Ep 6: How to get commissioned by a magazine and prevent my biggest mistakes

Today’s topic is about how to get commissioned by a magazine. 

Key Points: 

1. Benefits of Magazine Commissions
2. How to Get Commissioned
3. Making sure commissions are worth your time, i.e. getting paid!
4. My own commission disaster story and how to prevent my mistakes

Let me know your thoughts on magazine commissions. Have they worked for you?

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Transcript

Microfoon (YXC usb audio): 0:50

I creative and beautiful souls. Welcome to a new episode of the mind of the crochet designer podcast. I am Christina hazarding, your host. And while you are getting ready to grab your favorite whip and crochet hook, I am going to talk about what the benefits are of magazine commissions. How to get commissioned and also my biggest disaster. Stories regarding commissions. So you don't get to make the same mistakes as I did. So let's get started. Let's dive into this topic. So first I want to talk about the benefits of Mexi submissions, because they can be a very sure, a fast way of getting paid. I mean, I feel that. There are both sides of the coin when creating a pattern. You only have to make it once and you can keep making money from your pattern until eternity. And the downside of that is you can work on a design for a really long time, and it really doesn't reflect what you are going to get paid from debts and. Because I have had the signs dead. I fraud would be. That I feel are amazing. That don't do that well, and I've also had the sign said we're like almost an afterthought and they were doing much better than I anticipated. So. If you are doing commissions for a magazine it's. A very sure way of getting paid a flat fee. And a lot of the times, and not all magazines do this, but a lot of the times you do get the copyright back after a set amount of time. Maybe like in half year or a year. So you can even rewrite the pattern in your own style. You don't even have to do despite away, but for example, my own writing style for system magazine style is very different. So are we like to. Rewrite it in my own style. And that way you can republish the pattern and keep making money from it. So you get the flat fee. So you really know that you are getting paid for your time and then you can keep making money from it. This is a very big benefit of doing magazine submissions. So another benefit is that you get your decides published in front of a very large audience. So. A lot of people see your patterns that otherwise would not see them. And especially as a new crochet designer, this can be such a great way of getting new followers and getting your design scene without having to do all the promotional work yourself. And a lot of times, this is also where new crochet dishonor starts. Then another benefit is for me personally is dead. I really learned how to ride a pattern professionally. When I started doing magazine submissions. Because. Before I would just do whatever my writing style was all over the place. But once I did commissions for yarn Booker scene. The design magazine. And they provide you with their own. Professional style sheet and this sheet. Really contains everything you need to know. Regarding how to ride the Petter and what words to use, how to do the inter punctuation. What abbreviations to use. So this is really a great way to up level your pattern writing and really ride patterns professionally. So that's like a side benefits. And a really great benefit of that because it really elevated my pattern writing. And the last benefit. I mean, I'm sure I'm forgetting benefits here, but the last benefit I want to mention is that they do the photography. So. You have amazing and professional looking photos, which is great for promotions and you don't have to do anything of that yourself. So then the question becomes if you are now like, whoa, I really want to get into commissions right now. I want to talk about how to actually get commissions. Because it almost. Feels like this part of the crochet design world is hidden and I'm not sure it's intentional. But it isn't talked about that much. So how do you actually get commissions? So when you just Google crochet magazine commissions. You just get a lot of links from the magazines. And a lot of them have dedicated pages where you can just sign up and Whenever there's a new commission request. You will just receive an email. So whenever there's a new publication. You can send in your design idea and they will let you know if they want to go forward with it. The commission requests usually contains the deadline for the commission itself. So from up to when you can submit your own design idea, And. Then the deadline for the actual pattern. And oftentimes it also contains what the definition of done is. So the definition of done is that they will need you to have it sent in the sample, the actual crochet sample, and that you have sent in a pattern and that it's tested. Because a lot of the times you are responsible for the testing. And they are responsible for. The final tech editing part of it. And a lot of the times the commission email also contains a mood board for the magazine issue, with the inspiration, the colors and the specific themes. And then also the type of designs and techniques they are looking for like garments or shawls, and maybe they want things in lace or maybe more textured. So all these types of information should be in the commission email. And I feel that. To set you up for success. And I don't know if this rings true, because I never did that much. Decide commissions. But I feel that if I would look from the standpoint of the magazine, I would want the best and the most amazing designs. And. That they will fit the commission brief. So, if you are submitting a commission, please don't. Keep yourself back from submitting very creative designs. And really work with de-brief, but. Again, I feel that. You should only for me personally, I only submit commissions that I feel that really resonates with the theme. So. For example, I'm really inspired by nature. And so like trees or a c theme or. Like all these nature of fame. So if they, if the commission brief isn't about that, then I'm not likely to submit a design, unless I'm really inspired by Derek commissioner requests. So the more you are inspired by their request, the more likely you are set up for success and to meet an idea that really resonates with what they are looking for. And before I go to my. This Saster story about my own commissions. I want to talk a little bit about the compensation for your design. Because. S new crochet designers. We don't necessarily see our worth. I mean, we are so worth it to receive. Great payment for our unique ideas. And for our creative time and I feel that. There are magazines. There are yarn brands, dead are taking full advantage of debt of you not seeing your own worth. And so. I really feel like magazines and your own brands They should really look into giving compensation where it's due. So some. Magazines are like, okay, I can do$100 for your shawl or a blanket or whatever. Usually they have flat fees for all these types of. Projects. But you have to keep in mind that it often isn't even compensating your time. The time to come up with. The idea, the time to make the sample, to work out the Petter and to have a tested. Two. Process the test feedback and to make diagrams, even if you need to, to make charts. And so I really feel like you should only do. Commissions. If you feel like they will be worth your time and that you will get fairly compensated. Now having said that, I mean, there are a lot of benefits besides getting compensation. So it really should be up to you. Where do you feel like it's worth your time? So let's get to my little disaster story regarding my own commissions. I remember it so well, it was at the beginning of the first lockdown a time. I feel that so many of us would rather forget. But it was at the start of dad's and it just wasn't flowing for me. I had submitted a design. That I wasn't sure about. Ed working out, like I had made a little sample swatch, like a teeny tiny swatch, just to see if this technique would work. Because it was a novel idea. I hadn't seen it anywhere before and now I know why. But I really wanted to submit something unique and that really resonated with their brief. And. I was pretty confident that it would work because I had made this swatch and it worked in death's watch. It was it's right. A hard to explain, but it was like this semicircle. Which is. Straight at the site. So I wanted to create this circle. Effect. And have it be straight at the size instead of rounded off. So I worked with increases and decreases at the same time. And. It just wasn't flowing for me. I think I frogged that project like 10 times and it just would not work. And so I was like, okay. How can I make this work? But in a different way. So I created a solution and I just sent in a photo. And posted my sample and I was like, okay, so this is Dawn because I was just, so for so many of us, the first lockdown and then the whole. COVID period was such a stressful time and I just didn't have the capacity to really work on very intricate designs. At that time the very first lockdown. So I was like, I just want to get done with this. I was so frustrated, so over it, but you know, the thing that really gets me with commissions is that there's an actual deadline and. Whenever I'm working on a design and it isn't flowing for me. I just been it, I just put it in a bin and then I forget all about it. And then one day I get like this idea for a solution and then I pick it up again. And so some of my designs. And I think if I'm being honest, most of my designs are often a process of a year or longer. Because of that, because I just want things to flow. And if it doesn't flow for me, I can push and push all I want, but it just isn't happening. And this was that case as well. So I was just, okay. I will just make it happen in a different way. And then I'll just post a sample and then be done with it. Well, that wasn't a great solution because I made the mistake of not communicating with the commission. Company the company that commissioned this design. That it wasn't working out and. So I just posted the design, posted the picture of the, finished sample and That led to a very big discussion of like, why didn't you just let us know, because this isn't at all, what we commissioned you for. So the biggest lesson I learned is that when things aren't working out. Then. Please communicate with the young company or with the magazine. That where you are stuck and other times you can just work it out together, or they are like, well, we can extend the deadline. Sometimes that's a possibility or they can use the design for a different magazine edition. Like oftentimes there is a solution for the problem. And so my biggest lesson is just to communicate and share. If you are stuck. And the next lesson I learned is that whatever you send in, make sure that it will work out like your sketch and that you are confident that you can actually make it. So those are my two. Biggest takeaways from dead experience. I mean, it's all okay. Right. I mean, We either. Get the thing we want, like an amazing designed at works out like we efficient, or we get new lessons into how to do a different next time. So that's all I want to share about commissions. I hope this is part you to do your own commissions and to make your design scene. And let me know. How you feel about doing commissions and if they work for you or not. I'll just let you get back to your web, to your amazing design and talk to you next time. On the mind of the crochet designer podcast. Bye-bye.