In early 2005 I became a craft publisher by starting a craft blog. Between then and now I’ve watched the industry change in radical ways. Favorite magazines folded (remember Adorn? Domino? Now Stitch Craft Create is no more). Big companies bought out smaller, craft-exclusive publishing houses (most recently F+W bought my former publisher, Interweave). More independent crafters became bloggers and the number of craft blogs skyrocketed into the tens of thousands. Blogs are increasingly saavy, rivaling the pillar of craft and homemaking media, Martha Stewart, in the quality of photo styling and project originality.
Independent publishers like me create content nearly every day, and it’s free to consume. A friend of mine recently asked me about blogs, specifically why use an RSS reader. My response? “Your RSS reader is like
the best magazine you could ever imagine. You tailor it to your particular interests, it’s constantly refreshed with new content, and it’s free.”
I’ve created traditional print media for the craft industry, over the years contributing projects to books and magazines and writing two books of my own. Last spring I expanded my role as an independent craft
publisher by selling my sewing patterns as digital downloads on Etsy and writing an ebook. A year into it I can tell you what many internet-based businesses already know: selling information is profitable. If you search Etsy right now for PDF patterns 95,552 items come up. Now that Etsy offers automatic digital
file delivery that number will only increase.
What does that mean for print media? Craft projects are generally small. The pattern templates can easily be printed on a home printer. How many times have you bought a craft book for the single pattern that caught your eye? No more. Chances are that author now sells patterns individually directly, and instantly, to consumers.
Self-published posts and patterns aren’t edited necessarily and the authors aren’t vetted by industry experts. How do you know what you’re getting is good quality? The truth is patterns often weren’t tested even when they were published by well-regarded print publications. Indie designers prove our expertise to the public ourselves by consistently publishing quality content on our blogs and building our personal brand reputations. We don’t need another media company to intermediate.
What’s next? The radical shift I see is the rise of video instruction. Nothing can replace the value of watching a master at work. Say you’d like to learn to insert an invisible zipper. Would you rather read instructions from a book, or watch a video? Zippers are tricky. If I know I’m watching an expert, and I know the video is shot so that I can really see what’s happening, I would much prefer to watch than read.
Online teaching platforms like Craftsy and Creative Bug offer high definition videos of nationally known instructors demonstration their skills. The classes aren’t free, but they aren’t expensive either, and once you see the quality of instruction it’s hard to argue that print media is better.
“My favorite classes are the most advanced ones taught by the instructors who have many years, if not decades, of experience,” says Veronique from Verte Adelie, a self-described Craftsy junkie. “It’s like being a little mouse in their studio and watching them work. It’s just as if the internet suddenly allowed us to
experience a very traditional master apprentice relationship in a way books never allowed.”
Jackie Ashton has taken several Creative Bug classes and explains the benefits of video instruction this way. “When I view a blog post or a book I’m usually doing a lot of guessing and back and forth, re-reading to try to figure it out. It’s like having someone showing you how to tie your shoes, or trying to learn it from a book.”
It’s exciting to be a part of the new media landscape in craft, even as it’s sad to say goodbye to the familiar forms of media we grew up with. When it comes to craft instruction video is here to stay, first and foremost because it’s worth paying for. As for print publishing, it’s still challenging to print a
dress pattern on your home printer and for that it will remain, although much emaciated. Digital self-publishing will pick up the slack.
I’d see some voids. Tech editors and graphic designers could market themselves to indie designers to help
improve the quality of what’s being produced. Software products could make digitizing templates and creating page layouts as easy as PicMonkey has made editing photos.
Some holes have already been filled. There are great platforms for easily creating a professional online presensce and for getting self-published digital media to market (see my blog sponsors, Virb, Goodsie and Retailr, as examples). A blog makes it easy to share high-quality free content with customers. Social media allows us to interact with the public directly.
That’s my forecast for the future of craft publishing. What do you see? I’m curious what you think the
craft media landscape will look like in five years? And in ten?
Interesting discussion to start, thank you. It’s fascinating to compare both the publishing media available (print, e-book, video) and the publisher/self-publisher experiences. In the last year I’ve self-published two books in print, as e-books (PDFs, not Kindle style, yet) for Rubbish Revamped, my own business, and been hired by publishers for contributions to wider books and for a children’s recycled craft book. Not dabbled with video yet! My feeling is that there’s a lot of people still very committed to print, and wanting to get away from screen based activities, especially if they’ve been on a screen all day at work. Print craft books made great presents too. My books are popular with guide leaders, teachers and other educators – easier to take the project books into the after school club/scout hut than a computer.
I think we, and our buyers, thrive on a good mix!
Hi Danielle,
I love a print book or magazine for exactly what you describe. It's easier to pass around, and frankly it's easier to make copies of even when that violates the copyright of the publication. As you said, a craft book makes a great gift, too. I do wonder how long this kind of print material will be published, though. It's expensive to produce.
There are a couple independent video producers who are worth pointing out – Crafty Gemini, MissouriQuiltCo and Ebony Love (lovebugstudios) are all doing really great stuff off of the major platforms (except youtube). There are also Quilting tv shows behind pay walls that I haven’t checked out, too. Ebony’s videos explained things to me about die cutting that I didn’t understand before I watched them. I like having them going on my tablet in the craft room.
Regarding independent patterns, I think this service is great: http://mellysews.com/2013/03/pdf-pattern-drafting-services-and-lessons.html – not everyone wants to take the time to grade patterns themselves, but it’s not terrible complex for kids’ clothes, so you can pay to have it done and be left with a new product to sell.
As a hobby crafter I am “old school” and not fond of some the technological advances. For instance, I am a subscriber to the “Australian Homespun” magazine (wonderful magazine!). Unfortunately I can no longer find a reasonable supplier for a paper copy and have resorted to ordering digital through Zinio. It is not fun to read a magazine on the computer. I would MUCH rather have a magazine or a craft book to read while I enjoy a glass of iced tea on the porch. I can pick up a book and flip through the pages, perusing all the wonderful designs, maybe just enjoying the patterns and not making them. This is a great way to relax after staring at a computer all day at work. In my opinion there will never be a good substitution for a print copy. Paper please! (I do enjoy a great blog and seeing everyone’s beautiful creativity though!)
I am curious to see where things go in five to ten years. I’m really thinking that self publishing (especially ebooks) is going to be where the money is. That will probably extend to videos as well. If there’s a simple way for a craft publisher to embed the videos she’s shot into her ebook, that could turn into a real gold mine. And not just money wise, as a consumer, I would be thrilled to play technique videos off of my pattern.
These are terrific resources. Thank you so much for sharing! I'm especially impressed with Melly Sews. What a great business model! I'm going to check out these video platforms as well. Thank you!
I know that Stacey (http://www.freshstitches.com) and Wendi (http://shinyhappyworld.com) both use video extensively to illustrate portions of the patterns. I think the way they do it is by embedding links in the PDF to their YouTube videos and this seems to work well. It would be nice to have the video right there in the pattern, though, right? Soon, i think.
I read newspapers online, but I want to be able to wander around with my craft book under my arm or in my workbag. I’ve used YouTube to learn some weird sock-knitting techniques that never made sense on paper. I’ve purchased the right to view several polymer clay technique videos but I quit that because all of them were drastically overpriced. I like the idea of embedding links to videos (like Stacey does) and of adding a DVD to an instruction book as found in Judith MacKenzie’s The Intentional Spinner. I seriously dislike reading magazines online or books on reading devices.
I’m learning to use the ibooks software, which is a great option for creating ebooks that contain videos and other multimedia. I think that this type of “book” as a .pdf or other ebook format, will continue to be popular since they are relatively easy to produce and you can include high quality images without the cost of printing and paper.
On the other hand, I love paper, and I still prefer to read novels on paper even though I could read them on a screen. I don’t think traditional publishing is going away completely, but I do think it’s a shrinking market, and it will be harder for print publications to stay profitable.
I think this is a very interesting conversation and I have also enjoyed the comments. I think in the end there will always be some need for traditional publishing, but I also think more continue to be converted to some sort of digital format. For the most part, I think individual patterns make more sense in a digital format. I know I have eliminated print patterns from my pattern line. But the trick is helping consumers learn to value the difference between a well published design (photographed well, tech edited, clearly written, etc) and those that are just “thrown together”.
The same is true with video content. You can learn how to do almost anything via YouTube, but it is clear and more importantly, is it correct?! So I believe more pay-for content will continue to be developed. But there still is something to be said for “in-person” classes.
So in the end, I think we will continue to migrate to more and more digital formats, but I don’t think the more traditional venues will completely die. And as has always been, there really is room and customers for both.
iBooks sounds like a great way to produce rich media, Leah. I would agree with you, and with several other commenters, that it's awfully nice to have a paper magazine or book to tuck under your arm and read on the train or on the beach or in bed at night. I do hope these kinds of traditional media are here to stay, even if somewhat less of it is produced.
Hi Gwen,
Attending a class in-person is by far the best way to learn something new! I love that experience and I love teaching as well. Nothing beats the person-to-person interaction and community that takes place in that environment and I don't think it will ever go away, no matter how much media and publishing may shift over time. So that's a good thing! I think it's exciting to be able to easily and cheaply distribute information with no middle man to siphon off the meager profits, and no burden of paying for printing and distribution. Excellent video instruction doesn't beat that in-person experience, but it's pretty close and I think it is, and will continue to be, worth paying for. Thank you for your perspective!
This is a super interesting topic, I love hearing your thoughts. I completely agree about videos I would much rather watch someone put a zipper in rather than read about it. It’s very interesting to see how social media’s role will develop in the future. thanks Abby 🙂
Youre welcome, Kim. Im hoping that opportunities to create well-produced craft video content will expand in the future. Theres so much to learn and so many great teachers out there!
PDF patterns allow for more in-depth instructions that you can’t get from a craft book or magazine or paper pattern. There is simply no limit to the number of pages I am allowed to use to get my point across. I love that. I would like to see some of my things in magazines but every time I pick one up, it goes back on my shelf for eye candy because the instructions are so lacking. If one of the publishers could manage to change that, I think magazines would stick around even if they change format a bit (more iPad/kindle but still the same style). Still nothing beats picking up a magazine for that part of a flight that you can’t have your phone on, or passing around at a guild meeting.
You’ll definitely find video getting more popular. I wanted to do a zipper tutorial that would have been impossible to do just using photos, so I set up my little point and shoot camera (not even video camera) and spent 10 minutes filming and another 30 editing it with iMovie. Drag and drop. I would have spent more time photo editing.
There is also a lack of barrier to entry with digital pattern publishing, because of the minor up front costs. I use my camera that I’d have anyway ($200), Adobe Illustrator for designing pattern pieces ($20/month) and Aperture for photo editing ($79). I write my instructions in Pages and have Photoshop Elements as backup for when Aperture can’t get it quite right. I would already have my sewing machine and my iMac.
My website costs are reduced since I do most of it myself, but hosting and a shopping cart app are the biggest expenses. Nothing wrong with a free blog and Etsy.
What we need to figure out is how to get representation in the quilt shops. There has to be a way to capture those customers who don’t know to come find us online. Being able to sell all over the world compensates for that a bit, so it’s a tradeoff.
I also wanted to say that while I like video, a lot, some of those videos are so long that you could have read the pattern and made a finished item long before finishing some of those classes. Patterns work well for allowing you to work at your own pace. I would like to make videos just for the difficult parts of my instructions, and I still might do that!
All that said, trudging through all the patterns can be tedious. Sometimes I feel like half of the patterns on Etsy are for three-tiered elastic waist toddler skirts. That’s where social media also comes into play too. I have a whole network that I can post to and say “Hey I need a pattern for this” and someone has one to recommend. Reviews and recommendations will be increasingly important, since there are generally no refunds and you can’t flip through it like a book at the store.
It’s actually kind of exciting to see how it’s changing. I think we are about in the middle of it – we are well into digital but the old print media styles are still around. It’s really interesting!
I think the closest thing to compare it to is food publishing. I love America’s Test Kitchen. I subscribe to their videos on their website, own their cookbook and occasionally pick up Cook’s Country Magazine. Obviously they’ve figured out how to make all three work!
Thanks for this perspective, Erin. I agree with you that its an exciting time to be a part of the craft media landscape!
I love to have a book that I can mull over, and re- read the instructions endlessly. I know that I am old fashioned and notice that many blogs I visit now only have video tutorials. I have often been put off many of these video tutorials because I can’t go at my own pace. I know that you can whizz the button forward and back but it isn’t like a book.
I think the future will be videos (alas) and e magazines.. and books.
Your latest book arrived yesterday – and I have to say thank you for producing my new softie complete handbook.
Youre welcome, Catherine. Im so glad you like my book, and books in general. I still love to read, and write, craft books!
I am so so sad about stitch craft and create 🙁