I am curious how other designers calculate how much s/he decides to charge for each of his/her patterns.
Is there a “formula” you are using 
? I’d love to be able to list my designs but am having a very difficult time trying to figure out the huge range of pricing designers here are using for similar patterns.
For instance, 1 amigurumi cow (frog, turtle, etc) costs $1.96 while most the others are $5-6 each (even higher if I look at the “regular” price). Sometimes as much as what could be charged for an entire magazine, book or leaflet of 6-20 patterns.
Please, don’t get me wrong, I do not fault anyone for their pricing, I would just like to understand. I’m frugal, but not a cheapskate by any means. I have charged
a larger amount for single patterns from my “sets” or “bundles” since the digital age (haha). If my bundle (book/leaflet) of 10 patterns is priced at $19.99, I divide by 10 = $2 per design and add in 50%, making the single price $3.
Doing this backwards, for instance on a design listed here for $5, times 10 of the same designers patterns = $50 for a book of his/her patterns!! In my 70 years, I dont think I have seen very many (if any) crochet books priced at $50: even with dust covered hardback full of beautiful high gloss pages, professional illustrations & photos and signed by the designer.
This leads me to believe my “formula” doesn’t hold water and I’d love to learn yours! I want to thank everyone in advance for sharing their pricing ideas.
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I’d be really interested to know too tbh. I just pitched mine in the middle at £2.50/3 mark before any discounts etc. I haven’t had any sales here yet so maybe I’m overcharging 
I get sales on Etsy but then there are the listing prices etc to take into consideration there.
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Commenting because I also want to know. I charge mine between 2-3$ for accessories. I’m planning to create bag and top pattern as well and sell them betwen 4-5$. But it’s really just “this piece is bigger, so it take more time, so it should cost more” type of thoughts
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Personally, I use difficulty of designing and pattern uniqueness as a guide… so my mitts were fairly simple, but have 3 sizes so they are $2.50… my Keyhole Scarf also has 3 sizes, but took a little more figuring, plus is a bit of a “specialty” versus most scarves so it’s $3.50… but my convertible hat/ cowl is quite unique and has 4 sizes so I charge $5… of course, when I bundle them I give about a 10% discount…I don’t know that I’d ever offer 10 patterns at a time, but since they aren’t all priced the same, it still wouldn’t be $50…
I do also check other patterns that are similar to get a decent base line… a scarf that is $1 is usually super simple and/or a “formula” with only 1 size (or in the case of a formula, how to make the size you want)… I’ve seen some Keyhole scarves for $5, but I know that I wouldn’t pay that personally… many were around $3, so I went with $3.50 since those Keyhole scarves only had 1 slit not 2 and only had 1 or 2 sizes not 3…
I do have an unreleased scarf (that has 2 variations, but 1 size) that when I release it’ll be $1 because the switch from 1 variation to the other required almost no effort and it was a fairly simple design…
And my dishcloth that just used a quick grid is free (I’ll have a couple other free patterns too that’ll also require very little effort in designing and will help show people my writing style to help decide if they want to spend money on my patterns…)
Is my method perfect? No… Do I have a ton of sales? No (but apparently ami sells better
)… Does it work for me and I feel like my efforts are worth the price? Yes, and ultimately that’s all I care about
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I like to price my items on the lower end compared to some designers. I have all my patterns tested and I dont feel the need to charge more than $5 or $6 for an adult size pattern that has multiple sizes. My one size or two size items like my washcloth/dishcloths or swiffer covers are marked at $2.
Id rather have my patterns be affordable to all than affordable to few.
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I go by how difficult was the pattern to create and if I were buying it what would I be willing to pay.
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I listed one pattern on Etsy last year and before I did a price compared to similar pattern prices. So I didn’t use a formula.
I wrote up a list though for fees on the platform and made sure my cost of those fees was covered plus some take home. I made about 4.00 once I had my first sale. Finished product for buyer was a medium sized Amigurumi low sew. I charged $5.20. I sold one. I also keep in mind how long I spend making the design.
From a customers perspective
Out of all the patterns I’ve boughten I’d say I have my ideal window i buy from. I consider how much the designer put into it and I do print the patterns off I prefer it and ya that adds to it so no biggie.
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I think most of designers I’ve spoken to on here have a stash of pdfs somewhere for their patterns. I’ve no Idea how easy it is to print the ribblr patterns but I don’t feel like I need to with the handy tick off feature.
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I don’t really know. I try to price what I think it a “fair” price for the work that has gone into my patterns but I never sell any.
My #cosycottageblanket literally took me two years to make and write up because it has so many pieces, including decorations etc. I wanted to “earn” €10 per pattern (after fees) on that because I also paid a tech editor and live in a country with an extremely high cost of living. The pdf has 25 pages of instructions. A small no sew soft teddy thing with one basic shape can go for 2.50 so I thought that was fair. I don’t think my (lack of) customers do though. The same with my Cottage Wall Hanging. I charge what I think is fair. I have sold two copies so far so my pricing must be WAY off. I do think though that if anyone has bought them they would agree they paid a fair price for the pattern instruction but who knows.
I am reluctant to drop my prices because I think I will be undervaluing my work and undervaluing the work of anyone coming after me trying to sell patterns too.
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I personally havimg posted any patterns and don’t plan on charging for patterns until I get a credit card. But I’m guessing it’d be depending on the size, like when I sell my finished pieces I base the price on size. Small being between 2-4 USD, medium being 5-10 USD, and large being 11-20 USD, or if it’s a blanket it will be around 50-70 USD maybe higher and that’s if I buy the yarn for the blanket. It generally depends, but I’d be curious also.
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I kind of agree with @craftsbyKarla. I feel if we start to undervalue our work, everyone will feel they have to follow the same aspect and sooner or later all handmade work will be meaningless
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I normally do how long it takes so for example 1 hour would be £1 in uk and thwn depending on how complicated or big thebpattern is and how long it took to make the pattern and higher price if it was to be more expensive if your selling the physical item so for example something i would sell for 10 quid would maybe be £2.50 for the pattern and an item i would sell for like £5 i would do like £1.50 for pattern (not my acctual prices btw)
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You could price it 500$ and someone out there would buy it. It’s all sales, which no matter how you price have to be pushed in one way or another. It’s up to you if you want to have to sell something a hundred times or a handful of times to meet your goal. What’s important is identifying and locating your target buyer.
That’s why I take what I would personally be willing to pay into account when pricing. Finding peers or like minded crafters is a target I’m confident I can hit.
It’s not about devaluing your work, just your preference. If price devalued the craft no one would ever be able to sell a pattern for those that choose the free route. It’s just a different customer you target.
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This is how Ive done mine. If it was a pain in the butt to get the pattern done, it’s going to be more expensive, but if it’s simple and easy to lay out, I’m not putting a high price on it.
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I didn’t know it was possible to print the patterns here on Ribblr, whether PDF or paper. I thought all patterns hadvto be used from within the program.
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there is a pdf option in the designer section on the pattern - I’ve never used it because I prefer to make my own pdfs. So I cannot comment how well it works. Most often I create my own pdf pattern first (in google drive) and then copy and paste it into ribblr and add pictures.
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I also write the patterns elsewhere so I did mean my personal PDF for sale elsewhere. Although I am curious how big the ribblr pdf version would be.
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