Welcome to Winterfaire 2016
Nov. 25th, 2016 01:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThe Winterfaire spreads out as far as the eye can see. Some booths show streamers of red and green, while others sport blue and silver. All of them offer treasure after shining treasure. Music fills the air with lyrics of Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, and Yule. From the Wordsmith's Forge comes the bright chiming of words being hammered into literature. Delicious scents of hot chocolate, spiced cider, peppermint, baking cookies, and gingerbread tantalize the appetite. Smiling, laughing shoppers amble from booth to booth with lists in hand. Vendors grin back, calling out, "Come try, come buy...!"
I know a lot of artists, writers, musicians, crafters, and other talented folks who make some of their living from their creative endeavors. I don't always have the money to support them as much as I'd like, but what I can do is set up a virtual faire where vendors can offer their wares to an audience that likes crafts, literature, and small businesses. For those of you doing your holiday shopping, here's an opportunity to buy something made with love, something unusual or unique, in a way that helps make it possible for creative people to go on creating wonders. And there will be no traffic jams, stampedes, or gunfights at the Winterfaire! Enjoy the seasonal offerings on LiveJournal.
Vendors: If you have goods or services suitable for holiday gifts, please put up a booth by replying with a description of what you sell, an estimate of your price range if possible, and some kind of contact information so shoppers can reach you. If you have a website (Etsy, DeviantArt, personal, whatever) showcasing your work in more detail, include the link(s). If you have holiday freebies, such as downloadable greeting card imagery, you're welcome to promote those too. For ease of identification, I recommend titling your reply starting with "BOOTH:" followed by the name of your business or type of goodies.
Shoppers: If you're looking for something specific and it's not posted yet, feel free to ask. Someone else may know where to find it! "SHOPPING FOR:" and the topic would be a good title.
Everyone: You may help promote the Winterfaire by linking to this post from your own blog or site. If you have a similar holiday-networking post, you may link to it in a comment on this post.
Participation Perk: I'm offering poetry for participation, beginning with verses of "Picking Up the Litter" (31 verses) from the Berettaflies thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. (You may also direct your verses to any unfinished linkback perk poem: "Thinking River Thoughts" or "The Marble and the Sculptor.") Because, you see, all of these activities will unlock a verse each time someone does them:
* link to this Winterfaire page to boost the signal
* comment posting a Booth of your wares/services in the Winterfaire
* buy something from a vendor listed in the Winterfaire
* host a similar holiday market in your own blog or other venue
Dreamwidth will notify me of comments to the Winterfaire post and links to it elsewhere on DW; for everything else, you need to TELL ME in order to get credit for it.
Similar Markets:
Do you know of another indie holiday shopping post? Let me know and I'll link it here.
Happy holidays!
I know a lot of artists, writers, musicians, crafters, and other talented folks who make some of their living from their creative endeavors. I don't always have the money to support them as much as I'd like, but what I can do is set up a virtual faire where vendors can offer their wares to an audience that likes crafts, literature, and small businesses. For those of you doing your holiday shopping, here's an opportunity to buy something made with love, something unusual or unique, in a way that helps make it possible for creative people to go on creating wonders. And there will be no traffic jams, stampedes, or gunfights at the Winterfaire! Enjoy the seasonal offerings on LiveJournal.
Vendors: If you have goods or services suitable for holiday gifts, please put up a booth by replying with a description of what you sell, an estimate of your price range if possible, and some kind of contact information so shoppers can reach you. If you have a website (Etsy, DeviantArt, personal, whatever) showcasing your work in more detail, include the link(s). If you have holiday freebies, such as downloadable greeting card imagery, you're welcome to promote those too. For ease of identification, I recommend titling your reply starting with "BOOTH:" followed by the name of your business or type of goodies.
Shoppers: If you're looking for something specific and it's not posted yet, feel free to ask. Someone else may know where to find it! "SHOPPING FOR:" and the topic would be a good title.
Everyone: You may help promote the Winterfaire by linking to this post from your own blog or site. If you have a similar holiday-networking post, you may link to it in a comment on this post.
Participation Perk: I'm offering poetry for participation, beginning with verses of "Picking Up the Litter" (31 verses) from the Berettaflies thread of the Polychrome Heroics series. (You may also direct your verses to any unfinished linkback perk poem: "Thinking River Thoughts" or "The Marble and the Sculptor.") Because, you see, all of these activities will unlock a verse each time someone does them:
* link to this Winterfaire page to boost the signal
* comment posting a Booth of your wares/services in the Winterfaire
* buy something from a vendor listed in the Winterfaire
* host a similar holiday market in your own blog or other venue
Dreamwidth will notify me of comments to the Winterfaire post and links to it elsewhere on DW; for everything else, you need to TELL ME in order to get credit for it.
Similar Markets:
Do you know of another indie holiday shopping post? Let me know and I'll link it here.
Happy holidays!
BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-25 09:00 pm (UTC)Oh hey, I've never had anything to sell before. This is fun! I've made a small (4" x 6") book of science, poetry and cut-paper art about the plant life of the Pacific Northwest called A Hidden Alphabet. Copies are USD $15 each, which includes shipping inside the US. If you're outside the US, drop me a line and I will figure out how much it costs to ship to you, though if you're outside the US, you are probably unfamiliar with most of these plants anyway. This book would probably be most enjoyable to someone outdoorsy who has lived in the Pacific Northwest.
Here's an example page:
ᚊ Salmonberry
Salmonberry bushes grow in damp soil along salmon-run streams. The salmon are born in streams, but they spend most of their lives in the sea, and upon their return they are made of sea-stuff. The nitrogen of their bodies is the isotopes found in the sea. When bears eat salmon and leave bones to decay on the stream bank, the sea-nitrogen becomes part of the soil, and of the salmonberries.
I am made of an ocean I have never seen. I am homesickness for a place you have never been.
I am this promise: the sea exists, even if you have not seen it. It sings against the shore and waits for you.
You can see all 24 plants of the hidden alphabet online here, posted in reverse order, blog-style - use the arrows at the bottom to go back a page. I would be delighted to hear if any of them spoke to you; that's more important to me than selling physical books. :)
Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-25 10:28 pm (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-25 10:40 pm (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-25 10:48 pm (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-25 11:04 pm (UTC)I don't have a sales site. I am set up with Square for credit card or bank card processing, so if someone wishes to buy a book, they should use a Dreamwidth mail to send me their email address and mailing address. I'll have Square send them an email invoice that can be paid by card, and mail them a hardcopy book.
Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-25 11:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, it happens. I muffed a lot of stuff early on, too, and still get lost on the math sometimes.
>> I've sold at local art festivals, but this is my first timid venture into selling online; I figure your readers are more likely than most to be interested in a weird little art-science-poetry book. :) It would help if I said how to get money to me, though.<<
For selling things online, I've found it useful to make a page or post that lists what I have and the payment methods. So I have a PayPal button in my DW and LJ profiles, I put one on each Poetry Fishbowl post, and I've got my main website with a shopping page for the books I've written.
For arts and crafts, Etsy is popular. But at this stage, you could just make a shopping post on your DW.
>> I don't have a sales site. I am set up with Square for credit card or bank card processing, so if someone wishes to buy a book, they should use a Dreamwidth mail to send me their email address and mailing address. I'll have Square send them an email invoice that can be paid by card, and mail them a hardcopy book.<<
Okay, I'll get you an email address.
Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-26 01:37 am (UTC)In the meantime, does the booth-keeper feel like talking about the gorgeous flora of the PNW?
Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-26 01:52 am (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-26 02:12 am (UTC)*pulls just-decided next book to reread off shelf*
Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-27 08:11 am (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-30 04:55 am (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-26 10:18 pm (UTC)...so how do you feel about the concept of barter?
Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-27 12:24 am (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-27 08:07 am (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-28 12:03 am (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-28 07:01 pm (UTC)Re: BOOTH: A Hidden Alphabet
Date: 2016-11-28 07:02 pm (UTC)