Selling patterns rather than finished objects?

well i think it is best to sell the actual finished garment rather than the knitting patterns because once people have the pattern and can knit the garment themselves then why would they spend the money to buy the garment when they can do it themselves there may be more money in selling the patterns but in the long run i think there would be more money in selling the garments selling garments is money that would keep coming in selling garments is money that will eventually stop

Hey Nancy, I have been on both sides of your delima. :-) I used to design for a major yarn company and almost killed myself in the process. For the time that I spent creating, writing and proofing, the final pay was not really worth it. Yeah, I was the one that priced my designs, but as an "unknown" designer I couldn't demand the hundreds of dollars that the established designers could ask for. For the time that was spent putting that pattern together, my per hour average was only a couple pennies an hour. :-) Self publishing and selling finished products have their own problems though... not only are you spending the time in the creative process, but you also need to spend the time in promoting your products (patterns or finished) in order to get people to see what you have and make sales! Unfortunately creating a shop on one of the many sites is not really enough... And all of the time spent on promoting does not get factored into the designing process or profit. So, what is better then? I still design every once in a while because I hope that getting my name associated with pattern may help get people into my internet shop as well! :-) ...and I still only make pennies an hour. :-) :-) Pinka http://pinkap.etsy.com http://pinkap.blogspot.com

I sold a few patterns to a magazine and I'm not sure it was worth it just for that because it was a pain to write down everything that I was doing without thinking much about it. You may have the kind of mind that can do that, but it was hard for me! I think if you can sell the patterns to individuals, that would be a good idea. How do you intend to market them?