The Mage wrote:
snippage
What do you do if you think you have a new crochet
technique? What is the usual route you follow, and any
alternatives?

I want to share it with everyone, but I'm afraid of it being stolen
before I get it properly published... and then after publication,
I'm concerned that it might not reach a wide enough group of
people.

Well, first suggestion, after Els' excellent advice to research and make sure
it *is* new, is to submit an article explaining it, with a sample project
pattern write-up (better chance of selling the article), to a crafts magazine.
(after finding out how they want submissions sent and all that.) Not only do
you get credit and payment - albeit not much, since writers usually get
something between 5-10 cents a word - but it does get published. To find out
how to submit and who to contact at any particular magazine, check their
website, or buy a copy of the mag and look in their listings of contacts, etc.
Then write, email or call them about it. Actually, any receptionist at a
publication should have all that info; you probably wouldn't have to try to
track down a specific editor or department. S/he's probably got it memorized,
and could tell you, or mail you submission guidelines on request, or after you
send a written request with an SASE. As far as I know, you usually don't need
an agent to submit articles to magazines; that's more of a freelance situation.

If you don't want to buy any mags and can't get contact info any other way,
again, go to your local library. Ask them where the Standard Rate & Data
Services reference books are. (aka SRDS.) These are huge books covering pretty
much every publication, in the US anyway. (Presumably other countries have
similar reference books hidden in their libraries, too, but heaven only knows
what they call them. g) These books are mostly used for checking out
advertising rates - ok, that's how *I* know about them g - but they also give
such pertinent info as address, major staff names & departments, phone numbers,
subject of publication, frequency of publication, circulation,
distribution--everything you'll need to decide which one you'd want to contact,
and how to get in touch with 'em. The SRDS are updated a couple times a year,
if I remember right, and any central library in larger cities should have them
in their reference section. You won't be allowed to check them out, though, so
it'd be kind of difficult if you can't get to a major library. Inter-library
loan won't work with these books. In that case, best best would be to find out
which libraries have any crafts magazines that cover crocheting, and look in
them for contact info. Or covertly copy down the info while looking at mags in
a store--although that may get you into trouble. g

Or sell - somewhere - a pattern using the technique, and make sure the blurb
notes that there's a new technique given in the pattern. Creating leaflet-type
printed patterns is pretty simple, as long as you have a word processing or DTP
program and know how to use it. Write up the technique and pattern, making sure
to find someone to help you proof it. (you *always* miss stuff yourself, even
with spell-check and reading it backwards for typos; trust me on this. I used
to be a WP/DTP specialist. I *know*. bg) Include some good pix and diagrams.
Print at home if you have a printer, or take the doc on floppy to a place like
Kinko's and print up umpteen copies. *Then* is when you run into the harder
part - selling 'em. You have to find a distributor, or independent shops, or a
chain of stores, interested in buying your pattern. Or you could sell it from a
website, in which case see below for ideas on spreading the word. Caveat:
Selling patterns means you're starting a business, and this means licensing,
taxes, blah blah blah. Yechh. Plus, if you manage to find buyers all over the
country, production costs will probably go up, even if you go to a regular
printer. (places like Kinko's are kind of expensive for big projects. ok for
small amounts, since many bigger print businesses won't even *do* small runs;
i.e, less than a couple thousand. although if you have pix - and you will,
because people want pix in patterns or technique descriptions - those will be
more expensive anyway, even at someplace like Kinko's. but if you start getting
up into big numbers, you'll probably want to to find a bigger printing biz to
get a better price break. note: B&W is *always* cheaper than color printing, no
matter where you go. 2-color is a little more expensive. 4-color - as in
realistic photos - is the most expensive, since in anything but
laser/photocopy/inkjet methods, they use the 4-color separation process. which
means a page with photo/color illustration is run through a press 4x. it's not
the 4 colors of ink that's so expensive, it's the number of times a page has to
run through the big, honkin' expensive press.)

Other than that, pretty much the only other thing I can think of is teaching it
in classes at a yarn/craft store, or writing a book/pamphlet that someone will
want to publish. Both involve a lot of work. Classes, you have to sell the idea
to a store, figure out a lesson plan, write up - and print - hand-outs, make up
samples, and have the time for teaching. Plus be *able* to teach; both the
time, and the ability. If a book or pamphlet, it'll still be lots of work even
if you bypass the selling the idea to a publisher bit - and getting an agent -
and instead, go straight to a vanity press, and pay to publish it yourself.
Writing ain't all that easy. Besides, using a vanity press, then *you* have to
advertise, promote, and sell the book/pamphlet, just as you would with only a
pattern. And no one may be interested after all that trouble. Researching
interest in a publication is just one of the things publishers do for you.
Plus, both these options *also* mean business-type legal stuff you have to do.

Alternatively, you could make a web page about it, then join one of the
webrings for crochet sites--those increase webpage hits considerably. Also list
the page with every search engine you can, and find other pages that'll put up
links to yours. Then at least it'll spread through the computerized population
- although you won't make any money off it. But hey, you also won't be paying
any business fees.

As to copyright - Bart also asked about copyrighting a new technique a while
ago, and I came forth with the following long screed. g (people ask
questions, I tend to go off and research... yes, I waste a lot of time, but
I've got a lot to waste, I'm on disability and don't work. ::snicker:
Probably more than you want to know, but just in case you thought of trying to
copyright a technique...

"Disclaimer - not a lawyer, not a lawyer, not a lawyer. But I wondered too,
so did some really quick research to confirm my suspicions.

Can't copyright the technique--at least under US law. Go check out the US Gov't
circular on copyright he

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wnp

then choose the link for the question, 'What is *not* protected by copyright?'
(my asterisks for emphasis, there). Read paragraph 4 of that section. It says,
and I quote in part:

"Ideas, procedures, methods,... as distinguished from a description,
explanation..."

Their definition of what copyright protects boils down to *authorship* of
things, not invention of techniques. Which means copyright doesn't do diddly
for a new stitch or technique - only for anything you *write* about it. Or
film, record, paint, draw, sculpt... ) Presumably, however, anyone could
learn your method and cheerfully show others, as long as they weren't copying
your written-up instructions word for word and handing 'em out, publishing
them, etc. (again, remembering I'm not a lawyer. I could be wrong about that,
but if so, then any of us who've taught someone else to knit, crochet, etc.,
from memory even, is in deep trouble. g heck, we're in trouble for teaching
someone to *cook*, especially specific published recipes, if definitions are
that strict. this I doubt.)

Also, *possibly*, if they wrote an explanation of how to do it in sufficiently
different words than you did, they could pass *their* description around and
still be ok. Maybe. That's where a lawyer comes in. It's likely, though; Ginger
Luters, Vivian Hoxbro, and Horst whosis all use mitered knitting techniques in
their patterns, which have become all the rage. While their individual patterns
are copyright, the techniques themselves aren't. People everywhere are legally
publishing their own copyright patterns based on the mitered knitting
techniques; ditto instructions for the techniques themselves. Note that the
original *descriptions* and original *designs* made from the technique are
copyright -- not the technique. If you could copyright a stitch, designers
would be pretty stuck. "Oh no...a yarn-over is a copyright stitch, I can't use
it in my design!" Uhhh...no. Not happening.

Nor are knitting/crocheting patented, for that matter - they're too old and too
widely used. And I'll betcha new methods are considered to simply be variations
of techniques already known, therefore not patentable. (just a personal
opinion, there, please note. yes, I'm disclaiming like mad - it's called CYA,
which in these modern times is necessary. I repeat, I'm not a lawyer; get one
if you want real professional advice.)

However, you might check into patents. Although again, I dunno if something
like a new stitch or knitting/crochet technique is 'new and useful' enough to
qualify - because of the previous length of existence thing. That phrase 'new
and useful', btw, is one part of how the US Patent Office's site defines a
'utililty' patent. The other kind of patent your idea may come under would be a
'design' patent, although that seems to refer more to decorative ideas, rather
than technical. I'm also betting you'd have to search out all the other
connecting methods, and make sure your method hadn't been discovered and shown
by anyone else, ever. I wasn't *so* interested that I researched who has to
provide the burden of proof as to whether something's original enough to
qualify for a patent. g I have no idea if it's the Patent Office or the
originator that has to do the work.

Now, if you created an *entirely* new way to work a strand of yarn to create a
fabric, which in no way resembled knitting, crocheting, knotting, naalbinding,
tatting, etc., that'd be more likely to get a patent, from the sounds of it.
Better yet, invent a machine to do it with, and patent *that*. But I'm not a
patent lawyer, either, so take a look at the FAQs on the US Patent site and
see! Go to following page:

http://www.uspto.gov/web/patents/faqs.htm

Choose the link for "Patents", which you'll find about halfway down, right
underneath the Native American Tribal Insignia Database link.

The Patents FAQ page has links at the top to the page segments containing short
descriptions of patents, trademarks, and *copyright*, helpfully enough. Also
check the links on that same page for "What Can Be Patented" and "Novelty and
Non-Obviousness, Conditions For Obtaining a Patent." (the non-obvious bit is
particularly interesting. the idea seems to be that if, in general, someone
else skilled in whatever you're doing could probably figure out the same thing
you did, then you don't get a patent.

Then, personally, I'd email and ask 'em about it. Things look veeewwwyyy fuzzy
in there. Frankly, if you wanna make any money off of it, or prevent others
from doing so/using it without paying you a fee, I'd get a lawyer."

Whew.
Monica
(yeesh - see what you tend to do after having worked in advertising/PR/WP/DTP
environments for umpteen years? LOL)
CMMPDX2 at aol
remove 'eat.spam' to email me
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