Goddess Inspiration Oracle: Iduna

KEYWORDS:
immortality
youth
beauty

The goddess Iduna was renowned for her youthful beauty, and was married to Bragi, the handsome god of poetry. She was reponsible for growing the golden apples of immortality in her enchanted western garden named Appleland; in the stories of King Arthur, Appleland was called Avalon—the idyllic country of immortal life. As keeper of the golden apples, the goddess was reponsible for the well-being of the Norse pantheon.

The Norse people considered apples essential for the continuation of life. Associated with the resurrection, containers of these sacred fruit were placed in graves, perhaps to nurture mortals as they journeyed from one life to the next. The Norse also believed that a soul could be passed from body to body, contained within the flesh of an apple. This suggests the way that we share inspiration—by sharing the fruits of our labors.

Text and art adapted from the Goddess Inspiration Oracle, published by Llewellyn Worldwide. All content © Kris Waldherr 2007. All rights reserved.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Draw strength from Diana, the beloved Roman huntress. Channel your anger wisely with help from the Hawaiian fire goddess Pele. Consult Anuket for prosperity. The Goddess Inspiration Oracle makes it easy for women to tap into the sacred wisdom of these powerful deities.

From Abeona to Zhinu, eighty goddesses from across the globe are represented in this deck. Each card features a striking portrait of a deity, her attributes, and a message inspired by her unique story. It’s an ideal instrument for creating affirmations, sparking creativity, gaining fresh perspectives, and uncovering insights related to health, love, creativity, motherhood, and other issues specific to women. The guidebook offers in-depth descriptions of each goddess, keywords associated with her, and practical suggestions for working with the cards.

Purchase now.
Learn more or try a free reading.

• Filed under goddesses, recent publications, tarot and oracles | No Comments

gallery event today

Quick reminder for those of you in the NYC area: A “Meet the Artists” event is taking place today from 1-2 pm. I will be participating in it, along with 13 other noted illustrators.

Here’s the info:

READ ME A STORY:
an exhibition of extraordinary work by Brooklyn based children’s book illustrators
July 1 - 28, 2007

Meet the Artists Event
Saturday, July 14, 2007 1-2pm

Gallery hours Fri and Sat noon-6pm
or by appointment

RUSH PHILANTHROPIC ARTS FOUNDATION/
Danny Simmon’s CORRIDOR GALLERY
334 Grand Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11238
718-230-5002

DIRECTIONS
subway: G train to Clinton/Washington; C train to Clinton/Washington.

Art and autographed books will be available for purchase.

* * * * * * *

BTW, if you can’t make it today, the exhibition is up for another two weeks. I have four paintings on display, including my Lakshmi painting from The Book of Goddesses and The Goddess Tarot.

• Filed under art and words, the art world | No Comments

publishing 101: small publisher, large publisher

It’s been hot here, NYC hot. Though I imagine NYC hot is related to Florida hot and other types of regional hot, I think NYC hot has a particular uncomfortable steaminess of its own. And it’s not as exciting as it sounds — more related to dew points, too much cement, and not enough trees. It’s even affected Thea. Yesterday, when we were walking, she begged me to take her into a supermarket. She already knows that superior cooling can be found amid the dairy aisle.

Heat or no, I’m trying to keep as focused as possible on the NB*. I am making some progress and have a first draft of the book design (though it is watered with humidity). Thankfully, when I woke this morning, an evening thundershower had worked some magic. And now life is much more comfortable. I can work again without the idée fixe of “I’d like some iced coffee to cool off” running through my brain every five minutes.

And on that note, back to some publishing chat. In a recent post about literary agents, I mentioned that you might not need one in the following circumstances:

1. You’re a children’s book illustrator.

2. You have a book that speaks to a specialized audience: academic, technical presses, literary fiction, and so on.

3. You want to be published by a smaller publishing house.

So, if you’re an emerging author seeking to sell a book, why deal with the vagaries of literary agents and large houses if you can diy it? Which brings me to today’s topic: the advantages and disadvantages of large and small publishing houses.

I’m fortunate to have been published by both large and small houses. Much as I hate to admit the passing of the years, I’ve been a published author for almost two decades. When I first started out way back when, I had the romantic notion of “I only want to work with one publisher. I will be loyal to them. They will be loyal to me. We will publish together forever and win Caldecotts.” (Ah, youth!)

And I was fortunate. My first publisher was my dream publisher, one I’d long wished to work with. But time and three books passed. Reality hit: What if I wanted to do a different type of book than what my publisher could produce? Did I only want to illustrate children’s picture books, as wonderful as they may be?

Whatever I write here is based on my personal experiences. Since much depends on the author, the house, and the book, your mileage may vary. Or, in other words, though I am attempting to generalize, it’s not possible to generalize.

With these caveats, here goes:

SMALL PUBLISHER

Advantages:

~ Often times open to new authors, so easier to break into.

~ Personalized attention. Since they’re only produced a small number of books, they handpick each one carefully. They tend to be more involved with directly promoting each title.

~ Generally speaking, you know who you’re dealing with. With only a handful of editorial forces, you won’t be dealing with a revolving door of personnel — usually the acquiring editor is also the line editor and so on. You won’t be negotiating your way around publishing committees, book cover meetings and so on.

~ Things seem to move faster. Smaller list = easier to schedule books. Less editorial staff = less time “herding cats”, as my mother-in-law would say.

Disadvantages:

~ Lack of financial force. This pertains to your advance (which may be nil) to their ability to properly promote and distribute the book.

~ Lack of distribution. Their sales force may be limited and can only do so much for your book. Or they may be relying on a third party distributor to get your book to market. Unfortunately, these companies have been going belly up of late. (See McSweeney’s for a cautionary tale of how this affects small publishers.)

~ Though you may get personalized attention when promoting your book, they may not be able to pay for a book tour or to advertise your book. Which will affect how widely your book saturates the market.

~ Sometimes there’s just a lack of professionalism — not all small houses, just some. They’re a bit off the publishing mainstream, unaware of what’s going on in the bigger burgs. So things may be done in a “this is how we do it” way that bears little resemblance to industry standards. I’ve seen this especially in contracts from small publishers, which can have some very strange clauses that are not in an author’s interest to endorse.

~ I hate to say this, but I’ve had problems getting paid by small publishers — not all, but some. Royalties are delayed or paid in a casual fashion. And since you’re dealing one-on-one with them, it’s hard to not allow personal feelings get in the way. I mean, people who work in publishing tend to be nice people who are passionate about publishing. They’re not bad, just overextended. But if you want to make a living as an author . . . need I write more?

After writing all this, it must make the pluses and minuses of large publishers implicitly apparent. But just in case, here are some additional points:

LARGE PUBLISHER

Advantages:

~ You are dealing with a well-oiled machine. They know how to publish books and they do it well.

~ You’ll get paid. You’ll get an advance. You’ll be able to support yourself.

~ Superior distribution. A dedicated sales force means that they’ll also know how to place your book in special sales (catalogs, stores outside of bookstores). They’ll also have tight relationships with chain store buyers, like Barnes and Nobles.

~ They have the money to advertise and promote your book.

Disadvantages:

~ May only acquire books from authors who have been previously published or have literary representation. So harder to place a book with them.

~ They can be a little impersonal at times, but it’s business. (Actually this is a plus in some ways, unless you’re an author that likes a lot of handholding. Less time-consuming to deal with.)

~ With so many books being published, it’s easier for your book to be lost within the crowd unless your editor champions you specifically.

~ Big publishing generally works years ahead of time when acquiring books. This can leave your book a little vulnerable to change. Editors leave and you could be “orphaned”, a term used to describe when an author has lost her acquiring editor; though you’ll be assigned a new editor, it’s usually not the same. Or imprints get snapped up by even bigger publishers, like fish in a pond. When this occurs, books are often cancelled (though you’ll get to keep the advance, it’s still upsetting) or lost in a later list with a perfunctory publication (which means your book will quickly go out of print).

So that’s that. Notice that there’s another possibility I haven’t discussed here: what if you’re an author who doesn’t want a publisher at all? These days, it’s not so hard to self-publish a book using a POD (print-on-demand) service — or is it?

Well, that’s a subject for another post. Stay tuned!

——————————-

*New Book recently acquired by Broadway Doubleday. Due to be published in October ‘08. Which is relatively soonish.

————–
Have a question about publishing, writing or illustrating books you’d like answered on Publishing 101? Send it to Kris: e-comment at artandwords dot com.

Technorati Tags: publishing, small publishers, large publishers, how to choose a publisher

• Filed under art and words, new projects, publishing, publishing 101, the world around me | One Response

Goddess Inspiration Oracle: Venus

KEYWORDS:
passion
love
sensuality

Venus was the name the ancient Romans gave to the goddess of love. Created from the union of sea and sky, Venus was born of sea foam and water, and brought to earth upon a conch shell. She was described as “the star of the sea” by her worshipers, and considered the queen of pleasure. For hundreds of years, artists and poets have turned to her for inspiration.

Venus is the goddess who inspires people to love each other, ensuring that the human race continues to grow. She was known to the Greeks as Aphrodite; Aphrodite’s name translates literally as “she who comes from the foam.” Her attendants, three Graces named Joyous, Brilliance and Flowering, illustrate the wonders the goddess can offer, if she chooses to smile upon our earthly petitions.

Text and art adapted from the Goddess Inspiration Oracle, published by Llewellyn Worldwide. All content © Kris Waldherr 2007. All rights reserved.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Draw strength from Diana, the beloved Roman huntress. Channel your anger wisely with help from the Hawaiian fire goddess Pele. Consult Anuket for prosperity. The Goddess Inspiration Oracle makes it easy for women to tap into the sacred wisdom of these powerful deities.

From Abeona to Zhinu, eighty goddesses from across the globe are represented in this deck. Each card features a striking portrait of a deity, her attributes, and a message inspired by her unique story. It’s an ideal instrument for creating affirmations, sparking creativity, gaining fresh perspectives, and uncovering insights related to health, love, creativity, motherhood, and other issues specific to women. The guidebook offers in-depth descriptions of each goddess, keywords associated with her, and practical suggestions for working with the cards.

Purchase now.
Learn more or try a free reading.

• Filed under goddesses, recent publications, tarot and oracles | No Comments

Only in Brooklyn

Scene: playground in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.

Thea, twenty-seven months, is playing with Iman, a four-year-old with a wild mass of brown hair. They run under the jungle gym to hide. I get up to investigate, after noticing Iman placing long strips of bark on the ground next to Thea. I’m hoping she doesn’t intend for Thea to eat them.

ME: What are you girls doing?

IMAN: We’re playing the belly game. We need privacy.

THEA: Go away, mom. We’re playing.

I step back, curious. Thea lies down. Iman pulls up Thea’s shirt, exposing her naval. Iman takes a piece of bark and measures Thea’s belly.

Iman’s mother walks up to me, and explains she’s a midwife.

IMAN’S MOM: Oh, it’s okay. Iman’s pretending to measure your daughter’s fundal height. (Pause.) Is Thea pretending to give birth now?

• Filed under be-mused, the world around me | No Comments