writing | Tien Chiu's Blog

August 8, 2016 by Tien Chiu

First book signing!

I flew out to Milwaukee last Wednesday and had my first book signing at Convergence on Thursday! It went well – we sold a lot of books, and I got to meet/reconnect with many of you blog readers. I also got to meet my marketing manager at Schiffer Publishing, which was a delight since I’ve been working with her for months now.

Here are a few pictures from the signing:

Tien Chiu getting ready to sign copies of Master Your Craft: Strategies for Designing, Making, and Selling Artisan Work — Ready to go for the book signing!

Tien Chiu signing her new book Master Your Craft: Strategies for Designing, Making, and Selling Artisan Work — Signing my first book!

The Schiffer Publishing booth at Convergence

The last photo also features Joe Langman, the Schiffer sales rep, and Martha Reeves, who (weavers take note!) has written a fabulous book on leno weaves.

I spent the rest of the day in the exhibits – which were amazing, as usual – and in the Marketplace, talking with vendors and meeting with friends both old and new.

Here’s a pic of my favorite piece of clothing in the exhibit (photography was encouraged!):

"A Dress For and From the Garden" - Catharine Ellis and Libby O'Bryan. Woven shibori, cotton dyed with indigo and weld. — “A Dress For and From the Garden” – Catharine Ellis and Libby O’Bryan. Woven shibori, cotton dyed with indigo and weld.

I love the use of line – diagonal and horizontal – in this dress. Simple and elegant. Well done!

There were so many wonderful pieces in the Mixed Bag exhibit that it was hard to pick out a favorite, but I’m very fond of this one:

"L'heure bleue" by Deanna Deeds. Slit tapestry. — “L’heure bleue” by Deanna Deeds. Slit tapestry.

I initially thought the grey areas were an optical illusion, but they’re not! The piece was woven with slit tapestry techniques, and then framed with the slits pulled open, so it’s actually waves of cloth punctuated by open spaces. Very well done!

Finally, here is a sight that might look familiar:

"Goodbye, Ma" in the Mixed Bag exhibit — “Goodbye, Ma” in the Mixed Bag exhibit

July 28, 2016 by Tien Chiu

An avalanche of books

FedEx delivered more than a quarter-ton of books on Tuesday – 507.4 pounds, to be exact.

Here’s the truck arriving, with six of the eighteen boxes stacked precariously in front:

FedEx truck with a quarter-ton of copies of Master Your Craft — FedEx truck with 500+ pounds of Master Your Craft books

And here is what a quarter-ton of books (plus the inevitable photobombing cat) looks like:

And this is what I’ve been tackling today:

A Great Wall o'Books — A Great Wall o’Books

That, dear hearts, is only about 2/3 of my pre-orders…so I have been busy checking and rechecking addresses, inscription requests, etc., and signing/packing books all day for the past two days. I’ve been tucking a handwritten thank-you note (and invitation to spread the word) inside each book, which takes time, but the people who pre-ordered from me deserve extra attention! even if it means a little more effort on my part.

And I’m over halfway through already! The Priority Mail packages are already on their way, and I’m hoping to get the media mail and international packages into the mail within the next day or two. I just hope the postal employees don’t freak out when I turn up with 50 more packages for them to process!

Finally, like a breath of fresh air, this turned up on my doorstep yesterday…

mercerized cotton yarn from Lunatic Fringe Yarns

That is six pounds of mercerized 10/2 cotton yarn…the perfect thing with which to replace the white warp that is giving me conniptions. So I am planning to wind the new warp this weekend and get cracking on it in early August. I’ve been away from the loom for WAY too long!

July 24, 2016 by Tien Chiu

Book launch party!

Yesterday was the book launch party! and what a party it was. About thirty friends turned up, we had a blast, and I could have sold far more than the ten copies I had on hand.

I was unfortunately so busy prepping for the party and chatting with people during the party that I didn’t take many photos, but here are a few.

There was the book, of course:

And there were wonderful friends:

I made four kinds of fudge and a batch of caramels for the occasion (apparently well-appreciated):

The wine was provided by my brother’s winery (yes, my brother is a vintner!), and was pronounced excellent:

Of course, there were signed copies of the book:

And much fun was had by all.

Many thanks to everyone who came out to help me celebrate! It was a wonderful party.

And next? A marketing blitz, starting with the launch of my new business website! and a book signing at Convergence. Stay tuned…there is lots to come!

July 19, 2016 by Tien Chiu

Presenting Master Your Craft: Strategies for Designing, Making, and Selling Artisan Work!!

After almost four long years…I am pleased to present my freshly published book, Master Your Craft: Strategies for Designing, Making, and Selling Artisan Work:

Schiffer sent a congratulatory bottle of wine in the same package:

celebratory wine from Schiffer Publishing

and a congratulatory letter:

congratulatory letter from Pete Schiffer

The last line of the letter invites me to work with Schiffer on future projects. I may well do that…but for now, I’m just going to savor this one.

Four years of work, finally come to fruition.

(If you want to order a copy, you can do so here.)

May 19, 2016 by Tien Chiu

More bipolar art, book business cards

In between studying up on blog business stuff, I’ve been working on some sketches for more art about bipolar disorder. Here’s this morning’s sketch:

It’s just a sketch at the moment, but I like it a lot, and will be working to develop it into a full-fledged piece over the next few days. It has a lot of similarities to “Bipolar Prison,” but is different enough to be a separate piece. Ideas for improvement welcome, of course! Send me email or comment on this post – I’d love to hear from you.

Most of my time, though, has been spent on a crash course in developing a digital information business. (Which is really what online classes are, though one doesn’t generally think of them that way.) I bought a course called “Blog Mastermind,” about turning a blog into an online business, and have been power-reading through it. This is no small task: the course is made up of six video workshops, and the PDF transcripts for each workshop are each about 150 pages long. Including the bonus material, that’s over 1,000 pages of text! But I have been reading through one workshop a day, and converting each workshop into a mind-map to help me remember the things it covers.

My goal is to finish reading the course and lay out the basic plan for my website/business next week. That’s pretty fast, but I want to get the website up and the first set of class offerings ready by the time the book comes out – which gives me very little time to act. So I have mostly been focusing on that.

I’ve also been working on various forms of book publicity – the most tangible of which is a set of book information cards – basically, business cards designed to sell the book. Here are the front and back of the card I designed: