“Maybe we should stop selling cards”
“Maybe we should stop selling cards.”
That suggestion floated out of Mike’s mouth one day not too long ago as we stood in our kitchen, wiping down countertops and discussing our booth setup for upcoming shows.
My ears immediately regretted the sounds they’d just permitted entry, my skeleton winced and my heart trembled enough to form a new fault line.
Of all the things I’ve created for this little indie business the cards are the most like the spawn of my soul.
But I’d be lying if I claimed I’d not also considered that; Printing and packaging cost money, packaging alone is tedious and time consuming, our card displays have a huge footprint in our otherwise small booth space, and we don’t often sell as many of them as we should to make an acceptable ROI. (My goals of inspiring people to reclaim the magic of snail mail haven’t quite come to fruition. I make that claim, however, genuinely admitting that I do a terrible job of promoting these.)
I also suspect they’d sell better in a brick and mortar where people can both see them in person and have time to browse and soak them in, the latter of which large, busy expos and markets aren’t really very conducive to and the former—well, online shopping eliminates completely the tactile beauty often beneficial to the task.
Anyway, I don’t know yet what the future holds for our cards but until then, I’ll float in the space between the earth and sky trying desperately to keep both my sensible feet on the ground and my sentimental head in the clouds, desperately seeking that sweet spot in between the two.
