Make a Zine: Start Your Own Underground Publishing Revolution (Cover may vary) - Softcover

Biel, Joe

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1621067335 ISBN 13: 9781621067337

Publisher: Microcosm Publishing, 2018

Synopsis

Do you have a passion that you want to obsess about in a love letter to the world? In this new edition of Microcosm’s popular DIY guide to zine-making, Joe Biel updates the information provided in the first edition (edited by Biel and the late and great Bill Brent) to address zine making in today's digital and social-media-obsessed world. Covering all the bases for beginners, Make a Zine! hits on more advanced topics like Creative Commons licenses, legality, and sustainability. Says Feminist Review, “Make a Zine! is an inspiring, easy, and digestible read for anyone, whether you’re already immersed in a cut-and-paste world, a graphic designer with a penchant for radical thought, or a newbie trying to find the best way to make yourself and your ideas known.” Illustrated by an army of notable and soon-to-be-notable artists and cartoonists, Make a Zine! also takes a look at the burgeoning indie comix scene, with a solid and comprehensive chapter by punk illustrator Fly (Slug and Lettuce, Peops). Part history lesson, part how-to guide, Make a Zine! is a call to arms, an ecstatic, positive rally cry in the face of TV show book clubs and bestsellers by celebrity chefs. As says Biel in the book’s intro, “Let’s go!” 

About this title

About the Author

Joe Biel is a self-made publisher and filmmaker who draws origins, inspiration, and methods from punk rock. He is the founder/manager of Microcosm Publishing and co-founder of the Portland Zine Symposium. He tours with his films on the Dinner and Bikes program and has been featured in Time Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly, Utne Reader, Portland Mercury, Oregonian, Broken Pencil, Readymade, Punk Planet, Profane Existence, Spectator (Japan), G33K (Korea), and Maximum Rocknroll. He is the author of Good Trouble: Building a Successful Life & Business on the Spectrum, Manspressions: Decoding Men's Behavior, The CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting, Beyond the Music, Bamboozled, Bipedal, By Pedal, and more. He is the director of the documentaries Aftermass: Bicycling in a Post-Critical Mass Portland, If It Ain't Cheap, It Ain't Punk, Of Dice & Men, $100 & A T-Shirt, and the Groundswell film series. The Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy described Biel as "not trained in pedagogy." His work can be found at joebiel.net

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Make a Zine!

When Words and Graphics Collide

By Bill Brent, Joe Biel, Sparky Taylor

Microcosm Publishing

Copyright © 1997 Bill Brent and Joe Biel
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-62106-733-7

Contents

Introduction by Joe Biel and Katie Haegele, 
How to Make a Zine in Eight Simple Steps, 
What's a Zine? Why Make a Zine?, 
A Brief History of Publishing, 
Organization, 
Layout and Type, 
Photos, Illustration and Pre-Press, 
Printing and Paper, 
Blockprinting by Eleanor Whitney, 
Interviews, 
DIY Comix by Fly, 
Contributors, 
Inspiration, 
Postage, 
Sales, 
Promotion, 
Copyright, 
What You Must Know About Libel by Paul T. Olson, 
Computers, 
Compiling Back Issues, 
Touring: When In Reno Eat the Raw Pie, 
Participation, 
Ethics, 
DIY: Nike Style: Zines and the Corporate World by Stephen Duncombe, 
Sustainability, 
Appendices, 

CHAPTER 1

8 Steps to Making a Zine.

One. Produce text! It doesn't matter whether you handwrite your words, type them, or cut-and-paste ransom-note style. Virtually anything is acceptable and that is the beauty of zines.

> ACTION ITEM! Zine aesthetics vary widely, in style, professionalism, and quality. Go to your local library and spend an afternoon browsing one or more good books on graphic design, especially for newsletters. Read a few dozen zines by other people and figure out what you like and don't like. If you like someone's ideas, reproduce a few things you like and try to create your own variants on a photocopier. This can help develop a sense of your own aesthetic preferences regarding graphic style. It can be very helpful to practice generating some design skills and art before you are putting together your finished zine. A lot of zinesters skip this step, but it's worth spending time thinking about.

Two. Find some pictures to go with your words. They can be photos, collages, line art, drawings, or anything else you can dream up. Do the best job you can to reproduce your images. (Images snagged from the Web are probably not of high enough resolution to reproduce well on paper). Some zines use very few images, which can hurt the overall readability. Breaking up the repetitiousness of words on the page will help readers enjoy your zine.

> ACTION ITEM! Far more people will pick up a zine with an interesting or provocative cover. If you're planning to sell your zine, visit a place that sells zines and notice which ones grab your attention. Try to figure out why.

Three. Set your price. Usually this is $1 to $5. You want to base your price on the cost of copying, including paper, stapling, and folding, postage, and perhaps something for your time (even if it's just coffee, cookies, or the occasional slice of pizza!). If there are other expenses (phone bills, a PO Box rental, envelopes, photos, etc.), plan for those as well. Most people who will sell your zine for you, like stores and distributors, will take 40-60% of the cover price. If you want to sell your zine through these channels, think about this when setting your price. Some people prefer only to sell their zines directly to their readers. Think about including the price on the cover if you are selling it in stores.

Four. Include your address. This is vital. Many people include both a postal address and an e-mail address. The best place is the inside cover or first page. Sometimes people also put it on the back cover, if they are mailing it without an envelope. The exception is if you're publishing something so subversive or illegal that you don't want it traced back to you. It is easy to be anonymous, with the way that zine distribution functions. You need to decide whether you feel comfortable printing your home address or renting a PO Box for security and privacy. Most zinesters rent a box from the Postal Service (cheapest) or from a private mail drop company (less cheap). A private mail drop may be more convenient if they have longer hours and can accept a wider range of deliveries. Some provide copying services and other conveniences. One zinester told me that he rents a private mailbox because its address resembles an apartment's, on the off chance that readers would attempt to visit. So it can be a way of tricking would-be stalkers and other creeps.

"One of the real nice things about PO boxes is they provide a stable address for those who move, especially all who don't depart on good terms with their landlord. Even in the best cases, this happens a surprising number of times. I have many zines [which use] many different addresses for the same zine. You are supposed to tell the Postal Service whenever you change your address, but you don't have to, so this makes it a nice secure address." - Steve Kudlak, West Virginia Zine Archivist

Five. Print some copies. Unless you're blessed with deep pockets or unlimited access to free copies, it's a safe bet to make 100 or 200 copies to start. At this volume, it makes the most sense to photocopy your zine, rather than having it printed by an offset printer, web printer, print-on-demand, or other mass production method.

Unless you have an obvious place to make copies, it makes sense to call around and figure out who has the best price for the volume that you are printing. Sometimes one shop will match or beat another's price. Don't be afraid to ask for a deal, but it is more likely in smaller copy shops than national chains. The chains have business partnerships with online retailers such as Amazon, and national organizations such as Publishers Marketing Association, so they only give their sellers or members a discount on copying and related services. Befriending the staff is very helpful, as it'll make your relations much more pleasant - and sometimes grant you special pricing.

It's helpful to ask around for references or print samples of similar work. Figure out a firm schedule with your printer and stick to it. Treat the printer with respect; a good shop is an invaluable source of information on how to adjust the size of your zine, page count, or colors to get the lowest price. The more controversial your material is, the more important it is to have a strong, personal relationship with your printer. We have horror stories of trying to get sexually-oriented material, anti-Republican propaganda, or even zines with peculiar names printed. Conversely, there is no reason to stay with a printer who is disrespectful to you or your work.

Six. Get reviewed! Send copies of your zine to reviewers at publications like Zine World and the others listed in the Appendix of reviewers. It's a simple and effective way to find people interested in reading your zine and communicating with people who share your interests. Because that's what it's all about, right?

Seven. Distribute your zine. Think about who to give or sell your zine to. It could be friends, family, co-workers, or other people who make zines. These people can be reached through reviews, local stores, far away stores, and distributors ("distros"). Check out the appendices for names and addresses!

Eight. (Optional) A mailing list. Figure out a way to keep track of it. Scraps of paper in a shoebox, a notebook, a card file, an address book in an email program, or a database can all be functional, as long as you can find the information when you need it.

Making a zine is that simple. Everything else is based on these eight basic steps.

what's a zine?

Various people define this differently. A popularly agreed upon definition is a short-run periodical produced more from passion than intention to make money. Press runs range between ten and ten thousand copies, with the vast majority around two hundred. It is rare to start a zine with commercial motives. Those who do make money are typically not motivated by it. Any hope of a reasonable hourly wage is extremely unlikely.

Zines are one of the most immediate and disposable popular literary forms of the past two hundred years. Zines are typically less formal, and far less commercial productions than most magazines.

What most zines share is a preference for content over form. A zine is a functional vehicle for self-expression. Folks in the zine world do not view a zine as a "lesser" format. Without the fear of losing advertising revenue or offending its readership, a zine can take on topics the mainstream media ignores. Zinesters often are the first to capture events because they are closer than their glass-tower counterparts to the issues as they are happening. Music zines usually cover up-and-coming bands that would never break commercially and are unlikely to be "discovered" by big music magazines. Others report on the seamy underside of society in intimate detail. Still others focus intensely, even obsessively, on small niches of culture or society that the big guys ignore. Taken as a group, zines contain some of the most unique and subversive writing and thought available in any format today.

For instance, John Marr explores bizarre murder cases in each issue of Murder Can Be Fun. Eric Ruin, Meredith Stern, and Andy Cornell use their zines, Trouble in Mind, Crude Noise, and Secret Files of Captain Sissy to dissect, critique, and discuss the radical political movements that they are a part of. Lauren Martin wrote intellectual feminist and cultural analysis in her zine, Quantify. Dave Roche used his zine On Subbing to tell his daily stories of working as a substitute special education assistant in Portland's public schools. Shark Fear, Shark Awareness is exactly what the name suggests: An informative and reverent guide to sharks!

Why Make A Zine?

To have your work in print. To share what you can make. To encourage others creatively. To connect with folks who share your interests. To get mail. To make new friends. To create the kind of publication you've always wished existed. To teach yourself. To see your work in print by any means necessary. To communicate very passionately in a medium that is intensely personal. Whatever your interests or agendas, a zine allows you to express your opinions, art, and ideology to a wide audience in a fun, relatively cheap way.

For still others, it is an intensely personal experience that helps to deal with living in an insane world. I found a great explanation on alt.zines. Christine, who did a zine called Post Modern Toad, posted:

"Why Publish a Zine?"

"Actually, a LOT of people have asked me that same question ... but quite not in the same context. It's more like, "Why the hell are you wasting your time with this thing?" Like I need to hear that from someone who's apparently never, EVER, had a creative idea in his entire life.

"Deep down, doing something creative, like publishing a zine, or writing a poem, or painting a landscape, is therapeutic. For me, the creative urge has always seemed to scream during the most difficult times in my life. I've learned (the hard way) to NEVER ignore that urge when I'm feeling down — unexpressed creative energy makes me feel even worse! Who needs that? Focusing that energy on doing something positive is a hell of a lot more constructive than sitting around feeling sorry for yourself. If someone doesn't understand it, or doesn't appreciate it, or even if they totally hate it ... that really doesn't matter at all. Before anyone else has even seen it, it's served its purpose — YOU'VE FINISHED IT. You've accomplished something, and it's something to be proud of. Even if you're not 100% happy with it (and who ever really is?!?), you've still created something that's at least meaningful to you. And if you've entertained someone else in the process, all the MORE power to you!"

Your first zine is more of a learning process than anything else. You make it, get feedback, learn from your mistakes, and keep getting better. If you saw the early issues of some long-running zines, you'd be shocked at how rough they were. Better to get it done than to delay by trying to make it perfect. Once you get over your fear and get that first issue in people's hands, you'll find the second one is a lot easier. Either you'll want to prove to folks it wasn't a fluke, or you'll want to show them you're capable of even better. Bottom line: the first issue is always the hardest. Just get it done and go from there.

Sometimes, especially with your first zine, you may want things to be perfect. But in five years, you might have different thoughts and opinions, and better skills at design. You'll cringe at the awful layout and groan as you read the awkward phrasing. Maybe you'll want to track down every copy and burn it. At the same time, it'll be your favorite zine ever because you did it, and that's something to be proud of.

What's So Special About Zines?

Zines are the ultimate do-it-yourself project. I've always admired initiative and, as Christine indicates above, I believe that most great zines are great because the editor felt driven to publish them. A great zine transcends limitations of funds, likelihood, experience, and technology.

Most zines have a short life span. One reason is that it is often hard to sustain the initial enthusiasm that created them. Family commitments, work, loss of interest, and plain old burnout get in the way, and the zine is abandoned, often leaving a trail of disappointed fans in its path.

But zines are fun while they last, both for the writer and the reader. And the definitions of "writer" and "reader" can be amazingly fluid. This is one of the most exciting things about zines. Many readers of a zine eventually became its writers, and many readers are inspired to produce their own zines. As Clem Burke, who has drummed for Blondie and the Ramones, once said about being a rock musician, "I do what I do because I was always a big fan. The ultimate fan transcends fandom and does it himself."

Zines are the ultimate expression of the do-it-yourself ethic. Thus it is to the aspiring or current zine maker that this book is dedicated.

So how do I make a zine?

Look at other zines and see what you like and don't like. Most importantly, you want your zine to be your own. There's not much point in blatantly copying someone else's zine. Yet there have been plenty of incidents of people taking a finished zine by someone else, putting their name and address on it, and copying it as their own. Ridiculous, right? You want to learn from others' mistakes and successes, not steal them.

Planning is easy, yet skipping this step can lead to much trouble down the line. It is important to decide what you want in a particular issue of your zine, how you want it to flow, what order it will appear in, where that material will come from, and when you need it by.

There are no set rules about this. Some people put together a zine with nothing more than a pen and never touch a keyboard. Some type on clunky, old manual typewriters, electric ones, or occasionally word processing machines with built-in printers. A few even have everything typeset professionally, from computer files, without ever creating a paper master. Beginning folks doing zines tend to type text with computers, print it out on inkjet printers, and paste it onto the page with graphics. Personally, I think this isn't the easiest way to make a zine and it can look more like a school report than a creative endeavor. Experiment and think about what would work best for you.

Start an issue with one of your strongest pieces to get people's attention right away. Don't start the issue with something that is more than a few pages long. Inserting graphics early on helps, since this also gets readers into the zine more quickly.

The oldest known woodcut print in the world is Darani Sutra found inside Seokga Pagoda of Bulguksa Temple, Korea printed before 751 A.D. It predated Japanese Million Pagoda Darani Sutra dated 770 A.D. Chinese printers used wood blocks with carved characters and inked paper in the 8th century. In the 11th century Pi Sheng created early moveable type, allowing for letters to be rearranged. Movable metal type was a development associated with woodblock printing, such as slow engraving. There is a record that Sangjeong-gogeum-yemun (Prescribed Ritual Texts of the Past and Present) was printed with movable type around 1234 A.D.

Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1454, revolutionizing the transmission of information using metal moveable type and an ink made from turpentine, lampblack, and linseed oil. Within 50 years, over 500,000 texts had been printed (almost exclusively religious works). Besides the Bible, one of the first important uses of the Gutenberg press was to print a handbook for the Church called "Malleus Malefactorum," which outlined how to find and expose "witches." It allowed the Church to quickly distribute a kind of uniform code throughout Europe, and is the reason that inquisition questions and procedures across the continent were so quickly disseminated and so similar.

Gutenberg's invention coincided well with the Reformation. Europe, unified as "Christendom" for a millennium, was suddenly ripping apart, and one of the main reasons was that viewpoints opposed to the Vatican were being printed and distributed. Luther's 95 theses, the document that started the conflict, was an early zine - the writing wouldn't have ignited a war if it hadn't been published and passed around.

After 200 years of struggle in England, printers won the right to publish in the 1700s. Beginning around 1760, the Industrial Age created a need for educated workers, which created public schools and wider literacy. Self-publishing was too expensive for most, yet the number of books and pamphlets increased. Ben Franklin self-published as a youth. Samuel Adams, Thomas Payne, and other Americans printed works that helped bring about the American Revolution.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Make a Zine! by Bill Brent, Joe Biel, Sparky Taylor. Copyright © 1997 Bill Brent and Joe Biel. Excerpted by permission of Microcosm Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1621067335
• ISBN 13: 9781621067337
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160