Professional patterns?

[soc_puppet]

I'd like to start selling some of my original patterns soon, and was hoping I could get some basic information on making a salesworthy pattern/file here. I've been providing some fannish patterns for free at hooked_on_anime for a while now and plan to continue to do so, and while I've learned a bit from that (especially "Include as much information as possible" and "be as specific as possible"), providing free patterns on a web page is a bit different from selling patterns in a .pdf file. Spellchecking everything and including pictures is fairly obvious, but there's details that elude me, and I don't have the funds to buy a large sample of patterns to check against.

Some specific questions I'm looking for answers to:
* How do I even make a .pdf file? Do I have to use Photoshop to do it, or is Adobe Reader up to the task?
* What sort of pictures should I include?
* Should I get someone to beta-test the pattern? If so, how should I compensate them? (A copy of the finalized pattern is a given.)
* How do I determine the level of complexity of a given pattern?
* How do I decide the price of a given pattern?

Any other tips and insights would be welcome, of course.


For the record, patterns I'm planning to offer include: Griffin, European-style dragon, Asian-style dragon, and Dachshund, just for a start.

Comments

[copracat]

The Griffin is very cute!

You should definitely get someone to test the pattern as they will see things you take for granted. No idea about compensation, I always imagined it was a swap thing - you would test theirs if they tested yours?

I know at least one person asked for pattern testers on her DW and got sufficient assistance.

[soc_puppet]

Thank you :)

Trading makes sense. I'll keep my eyes open for other people who want to have patterns tested.

I'm pretty sure that Hooked On Anime gets enough traffic that I could get some testers that way; thanks for the suggestion :)