How to Sell Fonts on Creative Market

I started my business in 2013 as a calligrapher, and eventually grew to become a stationery designer. A ton of my designs utilized my hand calligraphy. But it turned into a pain to have to digitize that calligraphy over and over again. One day, I figured I should create a font for myself so that I would never have to digitize my calligraphy again. It turns out – designing fonts is one of my favorite things to do!

While this didn’t start out as a product I’d be selling, I eventually decided to open up my fonts to other designers. I now have a Creative Market shop with several fonts, and continue to work on new designs. Today, I’ll walk you through the process of selling those fonts on Creative Market! And a couple other places you might consider selling your fonts too!

First, let’s get this out of the way. I learned how to make fonts by taking a fantastic course from Teela of Every Tuesday. This course is an investment, and creating script fonts especially can be a time investment too. But I’ve made over $10,000 from my fonts in the last few years, so it’s an investment that continues to pay me back! I highly recommend Teela’s course which opens about 2 times a year. Here is my affiliate link if you’d like to look into it: Learn Font Making Course.

Some of this advice will also be helpful if you’re sharing other types of products on Creative Market. That could include digital downloads, PNGs, clipart, textures, Procreate brushes, etc. 

How to Start your own Creative Market Shop

How to Price Fonts on Creative Market

My first font took 6 months to put together, and it was a labor of love…but still a labor. So it was instinct for me to want to price it higher. It had over 500 characters, lots of alternates, full language support, etc. so I originally priced it at $47. 

Creative Market takes 50% of your sales, so even pricing this at $47 felt a little low to me. However, when you visit the bestselling fonts page, you’ll see a lot of fonts are priced lower – $12, $19, $27, etc. That font is now priced at $14 for the standard version and $29 for the extended version. And it sells more often than it did at $47.

There are a lot of calculations you can do here, but in general you might need to play around a bit. If your font includes things like alternates, language support, Roman Numerals, etc. then you can typically charge more for those things. If it doesn’t, then you’d typically charge a little less. If you want to participate in the sales that Creative Market runs occasionally, you’ll want to price such that you can handle a lower sale price as well. Overall, you’re looking for the balance of charging as much as you can but not too much that people won’t buy it. This could take some trial and error. I also always recommend asking your audience what they would pay for your font! Typically they would pay a little more than they say, but it’ll get you some helpful data.

How Much Does Creative Market Take as a Cut?

Creative Market takes 50% of your sales price as their cut, and you keep 50% of the price. 

Is it Worth it to Sell on Creative Market?

This is a complicated question. In general, Creative Market will bring you customers you didn’t have before. However, they do take a larger percentage than most other selling platforms. If you find that you are driving most of the traffic to your Creative Market shop, then you might find better luck selling elsewhere.

It’s kind of a Catch 22 though – Creative Market sales will increase with their audience the more sales you have. Driving your own sales to your shop in the beginning could help you build momentum. This momentum would get a boost in the Creative Market algorithm that helps you a lot in the future.

This applies for any other marketplace platform, like Etsy or MyFonts, as well. I would typically recommend choosing one main platform and driving most, if not all, of your sales there at the beginning. That way, you’ll signal that marketplace to keep sharing your fonts with their buyers in the future. Otherwise, if you split all your sales between platforms, you might not get that algorithm boost. If you get steady traffic on one platform, you can start sharing other platforms to build those up too!

Font Licenses on Creative Market

One thing I like about selling on Creative Market is that they have a standard license that covers all of their elements and fonts. This means that customers typically don’t need extra education on how they can or cannot use your fonts. If you sell on a different platform, you might have to establish your own license and terms. While it’s not hard to do, it’s just an extra step. 

The existing licenses on Creative Market also allow for higher-end licenses, such as their e-Pub and App licenses. You can set prices for those options up front, and buyers can see them when they purchase. 

How to Sell More on Creative Market

Some tips I have for selling more fonts on Creative Market are:

• Participate in their annual sales and promotions
• Package your fonts in different ways – standard vs. extended versions, font bundles, etc. More listings will lead to more sales!
• Drive traffic primarily to Creative Market if you want to be rewarded by their algorithm
• Price according to the features of your font and similar fonts on the site
• Create compelling cover images and mock-ups showing the possibilities of your fonts
• Add features to your font that are desirable: Roman Numerals, Language Support, Alternate Swashes, etc.
• Keep up with typography trends and popular styles

Selling Fonts on Etsy

I also sell my fonts on Etsy, and generally prefer working with Etsy to Creative Market. Their platform is one I’m already using for other products, and they take a much smaller cut. However, people come to Etsy for a lot of things, whereas they typically come to Creative Market just for design resources, so the conversion rates are a little lower. 

Font pricing on Etsy is generally lower than on Creative Market. You will also have to create your own license for your fonts in order to sell them on Etsy. I personally find that Etsy orders require more customer service than Creative Market orders – for instance, helping people download their files after purchase, install fonts, etc. Those buying fonts on Etsy are usually more in the hobbyist space than the business space, so that can change your strategy a little! I love being able to take home more money from each sale though.

Selling Fonts on MyFonts

MyFonts is almost the opposite end of the spectrum from Etsy, in that it is primarily used by very professional designers. They do a lot more quality control on your fonts, and require minimum character sets in order for your fonts to be approved. I have only uploaded one of my fonts to MyFonts and haven’t made many sales there because I have never really driven any traffic there. It’s absolutely a great option if you’re really serious about font design. But if you’re creating your first fonts, I would start with Creative Market or Etsy!

Selling Fonts on Your Own Website

You can of course also sell your fonts on your own site easily. In this case, you take home 100% of the profit, which is great! The only thing about this is that you have to figure out how to drive all the traffic to your site. Compared to a marketplace of shoppers that are already browsing fonts, your site is a place that someone would have to find in order to purchase your font. So if you do find that you’re the one driving most of your traffic – selling on your own website might be a great idea! But if you want to let the algorithms of the marketplaces bring clients to your work, then you may prefer to sell there. I find most of the font designers selling on their own sites are really high-end designers with fonts that are in the hundreds of dollars each! 

Overall, I’d recommend starting with one platform and driving traffic there primarily. That way, you’ll signal those sites to keep recommending you higher in the search results. And eventually get a steady stream of sales from their buyers! Then you can consider other options for selling your fonts. It might take playing around with pricing and product imagery to find the perfect balance. I encourage you to be creative!