Book pricing and costs

Hi, everyone. Mr. Mitten here with some more info on the book's pricing. As Barbara said earlier today, Lulu recently had a price hike on all printed materials. Before, you were paying $12 in printing costs per book, but now it's up to $15, which is quite a significant difference. Unfortunately, that means that we couldn't continue charging $19.95 per book, especially considering that we also have to pay Lulu's commission on each item sold.

This is why the price for printed books went up by a bit. We tried to make it up to you guys by lowering the price on the download version to $17.50 -- hopefully this will help those of you who aren't interested in getting the printed version (though it's nice and shiny! I'm very pleased with it.)

Just a couple of words about our operating costs -- we barely have any. :) The book was written entirely in Free Software (pictures done in Gimp, covers and charts done in Inkscape, and the layout done in Scribus, all of it running on Fedora Linux). Apart from Lulu (or Etsy), there are no other middlemen, so anything you pay goes straight to the artist, making sure that she is always pregnant with new ideas (*badum-pum!* ;)).

Overall, this distribution model works out pretty well for everyone, and unless Lulu's printing costs go up again, we should be able to continue to offer patterns at comparatively low costs (at least compared to some other pattern designers.)

swift advice

It's been a busy week, and we're still waiting for our first copy of Festive Knits, so there hasn't been much worth writing about. However, I've been thinking about investing a little into some equipment for my business - specifically a swift and ball winder. Honestly, I would mostly use it for work! Besides, I don't buy that much yarn for myself. I just like the idea of making standard sized skeins for dying, and being able to wind up lovely cakes of yarn for the kits. So I was wondering if you have any advice on what I should look for, and what I should avoid. I'm not even sure how much choice there is in this type of equipment. But I would like to avoid buying something crappy that will break after 5 uses, and maybe other readers will be interested in your experiences too.

time to move on?

I've been thinking about leaving Etsy for a while now. It was a great place for me to get started and noticed, but I'm feeling crowded out. There's just so many plush makers on there, that as soon as I list something, it seems to be 3 or 4 pages deep. Besides, I think that by now lots of people have heard of me, and I'd rather have people going through my main web page than through Etsy. It also costs me a lot to keep all the patterns listed there, and I think it's simpler and faster for everyone to use Lulu anyway.

I think what I'll do is check out my options, and when I have the next batch of kits ready I'll list them in the new shop, and see how it works out. I'll do my best to choose somewhere that is just as convenient for you, and I can slowly let my Etsy shop empty, and then eventually close it altogether. I think this will also help with my up-coming maternity leave, since I would have had to close the Etsy shop temporarily anyway.

Sorry for all the business talk in this post. I won't make it any worse by talking about politics (I have nothing good to say anyway). How about a cute photo of a toy I just finished?

special deal for yarn shops

Over the last year and a half that I've been selling patterns, I've been approached many times by various yarn shops interested in carrying my patterns. It always seemed like too much trouble and expense to keep handy stacks of printed patterns for those who ask. Also, I'm really too shy to want to call up a bunch of stores that have never heard of me, and try to convince them to buy said stack of patterns.

I tried once to have some nice pattern booklets printed, and a handful of shops bought some. I never heard from them again, though, so I guess they didn't go over so well. While I really liked the booklet format, it was rather expensive to have them printed.


This evening my sweetie and I came up with an alternative plan, and I'm testing it out to see if there's any interest. I've put a couple of listings in my Etsy shop for bulk orders. Shops could order 5 or 10 copies of whichever pattern they want, and I'll get them printed locally, and then mail them off. I don't make too much money per pattern, especially after paying for the printing, but if it's even slightly successful I think it will be worth it.

I'm not sure how to advertise this to get the attention of yarn shop owners. Maybe I can mention it on Ravelry somewhere. For now I'll just wait and see how many views I get on Etsy, and think about my options.

test knitters

Thanks so much to everyone who volunteered to test my patterns. I didn't expect quite so many! My plan is to put all your names on a list, and each time I need a new pattern tested, I will pick 3 people from the list. I will contact those people to find out if they have time to help me. I can't afford to pay you for the help, but you will get a free copy of the completed pattern. I'll let you know what kind of yarn I used, although you will be free to use what you like. Basically what I need for you to do is knit up the pattern, and report to me any mistakes, confusing bits, or places where more instruction is needed. I'm not sure yet what sort of deadline I will set, it will probably depend on when I get the draft ready, and when I would like the pattern to come out. I will try to give you at least 2 weeks. Is there anything I forgot?

All that said, I don't expect to have a new toy pattern ready to test for a couple of months. There's a lot of stuff going on right now that I need to concentrate on, and unfortunately, new patterns aren't my top priority. There will be a new clothing pattern for April, but there isn't time left for testing that one.

This whole week has been a little crazy and overwhelming, to the point of having a mini break-down and crying while trying to wash the dishes one night. I love what I do, but it isn't always easy to be happy when I'm being pulled in a dozen different directions. Running your own business doesn't really leave you any time to yourself, even though I try to take breaks a few evenings a week. But I don't even get holidays to myself -- I had people bugging me on my honeymoon! While I can't take a bit of time off right now, hopefully I can figure out a way to manage things better so they don't drive me so crazy. Reading all your lovely and supportive comments always cheers me up, too.

rush rush

I seem to be rushing headlong into the wholesale business! Well, it's not as bad as that sounds. Not wholesale toys this time - I'm still quite firmly against that, except in special circumstances. Wholesale patterns this time.

A friend of mine introduced my patterns to a yarn shop owners' list. Now there's all this interest in selling my patterns, and I'm not prepared! I had thought about printing patterns for shops to sell; but when I looked into it, I decided there wasn't enough demand to bother, considering the high cost per pattern.

I am now convinced the scheme might work. But it feels like there's such a rush to get everything organized... for Easter! I need to find a printer that will deliver good quality booklets for a reasonable price (which necessarily involves orders of a few hundred). I need to get enough orders to make it worthwhile. Then I need to get them printed and distributed. And this has to be done by the beginning of March, at the latest!

I am keeping my sanity by making this a trial. If I don't get enough orders to keep the cost per pattern low enough for me to make a little money, that will be it. People will just have to be content buying my patterns online.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that people love my toys and patterns. But it's just me and my husband running this (and he has a full-time, busy job). There's only so much I feel we can take on, while still making a little money to keep it going. It's a hard balance to keep.

recent musings

Aubrey
Originally uploaded by baprime

I've been thinking a lot lately about knitting toys -- about how much time it takes me for each one, and how I could never charge enough to pay myself a reasonable wage. Of course, I didn't start doing this to make money. I started Fuzzy Mitten partly to keep me from going crazy with boredom during the winter, and partly because I love knitting these little cuties.

But I almost burnt myself out rushing an order of four toys in one week. Then I nearly messed up the deal, and was starting to think about not even selling them any more, aside from maybe at craft sales. It just didn't seem worth the effort I put into them, and I wondered if people even appreciated the amount of thought, creativity, and heart I put into each one.

Thanks to the helpfulness and understanding of the shop owner who ordered the toys, it all worked out for the best. The four toys are on their way across the globe as I type this. I hope whoever buys them in Kilauea really loves them.

But I was still thinking of what I want to get out of making the toys, how to keep both myself and my customers happy. What I've decided is to make fewer toys, knit them from good quality yarns, and make them with as much character as I possibly can. They will now come with cute little sleeping bags, because I love sewing and want to include it too. I might raise the price a tad to cover the cost of the fabric. I've also fixed the shipping costs to be more accurate, and give people more options if they want them.

As a project I started to keep myself occupied, Fuzzy Mitten has turned into something I love, and want to keep loving for a long time to come. I didn't realize it at the beginning, but a business like this is an ever-evolving thing. I need to stay flexible, and change what I'm doing to fit with the rest of my life and what people want from me. I think that's a challenge I will enjoy, even if I get small panic attacks when things don't go quite perfectly. I see now I can come out of them with even better ideas for the future.