Digital BW, The Print

I made it!

The original post got past me somehow but I would be happy to share a
bit of what I've learned in my 7+ years of running my own greeting card
company full-time (my only source of income I'm proud to say).

Let me preface by saying that every card I've printed in all the years
I've been doing this have been printed on an Epson printer...starting
with the Epson Stylus, then the Epson 800, 850 and currently I'm on my
4th Epson 900. For me, buying new printers and ink was much cheaper than
having the cards printed by a shop. For a couple of reasons...my full
card line has over 300 images in it and there is no way I could afford
to have enough quantity of that many images printed in bulk. The other
reason I continue to self-print is so I can add an image to the line
just as quick as a wink; I can take a shot today and have it up on the
website or in the catalog for sale by tomorrow.

I worked with a paper supplier (not Office Max or Office Depot but a
real supplier) and tested several papers before settling on my current
stock. I use a textured bright white which shows off the sepia as well
as the colorized images very nicely. One big setback was that I
originally was using a translucent envelope which was just
gorgeous...expensive but amazingly beautiful...but when I went national
I found out that some post offices were charging up to 11 cents more to
mail that type of envelope so I ended up going to a solid white envelope
which matches my stock. That was a hard decision because much of the
look of my work was how it looked in the envelope.

Buy your stock in bulk once you decide on what you'll use. I buy
2-4,000--8.5 x 11" sheets at a time. These go to a print shop where they
are scored. After I run them thru my printer I cut them to card size
(4.25 x 11") and fold them very quickly.

My father is my sales rep and within a month of starting my business I
had cards in 78 shops; at the height of my business I had over 400
stores in the US, Canada and Europe carrying my line. Remember, each of
these were printed, cut and folded by me (and my daughter who worked for
me for quite some time)! September 11 hit my shops hard and since
several of my buyers were little mom and pop shops I lost quite a few in
the past couple of years. I still have roughly 250 shops carrying the
line.

I'd like to expand on the selling Dad does and the marketing I do...Dad
(he's retired so this is actually just play for him) and Mom drive to
different towns looking for shops they think might like the cards and
Dad just cold calls the buyer. He's really, really good at what he does
and that type of selling is very natural for him; it is not comfortable
for me. I have only ever approached one store to carry the line and
indeed, they did say yes but it about killed me.

For marketing, what I do is scour magazines and the internet looking for
shops which might be a match for the line; I send them a promo piece
sample, Dad follows up with a phone call and either we have a new shop
or we don't. This takes some coordination and I use the database ACT to
track what I send and when it goes out. It is not uncommon for a buyer
to see my cards in a shop and call asking for information on the cards.

The back of each card has my web address so anyone can look at my stuff;
it has been invaluable in gaining me new clients.

I do all my shipping via Priority Mail which has never once lost a
package. I like it so much better than UPS because there are fewer forms
to fill out and it's cheaper.

One of the great things that happened as a result of my cards was that I
was picked up by an agent and my images are used for licensing on all
sorts of products from posters and cups and calendars and plates and
books and framed art pieces as well as computer software. That has been
a huge part of what I do with those images.

In the past 2 years I've expanded my photography to include pets and
children and wedding work so I'm not nearly so focused on the cards as I
once was; I still make them but I don't shoot specifically for them like
I once did. I do offer my portrait clients the option to buy cards with
their images on them and I do a killer business at Christmas.

You are certainly welcome to have a romp around my web site and I'd be
happy to answer any questions you may have.
Lea
www.whinydogpress.com



----- Original Message -----
From: <houston.spencer@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 4:41 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Re: direction about greeting cards


Maria:

(Long post follows.  Forgive me if any of this has been covered already;
I'm a few days behind in my e-mail. Also, please forgive any of this
that
is so obvious that I deserve to be slapped.)

All of Stan's observations about costs are right.  You've discussed
printing your own cards on inkjet and contracting with a greeting card
company.  But there's another option that sounds like it would make more
sense given your goals.  That option is to self-publish in small
printing
runs.  By small, I'm talking about printing 4-10 different image cards
at
750-1000 cards per run. This would give you enough volume, at reasonable
cost, to get started on the art-fair/small shop market. And if you want
to
scale up, that's easy to do at very, very low incremental cost.

A few words of experience if you do go this route:

Price:  Because of high competition in the printing industry, the prices
for doing this kind of run are quite low. You will probably have to
invest
a couple thousand dollars (depending on number of cards, size of run,
number of colours, quality of stock), but your margins will be
reasonable
and, assuming your cards sell, you will easily recover the cost and go
on
to profit.  (How much profit is up to you.)

Quality:  It can vary a *great* deal from print shop to print shop. As
with all craft businesses, get recommendations from other photographers
who have had cards printed.

Quality II - The high end: There are printers that specialize in
high-end
photography reproduction.  Their work is wonderful, and their prices are
high.  Remember, you're publishing greeting cards.  They need to be
beautiful enough to sell and (we hope) touch the receipient, but they
will
more likely end up in the trash than in a frame, so watch your printing
costs.

Quality III - The low end: There are web-based printers with literally
no
human interaction required.  You upload your images to card templates,
and
the cards arrive in the mail a surprisingly short time later. It's
almost
magic! The quality is what it is: sometimes fine, sometimes not.  I've
worked with two of these types of setups, and both were fine for
non-critical work...and the price was extraordinarily reasonable.  One
of
them had quite excellent phone-based customer service. Note, however,
that
these outfits are usually brokers--agents that farm the job out to
various
contract printers--not the printers themselves.  That's not necessarily
a
bad thing; it does, after all, get you a very, very low price if that's
what you need to get started.

Customer service and relationships: If you go this printing route, you
will find your eye for quality develops very, very quickly. I have found
that having a relationship with a good printer (not the sales guy, but
the
*printer*) is very valuable.  You know about your photographs and how
they
should look.  He (usually he) knows his press and how to deliver what
you
want, down to recommending different stocks or approaches.  If you're
going choose a local shop, specifically choose to work with someone you
like and respect.  Printing jobs *can* be a hassle, and you want to be
doing this with someone whom you trust, and with whom you can chuckle
when
the first proof comes back looking shocking.

Color: Why on earth would you care about colour? You may find that your
work produces well in a single ink color (ie black). I haven't.  After
having tried everything from single ink to full process color, I now
work
almost entirely in duotone for press output. This is very much personal
preference and is all about how you want your final product to
look...and
what cost trade-offs you want to make. Working in duo- and tri-tone has
only reinforced the above comment about the value of your relationship
with a good printer.

Design: If you've got a good eye for design, by all means design the
cards
yourself.  Don't forget back-side branding, copyright etc.  Designing a
card that conveys that feeling that it's a piece of art--vs Hallmark and
the like--is a fun challenge.

Size:  The size of your card (by which I mean shape and dimensions) is
an
important design element, but it's also critical to something else:
cost.
*Card* size and shape, per se, has only tiny influence on cost:
everything
gets printed on large sheets and is cut when it comes off the back of
the
press anyway, so choosing a custom size won't have much, if any, cost
impact. BUT you need to use a standard size *envelope*, or your custom
envelope costs will kill your margin.

Stock:  Get recommendations on stock from your printer unless you
already
know what you want.  Choose a stock that suits your images (color and
weight). You're freed to some extent from the inkjet
coated/uncoated/smooth/velvet/matt/gloss/ tyranny, but you enter a world
of even more options (some of which have similar names--eg "coated"--but
different meanings, so watch your step). Furthermore, you need to keep
in
mind the card/envelope match.  Make sure the stock you choose goes well
with a readily available--ie, inexpensive--envelope size and color.

The business you're in: I'm probably talking down to you, here, and, if
so, I apologize in advance.  But this is a point that bears making, just
in case you haven't thought about it.  When you get into selling
greeting
cards, it's certainly a way of selling your photography, but go in with
your eyes open that you're getting into the business of selling greeting
cards.  The two can live in a very happy marriage, but trudging around
trying to sell your cards is time you're not spending making
photographs.
That said, if you can make money selling your images this way, more
power
to you. I'm all for people getting out and making their living (or part
of
it) from their passion.

I worry, looking back over this long screen of text, that I'm making
this
sound scary.  It's not. I jumped in with a 4-card 1000 sheet run a few
years ago, having no idea what I was doing.  They turned out nicely,
were
popular enough that I never got nervous again about recovering print
costs, and quality has only improved with each bit of knowledge accrued
in
successive runs.

So, if you've got the energy to sell 'em once you've got 'em, then go
get
'em!  And leave your inkjet to do beautiful, but high cost, master
prints
and limited editions that you sell at high prices beside your cards at
the
art fairs.

I'm surprised that Lea (from whinydogpress) hasn't piped up on this
topic.
 Are you tuned in, Lea?

Cheers. --h
...on a gobsmackingly beautiful day in Paris


* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Message: 12
   Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 12:00:23 -0700
   From: sierra <artistasierra@...>
Subject: Re: direction

Stan,

Thank you for your response.

My ultimate goal would be to be published by a greeting card company.
Of
course, I don't know the pros and cons to that, so...  My plan was just
to
start going shop to shop and possible art fairs and sell them on a small
scale at first.

Is there a better site to explore the options available and pros/cons to
creating income with our photography.  The only other thing that I know
about is stock photog.  Does publishing our photog. legally prohibit us
from
doing any kind of art exhibits in the future?  Is this the site to
continue
to ask questions like this?

Maria




Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, and other resources
as they are often being updated.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint

If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to
unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this
same page.

Please follow these basic guidelines:
- As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to
keep them short.
- Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or flames.
Hostile, aggressive or argumentative users may be removed from the
membership without notice.
- Keep your posts and threads related to the group topic of digital B&W
printing. Users who persistently make off-topic posts may be removed
from the membership.
- By posting on this forum you agree to abide by the group rules and
guidelines, and to abide by the actions and decisions of the group Owner
and Moderators. See "Group Topic, Rules and Guidelines" in the Files
section:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/

BY PARTICIPATING IN AND/OR POSTING MESSAGES TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT
YAHOO! GROUP YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THE "OWNER" AND
"MODERATORS" OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO
YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR
EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF
PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF THE
"OWNER" AND "MODERATORS" OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP HAVE BEEN
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE
OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; (ii)
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA;
(iii) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE DIGITAL BW, THE
PRINT YAHOO GROUP; OR (iv) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE DIGITAL BW,
THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP.

Yahoo! Groups Links