Making a Zine
Ideas + inspiration
Printing / copying
Binding
Making a Collaborative Zine
Sharing and Selling
Deciding on a price
How you price your zine all depends on a lot of things! Are you more concerned with making sure as many people as possible read it, or would you like to make a bit of profit for your work? If money isn’t a concern, can you afford to make a loss? How much does it cost you to make each zine? How long did it take to originally produce and how long does a copy take to collate and bind?
Wholesaling – if you’re planning on selling your zine wholesale (in bulk, to distros or shops) they typically will want to take up to 50% of the cover price, so keep this in mind.
Sliding scale pricing –
Pay What You Can
Pre-orders – If you don’t have much disposable income to copy zines, taking pre-orders could be a way of raising money before going to print, so you’re not out-of-pocket. Some copy shops charge less per sheet the more you copy at once, so you’d save money
Trading –
Selling online
If you want to sell your zines online, there’s plenty of different ways to do that. The simplest way is to just advertise it on social media with a paypal or address where people can send you money.
Etsy – Pros: lots of people use and search Etsy, so it’s possible that you’ll get more traffic that way, the feedback system creates a level of trust from buyers. Cons: They charge 20 cents per item you list, plus they take 3.5% commission when you do sell something. You’re competing with lots of other sellers (which is why you’re encouraged to buy promoted listings)
BigCartel – Pros: No listing fees or commission charges, they have a limited package (up to 5 items) which is completely free. The layout is customisable (within limits). Easy to use. Cons: if you want more than 5 items or some other features, there’s a monthly fee starting at $10 a month. You’ll have to generate all your own traffic.
WooCommerce – This is what we use!
Pros: Very customisable and totally ran by yourself, absolutely no fees or commission charges. Cons: You’ll need to know how to run WordPress and it’s a bit trickier than dedicated selling sites. Like BigCartel, you’ll have to direct all traffic to your shop yourself.
Advertising – Oooh yes! Eeek! The really horrible bit, promoting your own work.
Zine Reviewers.
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.co.uk/
https://zinenation.org
https://seagreenzines.com/ (Australia)
Tabling a zine fair
Before you going to a zine fair
– make a plan of how you’re going to get there, especially if you’re travelling out of your own town
– find out when the fair opens for people to set up. This will usually be earlier than the actual opening-hours of the fair.
– advertise you’re going on social media! People will know to look for you, and it helps the rest of the fair do well.
– If you have an online shop, you might want to put it on holiday if you run the risk of selling out of something in person
– keep track of what you’ve sold, either by doing a stock count before+after the fair, or keeping a list of what you sell as you go.
Essentials:
– Your zines!
prices – write them on your zines, use price stickers, fold or paperclip little signs, a written pricelist
lots of change and something to keep it in (there’ll always be loads of people wanting to buy your £1 with a tenner),
some lunch or snacks, and a drink (you might not get time to leave your table)
Non-essentials that are still nice to have:
a table cloth (can just be a sheet of fabric that compliments your zines),
other stock, like badges, patches, and prints, stickers
a table-pal to keep you company.
Business cards or leaflets.
If you do collaborative projects, leaflets for your latest call-for-entries
– a proper cash-box for your change
Things to display your zines, like racks, nice boxes
Luxury extras
Display
Promoting your zine
Donating your zine to a library
UK
| 56A Archive – website | |
| What they’re looking for | Zines, anarchist mags, and pamphlets. They’re particularly interested in having more of the following: • Black community organising and black struggles • Housing struggles from 60’s to 90’s (renters or squatters) • Feminist newspapers & magazines & pamphlets from 70’s to now |
| How to submit | Post to: 56a Infoshop, 56a Crampton Street, Walworth, London, SE17 3AE |
| Manchester LGBT Zine Library (Located inside the LGBT Centre) – twitter | |
| What they’re looking for | |
| How to submit | post to: The LGBT centre, 49-51 Sidney street Manchester, M1 7HB |
| Salford Zine Library (Located inside Nexus Art Cafe, Manchester) – website | |
| What they’re looking for | Any zines! |
| How to submit | Leave in the postbox in the library
or post to: Salford Zine Library, 40 Jutland House, 15 Jutland Street, Manchester, M1 2BE, UK (source) |
| York Zine Library (Located inside Travelling Man, York) – facebook | |
| What they’re looking for | Any zines! |
| How to submit | Leave at the till in the shop
or post to: York Zine Library c/o Travelling Man, 74 Goodramgate, York YO1 7LF |
| Zineopolis (located within the Illustration BA course at the University of Portsmouth) – website | |
| What they’re looking for | Image-based zines: art, illustration, comics etc |
| How to submit | post to: Zineopolis c/o Jackie Batey, School of Art and Design, Eldon Building, University of Portsmouth, Winston Churchill Avenue, Portsmouth PO1 2DJ, UK (source) |
Worldwide
| New Platz Zine Library (Located inside the Sojourner Truth Library at the State University of New York New Paltz) – website | |
| What they’re looking for | Any zines! |
| How to submit | Submit digital zines via their website here
or post physical zines to: Sojourner Truth Library- Zine Library 300 Hawk Drive State University of New York at New Paltz New Paltz, NY 12561-2493, USA |
| What they’re looking for | |
| How to submit | |