Manchester Craft Mafia is a group of crafty businesses dedicated to supporting and sharing a creative, maverick spirit of crafting in Manchester, Greater Manchester and beyond. They’re craft and proud and looking for new members.

There are a number of benefits of joining the group, including promotion through their website and press releases, supplier discounts, member events and much much more.

For more information and to apply, go to www.manchestercraftmafia.com.

The other day my Venus Zine newsletter dropped into my inbox and I was drawn to an article on Getting some ink: How to score good press. I clicked through to the Venus Zine website and found some interesting articles written by Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching fame. They fall under the heading of Crafting a Business and include topics such as getting into the press, book deals and tips for starting small businesses. They make a very interesting read for small indie / craft businesses.

And if you have your own burning question then contact Jenny via the site and she will pick one question a month to answer in the column.

Go straight to Venus Zine
Go to Sublime Stitching
Artwork by Alicia Traveria

One of the most difficult challenges for small creative companies is getting their work into the press. We’re therefore delighted that Navaz Batliwalla (Fashion Editor of CosmoGIRL!) has kindly agreed to share her top tips for gaining press coverage.

Top Tip for Getting PR by Navaz Batliwalla

White hot collection? Check. Fabulous website? Check. Press coverage in all the essential glossies and fashion weeklies? Uh oh, Houston we have a problem. It’s all very well having a great collection but if no-one knows about it where are the customers going to come from? In this age of must-haves and fast-fashion it’s essential to get your brand name and products out there on those fashion pages and websites. And it’s not as hard as it looks:

Make the internet your friend. Familiarise yourself with websites like www.cosmogirl.co.uk, www.handbag.com and www.jellyfishmag.com and get emailing.

Write a paragraph or two about the collection including stockist details, price points and contact number. That becomes your press release. You don’t need supermodel-posed pictures as long as you have good cutout still-life jpegs that show your key pieces to their best advantage.

In today’s celebrity-obsessed world, fashion editors like anything that links your product to a celeb so don’t be precious, scour the weeklies for A-listers wearing clothes that resemble yours and email the magazines the comparisons. Being handed stuff on a plate makes our job easier!

Have samples available in case they want to photograph them themselves. Remember that monthly magazines have 3-month lead times so autumn-winter samples need to be ready in May.

Research the market. If you’re selling couture aim at the monthly glossies not the gossip rags. And be specific about the page or section you want to be on ’ it makes editors feel that you’ve bothered to look at their magazine and flatters our egos!

Build a rapport. Follow up your press release with a call and get feedback from the magazine on whether your product is right for their market. Keep in regular contact but don’t be a stalker. Editors get bombarded with information so will forget you if you don’t keep them updated.

Don’t forget the smaller niche magazines and websites. They need you as much as you need them as they have less choice in the brands available to them.

Can you offer a discount or freebies? Magazines adore competitions and giveaways and this is a brilliant marketing tool to get coverage that might otherwise not be available.

Navaz Batliwalla is the Fashion Editor for CosmoGIRL!

A huge thank you to Navaz for taking the time out of her incredibly busy schedule to write this. It’s very much appreciated.

I thought it was really interesting that on 17 October (today), people from across the UK are being invited to take part in the ‘biggest blog in history’. Heritage organisations are encouraging people to get involved by recording a diary of their day for the History Matters website. The electronic record will be stored at the British Library ‘as a historical record of our national life’.

I’m really interested in genealogy. Although I’ve neglected it for a while now (since starting two businesses), a few years ago I spent many an afternoon at the Family Records Centre or at the Society of Genealogists. I thought I was lucky if I found a birth date or a marriage of one of my ancestors. I therefore find it fascinating that in 100 years from now my descendants could be searching this electronic record for information about me. And it’s information that will give a real insight into the people who write the entries.

If you want to take part go to www.historymatters.org.uk and make history.

Oh, and don’t forget that we also feature ‘Day in the Life of’ articles. If you’re an indie designer and you’re interesting in submitting a post on your day, please email me at info@indiequarter.com for further details.

Do you design/make your own buttons/badges? Editors at the Monsa publishing house in Barcelona are currently working on their 2007 titles. They are putting together a book on badge design and will be featuring designers from around the world.

If you’re interested in appearing in this brand new publication, you can either email your high res jpgs to eva@monsa.com or post a CD or samples to Instituto Monsa de Ediciones, Gravina 43 (08930), Sant Adri?? de Bes?s, Barcelona, Spain. You will need to include a brief profile about your brand, along with contact email address and website.

Good luck!