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selling your patterns- How to start?


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Hay Sewhappy & Melanie R.:

I to would like to know how you go about getting a pattern that I designed copy righted, printed & sold.

I'm sure there are many people out there who have some great patterns that they designed & would like to share with other Laer's.

Or maybe not ;)

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Here is basically what I sent on the U2U.

There is a book by Nancy Restuccia called "Publish Your Patterns! How to Write, Print, and Market your Designs."

It covers writing directions, software suggestions, designing covers, photographing, marketing, pricing, distributing, advertising, publicity, legal issues, copywrite issues, and lists several contacts, some of which being internet chat lists that you can join and get a feel for the water before you jump in with both feet!

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I believe the forms for copyrighting the patterns are available at http://www.copyright.gov/forms/

On July 1, 2006, the fees went from $30 to $45 - http://www.copyright.gov/reports/fees2006.html

There are wholesalers who will do the distribution for you. Several that come to mind are Quilters Warehouse, Eagle Pattern Depot, Brewer Sewing, Checker Distributors and there are a couple more that I use that I can't even remember right now.

There are several e-mail groups, one is "quiltdesigners" on yahoo. If you want to join that one and go back and read the archives, there's lots of info there.

Don't forget magazines. Most have their submission guidelines somewhere on their website or in the magazine. Some magazines buy your designs, some will pay for publishing but allow you to retain ownership.

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Thanks Mel:

I'll look for that book.

Thank you Judy: :)

Did you use to be a lawyer ?, you're so smart , you sound like you have alot of experience in the legal feild, or maybe just a lot of years on this forum. I guess if you stay long enough you get to hear almost everything once or twice.

Glad your back, my best wishes to you & family

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Geraldine: You made me laugh! I was a school teacher for a brief period, then I went to work as a legal secretary, then back to college to become a paralegal. Not an attorney but I worked for attorneys for over 20 years.

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When we started out pattern business, we always had some patterns and samples with us when we would go to quilt shops. We'd show them our quilt and then once we had a good reaction we would show them our patterns.

We had to really promote them ourselves for awhile. Finally we got hooked up with several wholesale companies and now we sell all over U.S. and Canada.

We have several patterns but the ones you will really sell the most of are the fast piecing ones.

Our best seller had been out for 3 years and we still sell over 1,000 a month. It is super quick , works really well to show offf the fabric , and people make it over and over.

We print up the "guts" at a local copy center and have another company print our covers for us and hire the local kids to be our pattern folders.

It's pretty fun to travel to different shops and see our patterns wherever we go.

I would definately give it a shot!!!

angie

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I knew it Judy L.

My older sister, Anna is a paralegal too. I guess you can't spend that much time around lawyers and not have some of it rub off on you. Glad you joined the LA world, that makes you smarter than a lawyer. ;)

My oldest son Derek has the mind of a lawyer, but he was smart enough to go into construction, even if his parents thought he was makeing a mistake at the time.

I stayed home to rise my 4 kids & now the youngest will be starting Kindergarten in the fall, time to get my butt in gear, & earn some money for retirement. I can't expect my DH to do it all. :)

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