Yes, this is a very delicate subject and every designer has a differnt point of view. I just want talk about mine to the knitters who might want to buy my patterns because I have recently modified my prices.
You may have noticed, if you regularly come to this website, that the site’s color had changed. This is because of the change in my situation: I closed an online store I had runned for 10 years, Atelier Knits, selling Japanese translations of indie designers’ knitting patterns, at the end of July 2022. This site, strands of life, which was sort of a second website, was becoming the main one for all my knitting activities and I wanted to add to it my own pattern store, independent from my Ravelry store (the old store on this website was linked to my Ravelry store).
I also wanted my new store to have a new feature and decided to add a “mobile version”, a format optimized for mobile devices (smartphones in particular).
Before creating the mobile version for each pattern, I first recheked and updated the print version’s instructions according to my current standards, modified wording following feedback I had received, updated the old patterns’ layout, and this in three languages in which I offer my patterns. Then I created a mobile version of all of the patterns in three languages. Yes, all this represents quite a litte amount of work.
For all the versions (14 patterns for now x 3 languages x 2 formats), I decided the followings:
– The patterns are and will be available in French and English, in print format on Ravelry, as before;
– On this site, the patterns are available in a single language (English OR French) in print format, and at a slightly lower price than on Ravelry;
– The mobile version is offered an option, available only on this website, and the bundles of print + mobile verions are at the same price as the bundle of English & French versions on Ravelry.
By offering the patterns in a single language at a lower price, I’ve wanted to respond to “pattern inclusivity” issue in my own way. I suppose that few knitters need the patterns in two languages, and it sounds totally logical to me that you can buy just what you need at a lower price. Creating a pattern page for each language is not allowed on Ravelry but I have more liberty on my site 🙂
Some may think that my pricing doesn’t resolve the issue and I should implement “pay what you can” pricing. I’m replying to this remark as a designer. First of all, I think my prices are not very high and they are in EU averages. We have cheaper costs of living here than in the US or UK and our patterns prices can be consequently cheaper. Second, and more importantly, I live on the pattern sales – not totally but still – and there is a limit I can’t go below. I need to recover the designing costs such as yarn, hours spent for designing, grading, knitting and reknitting and tech editing fee, which can easily reach several hundreds euros or more, and it is not always guaranteed at my level that I can recover them. Some patterns sell well, others not (though I love them) and profits can be negligible.
So in short, I’ve wanted to find a balance between affordability (for you) and decent wages (for me). I hope this article gives you the full knowledge about my policy and you agree with it!
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