WHAT ARE ZINES AND EZINES

How to make a zine!

WHAT ARE ZINES AND EZINES?

Zines (pronounced zeen), are self-published, non-commercial publications done by a variety of individuals for many reasons. They come in a large variety of sizes, shapes, and persuasions, and are often photo-copied. A zine can be a magazine, newsletter, newspaper, book, portfolio of artwork, a broadsheet, or an electronic document.

Zines represent the most democratic of media, requiring not much more than having some ideas or something to say, a copy machine, and a stapler. Zines can contain passages that are typewritten, handwritten, or typeset on the computer. Art can consist of photos, clip art, drawings, or collages. A zine is done as a labor of love, and so all levels of quality are acceptable and welcome.

Zinesters exchange their publications with each other, trade ads, and distribute each others publications. Many zines also run news and info from other zines, and run reviews.

Electronic zines (called E-Zines) have experienced a large surge of popularity, because of the technological changes and lack of associated printing costs. The internet has made electronic zines readily available to anyone..

What is the difference between a print zine and a electronic zine?

You can put an Electronic Zine on the Internet. E-Zines exist mostly (if not entirely) because of the Net. The interest in electronic publishing was (and still is) highly attractive to the small press community, which tends to suffer greatly from lack of *any* exposure. The Net offers exposure that most zine makers would never otherwise receive. Most sites for Electronic Zines are accessible to millions of people, literally.

PURPOSE

These are the most important questions you should ask yourself when you're considering doing a zine

What is the focus of my zine?
What do I hope to gain from publishing it?
Would I continue to do it if nobody bought it?
Is it worth killing a tree?
Is it worth 50 hours of my time? (or 100 or 200 hours)
Is it worth $100 of my money? (or more?)
Am I going to accept submissions or make it an entirely personal effort?
Am I going to try and distribute it or keep it for trades only?
Why would someone read it?

SKILLS

Some would argue that it requires no skill at all to make a zine, and in a way they are correct. However, if you want to make an easily accessed and moderately successful zine, it helps if you have design, writing, and computer skills.

The design skills may come naturally. If not, experience and a careful plagiarizing eye can help you overcome the skills you lack.

Writing skills can also be developed through writing more and by seeking the help of your friends to proofread and tell you which parts just don't make sense.

Computer skills are best learned "on the job." The advantage to learning on the job is that you end up knowing all the odd little features you wouldn't normally learn.

ZINE TEAM OR SOLO

Do you want to do your zine alone or do you want to work with other people? Is this going to be your own project? Do you want complete control over editing and such or are you flexible? Working with a group can be a blast, but only if you are willing to share. If you are collaborating with others, they should be people with whom you will work well and can get along. Do you have common interests and similar opinions? If not, will this be a problem? It is important to talk to prospective co-editors about this kinda stuff. See if you would want the same things in your zine.

You have to make an effort to know exactly where everyone is on their projects, as well as understand the importance of team management.

Some projects can only be undertaken with the help of others.

Choose those "others" wisely, and learn with them. Don't blame them when things go wrong, and watch the egos.

WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED?

Your zine will, be original but it is a good idea to look over other zines in order to determine what you want in yours.

Define a focus of the zine. Obviously, before you start actually making up pages you need to have some idea what you're going to put on them.

There are a number of things that you can do to come up with stuff to write about. Pay attention to what people around you are saying. A lot of stuff that you might hear in school, restaurants, concerts, museums, parties, bathrooms, and wherever else is a good source of inspiration. Write about it.

Read anything that you can get your hands on - newspapers, textbooks, pamphlets, novels, poetry, web sites, and magazines. You'll find a lot of stuff that you feel strongly about and can write volumes on. Also, listen to music, the radio, and is absolutely necessary, watch television for other ideas. If you look around you'll find plenty to write about.

Start collecting clipped stuff, pictures, notes on things you want to write. You can do your zine about anything -- it can be interviews with bands or just friends, articles on things you like, recipes -- anything at all! You can do a zine of just poetry, or drawings, or comics. Your zine can be about any subject you want (or all the subjects you want).

Plan on starting small - start off with an issue with a really low page count to save money, and if you get enough to put out future issues, then start adding pages. A zine doesn't have to be big to be good.

Points to Consider

Perspective- Consider both editor and reader points of view. A publication with one political slant is propaganda.
Zine content - Verify all news stories, if possible.
All Reviews should contain contact information for readers
The necessary stuff you should include - A cover, body, contents, index, or title headings, text and art
Declaration of editor name and publication address.
The stuff you need not include - Apologies for the publication or yourself, explanations on why your staff or group dissolved, personal attacks, attacks on reviewers that have given you a bad review, attacks on other editors/zines.

SIZE

How do you want your zine to be set up? Do you want your zine to be folded or do you want full pages. Weigh your options.

The sizes include:

Digest and Half-Legal: 8 1/2" x 11" or 11" x 14" folded and stapled is the ideal size for zines that have no ambitions beyond impressing their friends, trading with other zines and getting their work reviewed in other zines, which, I believe, is all the majority of zines should ever hope for. This size is cheaper to mail, fits in your purse or back pocket, requires less design skill, and doubles the page count you would have if you were to put the same amount of copy on folded 11" x 17" pages or 8 1/2" x 11" pages that are just stapled together.
Standard: This is the most common size, 11" x 17" folded in half and stapled. At this size you are forced to make design decisions. Eight or 12 pages of straight type in columns is OK for a newsletter, but more than that and it's too dense and boring. You need to give the pages visual appeal, balance white and dark spaces, and make use of illustrations. If you don't you may find yourself with interesting writing that no one will bother to read. Remember, just because it's D.I.Y. doesn't mean it's OK if it looks like shit.
Tabloid: Except when printed on newsprint and distributed locally as free papers that are meant to be discarded, this size is cumbersome and requires design experience and talent to keep it interesting.
Mini: Even more disposable and difficult to read than tabloids; this size can be a good way for artists or cartoonists to distribute samples of their work.

The text in your zine can be done any way you want from handwritten to nicely typeset.

No matter how good a writer you are or how brilliant the articles you've collected may be, you need to include illustrations. You can cut them from old books and magazines or spend the energy it takes to find good artists who will submit work, but I implore you to dress those pages up.

Information: The title should be all the way at the top so it can be seen when stacked behind other zines. Somewhere print the issue number and price.

As a general rule it’s polite to request an interview before you ask any questions with the exception snail mail interview.

When you request an interview, remember you need to sell your zine to them to want to be in, so include state:

As a general rule, when you first start your zine aim small. Most locals love the opportunity to get an interview. If you start “big” trust me your going to be disappointed. Utilise any contacts you can. Examples: interview your mates friends band, interview the guy at the local radio station, interview family/ friends, as you find out your network of people to interview will become larger with each issue.

Treat record labels with respect if you want to get any promotional samples or interviews. Remember what they are doing is their job NOT a hobby, so be friendly and helpful. Normally if you help them out, they in turn help you when they can (depending on the label from heaps to out still out of their way.) If you have never contacted a label before, the first thing I would NOT do is request promotional material, request an interview with a band either just about to release an new album or is one of their “middle of the road bands” (ie not the headlining act for them- you really need to build a reputation before you even request an interview with the headliner)

Join label mailing lists, some labels have a zine/ press version, which detail if any bands are available for interview- how, when, why!

Do not expect all band to ever reply, bands can be “slack” cause there band is on top of a day job or uni so they fit in and address what they can. Sometimes it’s just pure laziness they don’t answer. So get used to it, even after years of publishing it still will happen (though not as much).

If you have never contacted the band before, the first thing I would NOT do is request promotional material, ask for an interview.

You may only get a very short time or limited question to ask the person- so make each and every question count.

Make a list of questions so you’re clear about what you want to ask. List them in a logical order so the interview flows more freely. Seize any opportunities to know when to move away from your initial ideas. Example: The person opens up and tells you about a secret, so instead it, utilize it and forget about your original questions or go back to them after.

Don’t ask yes/ no questions. Ask questions which are open, ones which tell some story or explain something.

Try to ask different to the norm questions. This makes the person/ band sit up and pay attention. The greatest compliment you can receive from an artist is that you’ve asked questions they haven’t been asked before. The more interviews you read the more you can learn from others with what you think works and doesn’t work.

Feel the vibe and go with when you think you should. Example: Controversial question only throw in when you think is the time you will get an answer rather than a brush off reply.

Once you have the articles and stories you want to print, it's important to edit them, not only for errors but for coherency and brevity. The writer of that long-winded rant may be a friend you don't wish to offend, or you may feel it's not your place to decide if someone else's writing is unclear and sophomoric, in which case you don't deserve to be an editor. You'll just be a collator. You also should proofread your copy once it's typeset and again after it's layed out. Don't let those spelling and grammar errors get past you; they have a way of deflating the impact of your work.

To do your layout the old fashioned way, you'll need a large board, a ruler, Exacto knives, and rubber cement or a hand-waxer, all of which can be purchased at any art supply store. All copy and artwork are placed on the boards by hand; to do a clean job you'll need practice. Of course, desktop publishing software has all but eclipsed the need for this messy method, although some find it less fun than getting their hands dirty and putting their sweat into it. Quark XPress and Pagemaker are excellent programs that, when mastered, give you the ability to make your publication look just like the real thing.

Once you've got all your contents organized and ready to be put together, start pasting up the pages (gluing everything down) one at a time. Don't feel rushed, you can do it in fits and starts for as long as you want -- you're not on a deadline here.

You can use scissors to cut things out, or move up to x-acto knives (special knives for doing crafts and things). When you cut things with an x-acto, put the paper you're cutting on top of a piece of cardboard or something similar. It keeps you from cutting up the tabletop, and also makes the cutting much easier.

Paste things down with glue sticks, not a regular glue - those wet glues will make the paper buckle up really bad. Make sure you give whatever you're gluing down a good coat or it might fall off when it dries! Once you've put something down on your flat you can wiggle it around and even peel it back up if you have to, but only for about the first 10 seconds. Be careful! Make sure you're putting things where you want them. Be neat or be sloppy -- look at other zines to get inspired.

When you've finished up the individual pages, you need to get them ready to copy. If your zine is full sized, all you have to do is put them in order. If it's half-sized (or some other wacky size), you're going to have to make originals that are the same size as the paper you're copying them onto, and in the correct order. Follow the directions under "LAYOUT" to make up your originals.

The form can best be described as the underlying design which ties together your whole publication. The repeating elements of your page backgrounds and underlying grids accomplish this. The page background consists of elements that repeat throughout, such as a box, header, footer, or page numbers. The underlying grid is not "visible." To sum it up simply, it consists of how many columns you use. A one or two column grid format is considered very passive and unpleasant to the eye. A five column grid (of all equal widths), could have only two columns of text (each spanning two grid columns), but would also have an additional column of white space (perhaps with a pull quote). This still uses two columns of text, however, it looks better. In general, you always should use white space if possible. It depends on your budget. Other elements of form include consistency of font and image. It makes sense to use no more than 4 or 5 fonts. You can adjust size, italics, and bold in lieu of different fonts.

Most publishing software has one of more of the following features which makes it easier to put together a publication:

A publication that is very spare with the type and imagery will appear very light in overall tone. This creates an emotional lightness. Publications with dense type and heavy black imagery will look darker. This may set a tone of seriousness.

Like it or not, each publication format transmits its own message to the reader.

If you are supplying your readers with a lot of information (such as zine reviews) consider using a database program. You can also use this program to track addresses and subscribers. If you have no computer training, it is suggested that you start with a very simple program such as Microsoft Works, which has a very simple word processing program and a simple database. If you are only going to be using a database for a mailing list, get a program that already has an address list form built. Using a professional hard-core database program for a simple mailing list will be a tremendous waste of your time. These programs are not for anyone who doesn't have a lot of computer knowledge and/or computer programmer training.

Avoid turning on your hyphen control. Hyphens can be abused. Try to avoid using them if at all possible.

Wrapping text around images can be misused. You can wrap to a box surrounding the image, or wrap to the outline of the image. The larger the image, the more you need to wrap to the outline. If you are wrapping to a box, watch column justification, and try not to have small columns of text to one side. It is very hard to follow a line of text across a large image. Consider attaching your image box to the side of the page, or place in between two columns of text. This will avoid breaking up a line of text.

Additionally, when you use justification with small columns, you can run into a lot of problems with word and letter spacing. Avoid this if at all possible.

When you buy a printer, get a 600 x 600 dpi (dots per inch) if your budget allows. A laser printer will give you the sharpest images, but an inkjet will additionally give you colour for around the same price. If you get an inkjet, you will have to buy the special inkjet paper to get a crisp image. It is very expensive! It is not unusual to pay $20 a ream for this special paper. Consider this when considering your purchase. A laser printer may be less expensive per copy. Stay away from the dot matrix.

As long as you're printing less than 200 copies, photocopying is the cheapest way to go. Some copiers can even achieve offset quality, but most can't, so be sure you know what you're getting if you leave it at the copy shop. If you're printing more than 200 copies, offset printing is not usually any more expensive than photocopying. Newsprint will be even cheaper. Offset gives you the best reproduction, but even here quality varies wildly from printer to printer. You should always ask to see samples of a printer's work.
You also should ask how the printer will bind and cut your zine, what kinds of paper stocks they can print on, and how soon they can deliver. Higher overhead usually make printer's prices in big cities much higher. Finding a printer in another state can mean big savings, but don't forget to factor in the cost of shipping. Prices per copy also drop quickly when you start printing in the thousands of copies. The more you print, the cheaper it gets.

There are lots of formats to do a zine in. As you order zines, you'll see that some people use "nicer" printing methods -- better paper, or colour.

Experiment with coloured paper for the whole thing or the cover, or even an insert.

The biggest advantage is that you can put out a zine a few copies together at a time.

Whatever you decide to do, remember that this is supposed to be FUN. If you start getting burnt out, or sick of doing zines, then stop. Fill your orders, but don't feel like you have to keep putting out new issues. If you want to change the name or content of your zine, go right ahead! There are no rules -- you can do whatever you want!

It's a good idea to send your zine to as many other publications who review zines as you can afford. Reviews are very important,- not only can you get orders from them, but good reviews will help you get ads, distributors and encourage people to pick your zine up if they see it somewhere. Trading is a great way to get zines, but be warned, a lot of zines have stopped accepting trades because they were getting too many shitty zines in return.

Your average photocopied, 20- to 40-page, digest-sized zine has few distribution options beyond trading with other zines, putting ads in other zines, and self-distributing the zine to stores that will take them on consignment.

The other distribution option is to leave stacks of your zine at stores and restaurants. The advantages are that you don't have to deal with collecting money and your chances of selling advertising are greatly increased. Advertisers may figure they can at least be sure people will see your publication and, possibly, their ad. Of course, unless you have money to throw away or are able to scam free printing, giving your publication away makes it all the more incumbent to sell advertising, an occupation that's only slightly smellier than cleaning sewers.

I'd say that money is a consideration for almost everyone doing zines (unless you're independently wealthy or you work at a Kinko's). With your zine do you expect to:

If you expect to make a little money, well, think again. If you expect to lose money (not much of course), good for you. I lose money on most of my projects. But I consider the non-financial rewards to be more than worth it. (What are they, you ask? Well, mail, other zines, positive feedback, new friends, stuff like that...)

You need to figure out a balance between your cost and your price -- you don't want to charge too much, but you don't want to go totally broke either. Your cost will obviously depend on the number of pages in your zine. Your price should be as low as you can afford, and will depend on your distribution. Keep in mind that $1 is a standard zine price -- if you're charging $3 (even if that's your cost), a lot of people simply won't risk $3 on something they've never seen before. Keep your zine small and keep the price low.

Ask for postage rather than money. If you do ask for money, say who to make checks out to, or ask for cash only.

Be aware money and checks from outside the country will not be easily transferred. Find out the bank charges before accepting payment in this manner.

Subscriptions generally cost more for those out of the country because of the added postal expense and administrative bank charges.

Postal Orders are checks that can be made out in foreign countries for your zine. Know that the administrative costs can be quite high. Many do not like to send cash because the mail is searched (and possibly stolen) when it goes through customs. Always give several alternatives for payment if possible.

If your promised zine fails to make an appearance, send the submitted work back or at least send a postcard explanation. Contributors send work in exchange for your zine.

Consider hand-made touches such as hand colouring, stickers, rubberstamps, a number and date, signature, or a personal note, especially on the cover.

For best success, do not copyright your material. Use labels such as "copy-freely," "anti-copyright," and if you are unsure, "copyright reverts to contributors after publication." By giving permission to copy, the text or art will enjoy increased circulation by being picked up by other zines. Also put the phrases, "Send a copy of any publication in which this material appears," and "Give credit." Do not use copyrighted materials.

Have a regular schedule - and stick to it. It might be a good idea to publish irregularly in the beginning, or do "one-shots." This will give you an opportunity to play with different formats and styles of publishing.

Do not attack other people in print. Watch content and tone of reviews. Never burn bridges.

Show sensitivity to gender, racial, national, and other boundaries. You have no idea who is opening the envelope on the other side of the globe.

If you are trying to generate mail, consider soliciting contributions of text or artwork, running reviews, surveys, contests, or take ad swaps. All these encourage the reader to write you.

Put disclaimers on your material, such as, "this material does not represent the opinion of the editors, but is presented for educational or entertainment purposes only." (if applicable)

Sexism and harassment are issues you must defend against so if possible, you may want choose an alias where the gender is unclear.

Use a PO box so if something odd comes your way you will not have to worry about someone knowing where you live.

Others may interpret your material much differently than what you had intended. Publishing a list of gay, or female nite workers may seem like a great idea, but it could lead to harassment if it falls into the wrong hands.