Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

I can certainly understand that.  Like, it would be too weird to have them 
show up in a Burger King commercial, for example.  Or floor wax.
  

    

Donna, how did it feel the first time you saw your own work somewhere like a
bookstore?
  

    
You want to know the truth? Exciting, yet a bit disappointing.
I tend to dream big. Life doesn't get too close on most occasions. And
since I've been a graphic designer for 25 years, with artwork up on
billboards, etc., a little bookstore exposure didn't make that much of
a dent on the old public exposure graph.

Back to Linda's question. I'm currently learning serigraphy and fabric
surface treatments. I may take a few of the most popular compositions
and convert them into limited edition prints, hand-printed/painted
pillows, and other affordable art items.
  

    
Lamp shades!

Donna, waaaay back there I asked you about printers.  I'm gonna ask
again -- what's your favorite high-end, cost is no object, printer? 
And what's your favorite low-end printer?

And do you do your own color profiles or do you pay someone to do them
for you?
  

    

Are you talking about hardware, Patrizia?  I got the impression from 
Donna's original response that she thought you were talking about printing 
services.
  

    
Buy an Iris proofer if you have the money. Otherwise, I'm pretty happy
with my Epson Stylus 3000 inkjet printer. But, I'm no expert either.
I'm willing to live as far from the bleeding edge of technology as
industrial survival will allow.
  

    
I think that I answered the question above about printers, and I thought 
you were talking about people who print rather than machines you buy.

As for me-- when I first got the printed book back from the printer I 
thought it looked great.  I was just surprised that it didn't have lots of 
bells and whistles and a peculiar iridescent glow that I thought in my 
imagination it had.  It looked VERY similar to the sample copy that we had 
made, just better.

Now, for me, my supreme happiness comes when I see the book on a table, 
and people pick it up, start looking through it, and start reading through 
it with a little bit of excitement that it had sparked their interest (or 
when they look through and recognize something "Ah, the Crescent Park 
Carousel!  I haven't been there in years!"

I also like to look the book up in the library, and see that it's been 
taken out!  That's a rush!
  

    

Last night my wife and I had the great pleasure to see Adam's phenomenal
Flea Circus in person.   For those of you who have the good fortune to be on
the East Coast, I URGE you not to miss it when it comes to a town near you.
I have so many questions i don't know where to start.  I guess I'll be
chronological:  Adam, where did the hawking aspect of the show come from?
It does a terrific job of setting hte tone, loosening up the crowd and
clearly gives you an opportunity to get into the flow, assess the group and
soften them up.
  

    
Nope, I was shamelessly milking Donna's expertise for product reviews!
  

    
This is really grist for a different interview -- you know, when I write 
my flea circus book.... (but what the heck!)

I used to do a different opening to the show.  It was much more of a 
silent clown opening.  I'd be hanging out near the flea circus (going 
behind it, etc.)  Like a silent clown/mad scientist.  There were all these 
signs that I kept on putting up that said "3 minutes to the big show" "2 
minutes to the big show" "30 seconds" "20 seconds"  etc.  until "the show 
is beginning."  Then I'd do my lecture about fleas, and then turn over the 
last sign that said "The Show has begun."

I decided it was preparing people to see a different show, not my show.  
So I wanted to try something different.  I thought to myself that when you 
go to see the flea circus, there should be memorabilia.  And 
so I created some, not quite knowing if people would buy stuff after they've already 
paid their admission. 

As I've done my show, that part of the show has expanded.  I've got more 
merchandise, I have little bits, etc.  I kind of stumbled on a truism that 
if you haven't purchased the flea circus memorabilia, (.10 for a program) 
you really haven't been to the show.  And the incessant hawking gets you 
right into the circus mood.

People come to the show to be bamboozled into buying stuff.  So i sell 
them stuff.

You can see most of what I have for sale at
 
<http://www.trainedfleas.com/merch.html>

When I was in Brazil at the International Clown Festival, people were 
talking about my character in the show as being quintessentially American, 
a hustling guy who would sell you his mother if he thought he could, and 
then forget to give you the change.

I want to give off that feeling, but in a way that is never threatening.  
I don't want you to think that I am ripping you off.  I want you to see me 
try to rip you off in a way that makes you want to be ripped off.

(Ripping off is the wrong word-- swindling might be a better word.  Or 
bamboozling.  Or hornswaggling.)
  

    

Hornswaggling is good.  How did the educational piece come about?
  

    
The educational piece was always part of the show.

I wanted to make sure that there was an educational part of the show, and 
I had done so much fascinating historical research about fleas that it 
had to get in there. And what do people know about fleas?  Not much.  I 
decided to educate them.

Originally, my concept that it wouldn't be a "book of fleas" but rather 
kind of a charted presentation that would fit on the "blackboard" that 
hides the show in the beginning  (Currently it has the sign "Shhh... The 
fleas are sleeping.")

We were discussing what it should be.  Dennis Hylnsky, the man who 
made all of the props for the show (including the suitcase/table 
that everything happens on) and Jaime Murphy, the illustrator of the book 
and the painter of the painting on the outside of the flea circus 
case.  We had sketched out what some of the pages should be.

Jaime came in to a production meeting and said  "I  don't know if you'll 
like this, but I think it should be a book."  And  she showed it to me, 
this canvas  book that she had made.  

I thought it was great.  My only reservations were that the pictures 
would be too small.  But what the heck, it's a flea circus! And I know is 
that I want my collaborators to be happy.  So I  said, It'll work!  And 
then I made it work.  

In retrospect, the book is SO MUCH BETTER than a presentation might have 
been.  It's classy and Victorian and write on the money.  The 
lesson here-- Choose your  collaborators well, and then let them do their 
work.  Work with what they give you.

The book was built, and then I wrote the lecture for it.  They don't 
exactly co-incide, which I think is great. 

The lecture has a nice flow to it.
  

    
Are you guys interested in this?  Maybe it would be better to port this 
stuff (on the flea circus) to a separate topic?  That way if you want to 
read about the book, you can, but you don't have to read about the flea 
circus....
  

    
Back to the book.

I checked our Amazon page:


Our Amazon Sales Rank is now 1,477,513!

On December 10 it was 1,705,232. We jumped 227,719 books in a fell swoop.

If this keeps up we might be in the top million by year's end!  :o)
  

    

Something to aspire to!
  

    

Adam--do sales pick up because of personal appearances?  In other words, did
you sell any at the Puppet Theater?
  

    
They generally do-- like for example at the booksignings during Xmas we 
would sell around 20-25 copies.  (At one Walden's they sold 50 copies!)

At the puppet Showplace we didn't sell any.  :o(

Combination of the fact that the book is not related to puppetry at all, 
and I forgot to pitch it during my show!
  

    
Oh yes, and the fact that most people there had nothing to do with Rhode 
Island.

I bet that if we had the MASS A TO Z book, and I had pitched it, it would 
have done better.

Just the simple but truthful fact about Regional books-- outside of your 
region nobody cares much. Inside your region, you are a valuable player.
  

    
I just called most of our accounts to see how they were doing.  Picked up 
6 re-orders, with a promise of more re-orders in the next few weeks.

That's 85 books!
  

    

Refresh my memory.  Is there a rundown of who your big customers are?
  

    
Why David, our biggest (and most important) customer is YOU!  :O)



You can see who sells our books at

<http://www.riatoz.com/stores.html>

We're also available on-line at our website, or through Amazon.com

We've got one Walden's store that has bought over 150 books so far!

We've got a lot of stores that have reordered...  

Probably about half of the 65 stores that carry us have re-ordered (some 
multiple times)
  

    
Big customers, heh. We weigh and measure them before we sell them the
book. We charge the petite people full price. With each increase in
height and weight, we discount the price a bit. "Hey, you're huge!
Here, have a free book."
  

    

I was thinking of going on a diet, but now I guess I won't!
  

    
Be careful though-- if  you get a free book, we charge you for the crayons 
(and you have to buy double, cuz we KNOW you are going to eat half of 
them!)
  

    

I only eat the red ones.  And well, okay, the purple ones.  But that's 
all!