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Written by Elizabeth J.M.W.
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What's a zine? (pronounced zeen)
In a way, zines are do-it-yourself (DIY) magazines, but not necessarily how you think of magazines such as Seventeen, Time, or People. They are independently published little booklets, often created by a single person. These booklets are often put together by gluing together words and pictures onto pages that are then photocopied, folded and stapled. Or they can be created on the computer and printed off. These are what you would call paper zines, for there are also e-zines that exist only on the internet and in paper form.
What are zines about?
Zines can be about any topic you can think of. There could be zines of fiction stories, or poems, comic zines, zines all about pickles, zines full of vegan recipes, politics, zines on how to fix your bike, and there's even zines on zines (like the paper version of this, or Stolen Sharpie Revolution by Alex Wrekk).
There are certain titles for popular types of zines, such as: perzine, which is short for personal zine, which means it is a non-fiction zine, about true events. Litzines (literature zines) are zines of fiction stories, compzines (compilation zines) are zines put together by more than one person.
Zines often have a title, such as Monkey Island, and the zine would come out in numbered issues (ex. Monkey Island #2). The zines would generally have the same idea through each issue, such as Monkey Island being a perzine written by a monkey living on an island. There can also be one-shot or one-off zines, which are zines that are made with the intention of there not being any more issues after it.
How do I find zines?
There are many ways to find zines, and thanks to the internet it is very easy. There are places called “distros” (short for distribution) that are like online stores that sell zines. You can also use places like Yahoo! Groups or MySpace Groups to find zines groups where people will post about having made a new zine, about their zine distros, ask questions about making zines, etc. You can also find zines by reading review zines such as Broken Pencil, Zine World, or Xerography Debt (links here).
Zines usually cost about one or two dollars and since you usually receive zines through the mail you sometimes have to pay for postage or send stamps if you are within the same country. If you are sending cash in the mail you should always hide it well by concealing bills in sheets of paper. If sending coins you should tape the coins to cardboard so they won't rip through the envelope and get lost in the mail.
Often zinesters (a person who makes zines) will use an alias (a different name that is not their own) so it isn't a good idea to send cheques. If ordering through the internet some zinesters use PayPal (a secure way of transferring funds using the internet). Zinesters don't always deal in money though; you could trade your own zine for their zine, or trade other objects such as beads, stickers, postcards, candy, etc. It's always a good idea to ask the zinester first if they accept trades and if so, what kind of trade.
In some cities there may be stores that sell zines. There also may be libraries that have zines collections.
As said before, zines can be on anything, so not all zines are appropriate to all audiences and zines are not censored or rated in any way (which generally is a good thing). If you do not wish to receive zines on certain subjects when ordering zines make sure you fully understand what you are ordering. For some zines that are not appropriate for younger people the zinesters will ask for a statement that says you are at least 13, or whichever age they feel appropriate. There are also some zines that deal with topics that may be triggering to people who have certain conditions, such as being bipolar or depressed. Sometimes there will be warnings on these zines, but sometimes there are not.
Contact: Elizabeth J.M.W
Email: zine398 AT care2 DOT com
Site: geocities.com/zine_398
Go to Part 2 - "Who makes zines?" and "How do I make a zine?" >> |
What's A Zine?
