I’m really excited to update everyone that Kafkacotton has been open for seven days! Considering it’s the 29th and we were supposed to open on the 25th, you might be wondering why it’s seven days instead of five. Excellent question…
I’m in charge of marketing for Kafkacotton – basically helping the people that would love our shirts find them. A great way to do this is to reach out to communities that are already fans of what we’re doing. There are a ton of Facebook groups and fan pages based around great books so I’ve been talking with a few of them to let them know Kafkacotton is out there.
Back to the story – Dan, the guy who set up Facebook’s “Catch 22″ group, thought it would be cool to send out a message to his members about our new “Yossarian!!!(?)!” shirt. I was absolutely delighted about this because there were about 2,200 members in the group. Dan sent out the note right away on the evening of the 23rd – the only problem being that our store front didn’t have any items listed!
Big “oops” on my part…
So a few skipped heart beats and expletives later I was frantically figuring out how to post our two shirts. Exhausted, I finally called it a night at 6AM and by the time I woke up we had sold our first 3 shirts!
Now, seven days after our (unofficial) launch, we have had orders from four continents! I’m extremely thankful for everyone’s support – thanks for the great start!
Getting close to Kafkacotton’s launch on the 25th – I’m really excited to open the store and let everyone at these. Great Christmas present for a book-lover.
This is my take on my favorite 455 pages of madness, “Catch-22.” Here’s a clue: I love the look and feel of handwriting…
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” is a new film that deals with illiteracy, incest, obesity, and race and it has received excellent reviews. Whether you read the book or watch the film, this character’s story will personalize the struggles of the illiterate 18% of the world.
I first heard about the film and the book when an NPR interview with the author piqued my interest. It is the frank, shocking story of a fictional African American teen trying to overcome her extremely difficult circumstances. As the author says,
“I wanted to show that this girl is locked out by literacy. She’s locked out by her physical appearance. She’s locked out by her class, and she’s locked out by her color.”
“Push” was well received when first published in 1997 but the film’s popularity is now driving the book onto bestsellers lists (currently #15 on Amazon.com). Sapphire writes from the main character’s perspective – here’s the first paragraph for a taste of the style:
If you are interested in picking up the book, it is on sale at Amazon.com for under $8.
The film is a little trickier to find. It is currently touring America on limited release – check here to see if it is available near you. If you need more encouragement to get out to the theater, “Precious” won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award and the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award (and also received four out of four stars from my favorite critic Roger Ebert).
However you experience it, this story is worth hearing.
This post is coming to you from Sidney, Ohio’s public library. I’m on a road trip from Wisconsin down to Georgia (more about that later) and libraries are great places to get free wifi. What better place to design smart t-shirts based on books than at a spattering of little libraries?
I’ve wrapped up our first design and designer extraordinaire Reilly Stroope based in Texas is just finishing up our second. We’ll announce the books we worked from soon but – if you want a sneak peak – follow @kafkacotton on Twitter. Among other oddities, we’ll post a fresh quote from an upcoming book every day.
Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: Update — Brian @ 9:01 pm November 7, 2009
Brian here!
Kafkacotton is going live this November 25th and I’m laying the online groundwork for the launch. Twitter, Facebook, The Kafkacotton Blog, and linking it all together.
Our blog is where we’ll highlight what we’re working. You’ll see designs before they go out to the store and get peaks into the lives of our designers.
