Working with a Reseller

You’ll know if a site is a reseller if the fonts come from multiple foundries (mostly, when it re-directs you to another website when you’re interested in a particular font). Good examples of resellers are Fonts.com Links to an external site. and MyFonts Links to an external site..  

Every reseller has a specific customer base, a font style preferred, and even promotional methods used.

Resellers go to a font foundry and make a deal to sell the fonts within the foundry’s library.

In this method, foundries get about 40 to 65% of the retail price of the font. Designers do have control on pricing their fonts, but there’s only so much you can do when you’re trying to compete with a huge font market.

Font Reseller Pros:

• Fonts are sold in various channels
• Fonts reach wider audience
• Designer keep pricing control
• Sign with multiple resellers

Font Reseller Cons:

• Smaller percentage per sale
• Resellers have thousands of fonts (your work may get buried by other fonts)

Go with a reseller if you’re confident that your fonts would shine amidst thousands of other fonts.

You have to consider the target market of each reseller and discover how a reseller markets fonts, deal with customers, and handle complaints. Check if you need to place your fonts exclusively to a particular reseller  (or if you can sign with multiple resellers) before signing any contract.