single drawing
Also you know how the thoth deck comes with a mini booklet giving a brief run down of each card? I think I will include that about each spirit and with each sigil, so people wouldn’t have to strain to find it hidden in the picture too
You could skim reviews online for other existing decks and see what gets the most praise, and the most criticism, and factor that in because it’s feedback from the exact types of people who are your target market, so knowing what they like and dislike is useful.
Find a fabulous and slightly aspirational name for the deck as well, that sets people’s expectation-level for what they’ll achieve with it ahead of time. (Sorry to ramble on, I used to work in marketing and even the best product in the world won’t stand on its own merits if you don’t present it correctly.)
yeah, hype is everything these days. a lot of the most popular products around are actually not even close to being the best ones for the purpose (windows, fender, WoW, perfect examples of hype beating quality).
