So You Want to Start a Zine Pt. 1

As the title promises, this is the first in a series of posts where I talk about how you can start and maintain your own zine. I'm not certain at this point how many installments there will be, but I will have separate posts for the following topics (but not limited to only these topics):

• Starting a zine
• Getting submissions
• Layout
• Printing vs. Copying
• Marketing/Promotion

The germination for this idea started with an old post wherein I talked about laying out the pages of my zine. I'll redo that post when I get to layout. I may even need to break it into multiple posts.

This first post is going to talk some about why I make a zine and why you should make a zine. Here's some background about me. I moved from WI to NJ in 1997 to work at Facts On File News Services as an associate editor. A year later, I had a new boss and no job. I quickly found work at Dell Magazines working with their puzzle magazines (really working for the editor-in-chief). It came to my attention that Dell also published Analog and Asimov's science fiction magazines, and when a job opened a few months later, I applied. I worked as the editorial assistant on both magazines for a while when I learned of a job opening at Tor Books. I worked at Tor for two years, meeting and working with most every science fiction and fantasy author that I read. I acquired Alex Irvine's A Scattering of Jades while I was there.

However, at $25,000/year in New York, I wasn't going to be able to buy a house, start a family, etc. So I left publishing as a full-time endeavor to enter the thrilling world of computer programming. For five years I worked as a programmer then a senior programmer. Early on, I noticed that I felt something was missing. I missed working with authors, with books, with the written word. Programming was a very solitary experience, and as I've gotten older I've found that I like being around people and working with people.

It was a fateful Readercon where I sat on a panel (I'm fairly certain it was this Readercon, but the panel is not listed in the program) run by Gavin Grant about starting your own magazine. (there's a panel by this name the year after the one I link to, but by that time I was already publishing Electric Velocipede) As soon as I left his panel, I knew that I wanted to make my own magazine. I had the contacts through Tor/Asimov's/Analog; and I wanted to keep in touch with those people. It made perfect sense.

So let's say you have inspiration to start your own magazine, or you're on the fence and wondering if you should start one. Here's some words of advice on getting the ball rolling.

One of your concerns might be that you might think that there are too many magazines out there, that there's no room for another publication. This is where you're wrong. Every single person who sees this post can (and should) make a zine. And they can be fiction zines. There's a lot of good fiction out there.

The more of us that compete for fiction, the better our publications become. The more of us that compete for fiction, the better the writing becomes. Competition makes a market stronger. I'm glad that there are more and more well-made independent fiction zines out there. Yes, it maddens me when stories get published by someone else that I think would be perfect in Electric Velocipede. I'm sure they feel the same about me.

You might wonder if you have the time to make a zine. This could be a problem if your schedule is tight or you already have a lot of commitments. Making a zine is a big commitment. I work very hard to have issues come out when I say they're going to come out. I work very hard to always have two issues a year. I'm often up late or up early to work on things as the publication date draws near. But it matters to me. I wasn't going to start this process and fizzle out after an issue or two. If I was starting a zine, it was going to go on forever.

Still not sure? Do you have a blog? If you think about it, a blog is essentially an electronic zine. If you have the time and energy to blog and comment and read blogs, you have the time and energy to make a zine. When I started this six years ago, blogging was virtually nonexistent. These days, there are millions of blogs. People go online and write billions of words every day. And most of them don't even think of the time and effort they're committing to their blog. A zine is the same thing.

If you think you want to make an electronic zine, you can get away with using blog software, which can have very robust features and programming aspects. If you're doing print, there are a whole different set of considerations, but you can get away with basic office suite applications in the beginning for layout. You can even go old school and use the photocopies to create your master pages rather than laying them out electronically. (a future post will cover print vs. electronic in greater detail)

There's nothing in your way as far as content is concerned: there are a lot of writers out there looking for a home; there are a lot of thoughts in your head; there has to be something that you have a lot of interest in that you could talk about. There's nothing in your way when it comes to making the zine: blogging is free and easy; if you have a job you have access to office suite software and photocopiers; if you're worried about doing this at work--or god forbid you aren't working--there are free computers at your local public library if you don't have one at home already.

Stop deciding whether you should make a zine. The answer is yes. Now you need to start thinking about WHAT you're going to make. Since this post is getting overlong, the next one in this series will go into more detail on making that decision.