Questions About Zines

[VibrantFox]

Hoping this is the right category, but I've been seeing a lot of talk about zines here on the forums as well as twitter and other places. The thing is I'm not to certain how to go about making them.

Now I know some people will join to be a part of collaborative zine but I'm talking about self publishing for the most part, both physical and digital but mainly the latter. The most I really know about is doing small self made zines, letter size paper, folded in half and stapled together type stuff. But I'm wondering where I can go to find more info on the making of these things, ideal paper types, formatting for print and digital, what layouts work best and maybe even tips about pricing. Anything that might be useful.

My main focus is digital zines so that's the info I'll likely pay the most attention to, but whatever might help anyone looking to get into zines is more than welcome too

(apologies if this is a little all over the place but any help/advice is appreciated )

[nostalgicroxas]

Paper : you'd want a heavier cardstock that doesn't show bleedthrough. You'd also want a good quality ink that doesn't have too much of a sheen to it.

Digital : think you can set them up in inDesign or in Word, and just save/convert it down to a pdf.

[silverraven0]

My question tho. What's a zine? :3

(I honestly have no idea)

[VibrantFox]

The wikipedia definition is this:

A zine (/ziːn/ ZEEN; short for magazine or fanzine) is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via photocopier. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation.

but the simplified is basically a small, usually magazine size/length comic or art book.

I'm not super knowledgeable about it myself but it's something I've been looking to get into since I've got the ability to sell online, with the goal of doing physical print further down the line.

I've seen fanzines pop of often on twitter where groups of artists collaborate or apply to join a collaboration either doing comics, short stories, illustrations and so on to put into zines and either sell digital or physical copies with profits going to certain places between the artists or charities.

I'm planning to do short ones, mainly solo for now, I'm just hoping to get a better idea of the process

[silverraven0]

Oooh~ I've been seeing people's looking for zines and such in twitter but have no idea what they were. XD

Thanks for The info.

[JRHoch]

A lot of them tend to be niche or subculture. That's kind of their appeal!

[tchotchkeco]

I’ve been part of a few zines but never took charge in one (would like to one day.) Personally, I highly recommend you don’t homemake the zines but instead get them properly printed. I’ve seen some folks try to make zines by hand and...you can get into a train wreck with it if you’re not used making them (this is important because some folks who participate might want to sell some copies at cons and might need an X amount. This could lead to more work for you unless you plan to give them the digital files and have them print their own copies). Digital is the easiest way to go. A lot of people use gumroad to distribute their zines when done.

[VibrantFox]

A lot of them tend to be niche our subculture

this is definitely something i'm aware of and taking into consideration with advertising and the like

don’t homemake the zines

that i wont have to worry about since they'll be sold digitally online but i'll make a note of that. as for the thing about gumroad i won't be using them since everything i'm selling is with the company i'm working with, Thrivetek Solutions.