I've had a few questions about why I haven't yet listed my patterns on Ravelry as well as on Patternfish.
I'm so new at being a professional Knitter that I'm just starting to find my personal path. I've had lots and lots of advice from many people which I truly appreciate. The problem with some of that advice has been that often it is completely the opposite from the last person I spoke to. As an example, some say I should only self publish and never give up my ownership of the copyright on items I design. Others say that if I don't get into Vogue and Interweave Knits I will never gain the attention of enough Knitters to make money. Some tell me I have to get a book deal. Others tell me they make so little from books that if it wasn't for alternate avenues of income they could not survive.
At this point every decision I make is just for right now and I may reverse it at any time in the future.
My reasons for publishing only with Patternfish as of today are:
- I have a personal relationship with Julia Grunau.
- It's a Canadian company.
- Publishing in more venues means more administration work for me.
- There has been some discussion about the perception of designers who publish on Ravelry.
Number 4 became a hotly discussed issue at a recent KNIT monthly meeting. I think the problem was that I quoted what someone else said to me which was "that the Ravelry designers seem to be less professional". Now that I've mulled the topic over a little more I think the difference is actually one of self publishing vs. traditional publishing designers. I questioned the group for reasons as to why I should publish in both places since I have already created a designers page on Ravelry which showcases all of my available patterns and gives a link to Patternfish. The best reason suggested was that some Knitters might not want to create a Patternfish account so perhaps I'm losing out on some sales. If you feel that way could you please let me know in the comments section of this post?
I do by the way plan to publish a test pattern on Ravelry in the near future to see what I can learn from that experience.
