KAL黒 | Zines

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Hi! This is a casual letter. It's a couple of thoughts I've had over the years, since I already covered the reasons I am here.
The point of this is to express some perspectives I rarely see around.
I apologise for the formatting, I am fighting carrd a little.
It's also much longer than I expected. I clearly had a lot of time to think about it!---------The last time I wrote this kind of letter, it was in the zine kit. Well, that one was a note to zine makers about trying to find new ways to continue to make zines. And since then, there have been so many unique and ambitious projects that could not have been possible without the power of items being crowdfunded.This letter isn't going to talk about "the power of crowdfunding"- Kickstarter and co already have great interests in that.I wondered what to write this time. Last time it was really easy to decide. I had been involved with zines, mostly in the background, kind of starting to find my footing less-in-the-background. This time... well, it's hard for me to be a background character. I have ended up involved so many ways that I should think properly about what I want to write.
The world has changed a lot too in the last several years. By now, that delivery style is probably a thing of the past.So I thought it is about time a new guide exists, and I guess I have to do it myself.
Guess I'm doing it............ (😆).
So then... why do I put thousands of hours into these zines?The truth is, I just like them. 🥔
That's a really boring letter though, so let's try find specifics.Have you ever cooked for more than 2 people? More than 6? More than 30? 100?
Have you ever tried to handmake 200 items?
If you live anywhere with a local zine fair, you can ask them about their zines. Oftentimes, the people offering diy zines have spent so long so long building just a small amount.
Industrial revolution, where handicrafts made way for manufacturing, is why scale works out..
It's really amazing to me that an artist in America can participate in a zine and their work can reach another fan halfway across the world.Just think about the pieces involved, right? Somehow a whole bunch of people had to create a piece. Somehow a person (professional or hobbyist) had to compile it. And then it is printed- which by the way, book printing is incredibly multi-step process. (There is at least one guy on Youtube who has vlogs.) Then even more people were involved in delivering the books to the shipping mod, oftentimes just one person who is willing to give up space in their home, oftentimes not reimbursed for small things like gas money. That person packs everything, and then all the individual parcels go out. Most of the time, things don't go wrong.It's kind of amazing. And that's just the zine only.Then, something else. With the increase of internet online shopping, artist alleys evolve a lot. A lot of the time to be competitive in artist alley now is about being on top of a trend. Doing things which are new. Being able to do the new thing first when people are at their peak interest of buying it.
...Then, as an example, what about the people who come to a fandom late?
Or the people who like things which are not as likely to be "mass purchased"?
Anyway, where I am going with it. Zines provide people with an ability to get a lot of things created for a niche. People going into it generally already know how much is the guaranteed interest- because the interest check.
It's also exciting seeing things like fans revisit the things that they used to like; or popular artists drawing for a niche that they've thought about drawing but didn't have a reason to... etc.(I have a thing where I extend a hand to certain projects when I sense they may be having difficulty, as I can support them using my huge work history, do my part for increasing representation in fandom.).
Since this letter is casual I can get away with adding more topics (sorry). I think I will close by saying there's been a lot of interesting effects in recent years that maybe you have not drawn connections of.1. Merch artist apps
The barrier of entry to producing merch has plummeted. Technology and processes have gone whrrr and the effect is that... well, it is so much easier to be a merch artist. (In artist alley chats, a topic that comes out is how competitive it can be to apply to some events, and it just keeps getting more competitive). This has also extended to zines; though I don't vote very often, I do look through the merch artist apps to participate in deciding merch assignments. There is just so much more competition in merch artist side. Some zines accept less merch artists than writers.Also... sometimes a very busy artist will only apply for merch as well, thinking the workload is smaller than a page. In these cases the mods are forced to choose between having them as a merch artist or not having them at all.2. Writers
Something I noticed is that some zines attract writers to writers apps like there is just so so many. Then other zines you are lucky if you got the same number of writers as you wanted to accept in the first place(even after saying out loud, please we need more writers.)
I have no explanation for this?
Is it because writers think it is too uninteresting or low chance so they withhold from applying?
Is it because the writers in ultra competitive fandoms are active on social media, which is the main avenue zines use to advertise, so they see the writer app open?
For me, who relies on analysing numbers to predict sales and weigh up the rates that a zine can go ahead or needs to scale back... you guys, I just don't have anything to use when it comes to understanding the behaviour of writers. It's random to me.
I really have no idea why.
But I am very very happy when there does manage to be writing in zines.
Thank you so much for applying.(~a wail from the happy buyer of several writer-focused zines.).I have thought to myself that I would keep doing zines until 2029.
There is still things to learn, and knowledge to transfer to the next generations of zine makers.Because this is the kind of community that can only exist based on the efforts we put into it.Lately I have been taking on zines saying that someone else should be taking on finance, while I would guide them.
It's kind of funny I have been doing shipping mod as a way to change-of-pace. (Shipping mod is a bit misunderstood sometimes. I'm still thinking how to write about it.)
Perhaps by the time I retire, my zine work will have passed 10,000 hours, like that saying. We will see about that..Anyway, you made it here. Thanks for reading to the end.
Have a good week, see you around! See you next time :)KAL黒

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