Posted by Dave Bull at 2:25 AM, February 28, 2012 [Permalink]
The subscriptions for the new 'Arts of Japan' series are rolling in, one by one. I'd love to be able to say 'pouring in', but let's keep this real!
When I reply with a short 'thank you' note, I usually include something like this: "As you might have seen from the RoundTable blog, it's going to be a month or so before this one is ready to ship - making those cases here 'in house' is going to take quite a lot of time. I hope to have the first print ready to fly by the start of April. Thanks for your patience ..."
Most people reply (if at all) with a simple "No problem!". This morning though, a slightly longer reply came in:
You know, I'm probably not alone in this: one of the things I really enjoy about subscribing to your series is that I _do_ have to wait for it. It's something we don't have to do very much these days. I _like_ that I pay for something, and then a while later (but not so long that I notice that, "Hey, wasn't I supposed to have received that already?") I am surprised and delighted when it shows up on my doorstep. It's decidedly old school, and wonderful.
I understand these sentiments, and - of course - concur. But it reminded me of an experience I had some years ago when the original Treasure Chest was under way. The number of collectors was 'OK', but there was still plenty of room left for more. One day I received a sudden flood of subscriptions (nearly a dozen of them), and it turned out that I had been written up by Jason Kottke, a popular blogger (one of the earliest, actually).
David Bull is an artist who makes fantastic woodblock prints. He doesn't number his prints, doesn't sell through collectors, doesn't even offer individual prints, and yet he's been making a living from his art for more than 16 years. He sells subscriptions of his prints through his site ...
(He actually meant 'doesn't sell through galleries', but the error will live on forever, I guess ...)
When all this happened, I was happy, and then I was sad. Originally 'happy', because of course this was a nice boost to my work, and having a group of new subscribers helped very much. 'Sad' because of what happened over the next few months - over half of these new collectors either quit, or became delinquent.
I learned something important through this episode. Up to that time, if you had asked me (as people frequently did in interviews) what 'type' of person was a typical collector, I would have replied, "No 'type', really. Some are young, some are older, some Japanese, some westerner, everything from the town baker to a long distance truck driver ... The only common thread seems to be that they are interested in my work, which is a kind of circular answer ..."
But the Kottke experience taught me that there was indeed something common to my long-time subscribers, which I hadn't really understood up to that point. The people who saw his post, clicked over to my website, did a quick scan of the info, then clicked 'Subscribe' ... these people were a type who live in a much faster paced, click click move move go go environment than I do. They weren't (as a group) suitable people to become collectors of my work.
Without wanting to try and get (too) pretentious about this, it really does seem as though my collectors and I are a self-selected group; a group of 'slow lifers'. Both I - who makes these things - and you - who 'consume' them - simply have to be willing to take it easy, or at least accept the fact that this is going . to . take . time ...
So it was that when I made that little explanation video for the Treasure Chest concept last year, I - very consciously - began it with a very slow-paced introduction. If the viewer can't even get through the first 60 seconds and clicks away somewhere, then ... well ... perhaps this stuff isn't really their kind of thing, anyway!
