Archive for January 2012
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Featured Product of the Month Contest – February 2012
No comments · Posted by Jenna in Featured Product of the Month
February’s featured product is our anodized aluminum scales! Lots of folks have requested that this be a featured product so we can’t wait to see what you have up your sleeves.
Never worked with scales before? Get your feet wet by downloading our FREE PDF instructions for Shaggy Scales!
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
*NOTE: the submission process changed as of January 2012*
Make a project which primarily uses our featured product. The project can most definitely use other rings and components, but the featured product should really be the star of the piece. Please see the complete rules and details below for more information about qualifications.
Take a picture of your project and submit it using our official Featured Product Contest form (link below.) You may post the piece online somewhere and provide us with a link, or upload it directly in the form. You will be asked to provide your name and an email address we can use to contact you in case anything goes wrong with your submission—or if you are the winner of the contest!
GO TO THE SUBMISSION FORM
Submissions are accepted between the 1st and 15th of every month and are limited to 2 per person.
Get Votes! Submissions will close on the 15th of each month at which point the B3 Staff will choose our favorites. The top entries will be eligible for voting through a survey which we will post to our blog. If you are one of the finalists, feel free to share the link with friends via email, Facebook, Twitter or any other means.
Voting will close on the last day of the month.
We will award the top voted finalist each month with a $25 B3 Gift Certificate and will feature YOUR project in a special blog post and possibly even future B3 ads to inspire fellow chainmaillers all over the world.
Complete contest rules and details: Submissions are limited to 2 per person and must use the featured product of the month as determined by Blue Buddha Boutique. The project is not required to be made from Blue Buddha Boutique rings, however any winning projects that use primarily rings from another supplier or rings made by the artist will not be eligible for posting on our blog or use in our ads to prevent false advertising. Pieces do not have to be specially created for the contest but should be no more than 12 months old. Current employees and interns of Blue Buddha Boutique are not eligible for this contest. Finalists are chosen by Blue Buddha Boutique and voted upon anonymously by the public to determine a winner. Submissions may be disqualified at the discretion of Blue Buddha Boutique if they are deemed inappropriate in any way. If a winner does not claim their prize within 15 days of notification, the second place winner will be awarded the prize.
Mailler and B3 community member, Tracy K.B., posted this photo to our wall on Facebook a few days ago and we just had to share with everyone here on our blog. She and a bunch of mailler friends get together to work on chainmaille projects and enjoy some yummy food, so she thought she’d make jump rings – out of jello!
We love extra detail of labeling the bags with the size and stats. Just such a cute and creative idea, Tracy!
chainmaille · funny · jello jigglers · jump rings · snacks
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Publishing Your Crafty Project – Part 2: Crafty Books
No comments · Posted by Jenna in Business
In part two of our “Publishing Your Crafty Project” posts, Rebeca addresses what it’s really like to publish your own book. If you’re thinking about publishing your own crafty book, this is a must read.
Read more in the post below and download the FREE PDF for an in-a-nutshell comparison of self-publishing vs. using a publisher.
Publishing Your Crafty Book
By Rebeca Mojica
Writing a Book
Writing a craft book is no joke. It is a labor of love. The chances of you getting rich, or even earning a decent amount of money, from your book are next to none.
The cold, hard truth
The average book in America sells fewer than 5,000 copies. According to one source, of the titles on the shelves in retail stores, 93% never sell more than 1000 copies in their lifetime. Some of the books that have spent weeks on the New York Times bestseller list don’t even sell more than 50,000 copies.
Most new writers only earn 1.5-8% of the cover price for each book sold. (Note that percentages can vary for the same book, depending on if the book was sold through Amazon, through the publisher’s book club, etc.). Do the math—this is not a lot of money for potentially 60, 100, 250+ hours worked. For small craft books, if the publisher pays an advance, the advance may only be $1,000. The book might need to go to a second printing for the author to begin to receive any royalties at all … and the majority of books do not have a second print run.
So after all of this, why would anyone want to publish a book? Well, it certainly can open doors and will greatly enhance your credibility as an artist/instructor. It is deeply satisfying to tackle such a large project and have the wonderful feeling of accomplishment that comes from writing a book. It can be thrilling to see your name in print.
For more info, see The 10 Awful Truths about Book Publishing and Book Industry Statistics.
Before you write your book
You need to have a market for your book so that the book will sell. If you are using a publisher, you must prove there is a market for your book. Your book proposal should list all the reasons why and how your book will sell.
To build enough influence to sell a book, you’ll need to establish yourself as an expert in your field. A great way to do this is by having single projects published in magazines, as already explained. Have a website where you engage your students and readers. Teach classes. Build your newsletter mailing list. Do whatever it takes to get your name out there as often as possible.
Be prepared to similarly promote your book. Set up a website devoted to your book. Write blog posts and other articles promoting your book. Create press releases for your book.
When you are ready, prepare a book proposal. Even if you are self-publishing a book proposal can be a useful tool to help keep your focus as you write. Your proposal should include a complete outline of your book, the total number of pages, at least one sample project and/or chapter, biographical information as well as a complete analysis of the market: What other books exist on this topic? How will your book stand out? Why will people buy your book? How large is the market for your book? Is the market growing or shrinking? A great resource to help you through this process is Write the Perfect Book Proposal: 10 That Sold and Why by Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman.
If you want to use a publishing house, send your proposal to multiple publishers. With any luck, you’ll hear back within a few months, and with a lot of luck, you’ll have your pick of publishers. Contact authors that have used those publishers to see what their experiences were. Some publishers will request the book be fewer pages, or you change your focus slightly. It is up to you if you want to change your original vision in order to finalize your contract.
If you are self-publishing, some places you may wish to check out include authoragency.com, Xlibris.com, iUniverse.com and “1stBook-publishing.”
Download part 2 of the FREE “Publishing Your Crafty Project” PDF for an in-a-nutshell comparison of the process of self-publishing vs. using a publisher!
Last week, Rebeca spoke at the Chicago Craft Mafia’s January Craft Racket about getting your work published in magazines and collaborative books, as well as publishing your own crafty book. We hear questions about this all the time (in fact it was the subject of one of our first “Ask an Artist” posts) so we though we’d share the resources she presented at this meeting and open up our blog to comments and questions from maillers and other crafters about getting work published.
Below is part one of a two-part series. This post, along with its FREE downloadable PDF, focuses on getting your work into magazines and multi-authored collaborative books. Tomorrow’s post will tackle publishing your own book … stay tuned!
Publishing Your Crafty Project
By Rebeca Mojica and Lindsay Obermeyer
Getting published in magazines and collaborative (multi-authored) books. Having a single project published in a magazine or book is a great way to get your feet wet with publishing. Obviously it requires far less work and commitment than writing an entire solo-book, and you can get your name out in front of thousands of people who otherwise might never hear of you.
Finding a magazine or book:
There are far too many trade magazines to list here as each industry—beading, woodworking, felting, quilting—has its own publication, and often, multiple publications within the industry. You know your craft well, and so you should know which magazine(s) are appropriate. Some of the biggest craft book publishers include C&T Publishing, Interweave Press, Kalmbach Publishing, Krause, Lark, North Light, Potter Craft, Storey Publishing, Visual. There are dozens more. Go to the bookstore or visit the Crafts & Hobbies section of Amazon.com to get the names of different publishing companies that might be a good fit for your project.
Magazines usually have “submission guidelines” pages on their websites. Sometimes they’ll also include an editorial calendar. Book publishers often post “call for submissions” on their websites. See the full PDF dowload below for tips on the submission process!
Download part 1 of the FREE “Publishing Your Crafty Project” PDF for a handy checklist of of what to do before and during the submission process as well as more information about providing supplies for your project.
For more on advice on running your craft business, visit ChicagoCraftMafia.com!
Those of you who are on our mailing list have been invited to participate in a few secret sales over the past few months. We started doing these as as way to offer some of our inventory that is not part of our regular stock but that we know our customers could use to create some awesome things. Because these items are very limited (often we have just one or two bags of rings available) they sell out in a flash leaving lots of folks in the dust, disappointed that everything is sold out before they have a chance to shop.
We want to keep offering these items, but we don’t want these sales to be a source of frustration for our customers.
One way we intend to improve these sales is by giving advanced notice of the date and time the sale will release to everyone on the mailing list about a week in advance. That way, people won’t miss out just because they didn’t check their email soon enough on the day of the sale. We started doing this with our Maillers’ Choice kits and it seems like it helped last time.
We would also like to open up the suggestion box to you all. What do you feel we could do to help keep these sales fun and fair and limit your frustration with the über-speedy sell-outs (other than creating an inventory cloning device, that is *wink*.) Take a moment to fill out the 1 question survey by following the link below. Thank you in advance for your thoughts!
Complete the 1-Question Survey
