About Selling

Who can submit a pattern for sale?

Just about any person or company in the world, subject to the rules included here (Terms of Use). By simply listing a pattern on the site, you're certifying that you are the copyright holder or their authorized agent, and that you have the right to realize revenue on the pattern. Any associated photographs or graphs or any other ancillary materials must be legally yours as well. We reserve the right to reject any material we find objectionable by normal standards of decency.

It is very important that your pattern be professional in its appearance and have good photography. We reserve the right to reject any pattern that does not meet these standards. We don't take a stand on what the pattern is for— it can be a garbage can cozy for all we care— but the pictures can't be lousy. Hey, we all know a lousy picture when we see it. Keep trying until you get good ones.

We ask that you think carefully about what you're doing, and take it seriously. You're in fine company here, and don't want to fall down too often.

How do I list a pattern for sale?

First, write a wonderful, detailed, accurate pattern for a terrific garment or item of some kind. This may take longer than you think. DO NOT scorn tech editors; all the best designers on our site use them, without exception. Have someone knowledgeable proofread your pattern, and take their advice and suggestions. Then have your garment test knit in at least one size, if it hasn't been done already.

Second, make sure you've got all your materials assembled and ready.

What materials?

You need a PDF (Portable Document Format) file containing BOTH your photograph(s) AND the complete pattern, just as you want your customer to see your work. We don't combine photos and text for you. This PDF will be what your customer downloads, and holds in their hands, and judges you by. Make it as attractive as you can. Not all the photos have to be included in the pattern; you can have extra JPEGs for the slideshow on the detail page. If you need to work to a specific template, you can try this one for guidance.

A Pattern Template

It would be very helpful if your cover page had all the detail information (yarn and needle requirements, notions, yardage, sizing and final measurement data) on it along with a photograph. At the very least, put it all in an outlined rectangle within your pattern.

General advice: for the pattern's body text, make the type (font) size large. 11 or 12 point is good. If you have graphs, DO NOT use grayscales for denoting different colours; different symbols are much better.

Often you can save a document (.doc) or text (.odt) file as a PDF just by choosing to. It depends on your software. If you can't, there are several free PDF generators available on the net. Here's one:

PDFCreator-0_9_5_setup

IMPORTANT: your font choices MUST be embedded in your PDF. For information on how to do that, you may find the following link helpful:

European University Institute

You should also supply separate JPEGs of your photos, up to 15 of them. We use these for thumbnails and displays. Optimal photo dimensions are portrait-oriented, 640 height by 480 width, or a little bigger. We can scale down somewhat, but enlarging is tricky and may result in a rough-looking photograph.

Your pictures are the key to presenting and selling your product. Assuming an accurate, well-written pattern, beautiful photographs are the most important selling tool you have. Make them as crisp and appealing as possible. Study what you like and don't like in the pictures already on the site, and be inspired. Digital cameras are easiest and best for our purposes. On average, you can take 20 – 60 pictures for each one you land up considering “usable”, and it helps to be able to overwrite and redo what you don't like.

If you can, enlist friends or students (of modelling, photography, makeup, fashion styling) to help you. They may do it for free or a reduced fee in exchange for a written credit on your PDF, which they can include in their portfolios once they're out in the workplace and looking for real jobs.

In a separate text (.doc, .txt, .odt) document, you should include:

• the $US price you wish to charge for your pattern
• any description of the garment you might like included (if not, we'll have to write something)
• your PayPal account information, so we can pay you
• your name, mailing address and phone number
• any other information you think we should know about the garment or item

For now, send the PDFs and JPEGs together to patternsATpatternfishDOTcom (replacing the AT and DOT with the real symbols), and we'll contact you when they're loaded.

If pattern ownership is contested, one or both parties should send us a letter, ideally from a lawyer, stating that there is a dispute over title. When we get it we will delist the pattern until we receive notice from both parties that ownership is resolved, and the form that takes.

How do I get paid?

Every time someone buys your pattern, you earn 60% of the retail price you set for it (unless you've made alternative arrangements with us). For now, unless we know you personally, we pay you through PayPal, from our account to yours. Your PayPal account must be a 'personal' account to avoid extra transaction fees. The pay period is once a month, and/or be for at least US$20. We pay the initial PayPal transaction fee to enable the sale of your product.

Our goal is to minimize transaction fees, and accommodate the lister as much as possible.

We do not do withholdings of any income taxes. Canadian tax law, current at May 2008, does not require it if the sales are paid for on a royalty basis (which we do), or are realized on a cultural or artistic product (which we believe patterns are). Therefore, if you are entitled to 60% of a $10 pattern, we send you the full $6.

You are naturally required to report your income from Patternfish to your local authorities and pay appropriate taxes on it according to your own local laws. We email you an official statement of your earnings once a year, by February 28^th, so that you have accurate information with which to do this.

What is an “Exclusive”?

“Exclusive” listings are patterns not available anywhere else in the world, just on Patternfish. This can be very hard to police, so there's necessarily a lot of trust here. But if you allow us to list a pattern and swear in writing with signatures, in hard copy through the mail, that it will not be made available in any form anywhere else-- then you earn 62.5% instead of 60% of the retail price. If we discover you've broken your word, we reserve the right to delist the pattern, ban you from the site, or do whatever seems appropriate. We will, in short, be Very Put Out.

One advantage of Exclusives (in addition to more money for our treasured designers) is that we might use your name in our advertising. Another is that you KNOW if the pattern's for sale anywhere else at all, it's been stolen.

Are there any other ways to earn a higher royalty rate?

Yes. You can sell lots and lots of patterns. Once a pattern breaks a certain sales ceiling, your rate will go up. We will tier them. There will be well-defined breaks, just like there are for books and their authors.

Unfortunately we don't know what those are yet, because we're so new—the business model, too-- that we're not sure what we can afford to offer at this point. After a few months, we'll know better, and can implement a formal structure, which we'll set out in detail here.

Once we decide on a tiered royalty reward scale, appropriate payment will be made retroactive to those who have achieved those sales levels.