This came up yesterday in one of my discussions with a possible client.
The client asked if they could pay me to draft a special Alice in wonderland/steam punk/ pirate coat pattern based on a sketch they had made for a character. They don't want me to make the coat, just make the pattern for them to make it. How would you charge for something like that? One person said I should charge $25 and be done with it. Another said $200 because they could sell the items made from the pattern. Another said $100 because of the hard work that goes into pattern drafting. I did clarify that they didn't want written directions just the pattern pieces themselves. What are your thoughts on how much to charge?
I would say charge them time. If they are asking for a pattern, likely they cannot , or don't want To do it themselves, so the likelihood of them multisizing it and mass producing is less. I would ask, or stipulate that this is for their personal use.
If they want to mass produce, then you probably want to copyright it. Since this is a steam pinky thing, I would say they are likely looking for something original, but you won't know until you ask.
I would charge them using a designers rate, for however long it takes you to tweak that pattern...
We figure on a day for designing and drafting a pattern on that scale, so £100. We retain copyright of all patterns drafted, so if they want it for personal use only, we just write that on it. If they want to use it for commercial use, you need to look into selling them a license.