How a Zine Swap Works

smiling flower“Swaps” are where a certain number of people agree to swap… Well, something, usually handmade, and they’re usually multiple, identical (or nearly identical) items.

It’s a fun way of sharing art, usually through the mail, but sometimes in person.

Zine swaps

In this case, a “zine swap” is where you send a certain number of copies of just one issue of your zine, to the person hosting the swap.

You’ll also send the host either postage, money for postage, or a self-addressed, stamped envelope for shipping other participants’ zines to you.

The number of zines you’ll send is usually determined by the number of participants, including the host.

So, if six people, including you and the host, are swapping zines, you’ll send five copies of your zine (plus postage).

Each other participant does the same, and the host adds their own set of five zines to the collection.

Then the host sorts all the zines into piles, so each participant receives one from each of the other participants (including the host).

After that, the host mails the sets to each person in the swap, and keeps one set for themselves.

So, each person in that swap will receive five different zines, one from each of the other participants, including the host.

Visual explanation of how a zine swap works

I think very visually. Even writing that previous section, I was counting on my fingers to be sure I got the numbers right.

If you’re like me, this illustration may help explain how swaps work. Jane is both a participant and a host, so – as a participant – she’ll make five copies of her own zine and add them to the swap.How a zine swap works

I hope that makes sense, and I hope you’ll participate in – or even organize – a zine swap.

More zine information

If you have questions or answers, post a comment below.

FREE 24-Hour Zine – Download

Looking for a FREE art zine? Here’s one of mine. It’s from 2010’s “24-Hour Zine Thing” project. You can download this zine, page-by-page, and assemble it yourself. (It’s easy. Really.)

What’s a 24-hour zine?

During July 2010, participants had to go from concept to printed/bound zine in 24 hours or less, and the zine had to be 24 pages long.

We couldn’t prepare anything ahead of time.  We weren’t even supposed to think about what we might put into the zine.

It was exhausting, but I learned a lot!

(See my links at the foot of this article, for more information about the challenge, the diary I kept during the process, and what I learned.)

Remember: This is NOT an art zine.  It’s a rambling, personal zine reflecting my thoughts as I worked on this challenge.

To read (or print) your own copy of this zine

Download these PDF files and print them on letter-sized (8 1/2″ x 11″) paper:

Cover
Pages 1/24
Pages 2/23
Pages 3/22
Pages 4/21
Pages 5/20
Pages 6/19
Pages 7/18
Pages 8/17
Pages 9/16
Pages 10/15
Pages 11/14
Pages 12/13

If you’re not sure how to print &/or assemble the zine, check this article: 24-Page Zine Layout

If you can print back-to-back, do.  That’ll save paper and bulk in the finished zine.

See my hour-by-hour diary (not very cheerful, by the end of the 24 hours…) at Zines – The 24-Hour Zine Thing.

Read my happier summary (posted the following day) and see the contents of a 25th page (that didn’t fit in this zine) at 24-Hour Zine Thing – What I Learned.

And, if you’d like to try making zines, here’s a simple, single-sheet zine project anyone can make, easily: Single-Sheet Zine Layout. (It includes a link to yet another free zine you can download. Not as impressive as the 24-hour one, but it IS an art zine.)

24-Page Zine Layout – How to Make a Zine

The first time you try a zine layout, I know it can be confusing.

And frustrating.

But I’m about to show you how to put your zine pages together so they’re in the right order in the finished zine.

I’ve been creating zines for over 30 years, and I still sketch my zine layout on paper, to be sure I paste it up the right way.

So others don’t have to reinvent the wheel, I’ve put several zine layouts online.  Here are a couple of them:

  • If you’re looking for the classic 16-page zine layout, using just one sheet of legal (8 1/2″ x 14″) paper, here’s the link: Zine Layouts. (Yes, that creates a small, 16-page zine from just one sheet of paper, total.)

The 24-Page Zine Layout

If you’d like to try a 24-page zine, or you’re trying to figure out how to assemble a downloaded PDF of one of mine, here’s that design.

24-page zine layout

Basically, your first page and last page will be on the same sheet of paper, and on the exact same side of the paper.

If you start with that and sketch it out, you can usually figure out which page goes where. (Want a free zine you can download and print, to see how it works? Here it is: The 24-Hour Zine Thing Zine.)

The good news is, you can create your own zine.

And, with a little double-checking to be sure your zine layout is right, you can print and share it with confidence.


advertisement

How-to make zines at Amazon

(That’s an Amazon affiliate link that helps support this website, at no cost to you.)

24-Hour Zine Thing – What I Learned

Concluding yesterday’s 24-page, 24-hour zine, I learned a lot.

(Here’s the link to the printable zine: 24-hour zine download.)

I’m still not sure if I’m going to try a second one for this challenge.  Probably not.

(If I had more time, I might.  With just two non-weekend days left in the month, it’s probably not wise to leap into a second zine marathon.)

Reviewing the zine I created in the past day or so… it’s actually pretty good, for a first-time challenge.

Here’s what I learned during the 24-hour zine project:

1. I’m at my best, creatively, in the morning.  I’m also a psycho-cranky perfectionist late in the day, or when I’m tired… which are often the same thing.

2. Our society says one thing but does something else.

For example, gov’t healthcare representatives say the same things as many leading health experts:  Eat more veggies, grains, legumes and less fatty meats and dairy.  However, the gov’t then subsidizes in a way that makes the unhealthy diet the more affordable one.

The odd thing is: As I was researching spending differences between the 1951 household budget (see the graph below) and today, people spent nearly twice as much on food (in income percentage terms) in 1951 than they do now.   I’m still wrapping my brain around that.  I mean, are we putting advertising-driven luxuries ahead of how well we eat, or what?

The zine will be available as a download (PDF), next week. (UPDATE: Yes, and here it is: 24-hour zine download.)

Meanwhile, here’s the text from the 25th page.  It didn’t fit into the zine.

What could have been the 25th page of my 24-hour zine

As I was pasting up this zine, I began searching for answers: Did a 1951 household budget look about the same as ours, allowing for inflation?

According to Helium, “In the 1950s, frugality and conservative spending was valued and happiness was desired more than riches. The incomes of celebrities were not often discussed in the 1950s, nor were their excessive purchases.”

Here’s what I’ve found: In the typical 1951 household budget, American families spent 22 percent of their incomes on food, or about $814.

We spend about 12% of our income on food ($6,133), and nearly half of that is spent eating outside the home.

Fast Food Nation bookAccording to Eric Schlosser in Fast Food Nation, Americans spend more on fast food than they do on higher education.  He also says, “They spend more on fast food than on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, videos, and recorded music – combined.”

(Interestingly, about 40% of every 1951 dollar spent on food went to the producers… the farmers.  Today, it’s just 20%.)

Here are other figures that I found online:

Item 2007 1950s
Food 15% 32%
Housing 43% 22%
Clothing 4% 12%
Transportation 18% 15%
Medical Care 6% 5%
Recreation 6% 2%
Education & Communication 6% n/a

Ref: http://financialedge.investopedia.com/financial-edge/1009/50-Years-Of-Consumer-Spending.aspx (As of 2017, no longer online.)

I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but in the past 20 hours (or so), I’ve certainly uncovered a lot of questions.

In my spare time:  There’s something to be learned in this.  Since I have a huge stack of 1951 newspapers, I plan to analyze 1950s’ lifestyles — and the 1951 household budget — in more detail. Because yes, I’m not only an artist, I’m also a geek.

Zines – My 24-Hour Zine Thing Diary

Zine thing - 24 hours of excitement and challenges?Today, I’m starting the 24-hour zine thing.  (Yes, that’s what it’s called.)

This may be quite a challenge!

What is a 24-hour zine?

If you’re not familiar with it, here’s the basic idea: Go from concept to completed/printed-and-bound 24-page zine in 24 hours.

My general plan is to start it around 1 p.m.  today.  I’m allowed to gather materials but not actually think about what’ll go in it (or prepare anything for it) until the 24 hours begin.

Last night, cutting advertisements out of some 1951 newspapers, I decided that some of them will go into this zine… I’m just not sure how, or what the theme will be, or… well, anything.

I know that it’ll be a half-page zine design.  (That is, the zine is printed on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, and folded in half.  Pages are 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″.)

Other than that, I have no idea what I’m doing.  Generally, I’d like my zine to relate to creativity, but how that fits with the 1951 newspaper ads (or if they’ll even end up in the finished zine), I don’t know.

I’m going to try to update my progress here, hourly.  I’m not sure if that’s a good idea or not, and it may fall apart altogether after the first couple of entries.  (The hourly posting that is… not the zine, I hope.)

Either way, that’s what’s ahead for this sunny July day in NH!

————————-

Hour-by-Hour Zine Notes

Tuesday

3 p.m. update: I’ve been working on the zine for about an hour.  It’s turning into a personal zine, filled with random thoughts.  Contrary to my general plans, it’s not an art zine.  Oh well.

I started around 2 p.m. and I’m in the middle of a mini-collage for one page.  I’ve written and printed pages 1 and 24.

The TV series, Torchwood, is on in the background, and one episode inspired the name of this zine, The Electro.  Now… back to work!

4 p.m. update: I thought I’d be back in the living room, working on collages and artwork.  Instead, I wrote three pages of text and created captions for two more pages.  So, that’s 7 pages of 24.  I’m reluctant to say, “Oh, this isn’t going to be so difficult,” because that’s the fastest route to hitting writer’s block or something…!

Now, I’m doing some pasteup before working on collages and other art for the zine.  So far, so good.

5 p.m. update: I was doing well until about 15 minutes ago, when it turned out to be the sad Torchwood episode that concludes the Grey story line.

See, there have been things this year that I haven’t had time to process or mourn… other things had to keep moving forward.   My mom (and my cat) would want it that way, and I knew that.  Last weekend, I think we concluded the major must-do projects. Whew!

I’ve known that I’d need to grieve at some point.  I’m not sure if today is that day.  If it is, this zine project goes “on hold” and I start all over again, later this week.  (Cheerful stuff, this… eh?)

6 p.m. update: Serendipity! The next show on BBC-America was the Charles Dickens episode of Dr. Who. The opening always makes me laugh, even in this context.  (Yes, I do have a weird sense of humor…) So, I lost a little time but I’m back on track with this zine.  Well, more or less.

I spent most of the last hour more thoroughly combing the 1951 newspapers for ads to include.  I found several that will work, including some that will bridge between the 1951-related content and the zine pages that are from and about 2009 and beyond.

7 p.m. update: I’ve completed text & layouts for another six pages, I think.  I’m trying not to wander into the too-easy trap of rosy nostalgia and idealizing an era that had plenty of problems.  But… where am I going with this, anyway?  I’m not sure, and that’s beginning to show.

I’m nearly ready to segue into modern collages and commentary.  However, I can also see the merit of an early bedtime, so I can be up at 4 or 5 in the morning, to get a fresh start on the remaining pages.

8 p.m. update: I’m about halfway through the zine now.  The basic layout is complete, and I’m finishing the cover right now. Well… I think I am.

Most of the remaining pages will be collages.  Due to rapidly increasing humidity (my fingers are starting to stick to the keys on my keyboard), I should probably complete as many of them as I can, tonight.  Otherwise the adhesive (gel medium) may not dry in time… the zine pages might stick to the glass on the photocopier.

The good news is, Warehouse 13 is on.  There’s something ironic about how much I’m questioning the value of TV (contrasting 2010 lifestyles with those of 1951) as I’m avidly watching favorite TV shows.

9 p.m. update: My cat wants me to go to bed. (He’s the hall monitor, in a way:  Schedules must be kept.  Order must be maintained.)  I’m seriously considering quitting for the night.  However, I have just nine pages left to complete.  That’s better than I expected, at this point in the day.  Is it quality work?  I’m not so sure.  I’m too tired to tell.

I’m going to try some collages.  If they don’t work out — and they might not, since the light is awful — I’m calling it a day.  (Note to self: Get an Ott light.)

9:30 p.m. update: One and a half collages later… I’m tired. The light is too dim.  I’m not fresh enough to create anything except minimalist, stark collages, and that’s not what I want for this zine.

So, assuming I’m asleep by 10, I can be up at 6 and working on this zine again.

————

Wednesday

6:30 a.m. update: After a semi-sleepless night, I’ve been at the keyboard for half an hour, catching up on necessary, business-related emails.  I’m hoping to ignore email for the rest of the morning, and complete this zine.

I’ve also decided to include this diary (well, most of it) in the actual zine.  For some reason, that makes sense to me.

I’m looking at the stack of 1951 ads I’d cut out before starting this zine — ads I decided not to use, in favor of others I selected after beginning it — and that seems right as well.

The air is still cool.  The light is good.  Back to work!

9:00 a.m. update: Several more collages completed, and now I’m re-checking my emails (bad habit… bad!) and pasting everything up, to see what remains empty.  I know I’ve nearly completed this.

Biggest shock while making these collages: The number of “buy this” messages throughout magazines.  Almost all the overt and covert messages — especially all the “look like a celebrity” ones — came from just one issue of one magazine.  That’s disturbing.  I mean, with that many cues and subliminal messages, most people will succumb to at least some status cravings.

10:00 a.m. update: The more I delve into this zine and lifestyle issues, the more questions I’m discovering.  They’re questions I won’t have time to research or ponder within this 24-hour timeframe.

However, the zine is nearly completed now.  I expect to be at the copy shop within an hour, so this will be my last hour-by-hour update about building this zine.

Thoughts at the Conclusion

I’m thoroughly dissatisfied with this zine.  Yes, it represents a process.  Yes, it was my first time attempting this.  It still seems like a half-baked zine with no clear statement about… anything.

It also doesn’t really represent the glimmer of inspiration that occurred when I chose the zine title.  I’m not sure what to do about that.

My biggest mistake was the scheduling.  Mornings are my most productive time, but I started this on a hot summer afternoon, when I was tired.  Nothing cohesive seemed to emerge, yet the integrity of this project/challenge requires me to publish it, as-is.

That said… I feel as if I want to redeem myself by doing a second zine this week.  I’d work on it the right way, based on what I learned from this experience.  I mean, do I really want to live with this as my only 24-hour zine for the 2010 challenge?

I’ll see how I feel when I see this printed. I may look at it and decide that it’s not so bad, after all.

Post-printing thoughts about the 24-hour zine

The first thing that I did was to print and bind a copy at Staples.  (It’s the nearest business supply shop with a self-service copy center.)  It’s not the best printing  or stapling job in the universe, but it met the requirements.

I completed the zine in 24 hours.  That’s what matters. (Actually, I did it in a little under 22 hours, and had a page left over — a 25th page — when I assembled the whole thing.)

After that, I went back to the copy machine and tried some different settings.  The photocopied collages look much better at lighter settings.  When I’m creating the zine copies that will actually go in the mail, I’m using those settings.

(I don’t have to mail a copy today… just have a finished copy; those are the rules. A copy must be mailed to the 24-Hour Zine Thing organizers in the next two weeks or so.)

Then, I sat down to lunch, followed by two big bowls of ice cream, a shower, a short nap… and I looked at the zine again.  I can see some “oops” mistakes, but nothing awful.

In fact, confirming my good friend Stephen’s comments, this zine does look better after some rest.

Oh, I’m still not entirely pleased with the zine; it’s not something I’d send out to my readers, as-is, and pretend that it’s a great zine.

However, it is an authentic zine, and it’s representative of a 24-hour marathon, including my first-time mistakes.

I’m on the fence about a second 24-hour zine.  As Scarlett O’Hara said, I’ll think about it tomorrow.

UPDATE: You can download this zine at the 24-Hour Zine Thing Zine – Download page.

—————————

To learn more about zines, click on the Zines tag at this site.

More info about this challenge (which seems to have ceased in 2015 or so): 24 Hour Zine Thing

How to Make a Simple, Single-Sheet Zine

Single sheet zines - step oneThere are as many ways to create, modify & embellish a single-sheet zine as there are artists.

How to Create a Single-Sheet Zine

Here’s a very simple way to create one:

1. Take any white sheet of paper.  Pull one out of your desktop printer, or rip one out of a notebook.  (Think of the lines as pinstripes!)

2. Fold the paper in half.  Most people fold it so it becomes a four-page zine, with each page being 8.5″ tall and 5.5″ wide, but anything’s possible. (Here’s a sample you can download and print: Free Zine #1.)

Single sheet zines - how to make them
3. Write and draw (and create other art) on each page, until it’s full.  (Alternative: Create your zine, digitally, and then print it.)

Single sheet zines - the layout and design4. Flatten the sheet so you can photocopy (or scan) it.

5. Print copies, two-sided (back to back), and fold them.  (Optional: Embellish by hand.)

Next, Share Your Zines!

Mail copies of your zines, sell them (at your site or Etsy, for example) or give them to others, sharing your ideas and artwork!

Single sheet zines - print and share
(If you live in a city, especially one with a student neighborhood, go hand some zines out and watch people blink in amazement.  They’re used to advertising flyers, etc., not actual gifts of art & inspiration.)

If you want to make and share zines, this is a great start, and one of the simplest ways to make your own zines.

Want to see a more complex zine? Print (free) the 24-Hour Zine Thing zine.

Single-Sheet Zine Layout – More Info

Single-sheet zines can be easy or complex.  In my earlier article, Single-sheet Zine Design – Basics, I showed one of the simpler ways to create a zine.

What most people do…

From what I’ve seen, the majority of people who swap or sell zines take a bunch of letter-sized printed pages (8 1/2″ x 11″) and fold them in half. Each sheet of paper is four pages of the zine.

Here’s how a single-sheet zine might look:

Single sheet zines - the layout and design

See? It’s just one sheet of paper. This can be really easy!

You can print a free zine – a variation of the single-page zine concept – at Free Zine #1.  (Warning: I wrote that around 2002, and included several New Age topics that were popular/trendy at the time.)

Of course, that’s just the beginning…

Zine sizes can vary.

An average zine is five to 15 sheets of paper, meaning 20 to 60 pages. Those are the ones you’ll see at art- and zine-related shops, where you can purchase zines.

However, most zines are at the small end of that figure.  Many of them are just a sheet or two of paper, printed (and sometimes cut) and folded/stapled to make a zine.

Once you’ve made a few classic, single-sheet zines, you may want to try something more complex.

The Classic, 16-Page Zine from a Single, Legal-Sized Sheet of Paper

If you’re a purist or on a strict budget, you may love this: It’s a 16-page zine created with one sheet of legal-sized paper, period.

I don’t count the cover as a “page” when I number my zine pages, so my own version of this is 12 pages plus an outside cover & inside covers. Here’s how it fits on the paper:

Zine layout from a single sheet of legal paper

Cut on the solid lines and fold on the dotted lines.

Staple in the center. One staple is usually enough.

One stamp on the envelope is enough to mail one of these zines.  (You can tuck them in with bill payments, notes to friends, birthday and holiday greeting cards, and so on.)

You can also scan your zine, uncut, and put it online so others can print their own copy, cut & assemble it. Easy!

Zines Know No Limits!

There are many other ways to make zines. Look at books about making handmade books, for the best inspiration.

The concept is the same, but zines are usually smaller & more informal, that’s all.

If you want to create a zine that’s a work of art, that’s fine.

If you want to get wild & crazy with design, have fun with it!

Remember that a zine can be one piece of paper, b&w, printed on both sides, and folded in half. That’s a four-page zine.  I have several in my collection, and I think some of the simpler ones are better than a few larger ones I’ve seen.

So, put your art & soul into your zine, and don’t worry about the size or technical stuff.  I love almost every zine I see; size and expertise often have nothing to do with how enthusiastic I am about a zine.

What to Do with Zines

If you’ve wanted to create a zine for fun, just do it!

  • Give them to friends.
  • Sell them (at your website or Etsy, for example).
  • You can approach local artsy stores, gaming stores, etc., to consign (or outright sell) your zines.
  • Hand them out on the street, at school, at work, to friends, neighbors, and relatives.
  • Join a zine swap or launch your own, on- or offline.  They can be tremendous, and you’ll receive fabulous zines that you might never see if you hadn’t swapped.

More zine information

If you have questions or answers, post a comment below.

Free Zine #1

Years ago, I put together a single-sheet zine as a sample for my students in my Artfest ‘Make the World Your Art Gallery’ workshop.

Mostly, I was demonstrating different techniques for zines, especially using torn-paper elements in them.

It’s not an absolutely fabulous zine, and it’s not even much about art.

I simply used topics trending at the time I taught the workshop, and tried to make each page kinda-sorta referenced that topic.

So, this zine is just a series of random pages. You could probably put them together in any order, and this zine would make equal sense.

Or, to be honest, not much sense at all. But that’s part of the FUN of zines… They don’t need to be The Meaning of Life. Or have much “sensible” meaning, at all!

front of single-sheet zine back of single-sheet zine

How to assemble this zine

Print the PDF, two-sided, on 8.5″ x 11″ (US letter sized) paper. If your printer asks, tell it to print two-sized and flip horizontally along the longer side.

Then cut the printed sheet in half (horizontally, across the middle)

Place one half-sheet on top of the other. Then fold – and maybe glue or staple – the zine in the middle.

(You can see sketches of how this works at my Single-sheet Zine Designs page.)

As I’d created it, the front cover was the one with “Tour” in big letters. The page that talks about travel should probably be on the back of it. (That is, the “Tour” page is at the front, and then the “Travel” page is on the other side of it.)

But, as I said, it doesn’t really matter how you assemble this. It wasn’t intended to make sense.

You may need to adjust the size or shift the paper so that the pages line up correctly, when printed back to back. But, when it’s assembled, it’s an 8-page zine (four, two-sized pages) from one sheet of 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper.

Here’s the link. You can right-click to save it to your hard drive, or you can simply click and open it as a PDF, and print it immediately.

Click here for the PDF of the zine

If you’d like to make your own zines, browse my other zine articles.

Zine Layouts

Here’s what you need to know about zine layouts…

Zine sizes

From what I’ve seen, the majority of people who create homegrown zines use letter-sized printed pages (8 1/2″ x 11″) and fold them in half. Each sheet of paper is four pages of the zine.

An “average” zine is five to 15 sheets of paper, meaning 20 to 60 pages. (But really, there are no “average” zines. Each is unique, as it should be! )

starIn swaps, most zines are at the small end of that figure… five or so sheets of paper, and often less.

In fact, plenty of them are just a sheet or two of paper.  They’re printed or photocopied (and sometimes cut).  Then they’re folded, and usually stapled to make a zine. That makes them four pages… depending upon how they’re cut and folded, of course.

The single-sheet zine layout

The classic zine design is funky.

  • If you’re a purist, you’ll love this.
  • If you’re on a budget, you’ll also love this: It’s a 16-page zine created with just one sheet of legal-sized paper. (Yes, just one. Really!)

Note: I don’t count the cover as a “page” when I number my zine pages, so my own version of this is 12 pages, plus an outside cover & inside covers. Here’s how it fits on the legal-sized (8.5″ x 14″) sheet of paper:

Zine layout from a single sheet of legal paper

Cut on the solid lines and fold on the dotted lines.

Staple in the center. One staple is usually enough.

How to swap, mail, and share zines

If you’re mailing one of those single-sheet zines, one stamp on the envelope is usually enough to mail one of them.

Where to send your zines – You can tuck them in with your bill payments, with your notes to friends, with your other swaps, and so on!

Swaps by mail – Tell your friends what you’re doing. Ask if they’d like to play, too. Or organize a swap on social media, on your website, in a forum, etc. Learn more about zine swaps here.

Digital swaps (and shares) – You can also scan your zine, uncut, and put it online so others can print their own copy, cut & assemble it. Easy!

But keep in mind, if it’s a zine like the single-sheet (8.5″ x 11″) zine shown above… Well, it won’t hold much info unless you write VERY small, or you find clever ways to expand the available space, such as adding fold-out pages & stuff.

That said, the 16-pages-from-one-sheet-of-legal-paper is regarded as a classic zine, if we’re talking about all kinds of zines, including poetry, fanzines, and so on.

Taking zines to the next level… or not!

There are other ways to make zines. Look at books about making handmade books, for the best inspiration.

Here’s a favorite:

Handmade Books - Alisa Golden
Click on cover to see it at Amazon.com

The general concept is the same as zines, but zines are usually smaller & more informal than handmade books, that’s all.

If you want to create a zine that’s a work of art, that’s fine. If you want to get wild & crazy with design, that’s fine too.

However, keep in mind that a zine can be one piece of paper, b&w, printed on both sides, and folded in half. And that’s a four-page zine.

Many of these single-page zines are still in my collection.

Whatever the zine, make it yours!

Put your art & soul into your zine, and don’t worry about the size or technical stuff.

smiling flowerI love almost every zine I see.  Size, expertise, and visual quality often have nothing to do with how enthusiastic I am about a zine!

What I’m saying is: If you’ve wanted to create a zine for fun, or just to see what it’s like to make one, just do it!

The bonus is, if you swap your zines with others, you’ll receive fabulous zines in return, which you might never see if you hadn’t swapped.

two parallel lines

My zine history

I published my first zine in 1977. It was one piece of paper, printed on one or two sides, folded, stamped, and sent out with someone’s name & address written on the outside.

In time, I graduated to two or three sheets of paper, and I started rubber stamping & glittering my zines. Yes, each one was hand-decorated.

Since then, I’ve explored nearly every possible variation on the zine theme: Color and b&w; on 8 1/2″ x 17″ paper, and on a single 8 1/2″ x 11″ sheet, folded in half; and so on.

Late in 2024, as I’m updating this post, I still love zines, and plan to make more of them in the coming months. Yaaayyy for zines!
More zine information

If you have questions or answers, post a comment below.

Zine Basics

For years, I was the list moderator for the botmzines group/list at Yahoo!Groups, I decided to throw together some pages about zines.

For starters, the “botmzines” name came from the group that inspired it, the Book Of The Month list… BOTM. So, although botmzines swaps aren’t on any specific calendar, the group started with that name and so it remains.

With that bit of trivia out of the way, let’s discuss zines!

Schedules

First of all, if you want something that is published on time, and is proofread, has high-quality graphics and writing, and generally sticks to the theme it had when you subscribed to it… subscribe to a magazine. You know, like Time, or Newsweek.

Zines are published on whim. Oh, sure, some people manage to write right-brained zines on a left-brained schedule. My hat is off to them. I have no idea how they manage it.

For fun, not profit

Zines are labors of love. We don’t make money on them, or if we manage to show a profit on one issue, we go crazy writing & re-writing the next issue, including color pages or something, and–bingo–we’re back in the red again. In other words, zines are not a way to make a living. Or even pick up some extra spending money. For most of us, zines cost money to produce but we love ’em anyway.

Zines are fun in a way that can’t be put into words. If you’re driven to create them, you’ll get a sense of satisfaction (and some angst) when you complete one and it’s in the mail to others.

Receiving a zine can be… well, I hate to say ‘better than chocolate’ because that’s such a cliche, and very personal.

That said, when a zine is cool, there aren’t enough superlatives for it. When a zine is weird, it’s truly out there… and usually fascinating, as well.

It’s often a love/hate thing.

There are almost NO generalities that can be made about zines, so let me tell you about my own eccentricities:

They make me crazy, but I love them anyway. And I love having zines to swap so I can get others’ zines.

My zines are published at odd times, vaguely quarterly. They bear a variety of names, also whim-based. They may be half-pages (printed on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, folded in half), or bigger, or even smaller. Some have cardstock covers, but most are all on the same kind of paper (and color) that came out of the photocopy machine.

Most of my zines are b&w. Most of them are loosely related to art, especially paper arts. Most are a mix of printed text, scribbled-in notes, and my own graphics.

Generally, after six months or so, I lose track of when people’s subscriptions started, so I close down new orders for awhile, and send out more than the subscription’s worth of copies (meaning that early subscribers can end up with two or more times the number of issues that they ordered). And then I start up again.

(Yes, that’s embarrassing. It’s also not unusual among people who create art zines.)

Generally, I make zines when I receive someone else’s zine and my batteries get recharged.

Why people create zines

From the classic guide to zine-making, Zine Scene: The Do It Yourself Guide to Zines, by Francesca Lia Block & Hillary Carlip:

“Tell your story… your obsessions, your fears, your dreams, in words and pics, because it is powerful, because it kicks, to express and connect, even if it’s not always pretty, cool, or slick.”

Also from Hillary Carlip, “Sometimes paper is the only thing that will listen to you.”

Worried about how it will look? Here’s another quote from Zine Scene:

“Who knows what Baroque pearls and sizzling diamonds of content lie buried in the impossibly small print, or floppity-sloppity-scrawly handwriting of a rough-to-read zine?”

In other words, say whatever you want to, and don’t worry about how it looks.

Or… go crazy with how it looks and forget about saying anything overtly pithy.

Either one works–or both!

Recommended reading, online

There’s so much good zine info online, I’m not sure why I even create webpages about them. Seriously. The same people who compulsively make zines, keep rolling along with enthusiasm and tell you all about them, online.

My favorite resources & inspirations, offline

  • Others’ zines. Plain & simple. Get your hands on as many as you can. The easiest way is to swap! You can swap through the botmzines list at Yahoo!Groups, linked above.
  • The Garage, Issue No. 2, published by Diane Moline. As far as I know, Diane makes her zines in very small numbers, and only for swaps. I’m thrilled to own two copies of The Garage.
  • Dog Eared Magazine, Issue Five, about Zines. For more info, see dogearedmagazine.com
  • Zine Scene: The Do It Yourself Guide to Zines, a book by Francesca Lia Block and Hillary Carlip. It’s considered a classic. When I checked in mid-2006, it had been out of print for awhile.  If you see a copy, old or new, snag it if you’re serious about zines.