00:00
good morning today I'm gonna do my first
00:02
ever haul from the Miami zine fair which
00:05
I went to last weekend yesterday so
00:08
first thing I want to show that I got is
00:11
this awesome poster and what it contains
00:16
I'm and why I kind of kept it aside from
00:20
the cool design here because it has all
00:23
of the names of all the people who
00:25
participated and so I did not get a
00:28
chance to talk to everyone there because
00:31
I was too busy running my table or I
00:33
didn't have enough help and so I'm gonna
00:35
go when I'm gonna look up all these
00:37
people on Instagram and I'm gonna see
00:38
what they're doing and what they're
00:39
making and you know it's a giant
00:42
resource all in one place of everyone
00:45
who was there which is great they're all
00:47
local artists or you know at least
00:49
willing to come to Miami the next thing
00:53
which I got was these two hats here I
01:03
saw them for the very bizarre and I was
01:06
like whoa my girlfriend's gonna love
01:08
this I got to get it for and then I got
01:11
myself one
01:13
they were pretty expensive I got I think
01:17
they were $40 for both of them
01:18
twenty-five for one so I'm gonna come
01:23
back to that a little bit the next thing
01:27
that I got are all scenes all which I
01:32
kind of caught for free which is really
01:34
great I got this really great zine on
01:39
noses show you here in exchange for the
01:44
fact that I will be doing a review on it
01:45
in a little bit and so you'll see that
01:49
coming just people talking about noses
01:51
and writing about noses and I just
01:56
thought there's such a huge sense of
01:58
humor in it and that was by one of those
02:02
local students here in Miami and then
02:04
this is Professor she wrote
02:10
a little zine that is really great look
02:15
you can't even see it so I'll be doing a
02:20
review of that as well I not this other
02:27
zine here which is pretty great and I'll
02:35
be doing probably a deeper review of
02:38
this as well and then I traded one of my
02:47
books for the zine by the organizer of
02:50
the event
02:52
Amanda Keely I haven't really had a
02:55
chance to look through it but it seems
02:57
really dope it's about like dancing and
03:01
bookmaking like the motion combined
03:04
again I got to give it a deeper look and
03:08
then I got I had a really amazing talk
03:12
for a while with someone who makes these
03:16
little pockets that you stick inside of
03:24
that you stick inside like notebooks and
03:29
I have been a journal or every day for
03:34
about over 10 years now and so we had
03:37
like a really good some talk about
03:38
journaling and I went and showed it my
03:40
journal and we talked all about it and
03:42
again I got it as a gift for my
03:45
girlfriend because she just started
03:48
journaling like this month and she's
03:51
heard generally because she wants to use
03:53
stickers because she loves stickers and
03:55
so I wanted to give her a little pocket
03:58
to put her stickers in and I picked the
04:01
one with the donuts on it I'm not sure
04:03
if I'm gonna get that one to her to me
04:04
because we have this inside thing where
04:07
we love donuts because last year when I
04:09
went to La Book Fair we really really
04:11
really wanted donuts and then like we
04:13
went to like trekking across all of LA
04:17
with our luggage right before the plane
04:19
ride trying to get donuts and then we
04:21
like didn't get the donuts and then I
04:23
was so angry
04:24
I wrote a poem about it and it was
04:25
immortalized and it's like the first
04:27
page my book cheeseballs a new chic
04:29
where I just like completely lambaste
04:33
King Donuts for not being open when they
04:36
advertised and so I want to talk a
04:42
little bit about the zinging experience
04:44
and what it's like to be a vendor at a
04:47
book fair or a zine fair especially
04:50
because I have another one leaving for
04:52
LA in two days three days and so why am
04:56
i doing these things like what is the
04:57
benefit what are the drawbacks what can
05:00
you learn about from my experiences and
05:03
I think it's important to say that I did
05:07
not buy any books there which is kind of
05:13
like a taboo thing usually it's one of
05:15
the only vines when I haven't really
05:16
bought books at a fair and it has
05:21
nothing to say about the quality of the
05:23
work that equality was great the people
05:25
were great I just personally didn't
05:28
connect with a lot of the work which is
05:31
fine it has nothing to do with the
05:35
quality of what I'm doing it just the
05:38
mood that I was in and the taste that I
05:40
was feeling
05:40
I just wasn't I wasn't feeling it and
05:44
personally I haven't been reading a lot
05:46
outside of my practice you know I read
05:48
like 400 books last year for my business
05:51
alone and then I have my own writing and
05:54
my own reading and I just haven't been
05:55
reading as much as I wanted to and I
05:58
thought that seemed to be like a good
05:59
way for me to digest things and like
06:01
because it's so small you can read a lot
06:03
of them but I did read a couple of them
06:06
there but I didn't always feel like I
06:08
should keep them and then a couple of
06:11
ones that I saw like there's a lot of
06:12
things with you know like anarchist
06:16
scenes and you know down with
06:18
consumerism which I totally jive with
06:21
but also like I'm a career business
06:26
artist and I don't really want someone
06:29
telling me that like I shouldn't be
06:31
trying to make a living for my art which
06:33
is not what they're saying but like
06:36
oh man I just don't need to take
06:38
business advice from someone who can't
06:41
afford to buy books thrown that out
06:44
there like that I also I get it like I
06:49
mean my business evolved out of that
06:51
radical left position as well so but
06:57
what I did spend money on because I
07:00
spent money on non book things I spent
07:02
money on these which are $2.00 each
07:04
which are great and I feel like I'm
07:06
gonna use it if I don't my girlfriend
07:07
definitely will which I also primarily
07:12
got as gift my girlfriend so I think
07:14
that's important to think about if
07:16
you're a table in one book fair the
07:19
people that sell house like clear house
07:21
and make money are not necessarily the
07:24
people that sell books and book fairs
07:26
and there's a reason why every time you
07:27
go to a book fair the people that do
07:30
like there's more than just books there
07:32
and part of this because you have to
07:34
compete with books and like if you go to
07:37
a book fair and you're selling a book
07:38
there's a thousand books of that book
07:40
fair and you have to sell you have to
07:42
compete with all the thousand other
07:43
books but also part of it as books are
07:45
really really hard to sell because you
07:48
literally only have the cover and maybe
07:50
someone to flip through like a moment
07:52
flip through well I'm kind of like
07:54
awkwardly standing there the other side
07:56
of the table trying to like ignore you
07:58
but answer your questions but try and
07:59
desperately try to give you make this
08:00
sale it's not that it's not the best
08:03
scenario where as like a t-shirt or a
08:05
hat it's immediate it's instant it's you
08:08
know it's totally flat and so it allows
08:11
the people who want to read your book to
08:14
you know or a person who wants to buy
08:16
that to instantly know that they like it
08:18
and so those are the people that always
08:21
do really well at book fairs and I think
08:24
that if you are someone who you know
08:27
wants to go to a book fair having
08:28
options like that having tote bags or
08:31
shirts or pockets or anything like that
08:34
people buy them up non-stop now I did
08:41
not I think that I made money I haven't
08:43
I haven't even like calculated the
08:45
amount of money that I rent but if
08:46
whatever I did make you know I have to
08:49
pay my
08:50
those two and then I spent like 50 bucks
08:53
on these hats and those things and then
08:56
of course you know this gas driving down
08:58
there and even if I made some money you
09:00
know I spent two whole days there and
09:02
I'm sure that my time comes out to like
09:05
a dollar an hour so I would say that you
09:11
know I've been talking to people and
09:13
I've been to book fairs all around the
09:15
world I've been double fares you know
09:17
and Philadelphia in Los Angeles and
09:19
Dubai and I've talked to people who have
09:21
gone everywhere around the world and
09:23
nobody makes money at book fairs and I
09:28
think that that's not a conversation
09:29
that happens enough why and yet people
09:35
continue to go to book fairs like I you
09:38
know I know that I'm going to lose
09:40
probably at least $1000 at those la Book
09:43
Fair that I'm going to but I want to go
09:47
anyway and so what are the benefits that
09:50
I'm gaining from them and what are the
09:55
things that you know I can really do
09:57
better and the art community as a whole
09:59
can do better well the first thing first
10:04
is I've never heard of anyone traveling
10:07
to a book fair and making money I'm sure
10:09
it happens but I've never encountered
10:11
like if you're going out of state and
10:14
you got a book a hotel or you got a book
10:15
of flight I don't think you're gonna
10:18
make money the only people that I've
10:22
ever heard of ever making money from a
10:24
book fair talking to hundreds of vendors
10:26
are people who do it within their own
10:29
state so like I live right outside of
10:31
Miami I went to the Miami zine Fair it
10:34
made sense I just had a drive there like
10:35
I could I had breakfast in my own home
10:37
you know I do I drove there and I
10:41
returned home when I was done so going
10:45
to local ones will make you a lot more
10:48
profitable than say you know I really
10:50
want to go to the China Book Fair I
10:52
really really want to go but I know
10:54
that'll is so much money doing it
10:57
[Music]
10:58
another thing is where is the
11:03
location of the book fair you mean not
11:05
necessarily in relation to you but
11:07
relation in to its target and McGrath
11:09
and so this is something that I think is
11:13
like a super controversial thing to talk
11:17
about but I think that it's not talked
11:21
about enough
11:22
and I think that it's because you know
11:25
you have a lot of you have a lot of
11:28
voices all on multiple points of the
11:30
conversation so for example if you have
11:35
a book fair in a lower income area which
11:40
is a great thing because you get to
11:42
introduce books to people that don't
11:45
normally have that opportunity to go to
11:47
museums or to go to see those things
11:49
it's it's a great thing that needs to
11:51
happen but know that you're not gonna
11:55
make any money at that fair if you
11:57
participate because the people that go
12:00
there like the people in that
12:03
neighborhood don't have the money to buy
12:04
your book they don't have the money to
12:07
buy your art and if you're like you know
12:09
I'm selling books that are like twenty
12:11
dollars if you're selling a painting
12:12
you'll never sell the painting there I
12:14
mean art is one of the few things where
12:17
you will have people who will go all
12:20
around the world to go and look at good
12:22
art so you will have people from higher
12:24
income areas going there but in general
12:29
the majority of the people that role in
12:31
are not going to be people that are
12:33
going to afford or buy your book or buy
12:36
your art and that doesn't mean that it
12:40
shouldn't still happen like I think that
12:43
these events are really important and
12:44
they need to happen and I think that you
12:48
know opening up these spaces is really
12:55
vital to a community and I just think
13:00
you know like my I grew up kind of poor
13:03
and if I had ever seen an art book fair
13:05
I feel like it would have changed my
13:06
whole life like like I definitely became
13:08
an artist anyway but I would have felt
13:10
so empowered to see some artists
13:13
succeeding ever
13:15
when I was growing up and I think that
13:17
that's like that you know it has the
13:22
power of you life-changing but I also
13:23
think that you know if you were a
13:25
business owner if you were professional
13:26
artist you need to know going into it
13:29
that you're not going to make money and
13:31
I think that there needs to be more
13:34
transparency on that front talking about
13:39
you know what can the art community
13:43
do better as a whole to make it more
13:47
accessible to communities that need
13:50
access and more accessible to artists
13:54
and art institutions that want to
13:56
participate but might not find it
13:58
financially viable because then you know
14:01
like if it's not financially viable then
14:04
you're basically only getting the people
14:05
that are getting like grant funding or
14:08
like sponsorship funding in which case
14:11
it all goes back to it's not really
14:13
about the community at all it's just
14:15
about whatever really rich donors wants
14:19
and I know that's like that was super
14:23
super like controversial thing that I'll
14:28
probably ever talk about here and I'm
14:29
not leading a stance and I'm not really
14:32
saying that the Miami Museum Fair was
14:33
that or was not that but it's just
14:37
something that I haven't gone to lots of
14:39
fairs and lots of like rich and poor
14:42
areas you know it's different you know
14:45
like when I did the you know Art Fair
14:48
like they weren't walking Dubai the
14:51
average income of the person going to
14:54
that fair and what they were willing to
14:55
spend on the book was very different
14:57
than at a smaller books book one in
15:01
Pennsylvania that I you know like the
15:03
one that I hosted in there helped host
15:05
my girlfriend hosted in Harrisburg
15:08
Pennsylvania so I think that that's not
15:11
talked about and seriously seriously
15:14
needs to be so why do you go to book
15:18
fairs well the reason why is because a
15:23
lot of to meet people really for me it's
15:27
so empowered
15:28
and so amazing to go and meet people who
15:31
like pick up my book and love it and
15:34
like that's like every time that I feel
15:38
like down I just think about you know
15:40
last book where I went to before this
15:41
was the Philly Book Fair last year and I
15:44
had a woman pick up my book a month of
15:45
flowers read it on my table cry and grab
15:49
her friends and I sold five copies I
15:51
sold out in ten minutes and for me like
15:54
that's gonna stick with me forever
15:57
another thing besides like meeting the
16:01
people getting feedback seeing what
16:02
sells what doesn't sell that's not to
16:05
say that you should change what you make
16:06
like I make lots of books that aren't
16:07
profitable I make some books that are
16:09
profitable but you know I believe that
16:11
if they should all exist and I make art
16:13
just for art's sake but seeing what does
16:19
well like when people pick them up with
16:21
the feedback they give you on is really
16:23
important as well and the next one is
16:25
meeting the people there who also vend
16:29
and the people that go and give
16:32
opportunities you know I woke up this
16:34
morning to a direct message and
16:35
Instagram saying that they want to
16:36
interview me for a project on
16:39
entrepreneurship that's awesome and I
16:40
would love to participate you know and
16:43
that's all happens because I went to
16:44
that fair you know when I talked about
16:46
here the list of all the people that are
16:49
on here well these are all people that
16:52
care about what I'm doing and I care
16:56
about what they're doing and for a world
16:58
that is lonely as it is to be an artist
17:01
you know to meet people and have real
17:04
conversations about our and to have real
17:06
potential collaboration experiences is
17:09
so important you know just going out
17:13
there and talking with your local
17:14
community is so important you know the
17:16
first thing I did when I moved down here
17:17
Miami is I've looked at what's the like
17:19
the main
17:20
art bookstore in this area exile books
17:23
so I drove down there for an event and I
17:26
introduced myself and they said oh we
17:27
have this Fair coming up in April signed
17:29
up that day you know so and then I met
17:33
tons of people at this coming Fair and
17:36
you know people talk about what does it
17:38
mean to network as an artist and to get
17:40
opportunities and to advance yourself
17:42
and it really is to put yourself out
17:44
there and to do these things and to be
17:49
genuine you know like I think when
17:52
people think about networking I think
17:54
about being fake or something like that
17:57
but you know like you don't do
17:59
pretending you like someone's art if you
18:01
don't but like if you do Drive with it
18:03
tell them because artists need that
18:07
support artists are like so very often
18:10
emotionally weak and just having someone
18:12
say yeah I love this this is really cool
18:15
let me learn what you have to say about
18:18
noses really ties with someone and it
18:22
will make the whole day better and it
18:23
will make their life better and it will
18:25
make them keep making art and I said
18:31
like I you know I always lose money
18:34
every time I got a book affairs but I
18:36
always continue to go because I just
18:38
have such positive experiences I get to
18:40
see you know how the market is growing
18:43
how the market is changing and I get to
18:47
just talk with people who are struggling
18:50
with the same thing that I'm doing some
18:51
people are doing other things that are
18:53
working some people aren't there are
18:54
different stages of career you know I'm
18:56
at the point now where like I went to
18:58
the Miami zine Fair and I felt like one
19:00
of the more established people at the
19:01
fair which is crazy because you know two
19:04
years ago I was the least established
19:06
personal affair and I felt insecure
19:07
about it so I think that you know I get
19:12
to have conversations with people who
19:13
are just starting and tell them you know
19:15
these are some of the mistakes that I
19:16
had what I'm doing here by YouTube you
19:19
know and then I get to meet with people
19:20
who are further along and get advice
19:24
from them and I get to you know sell
19:31
sell and share my art and have a great
19:35
time and you know look at art like I
19:38
love art anyway thank you so much for
19:44
listening
19:45
be sure to like and subscribe and
19:47
comment I have a whole bunch of content
19:48
coming up you know I'm going to LA for
19:50
their fair let me know if you want any
19:54
more specific type of content
19:56
I'll be covering these books in the
19:57
future let me know if you like the whole
20:01
idea you know I try to do a haul and
20:03
then like kind of build upon it and talk
20:05
about the art community as a whole
20:07
and have a wonderful day please like
20:11
subscribe subscribe comment follow us on
20:15
instagram at lost alphabet from our
20:17
website thank you so much