I would like to say WELCOME to one of the most over rated, under paid job markets in the country! Being a quilt pattern designer is like being a stand up comedian! You are only going to appeal to about 1% of the industry market and you have to hope what you have will be enough to make it!
You can join a group at yahoogroups.com that is just for professional pattern designers. They really give you all the dirt, and all the help you need!
Aside from that, I would ad, that you should NEVER create your pattern in EQ...and do ALL your research before putting it out into the world! Like the name....google it first...nothing worse that finding out after you print 500 copies that there is another pattern out there with the same or close to the same name!
Search the copyright files to see if anyone already owns the name!
Learn your copyright laws!
Go to markets/shows and meet your peers!
Make sure what your are doing is different! Unique...BUT not the same thing over and over. Case in point, a really nice Engineer lady decided she could design quilt patterns. I did testing for her and teach her techniques, BUT check out her stuff....
http://www.quiltswithatwist.com
look at all those patterns...see a trend....yeah...she is stuck in a box....she keeps reproducing the same LOOK with different fabrics...boring....
another one I know self-publishes and publishes for others.
http://www.http://www.ashtonpub.com/books.htm
again...can you look at her stuff and ask, well, how long can you ride the applique pony??? Once you do simple fusible applique, you have done it, you don't need a new class every year...or a new book! She is in a rut now too!
Add to that the fact that every person that owns EQ. quilt pro, quilt wizard, etc, etc, can replicate 99.9% of any pattern they can gleen a pix of off the internet, and you have an over crowded, lack luster amount of people trying to hawk patterns to distributors, magazines, trade shows, etc.
I do know that there are now people who design QUILT patterns and sell those same patterns cheaper to pattern companies! Several designers in the McCalls pattern book also sell in quilt shops..and you pay more for the same pattern in the quilt shop!
For all the good the internet has given us, it has also created a monster when it comes to youtube videos, blogs with tutes, etc....all a person needs to do is know how to google and they can find a pattern for anything right in their own living room at 3am....legal or not, they will print it off and your sewing machine pattern will never be seen nor sold...because somebody made one on a youtube tutorial FREE for the world!