{"id":11873,"date":"2020-11-06T10:30:49","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T17:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11873"},"modified":"2020-11-05T16:34:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-05T23:34:14","slug":"how-makers-and-creators-might-price-their-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11873","title":{"rendered":"How Makers and Creators Might Price Their Work"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"King

Aquarian Tarot, David Palladini, 1979.<\/p><\/div>\n

When I graduated from college, I owned three Tarot decks: the Rider-Waite\/Pamela Coleman Smith deck (of course), the Marseilles deck (for history), and David Palladini’s Aquarian Tarot (well, it fit my personal aesthetic at the time).<\/p>\n

This is fun,<\/em> I thought, I should collect more Tarot decks.<\/em><\/p>\n

And then the Tarot market exploded with publishers like Llewellyn, Lo Scarabeo, US Games, and a bunch of others coming out with Tarot or Tarot-inspired divination decks<\/a>. I would have needed another bedroom \u2014 and a lot of money \u2014 to create the collection.<\/p>\n

But it’s all good. In the last year I’ve contributed to crowd-funding for two: the\u00a0American Renaissance\u00a0<\/em>deck<\/a>, which is still in the works, and the Mushroom Tarot.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"

A Tarot cloth promoting the Mushroom Tarot.<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the premiums from the Mushroom Tarot was a bandana \u2014 or Tarot cloth \u2014\u00a0 with the slogan, “In the Name of the Hyphae<\/a>, the Spore, and the Holy Host.” That may go instead nto my mushrooom-hunting gear. Watch for it on the other blog<\/a> next August.<\/p>\n

So people are making their own decks, and that is wonderful, but how do you decide the production numbers and how to do you price them?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For that you should read “Show Me the Numbers: Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing of a Tarot\/Oracle Deck,<\/a>” by Benebell Wen. There is a video and additional text, and I think this difficult topic needs text! It’s not the fun, creative part, but it is essential to think about. (And I guess you need merch like T-shirts and Tarot cloths too.)<\/p>\n

Kind of related:<\/strong> Kristen Blizzard, a Colorado foraging-and-cooking blogger, and her husband recently finished a book, Wild Mushrooms: A Cookbook and Foraging Guide.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

They were working with a publisher \u2014 they weren’t book authors, yet.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ultimately we decided to jump in blind and figure it out because\u2026 mushrooms! Writing a book was never something either of us longed to put on our resumes, yet in the long run I\u2019m glad we did.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So there was research and cooking and writing and photography. You may have taken hundreds of photos for your blog, but food photography is a speciality \u2014 she has advice on that too. Pricing and press runs will be someone else’s decision though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I graduated from college, I owned three Tarot decks: the Rider-Waite\/Pamela Coleman Smith deck (of course), the Marseilles deck (for history), and David Palladini’s Aquarian Tarot (well, it fit my personal aesthetic at the time). This is fun, I thought, I should collect more Tarot decks. And then the Tarot market exploded with publishers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,31,78,7,159,12],"class_list":["post-11873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-art","tag-mushrooms","tag-photography","tag-publishing","tag-tarot","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-35v","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8366,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8366","url_meta":{"origin":11873,"position":0},"title":"Thinking How the Tarot Smuggled Paganism to the Present","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In my twenties, the Tarot was about the most \"occult\" thing around that I could bring out in public settings. I learned to read the cards semi-competently and had some adventures thereby. When I made it through an evening of reading for casual strangers in a nightclub, I figured that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"esotericism\"","block_context":{"text":"esotericism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=esotericism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=soutrocknatub-20&l=am2&o=1&a=0715645722","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10222,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10222","url_meta":{"origin":11873,"position":1},"title":"A North American Tarot Deck","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 11, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"This would make a nice bookend to the American Renaissance Tarot \u2014 Emi Brady's North American Tarot. For more than a decade, Denver artist and printmaker Emi Brady toyed with the idea of her own tarot card deck. She \u201cwasn\u2019t ready\u201d until more recently. \u201cTechnically, I wasn\u2019t ready and I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpr-swolf_brady-tarot_dsc6869.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpr-swolf_brady-tarot_dsc6869.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpr-swolf_brady-tarot_dsc6869.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/cpr-swolf_brady-tarot_dsc6869.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14102,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14102","url_meta":{"origin":11873,"position":2},"title":"Do You Remember Astro Dice?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 11, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Because I am now taking a formal Tarot course, I decided to gather up the various decks scattered around the house. In a bookcase cubby hole with two different decks I found a lidded plastic box containing Astro Dice. Like new! \"The powerful symbolism of Astrology is combined with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"divination\"","block_context":{"text":"divination","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=divination"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/astro-dice.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8581,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=8581","url_meta":{"origin":11873,"position":3},"title":"A Haitian Take on the Rider-Waite Tarot Deck","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 18, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Members of a Haitian artists' group are re-creating the Tarot designs of Pamela Coleman Smith, otherwise known as the Rider-Waite Deck. Photographed by Alice Smeets, they are calling it the Ghetto Tarot. They have lots of machetes to substitute for swords. Information on crowd-funding and purchase here.","rel":"","context":"In \"Haiti\"","block_context":{"text":"Haiti","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=haiti"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/nine_of_cups_tarot_465_465_353_int-300x228.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12961,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12961","url_meta":{"origin":11873,"position":4},"title":"The Woman Who Invented the Minor Arcana","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 30, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Reading a new article on Pamela Coleman Smith, the artist responsible for what is often called the \"Waite deck\" among Tarot users, this popped out at me: Tarot has been around since early 15th-century Italy , spun off from traditional playing cards. The 78 cards are split into two groups\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"art\"","block_context":{"text":"art","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/two-of-swords-176x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13945,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13945","url_meta":{"origin":11873,"position":5},"title":"A ‘Cookbook’ for Tarot","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was in college and learning to cook, I looked at a lot of cookbooks -- books owned by my friends who were \"foodies\" avant la lettre. But the trouble with cookbooks is that they were one self-contained recipe after another. \"What I need,\" I thought, \"was a 'process'\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Tarot\"","block_context":{"text":"Tarot","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=tarot"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/wildermuth-peoples-guide-to-tarot.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11873"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11885,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11873\/revisions\/11885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}