Month: January 2011

The Great Promo Brainstorm

Bring in your pets and put away your lawn furniture, the great Brainstorm cometh! But first, a bit of sketch spam of custom ink drawings I’ve been doing on the inside of people’s books ordered direct from me.

 Keywords (Left to Right): “Angel Warrior”, “North Star”, “Angel Tribe”, “Fairy Child”

After the success of the first book signing, I’m scheming on ways to keep pushing promotional efforts before I’m old news. At this step I’d actually prefer to hire a publicist, but for now that’s just not in my budget. The company is handling getting the book into stores and now it’s my turn to set up the rest of the grassroots efforts that will start here in my own little town and corner of the interwebs!

Here are just a few of the things I’m pondering on doing (I’m wide open to suggestions if you have any):

– A Blog Tour – I’m still trying to grasp the what, where, and how of this. Basically I would approach various blogs and see if they would mind featuring me or my book on their blog and post a schedule of each ‘stop’ that’s planning a feature within a certain date range. Anyone know of any good fantasy or art blogs I could approach? (Or who host one themselves that would be relevant to my themes?)

– A Book Giveaway – Soon to be on this blog! As soon as I’ve got my paws on the next shipment of books, I’d like to giveaway a whole bundle (Sketch+Book+Prints+Other Cool Goodies) to a lucky commenter! I will have to think of a good comment prompt for this one. *plots*

– Book Signings -Where to start? After a little MOAR RESEARCH, I’ve written up a Press Release for any prospective bookstore owners just so I know what to say when I’m on the phone (or pitching in person) with them and also so I have something to email them for reference. (Don’t quote my formatting on that write-up. It’s probably all backwards!)  So far, it seems like the best way to schedule one is to approach their community relations departments at a corporate level so they can recommend the store that’s best set up for such an event.

– Book Sketches – I’ve been publicizing these in my online sketchbooks to help remind folks that YES I do offer custom ink sketches in the inside-cover of any book ordered directly from me for an extra cost! The rules of advertising state that repetition of your product or brand helps breed familiarity and credibility. Trying to keep true to this tenant, which means I’ll soon be doing more video trailers very soon! Proliferate throughout the web, my pretties!

And the Brainstorm continues.  Any promo strategies you’d like to share? Any of the particulars listed here get you excited for more?  Share and share alike!

The First Book Signing

Phew! The h’orderves have been devoured and the bottles of wine re-corked. The first book signing is done!

See more pics at my Facebook album!

Many thanks to Artworks on the Square for hosting this release party. We had a great turnout of about 40 or so people! I’m happy to report there were few crises involved, outside of baking a last minute tray of pigs in blanket an hour before setup and temporarily losing the key to the cash box.

There was also an incident with an escaped flying mattress, but it was not involved with this particular event.

All in all, pre-book signing jitters were unfounded and I had such a blast talking to so many like minds and old friends.  I can only hope the next one (which will be minus the party favors) will still be as successful!

It’s still so surreal to think my book is finally out there.  I had to go to the book store and confirm it was there sitting on the shelf awaiting the hands of another artist.

I cannot wait to see just how far this inspiration can spread!

If you end up buying my book, feel free to let me know how you enjoyed it, what else you’d like to learn, and of course, to share your wonderful creations with me! You can add photos to my Fan photos on Facebook here.

Hope to catch you all at the next signing!

Things I Learned:

  • 2 small platters of catered food do not feed 40 people. Lesson learned! Note also that pigs in blanket cost half as much and make twice as much as the precooked stuff if you make them yourself. Yummy! Recipe linkage. Also, petit flours are always the first desserts to go.
  • Offer combo deals. It’s ridiculous to think my calendar costs more than my book because of it’s low run, custom printed nature. So, those who bought the book got a $5 discount on the $25 calendar. (Thanks for the suggestion, Vicki!)
  • Cardigans make me feel smart!  They seem to be proper authorial attire and are quite comfortable.
  • Found a great source for bookmarks!  They were approved, printed, and shipped within 2 days of ordering with someone calling me on the phone to inform me of their progress at each step! Thanks so much to ladyprinting.com! I was able to get a small amount of 2×7 bookmarks without a setup fee, like most of the other places I looked at.
  • Found an equally awesome source for tassels (eBay seller: Purpledoug1959) and vinyl bookmark sleeves (www.clearbags.com)
  • People really loved the free bookmarks! Going to keep handing these at conventions and other signings (minus the vinyl sleeves and tassels).  They’re much less expensive than my grand plans to make custom leather bookmarks to give out.  People love items they can use and having my website at the bottom means they’ll have a constant reminder of where to find me at.
  • Last (but not least!), with any signing, I am there to sell something I believe in! I know my product is awesome, that I’m sharing something worthwhile, regardless of the amount of people who show up!  Advice to live by from my darling bosom friend, Hayley E. Lavik.

Interview at EMG Magazine

There’s a pretty extensive interview with me over at EMG Magazine right now. You should go check it out!

Angela Sasser is a very talented artist. This innate talent is not all; she is a very hard worker and has studied the business of being an artist. These qualities make her unique, since it is not very easy to find a fantasy artist that has such an extensive academic background as Angela’s. To top it all, she is incredibly friendly! Please, join me in this interview to know more about this wonderful person!

Angela, you have had a very intense and interesting education regarding art. Can you please tell our readers about it? How has it helped you so far as an artist?

Where to begin? I spent a long time trying to decide what I wanted to do with myself when I was younger. I always knew that I wanted to be involved in illustration and storytelling, but as a young dreamer, I was discouraged from pursuing it as a profession because it was seen as a fools errand and a profession that wouldnt allow me to put food on the table…

(Read on at EMG Magazine’s Artist Spotlight)

Upcoming Appearance: Artworks on the Square

Just a quick reminder that Artworks on the Square here in Fayetteville, GA, will be hosting several events for my book this month!  There’s the solo exhibition reception this Friday, a book signing party next weekend, and a color pencil demonstration the weekend after that.  You can read more details on these events here.

In more book news, all of the pre-orders, minus a few that need sketches, have been mailed out!  The book itself is now in stores (Barnes & Nobles, Amazon, Borders, etc.) so keep an eye out! (Though if you order from me, your book would come with a shiny print and autograph!). 

My recorded video demo on painting watercolor skintones is also available on artistsnetwork.tv and is a nice complement to the book’s demos.  At only $16.99, it’s pretty affordable and even cheaper if you’re a subscriber over there!

Things are coming together quite nicely at the start of this new year! Now I better dash off and get things ready for this Friday! I’m so excited to meet some of my local artists.

Hope to see you then!

Back to Formula

As we say goodbye to 2010, I have to be honest and say that this year ended with a fizzle.

Sales were down, conventions were slow, and I hit the biggest burnout of my professional career thus far around mid-year. I lost my urge to draw and escaped to the loving arms of leather crafting (which proved surprisingly lucrative and therapeutic).  I started to think I’d never be able to keep up with competition.  I had so much to learn and a to-do list that never seemed to shrink.  The Muse seemed to have flown the coop permanently.

And that is when I realized something.  I’m the boss here, not the Muse!  I show up for work every day and the Muse generally mosies in after coffee and emails.  The hardest part for me lately is showing up for work, sitting down at the art desk, and at least attempting to get those ideas down on paper, regardless of any intended success or failure.  This, I realize, is the state of being an artist for a living.  Uninspired or not, it is time to work!  You must preserve a state of blind optimism that the inspiration will come and that you are a professional, whether the so-called Muse flies in that that day or not.  Your art, whatever market you target, will equal returns of some sort and a feeling of satisfaction that makes the job worthwhile.

(I imagine the real problem would be if the inspiration or satisfaction in my work never comes. Then it might be time to consider other career paths.)

And so I have decided to take this year back to formula.  I started this business of art with the firm belief that I had something I wanted to share with the world, that what I wanted to share was worth noting.  What I have here is fantastic!  Fabulous!  Phenomenal!  Awe-inspiring, and, yes, maybe even worth paying for!

In this new year, I endeavor to do the following:

  • Keep whittling down the art to-do list, even if it never shrinks.
  • Explore digital media without fear of ‘sucking big time’!
  • Don’t shy away from ambitious projects just because they won’t make money NOW.
  • Start charging what I’m worth for the time put into my masks! Apparently I charge too little…
  • Return to nature!  It always gets me inspired, even if it’s just sitting on our dock meditating for awhile.
  • Go to the museum more.  We have a membership and I barely use it.
  • Read more. My visual and mental vocabulary need expanding!
  • Join my local art society and stop being such an introvert! (Or worrying that my work won’t fit in) 

What do you plan to do in this new year?  Who’s the boss in your studio, you or the Muse?

How many of you thought of Spider-Man when you saw the post title?