How I Published My Crochet Pattern for the Kindle – A Step-by-Step Guide

© Copyright 2011 Patrice Walker All rights reserved

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) - A Discovery of a Lifetime

I was wondering why it was taking me so long to write a follow-up hub to the one I published almost a year ago (1-10-10) on how to create crochet patterns. After publishing that hub, my goal was to write a hub on how to self-publish your crochet patterns, but I kept procrastinating and finding excuses not to write it.

Now I know why. I was waiting to learn about publishing for the Kindle, a discovery that took a good eight months to make. Yeah, I know. I’m a bit behind the times, but needless to say, I was really excited about getting some crochet patterns in the Kindle Store and started teaching myself as much as I could about the process.

During my research, I came across one of craftdrawer’s hubs on publishing for the Kindle that included an Amazon capsule featuring a Kindle ebook on how to publish and sell ARTICLES for the Kindle. Oh my goodness! Articles? That’s all I do is write articles. Do you mean I can actually sell my articles in Amazon’s Kindle store and make more money than I’m getting through Adsense and other revenue sharing programs that most writing sites offer? I couldn’t get over to the Kindle Store fast enough to purchase this 99-cent “booklet” by Kate Harper.

This little ebook is jam packed with valuable information on publishing articles for the Kindle like "how to determine pricing, ... tips for avoiding unnecessary costs, and how to publish your article simply, without learning HTML coding or using conversion software."

After thoroughly studying Kate’s article, I thought I was ready to at least experiment with publishing a short document on the KDP platform. A crochet pattern would be perfect for an experiment that I would use to teach myself what I need to know to publish future documents. It would also enable me to create a step-by-step guide that others could follow to do the same.

In this hub, I’m going to take you through the eight steps that I took myself through in order to get my crochet pattern published in Amazon’s Kindle Store.

Step 1: Do Some Keyword Research.

Step 2: Create a Compelling Title for Your Crochet Pattern

Step 3: Write Your Crochet Pattern

Step 4: Format Your Crochet Pattern for the Kindle

Step 5: Prepare a Book Cover for Your Crochet Pattern

Step 5: Prepare a Product Description and Seven Tags

Step 6: Upload Your Crochet Pattern and Book Cover to the KDP Platform

Step 7: Wait 24 – 48 Hours for Your Crochet Pattern to Get Added to the Kindle Store

Step 8: Get Traffic to Your Crochet Pattern

Granted, I did NOT go through these steps in the order in which they are presented here. My process was a lot more haphazard. But, I took a lot notes, using Microsoft OneNote 2007 (I love this software!), as I did everything I needed to do to publish the pattern, so that I could present the process in as much detail as possible.

I didn’t do this step until I was almost ready to publish my pattern because I had already written it, but I did want to create a title that would place it as high as possible on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Keyword research will help you determine what terms (i.e., keywords) people are using when they search for information on search engines like Google. You want to find keywords or combinations of keywords that have a fairly high, global monthly search volume (around 1,000 and 10,000) but don’t have a lot competition from websites using that keyword.

I used the Google Keyword Tool Google Keyword Tool to refine my pattern title. Specifically, I wanted to find out what terms people are using when searching for crochet afghan patterns. Are they using the term, “afghan,” “lapghan,” “blanket,” or “throw”?

In addition, you want to look at how many websites are using the keywords you’re interested in. In the Google Keyword Tool, this will be displayed in the Competition column as low, medium, or high competition.

You won't always find the perfect keyword, one that has a decent amount of people using it to search and low competition from other websites, but do the best you can to select one that comes as close to the ideal as possible.

I chose “throw” for my pattern title, but now I’m thinking I probably should have used the term “afghan” because it has a lot more monthly searches. However, I reasoned that “throw” more accurately describes what the piece is (i.e., it’s smaller than a typical afghan), so I opted that keyword. I’ll wait a few months to see how well the pattern sells before deciding if I want to substitute “afghan” in the title.

If you take the time to do keyword research, then Step 8, Getting Traffic to Your Pattern, will be a lot easier to accomplish.

Creating a compelling title involves two factors:

1. The keyword(s) you selected
2. The manner in which your title is formatted.

Include Your Keyword(s) in Your Title

I’m assuming that you’ve already done adequate keyword research and have good keywords to include in your title. You also want to format your title in such a way that people will want to take a closer look at your crochet pattern. In other words, you want to create an “eye-catching” title.

Create an Eye-Catching Title

More often than not, people are looking for how-to information, as well as cheap, easy, fast, and quick ways of accomplishing their goals. “Tips” is another term that implies speed of accomplishment. Therefore, formatting your title to include these words will help attract attention to your pattern.

This is a little more difficult to do with a crochet pattern. Typically, pattern titles include the name of the item, and that’s it. Therefore, try to find creative ways to include those eye-catching terms, along with the name of the item being made. I found a way to include the term, “easy,” in my pattern title, “Easy-Breezy Crochet Throw.” I also included "easy" in the product description for the pattern (see Step 5 below). Also include the craft name in the title, such as “crochet” or “knitting,” so searchers know exactly what they’re getting.

If you already have a pattern ready for publication, then you’ve already completed this step. I would recommend, however, that you review your pattern with a fine-tooth comb to make sure it is error free. You also want to read the rest of this step because it includes some important things you need to do even though you already have a pattern that’s ready for publication.

Writing Your Pattern from Scratch

If you haven’t created a pattern yet, then may I suggest you read the hub I wrote on How to Create Crochet Patterns – A Step-by-Step Guide (see link in the first paragraph). This hub describes my pattern-creation process in detail and contains all of the information you’ll need to create your own pattern.

In addition to writing your pattern yourself, you can:

• Hire a ghostwriter to write it for you or
• Select patterns that are in the public domain (i.e., have no copyright attached to them) to publish.

The first option may involve spending more money than you want to, but I offer it anyway to let you know what’s possible when you are creating a pattern from scratch.

Using Public Domain Content

With respect to the second option, there is a publisher on Amazon who is selling a slew of “vintage” crochet and knitting patterns in the Kindle Store that are in the public domain. This seller may have cornered the market on these patterns, but there still may be some available for you to publish, so it’s an option worth pursuing. Publishing public domain patterns can provide some income while you are developing your pattern-writing skills.

Include a Table of Contents in Your Pattern

Take a look at the preview of my pattern in the Kindle Store (on the Amazon page, click the image with the words “Look Inside” over it). You’ll notice that I included a table of contents at the very beginning of the pattern.

Since a crochet pattern is only a few pages long and the Amazon previewer uses the first 10% of your document to automatically generate the preview, people aren’t going to see much. A table of contents gives them a good idea of the information included in the pattern. Unfortunately, I forgot to mention the free content that I provide with my pattern in the table of contents, but I do mention it in the product description, so I’m not ready to revise it yet.

This is by far the most important step in the process, and you need to take some time to ensure that you’ve done it correctly. If you own a Kindle or have the Kindle for PC application on your computer, then you know that the screen on which Kindle content is displayed is rather small. Also, color images show up as black and white on the Kindle.

Formatting Issue #1

This device was designed for reading books consisting of solid text, so you need to keep this in mind as you prepare your pattern for publication. Keep formatting to a bare minimum. Bold and italic are fine, but do not use bullets or numbered lists that you create from your text editor’s task bar. And if there are color images in your pattern, you’re probably going to want to remove them as I did. Believe me, they don’t display well on the Kindle. Black and white images (e.g., diagrams and charts), on the other hand, should render well.

Most people use MS Word, so I would recommend creating your document with this text editor since it is one of the document formats you can upload to the KDP platform. But make sure you save and upload a .doc file (Word 2003) and not a .docx file (Word 2007+).

Formatting Issue #2

The other issue with the Kindle is that documents have to be converted to the Kindle, .prc, file format. If you’ve included two hard carriage returns between paragraphs, something we typically do when typing a document, you’ll notice big gaps between paragraphs when you upload your pattern to the KDP platform. Kate Harper’s article has an easy fix for this problem. In fact, it was so easy that I missed it at first. But I’m not going to reveal it here as an encouragement to you to purchase the article. Believe me, it’ll be the best 99 cents you’ll ever spend. The resource section alone is worth the price of the article.

Product Description

Your product description is what is displayed in the Kindle Store, and you want it to be as compelling as your title because people are going to base their buying decision on what you include in it. Provide a brief overview of your pattern’s content, highlighting what is unique about it, as well as how readers will benefit from having it. Write it before you upload your pattern because you’re going to have to provide a product description as part of the KDP publication process.

Tags

You’ll also want to select seven (the maximum allowed) “tags,” or "search keywords" as KDP calls them, to supply in the appropriate field once you are on the KDP platform. Tags are like keywords in that they will help people find your pattern in the search engines. Therefore, it’s important that you include the keywords you obtained from your keyword research as tags, especially the one that appears in your title.

Kate Harper’s article provides additional advice on how to prepare good product descriptions and select appropriate tags.

You’ll notice that I did NOT prepare a traditional book cover for my pattern. I’m not recommending that you don’t complete this step. In fact, your pattern’s book cover is just as important as its title and product description because it’s the first thing people will see when they find it in the Kindle Store.

But, as I reviewed crochet and knitting patterns in the Kindle Store, I discovered that most of them simply display a photo of the finished item being made, without including the name of the pattern and designer on the book cover itself, the way typical book covers are formatted. This information will be displayed to the right of the photo, so it’s really not necessary to include it as part of the book cover.

On the other hand, you DO want a photo of the finished piece that is eye-catching and as close to professional-looking as possible. Honestly, if I could, I'd take another photo of my crochet throw, but it was a gift to a friend who lives 3,000 miles away (I guess I could ask her to take one) and that's the best one I have.

If you are selling a collection of patterns, then a book cover with the name of the collection and your name as the designer on the cover is a good idea.

Again, I refer you to Kate Harper’s excellent article. For doing her a small favor, she’ll provide a PDF which shows you step by step how to create a simple but good-looking book cover that includes an image, name of the book, and author, using Adobe Photoshop.

If you don’t possess Photoshop or the design skills to create your own book cover, check out:

• Fiverr.com where you can hire a graphic designer to create one for five dollars.
• MyEcoverMaker.com where you can create your own book covers, using templates, for as little as $3.95 per cover.

Step 6 is by far the easiest one in the process because all you have to do is upload your pattern and book cover/photo and fill in the appropriate fields. KDP gives you ample instructions and help on how to do this; therefore, I’ll only focus on the fields that you should pay particular attention to.

Sign In and Add a Title

The first thing you’ll need is an Amazon account to get started. If you don’t already have one, simply sign up for free at the KDP website. If you already have an Amazon account, use that log-in information to sign in.

When you are logged into your KDP account, you’re taken to your Bookshelf which provides a list of all the books you have published. Yours will be empty if you’re new to this, so click the button that says “Add a New Title” and begin filling in the fields.

Preview Your Book Cover and Pattern Before Publishing

At the bottom of the first page, you are asked to upload your book cover and pattern. Uploading them will take a few minutes, so you can save the work you’ve already completed and move on to the second page while the book cover and pattern are uploading.

When the uploads are complete, you MUST preview them, especially your document, before clicking the Publish button. If you followed the formatting advice I presented in Step 4, as well as read Kate Harper’s article, then you should have no big gaps between paragraphs, the major problem people experience when uploading a Word document to the KDP platform.

If you do see gaps between paragraphs, then you can always go back to your Bookshelf and delete the pattern, make the appropriate revisions to the Word document, and re-upload it. When you are satisfied with the way your pattern looks in the Kindle previewer, simply complete the rest of the fields.

Select the Right Category

One way that people search for books in the Kindle Store is by Category. You want to make sure that your pattern is in the correct category; otherwise, you’ll make it harder for people to find it. For crochet patterns, you want to select the “Crafts and Hobbies” category, the “Needlework” sub-category, and the “Crochet,” sub-sub category.

Set a Price for Your Crochet Pattern

Probably the hardest thing you’ll do (besides formatting your pattern correctly) is to decide how much you want to sell it for. Keep in mind that items priced between $.99 and $2.89 garner a 35% royalty. You have to price your item between $2.99 and $9.99 to get the 70% royalty, one reason I initially priced my pattern at $2.99. Plus, most single crochet and knitting patterns sell for between $4 and $6 online, so I figured $2.99 is a fair price. In addition to that, I’ve provided a “freebie,” as Kate Harper calls them, with my pattern which I believe increases its value, but I’ll have to wait and see if it sells well at this price.

**Note: I've lowered the price a bit since first publishing the pattern, and it's selling a little better.

When you’re satisfied with how your book cover and pattern look and have completed all the fields, press “Publish” and you’re book will appear on your Bookshelf.

If you’re impatient like me, this is another difficult step to complete. It takes about 24 hours for your crochet pattern to get approved and added to the Kindle Store. If you’ve written it in a language other than English, you’ll have to wait two to three days.

Even though I knew it would take 24 hours for my pattern to show up in the Kindle Store, I kept checking every few hours to see if it was there. Finally, I gave up and decided to come back the next day around the time I published it the day before to see if it was there. I can’t tell you how nervous I was when I saw the “Live” status next to it in my Bookshelf.

There’s a button to the far right of the title that says “Actions” that, when clicked, produces a drop-down menu that lets you view your pattern on the US, UK, German, French, and Italian Amazon websites if you selected these during steps 6, something I recommend, even if your pattern is in English.

If something doesn't look right or there's an error somewhere, simply go back to your bookshelf, un-publish the pattern, make the corrections, and publish it again.

Even though your pattern is published and you are pleased with the way it looks, you can’t rest on your laurels just yet. Your pattern won’t sell if no one knows it’s available for purchase in the Kindle Store.

Here are four ways to get traffic to your pattern:

• The keyword research you did at the beginning of the process is going to help people find your crochet pattern in the search engines. This is called "organic traffic." In addition, the word, “Amazon,” is going to appear next to your pattern title in the SERPs, and this is a very good thing. Amazon’s name alone will help boost your pattern’s position in the SERPs because Amazon has a page rank of 9 out of 10. The higher a website’s page rank, the more authority Google gives it. This, along with good keyword research, gives your pattern a better chance of a first or second-second page placement in the SERPs.
• Hopefully, you have accounts at social media websites like Facebook and Twitter. Let your friends, fans, and followers know that you have published your pattern by posting about it at these sites.

• If you have a crochet blog, you definitely want to write a post about the publication of your pattern, as well as give it a permanent place in your blog’s sidebar.
• You also want links leading from other websites back to your pattern so that as many people as possible can find it. Moreover, Google values these backlinks, and the more of them you have from websites that Google considers to be authorities in your niche, the higher your pattern will place in the SERPs. And as we have seen, the higher your pattern’s placement in the SERPs, the more people will find it.

Hopefully, you have a better idea of why doing keyword research upfront is extremely important in getting your crochet pattern in front of as many people as possible.

Even though I struggled during Step 4 to format my pattern properly, all in all, publishing it for the Kindle was extremely easy. I would recommend that you start off with a short document like a pattern to get your feet wet. If you’ve already created several patterns, build up your Bookshelf so that you have several items for sale.

And don’t forget to create an Author Page at Amazon Author Central so your readers can get to know you and discover what else you have published.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to publishing for the Kindle, so the sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll begin seeing some decent income from your efforts.

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