How a Pattern Happens – Publishing

Have you ever wondered what goes into designing and writing a crochet pattern? It’s different for everyone, but I thought it would be fun to share my process with all of you. This is the 8th and final part of a series of behind-the-scenes posts, where you can join me as I work through a new design.

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Much to my dismay, I wasn’t able to find a tester for this pattern. This sometimes happens with the larger or more complicated designs, particularly during the busy holiday season. If I wait any longer though, it will be too late in the season to post a warm vest. So I am publishing it without it being tested.

Eleanora - a free crochet pattern on StitchesNScraps.com

Publishing the pattern:

Most of my patterns are available in 2 formats, in 3 places.  The free version is right here on my blog. I also offer a pdf download version for a nominal fee on both Craftsy and Ravelry.  The free version is supported by advertising. If someone downloads or prints it, they no longer have to visit the blog to look at it, and no longer see the ads. That means I no longer get the advertising revenue. The small fee for the pdf version is to offset that.

Promoting the pattern:

There’s not really much point to publishing a pattern if no one is going to see it. Luckily, there are lots of different ways to get the word out.

  1. My social media profiles: I post the pattern to the StitchesNScraps pages on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google Plus, and I’m slowly learning Instagram.

    StitchesNScraps on Facebook S_N_S on Pinterest  @Whichcraft3 on Twitter  StitchesNScraps on Google Plus  StitchesNScraps on Instagram

  2. Networking: If I show the pattern to my blogger friends and they like it, they share it with their audiences. I do the same for them, which gets more exposure for everyone. If I’ve used a particular yarn (in this case it’s Red Heart Soft Touch), I also make sure to tag the yarn company in my posts and share the project with them.
  3. Facebook groups: I spend a lot of time on facebook, and I’m in a lot of crochet groups. I’ve noticed there is overlap in the membership of those groups – a lot of people are in many of the same groups. To avoid spamming people with multiple posts, I try to rotate which groups I post in. Each group has their own rules about posting patterns as well, so I have to keep those in mind when I do it.
  4. Link parties: Link parties are a great way to share a project or pattern. They all tend to come out on different days, but I try to go through once or twice a week and post to whatever parties are open. I don’t tend to post my own patterns in the Scrappy Stitchers party because I want to highlight all of you there instead!

 

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The aftermath:

Every single time I release a pattern, I get that whole butterflies in the tummy feeling (and I’m told this feeling never goes away). All there is to do now is wait and see. Will anyone like it? Will there be any issues or anything I missed? I promise myself every single time that I’m going to ignore it and work on the next thing, but the truth is I spend a large part of the day tracking the response. I go back to all those posts to see if anyone has commented, check the blog stats obsessively to see if it’s getting views, and hang out on Raverly to see if it’s moved up the list of “hot right now” at all – It’s always such a thrill when I make it to the first page!

Yeah, I know, it’s silly and obsessive…but that’s the fun part for me. That’s what’s exciting about writing patterns in the first place – seeing other people like them, and use them. I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey behind the scenes of my pattern process! If you missed the earlier posts, you can find them all here.

 

 

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