c/diy-zine-culture

Hit 50 copies sold of my zine and it threw me off

I printed 30 copies of my latest zine about growing up near the railroad tracks. Figured that would last me six months. Sold out in two weeks and had to run 20 more. Now I'm wondering if I underpriced it at $4 or if people just really like trains.

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eric_johnson•16d ago

My coworker Dave told me to stop fussing with fancy software and just staple pages together for my first zine

I spent two weeks trying to learn InDesign for a 12-page art zine about dumpster finds in Cincinnati, but Dave said to just type it in Word and photocopy it at the library. He was totally right - the rough edges and crooked staples actually made it feel more authentic and I sold 30 copies at a local show. Has anyone else gotten better results from keeping it simple instead of going digital?

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brians27•17d ago

Heard a zine-maker at the coffee shop say 'real zines are photocopied' and it got under my skin

I was at Cuppa Joe on Tuesday waiting for my order and this guy next to me was explaining zines to someone. He said if you print them at a proper print shop they stop being DIY. I've been making zines for about 4 years now and I use a local print shop because my home printer jams every 3 pages. Plus I can print 50 copies for around 40 bucks which is way cheaper than buying toner. Are we really gatekeeping based on how the ink gets on the paper now? Has anyone else run into this kind of purist attitude in the scene?

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lee.cole•18d ago

My zine went from a 10-page mess to a 50-page beast in like 4 months

I started my first zine last February just doodling on printer paper about my cat, and by June I had a whole collection of neighborhood weirdo stories. What changed was I started carrying a little pocket notebook everywhere and jotting down overheard conversations at the bus stop. Anyone else have a zine that just exploded in size after you changed your method?

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sanchez.robin•19d ago

Spent $60 on a toner for my risograph and it was completely the wrong shade

I bought this fancy blue-green toner off eBay thinking it would match my risograph's cyan... nope, it came out looking like swamp water. The guy listed it as "compatible" but my test prints looked like someone spilled Gatorade on the paper. Lost a whole afternoon messing with ink drums and now I'm stuck with a bottle of weird sludge. Has anyone else been burned by a cheap toner listing that didn't match what they expected?

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sanchez.robin•20d ago

Stapling zines sideways changed my whole folding process

I've been making little poetry zines for about 6 months now and always struggled with pages not lining up right after folding. Last week I tried something dumb - I stapled the sheets together sideways before cutting them down to size. I used a long-arm stapler I got for $8 at a garage sale and just ran a line of staples across the top edge of like 10 sheets at once. Then I folded the whole stack in half and trimmed the open edges with a paper cutter. The pages actually matched up perfect for once. No more fighting with individual signatures or trying to align everything by hand. Has anyone else tried weird assembly orders like this or am I just late to the party?

2 comments

wyattbennett•21d ago

Can we talk about whether zines should be free or not?

I was at a zine swap last Saturday in Portland and this older guy running a table told me he never charges for his zines. He said charging money turns a zine into a product instead of a conversation. Ngl, I've always charged $3-5 for mine to cover printing costs. But hearing him say that made me wonder if I'm missing the whole point of DIY culture. What do you all think, does selling zines kill the spirit or is it just necessary to keep making them?

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richard_roberts80•22d ago

The day my zine got rejected from 3 shops in one afternoon

Honestly, I thought my latest zine about bus stop graffiti in Portland was solid. I printed 50 copies at the library for $1.50 each. I walked into three different shops downtown and all of them said it was too niche. One owner told me, 'Nobody wants a zine about scribbles on plexiglass.' Ngl, that stung. But now I'm thinking maybe they're missing the point of what makes a DIY zine personal. Has anyone else had a shop totally misjudge your work like that?

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thompson.christopher•22d ago

I lost 50 copies of my zine at a Kinkos in Portland last week

I was printing a run of 100 copies of my new zine about dumpster diving in the PNW. I set them by the self serve machine while I went to grab a drink from the machine. Came back 5 minutes later and some guy had tossed them all in the recycling bin because he thought they were trash. I had to fish 50 slightly damp copies out of that bin. Has anyone else had a printing disaster like this at a chain copy shop?

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thomas862•22d ago

That time I handed out 80 zines at a punk show in one night

Last Saturday I set up a small table at a basement show in Portland with a stack of maybe 100 copies of my latest art zine about abandoned gas stations. By the third band I had given away or sold around 80 copies just from people flipping through while waiting for sets. The funniest part was watching two kids argue over the last copy of the fold-out map I included. Has anyone else had a zine really take off at a live event like that?

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mason209•24d ago

Update: My third zine finally got a real response at the Austin Zine Fest

I handed out maybe 30 copies of my first two zines over 6 months with barely a nod. This weekend someone actually came back to my table and said the collage style reminded them of their grandma's scrapbook. Has anyone else gotten that kind of personal reaction that made the whole thing feel worth it?

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campbell.nora•25d ago

Tried using a staple gun to bind my first zine and it was a mess

Honestly, I spent an hour stapling crooked pages and jamming the gun before a friend pointed out I was supposed to fold and stack the paper the other way - whoops. Has anyone else had a binding fail that made you redo the whole thing?

3 comments

abby_martin28•25d ago

My first attempt at a risograph zine was a total disaster lol

I spent like 3 hours designing this tiny art zine on my laptop, got it all laid out perfect, then realized the risograph at the library needed the pages in a specific order i totally messed up. Ended up with 50 copies where the middle pages were upside down and the colors shifted like crazy because i didn't set the registration right. Has anyone else had a printing fail that actually turned into a cool happy accident you kept?

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milarodriguez•25d ago

My inkjet printer decided to eat my zine master copy right before the copy shop run

I was about to print the final black and white master for my latest zine, a little 8-page comic about my cat's obsession with cardboard boxes, and my HP Envy 6000 just shredded the whole thing halfway through. It was around 11 PM last Tuesday in my cramped apartment in Austin, so I had to hand-copy the entire layout onto tracing paper with a micron pen to have something for the Kinko's run the next morning. Has anyone else had a printer completely ruin a crucial draft at the worst possible time?

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the_mia•25d ago

Rant: Why I stopped dismissing zines as just artsy scrapbooking

I used to think zines were just for people who liked cutting up magazines and gluing stuff together. Then I stumbled on a zine from 1992 at a thrift store in Austin called "Punk Rock 101" that had a whole two-page spread on how to book your own show using payphones and flyers. That one piece of info was way more practical than anything I'd read online about DIY touring. It made me realize zines were capturing real, lived knowledge that gets lost in Internet posts. Has anyone else found a zine that changed how you see an entire scene or hobby?

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the_amy•27d ago

Feedback on my zine layout made me ditch the centerfold

I used to always put my best art as a centerfold spread until a reader at the Portland Zine Symposium told me it just gets lost in the staple. They said the middle pages never lay flat and people miss the details. Now I put the big piece on the back cover instead where it actually gets seen. Anyone else get layout advice from a stranger that totally changed your zine?

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pat360•28d ago

Warning: Don't waste $60 on a glossy zine cover paper like I did

I bought a pack of glossy cardstock for my latest art zine thinking it'd look fancy, but the ink smudged everywhere after an hour of handling. Total loss of time and money - anyone else fall for the wrong paper type?

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brian_murray•28d ago

Noticed a shift in zine content at the Portland Zine Symposium

I went to the Portland Zine Symposium last weekend, and I couldn't help but notice a lot of zines focused on AI art and digital tools. Maybe 30% of the tables had something about using software or online templates. I'm used to seeing messy hand-drawn stuff and typed pages. Is anyone else seeing this at their local zine events, or was Portland just a weird outlier?

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thompson.christopher•29d ago

Talking to a zine veteran at a show made me rethink my whole approach to binding

Had a chat with this older guy named Pete at a zine fest in Portland last month. He looked at my stapled saddle-stitch stuff and said "youre just making a pamphlet, not a zine" and it kind of stung. But then he showed me how he does a simple single-stitch binding with thread and a needle. Took like 15 minutes but the thing lays flat and feels solid. Been doing it ever since. Anyone else get a wake up call from an old head?

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seanperry•1mo ago

I finally called out that zine reviewer who trashed my first issue

Guy on a forum said my collages were 'too busy' and I should simplify. Turns out he was right - my second zine sold twice as many copies at the Portland Zine Fest. Anyone else ignore feedback at first then realize the critic had a point?

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anthony883•1mo ago

The Portland Zine Symposium made me rethink my whole layout process

I was at the Portland Zine Symposium last year and saw a table where someone had made a zine using just a single sheet of paper folded into 8 pages. I'd always used a 12-page saddle stitch, so this was a big change. It made me realize I could make a whole story with less paper and still have it feel complete. Has anyone else tried making a one-sheet zine and have tips for planning the layout?

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kevin_roberts41•1mo ago

Warning: I dropped $50 on a vintage long-arm stapler for zine binding and it's a total game changer

I was using a regular desk stapler and fighting with the center folds for months. Found this old Swingline at a flea market, and it lets me staple a full 24-page zine right down the spine in one go. The cost hurt at the time, but it cut my assembly time in half and the bindings are way cleaner. Anyone else have a specific tool that made their zine process way better?

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jade639•1mo ago

A friend told me my zine's text was too small to read comfortably.

I was using 8pt font to cram more in, but after their note, I bumped it up to 11pt and used more page breaks. Has anyone else had to totally rethink their layout because of a simple piece of feedback?

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faith_perez•1mo ago

Just realized I spent $40 on the wrong kind of paper for my mini-zine

I got super excited to print my first mini-zine and bought a whole ream of this thick, fancy cardstock from the craft store, thinking it would feel really nice. When I went to fold it, the paper was way too stiff and the creases looked terrible, plus my cheap printer jammed on it twice. So now I'm out forty bucks and have 490 sheets of useless paper. What kind of paper do you guys actually use for your folded zines that works with a normal home printer?

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ryan_stone•1mo ago

I thought making a zine with just a single sheet of paper was a dumb idea

I mean, I always thought you needed at least a few pages to say anything real. But I tried making an 8-page mini-zine from one piece of printer paper after seeing a guide from the Austin Zine Fest, and it totally changed my mind. You can fit a whole story or a set of drawings in that tiny folded space, and it's super cheap to hand out. Has anyone else made a one-page zine, and what did you put in it?

3 comments