So You Want to Start a Zine Pt. 2

Deciding What Your Zine Is (And Isn't)

Let's get personal for a moment. You see, this is where we talk about what goes between the covers of your zine. And that's up to you.

Completely.

I can't state that too plainly. You are the editor & publisher of your zine. You, and only you decide what goes in it. If you don't like it, if you don't approve of it, you don't have to use it. Whatever it is.

This is the post where I can only speak in generalities. I'll explain how I made my decisions, and hopefully that will guide you in your decisions. Deciding your content, and by proxy your format (i.e., print or electronic) is a very important step that you should think about before you make any commitments.

It seems a simple step, but it can be the first stumbling block for a young zine maker. Do you want a lot of fiction in your zine, or would you prefer mostly nonfiction? Are you going to focus on a particular topic, or will your zine be about just anything? While there are many many more questions to ask yourself at the beginning, these two two-part questions will help limit what you're trying to do, and trust me, that's a good thing.

This is where I suggest you get out pencil and paper. (there's a lot of paper involved in my process of making a zine, so don't be afraid) Start making a list of what you think you want to do. You have to think about what you're doing before you dive in. This may seem anathema to a lot of people since innovation often comes from people who don't have a lot of experience in a field (i.e., they don't avoid the 'known' failures and they just TRY stuff), but that doesn't mean they didn't think about what they were doing.

For me it was easy to decide what kind of zine I wanted to make. But, I had worked on monthly magazines, and for a book publisher. I knew what I was getting into, what needed to happen month to month, how to get in touch with authors, etc. I love the physicalness of books and magazines, so I knew that a print zine was right for me, too. I had no interest in creating my own content, so I wasn't about to make a nonfiction zine that had reviews and criticism in it. Even though it's only been six years, some of the current online tools weren't quite as cool as they are now.

And electronic content has gained more respectability in the past few years. When I was starting my zine, online fiction...online content of any sort...was viewed as inferior to printed material. Not that the pendulum has swung completely the other way, but it's approaching the middle. If I were to start a zine, I'd have to give a lot of serious thought about making it an online only publication.

As for the actual content, my tastes are pretty varied (and they change all the time; I absolutely despise 'what is you favorite band/author/food' questions since I have no forever favorites, just things I'm currently enjoying) so I was comfortable making a fiction zine that didn't really have any sort of theme to it. The title of the zine gave it a loose theme, but I see very little in the way of steampunk. A theme would arise through my editorial choices, and it might change as what I'm interested in changes through time.

For you, that could be different. You may really like stories with robots. You may want to think about making a robot story zine. That could be really cool. It could also be really limiting if you make more than five issues. Today you think you'll never get sick of robot stories, but after a couple years of reading submissions of robot stories you might change your mind. Then what? Well, you could change the theme of your zine (which could be disastrous) or you could start a new zine. You'll probably want to publish the kind of stuff you like to read; just don't make it so specific/obscure that you have trouble getting quality submissions.

If you find the concept of working with fiction kind of daunting, perhaps your zine should be something that publishes more nonfiction content. If you read a lot, perhaps you could write up simple reviews of all the books/magazines you read. Or maybe you want to make your High School English teacher proud and you have all sorts of literary criticism thoughts in your head after you read a book and you'll publish longer, more critical pieces that compare and contrast severals works by the same author or perhaps several works by several authors who write on a similar theme.

To me, that sounds like a lot of work. It already takes up a lot of time reading submissions, selecting stories, editing stories, laying out issues, etc. and I don't offer any original content to the issue. But perhaps if you cut out entirely the process of working with other people, all you'll need to do is write enough content for an entire issue, edit yourself, lay it out, etc. There's merits to both. You need to decide which appeals to you more.

(Of course, you could be less insane than me and go into this endeavor with someone else (or with multiple someone elses). It wasn't until this year that I learned that most of my fellow fiction zinesters didn't do this alone. Here I was putting this zine out twice a year like clockwork and feeling like everyone else was outpacing me like crazy in content, format, etc. Then I learn that there's several people at every publication. And I was still almost keeping up with them. No wonder I was going crazy!)

And there's no reason why your fiction zine couldn't have a nonfiction column or two. I used to have one, and I'll be implementing one with the next issue. Most of the fiction zines out there offer some sort of review feature. Since zines come out irregularly (a few times a year) often it's not just a pure review; it tends to be something a little more value added so to speak. And your literary criticism/review zine could always feature one story in each issue.

That's what Strange Horizons does; they just do it every week! And they have a host of talented people who help put it together under the direction of the amazing Susan Marie Groppi. There's like 20 or more people that work on Strange Horizons. However, 20 people is a little ambitious when starting out, so try to find one or two people to work with instead.

Having done this by myself for so long, I will say that if you can find even one other person who shares your vision of what the zine should be then do so. While I can proudly say that any accolades the zine has received so far are 100% due to my efforts, I won't feel bad now that I've added some help. The problem is I enjoy every phase of making the zine, so it's hard to pass those duties on to anyone since that means that I won't be doing that part any more. Just like I would give serious consideration to making a new zine online, I would never start one on my own. If I ever make a second zine, it will be with someone's help.

Next time, some of the common pitfalls of the fiction magazine. (there won't be a partner post about nonfiction as I have no experience in it)