Re: [BKARTS] artist book newsletter

[Jill Timm <jtimm@xxxxxxx>]

Thanks Bobbi for your good questions,

The Artist Book Newsletter (published twice a year) will go to a very 
tightly focused mailing list of librarians in both public and private  
college, and university libraries special collections, and artist book 
collections in public libraries and a few museum libraries. While this 
is mostly a US group I do have most of the Canadian libraries know to 
collect, libraries in France, Belgium, Germany. and some other 
countries. I also welcome any suggestions of places I might not have. 
The mailing will to go a specific person as opposed to the library in 
general. Libraries are huge market for artist books, yet is a hard and 
very expensive/time consuming market to reach. This mailing will go to 
over 350 (maybe more) librarians or collections that are known to buy 
work... and I am building this database as I write, and will be on the 
road most of September researching the northern mid-west area. I call 
and /or visit every library and to confirm that they collect artist 
books. While this may not seem like it is a large group is it a very 
focused group. The October issue, unlike the April issue, will reach 
librarians that are not members of ARLIS. It is a very expensive 
organization and not all librarians are members.  You might note that I 
make my 95% of my living selling my artist books to the library market 
sector.

Not all libraries have special collections. Not all special collections 
collect artist books. So you could say artist books is a niche subject 
in it self. However, some do collect only certain subjects, or regional 
materials, or books that have text, but I have found that most collect 
artist books that are interesting and well made. Most, but not all, 
collections are to be used and handled by students, and for that reason 
they also tend to avoid anything that is fragile.

The bottom line here is the only way to reach this market is to do what 
I have done, research, call and travel for 7 years to build a database. 
And that is going to cost you a lot more than a mere $200!

I also welcome suggestions for ways to improve the newsletter.

So Act Now, reserve your space.

Jill


Jill Timm
Mystical Places Press
Handcrafted artist books,
one of a kind and small editions,
miniature and not so miniature.
www.mysticalplaces.com
www.banffbookshow.com

-----Original Message-----
Date:    Mon, 21 Aug 2006 09:21:07 -0500
From:    Bobbi Chukran <bobbi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: artist book marketing opportunity

Jill,

I wonder, how many libraries is this mailed to?  Anybody who
advertises in it will want to know that, and what type of libraries
they are.

I ssume that the libraries all have niche subjects that they collect?
Or maybe not?

Good luck with it....

Bobbi C.



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