getting published in mags vs. selling your own patterns?

[newthingcrochet]

I am working on some designs to sell but not sure which way to go. I was wondering if some of you designers would give me some advice. What are some of the pros and cons of submitting designs to magazines versus selling your own patterns on etsy or your own website? What I've thought of so far is that submitting to magazines cuts out the work of marketing your website and copywriting and you get one big payment, but by selling your own patterns they are yours for life and you have more control. Also, I don't really have a clue what magazines pay for a pattern. Are we talking $50, or $500, or $5000? I really have no idea so was hoping for a ballpark figure. I'm sure it's different for different things, mostly I'm planning on doing baby and children's clothes.

 

When submitting to a magazine, do you have your patterns tested ahead of time? I would assume so but thought there may be problems with giving your patterns out ahead of time, even to a small select group? Also, how careful do you have to be with showing pictures of your work? No pictures at all? A close up of the stitch pattern like I've seen some do? A small picture showing no detail?

 

Any advice is appreciated, as you can tell, I have many questions!

[snugsmontreal]

well first off the starting price range for items in a magazine will got for 50-150 depending on the item, think 50 for accessories up to 150 for say a really nice detailed sweater. once you are more established and published in several venues you can start to get more money from this. there are different types of submissions for magazines, some do not keep the copywrite and some do. that means that some retain your pattern forever while others may retain the copywrite for say 2 years then return it to you where you can sell it in your own personal venue. if you submit to magazines you should only submit one item to one magazine because if you submit the same item to several magazines if more than one picks it up they will be not very happy to find out another magazine is also looking to pick it up and could hurt your reputation from the get-go. in my opinion you should privately test your patterns prior to submitting, but many people don't (and you can tell when you find major problems in a printed pattern). the best idea you can do is buy a few magazines you would like to submit to, check out their guidelines on their websites, and then try to model your pattern writing style to suit the style they print (once you get the hang of it you will understand what i mean) you also shouldnt show too much telling photos (closeups that show your technique may not be wise)

 

as for retaining your own patterns and selling them through, say etsy, there is a possibility for this to go either way for you. etsy is a website that does protect your copywrite but it wont prevent people from say buying your item making copies and selling them on ebay and you wont have a magazine behind you protecting you with lawyers that they pay. as for making money, to sell an individual pattern you will need to put a pretty reasonable price on it (between 3-8 dollars depending on item) so in total if you submit a purse pattern to a mag that is accepted you may get 50$ plus the price of supplies (depends on the mag if you get your costs back) and if you sell it yourself, you retain the item (you mail them to magazines upon acceptance) and the cost of materials, and you sell it yourself and without any advertizing you may only sell a few copies...or it may be a big hit and your sell a 100 copies. either way the slightly more reliable choice is to go with a mag but you may make less than you want to, and you may or may not have to give up your copywrite

[newthingcrochet]

Thank-you, that does answer a lot of my questions. I was hoping to get more for a pattern from a mag, at least a couple hundred. It seems like a lot of work to do up a pattern for only $50 or $100! I'm still not sure what I'll do, maybe both!

[snugsmontreal]

It seems like a lot of work to do up a pattern for only $50 or $100! I'm still not sure what I'll do, maybe both!

think of it like a job, you start out at the bottom wrung of a ladder, no one knows who you are...but when you finish a big project and you get low man pay then people know who you are... next time you might get 100 for something you got paid 50 for last time...the pay scale does go up from there and it is pretty good to repeat designers. once you are established you may get offers from editors or publishers that may be working on books and would like your input. plus if you write articles about different techniques or new pattern stitches etc you can make money off those aswell. think about it when you read a craft magazine, there are lots of different things in them not just patterns!

[newthingcrochet]

Well, that's good to know that it does get better! I have a baby dress I just made that turned out pretty well, so thinking about shopping that around some magazines.

[Carol]

Be sure to ask upfront whether the magazine buys one-time rights or all rights. If it buys all rights, you will no longer own the pattern -- the magazine will -- and you won't be able to sell it anywhere else or lay claim to it in any way. If they're only paying $50 to $150, wouldn't it stand to reason that you'd make more on etsy or ebay or whatever? (I'm not being flip, I'm just asking...)

[sherryzzz]

I see a lot of magazines print information about the pattern designer, as well as maybe the designer's web site address, along with the pattern. So it seems to me that if you are selling patterns on etsy or ebay, putting one of your designs in a magazine too would be great advertizing for your web site. Personally, I would never sell all rights to a design - it just doesn't seem worth it.