Today you get to create the framework for your own quilt or art catalog! Earlier you had an opportunity to consider the theme for your catalog. Will it be a broad overview of your quilt making or a focus on a series of specific quilts?
Let's create a 24 page catalog! A simple model to consider for your quilt catalog is to have 6 pages of text about your quilt making and at least 13 photos, assuming one photo per page. Here is a framework for you to consider.
Page 1 - Title page
Page 2 - Copyright page
Page 3 - Dedication page
Page 4 - leave this page blank so that it forces the text on page 5 to be on the right-hand side of the book.
Pages 5 - 10 - Create an essay about your quilt making and or inspiration for your art work. In a later post, we'll talk about ideas for such an essay.
Pages 11 - 23 - Feature photographs of your quilts or artwork.
Page 24 - Your artist resume
See - when you sketch the framework for your art catalog, it is not that intimidating!
Why is the framework exercise important? I think it will help you to gather the needed photographs for your catalog. Equally as important, this exercise will eventually help you decide on a retail price for your book.
The catalog we'll create is a full-color one. Color printing is more expensive than black and white printing. As a result, you have to be mindful of page count. The more pages, the higher the cost to print the book and the higher the retail price. We'll cover things to consider when selecting a retail price later.
For now, spend some time creating the framework for your 24 page art catalog! [For those who have the workbook, there is a framework for a 36 page catalog.] Enjoy!
6 comments:
On the pages with the photos of the quilts, should there be room left for writing the known history of each quilt or should they be full page photos with references elsewhere in the book? Half page color v. Full page color in price?
Sarah,
There is no one way to create a catalog. How would you like to see your quilts and the text? Here are a couple options:
1. On one page, have the photo of your quilt + text about the quilt (either short description or a paragraph or two).
2. On the left page, have the text about the quilt (either a short description or a paragraph or more). And, on the opposite page or right side, have the photograph of the quilt.
You might look at other quilt catalogs for inspiration. Or, revisit the March 11, 2012 post here with links to other quilt catalogs. If you click on the links, you'll go to Amazon. Click on the books to see the Search Inside feature on how these quilt catalogs handle the layout of photo and text.
Does this help answer your question?
Thank you, Kyra. The more I write about my quilts the more of a picture of my catalog I get in my head.
I think of what I like about other authors books and will try to focus on those details in my book. Things like having the paragraph about a quilt near the photo of said quilt and not ending the page right in the middle of a sentence.
Thank you, also, for the resources about how to title one's catalog. Must find the happy medium between enough words to help people find your book and too many that your title sounds like a Master's thesis.
Kyra is it important to have a table of contents for your catalog
Kyra, so far I have the title page copyright page, working on dedication page, and I have 5 pages discussing some of the points you listed in the workbook. Now working on the images, and I asked a little earlier about the necessity of a table of contents.
Edna,
Hello! Thanks for your comments. Having a table of contents is a choice to make.
A table of contents helps your reader locate information more easily. Couple items to consider:
1. How many pages will the catalog have? Is it worth using one of the pages for a content page?
2. Is there sufficient text or subject matter that needs to be differentiate to have a table of contents?
Revisit the post showing some of the published quilt catalogs using CreateSpace.
http://publishyourquilts.blogspot.com/2012/03/studio-quilt-series-affordable-art.html
Click on some of the book titles and you can see the Amazon book page. Click on the Search Inside feature. These catalogs don't have a table of contents.
This quilt catalog does have a table of content:
http://www.amazon.com/Naked-Quilted-Confessions-Renegade-Artist/dp/1452835292
The other thing to balance. The quilt catalog will be in color, which is more expensive to print. You may not want to increase your overall page count for a table of contents for a 24 page catalog if this means that the cost of the catalog increases... and your royalties decrease to cover the extra page(s).
Hope these points are helpful in making your decision.
Best, Kyra
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