The Fanzine Guide

In this post I’m documenting everything I have learned while helping to organize the fanzine Silk & Sulphur and, hopefully, I will be even better at future projects. I will update this post when I have more to share :)

The Opening Phase

Step one: Find other people who want to make the zine with you. This can be as easy as asking people you already know, but even if you don’t have someone in mine right now don’t worry. Just posting about it on social media will usually rouse the attention of fellow connaisseurs.

Interest Check

An interest check is more than a check for interest. Usually, a link to a form makes the rounds for a few weeks - three or four are good numbers - this gives the idea of the zine some time to penetrate into the collective consciousness.

For the form itself was constructed with one princeple: checking boxes. I’m projecting here, but the more I have to think about answers in survaies, the more unlikely it is that I will finish it. That is why most of the questions had choices to pick from and an other option in case someone wanted to add their own thoughts. I also included a space to write comments or messages to the team.

What questions should the Interest Check include?

• Age: some don’t ask the age but it’s interesting when you plan to have a NSFW section
• Country: especially when you want to make a physical zine
• Do you want to participate or just purchase/receive a copy?
• Are you interested in NSFW section of the zine?
• Would you be interested in a physical copy of the zine?
• How much would you pay for a physical copy?
• Are you interested in digital merch? If so, what type?
• Are you interested in physical merch? If so, what type?
• Any writers you would like to see in this zine?
• Any artists you would like to see in this zine?
• How did you hear about us?
• Comments? Thoughts? Message to the team?

There were some questions I would include next time:

• Which carity? If you make a paid zine, proceeds usually go to a carity and you can ask people which charity they would prefer.
• Option to join a mailing list for further updates