Are Zines Dead?
Pat asks:
Warmest greetings, Ariel.
I'm proud to say you've been discovered twice in my household: my wife read Hip Mama when she was preggers with our own hip baby, Wee Gwennie...and I read How to be a Famous Writer after publication of my first book, Mind.Net.
And I must say, that book's spoken to me. I'm re-reading it now, for the third time, and almost finished (again).
Somehow, though, I didn't put any of its best suggestions to practice when (timidly) promoting my first book. I did a little guerilla marketing, with some posters and surreptious poster-hanging on the local college campus...and one signing at the local Borders...and got one decent review in the local paper (7 freakin months after sending them a copy!).
Next time it will be different. My second book, Refrigerator Magnets, is coming out soon, maybe as early as this month, and this time there will be no timid marketing. This is the book I've wanted to write for...well, ever, really. So I'd be a criminal unto myself if I didn't do all I can to get it in front of all eyes possible.
Which leads me to my question. I love the idea of doing a zine. I want to do a zine. I want to do a print zine because - well, I'm not sure exactly why but I feel it strongly. Print is zine and zine is print.
When I told my wife my plan (which is still hazy at best, btw, and mostly lacking a theme)...she looked at me with pure wonder as to how she could have married such a moron. "You know print is dead, right?" she asked.
My wife is a brilliant artist and knows a lot about nearly everything. I respect her opinion utmost. But I disagree wholeheartedly here.
Because I'm not trying to get rich off it, and not expecting to print thousands, or even many hundreds, of copies. I'm just seeing a hip-looking arts-and-literature zine, with a hip-sounding title of Untitled or maybe Not Yet Titled, sitting by the cash registers in hip record stores and tattoo shops. Maybe it's free, maybe it's a buck. Who knows.
All I know is I love that idea, hazy as it is, so much that I'd chase after it even if I didn't have a book to promote.
So I ask you, arbiter, and adviser, is print dead? Is my only hope the web?
I hope not. Nothing against the web, I wallow in the web. This writer loves print, is all.
I have huge appreciation for any time you've been able to take to read and think about my dilemma. If you've time to respond, I swear I'll do repeated backflips.
hip solidarity,
Pat Worden
Ariel Answers:
That's a good question. Can I put it up on my blog and see if anyone comments? I AM SERIOUS.
You know, I love print. And folks have been saying print-is-dead for decades and decades (with the advent of radio, movies, TV, then internet...) But you don't sit on the toilet with an ezine. You don't go to bed with Kindle (or at least it's totally unsexy if you do). A print zine has tactile validity... you can take it to the park.
And when there is some natural disaster and the electricity is off for more than a few hours, the only archives will be paper. Everything that happened online will be irretrievable by the archeologists of the future. Archival quality, limited press run, print stories rule the world.
I am planning a new zine myself!
So I am of the mind that print is not dead.
But what do I know?
Maybe I'm just a fogey.
* * *What do you think?
posted by Contact at 10:17 AM
16 Comments:
I like print too. There's something about having a tactile object in your hand. Print is not dead, not yet anyway, I think.
There's nothing like a beautifully bound book with a beautiful font.
I hope they're not dead. I agree - print is good. Tactile. No batteries/electricity/connection required.
I rarely read print anymore, but that doesn't mean I don't love it. I do!
For instance, I could never edit anything beyond an essay on the screen. I need to be able to take that red pen to it and make it all bloody. Yes, print is visceral.
Zines...hmmmm. I haven't seen many appealing ones lately. But I must confess I read topical magazines, and well as some trashy ones.
So, I guess print is not dead. Looking forward, as always, to what Ms. Ariel has up her sleeve. And you too, Pat.
I don't think they're dead. I think the up-and-coming generation, which was reared in the non-print age, will have more than a few zines up their sleeves....
I vote for undead. Print it up.
I still read print. I think you have time.....but not much. DO IT!!!
Not dead. Do it! When I see a zine/small magazine for sale that looks good, I buy it if I have enough in my wallet! Love physically printed works. Keep printing.
Some days, I bring leftovers to work and heat them in the microwave near the front desk. Sitting on the little reception table is a big fat book called the Alternative Press Index, which is an index of all the alternative PRINT magazines and the subjects they have published for the past year. So, while waiting the 2 minutes for my food to heat up, I skim through various headings and note that, in 2009, x number of articles have been written about prison brutality, y number about prison reform and that "prison abolition" has yet to become a subject heading. I skim through and sometimes I make a mental note to check out such-and-such issue of this-or-that publication for an article listed in the Index.
one hugely handy thing about print is that it can be archived. You're not relying on someone to keep a url updated; you can find something like the Alternative Press Index to help you see what's been written about this past year. You can go to the library and go through their archives. YOu can ask your librarian (if she/he/ze is of the helpful sort) to help you find materials about such things.
There are entire libraries devoted to zines and alternative print media. Some are nicely ordered, like the Barnard Zine Library at Barnard College in NYC. Some, like the ABC No Rio zine library may require some digging through magazine file boxes, but while digging, you may also find gems that you would have overlooked otherwise.
Plus, there's an accessibility to print zines that you don't have with e-zines or other electronic media. I can physically hand someone a zine: "Here, I think you should read this." I can *try* to send a person a link, but there is no guarantee that person will even click on it to open it, let alone read it. With a print zine, the person is much more likely to flip through it at the very least.
(and if the person is incarcerated or in another situation without internet access, then sending a link isn't an option anyway)
PRINT IS DEAD.
LONG LIVE PRINT.
I think even if print is dead (please dear god NO) zines will live on. They are print in its most basic and accessible form. They have always been "subversive," which is another way of saying intellectually free. i can't say that about all published works--print or not. Also, sure you can make blogs, and get e-mails about updates, but NOTHING is as wonderful as getting REAL mail in the mailbox like a zine. Especially nowadays. DO IT!
Print is most definitely not dead. Make that zine, and send a copy to Zine World (or any zine review publication). Not everyone is excited about reading e-books and blogs all day.
You can take a zine anywhere and read it: standing in line at the store, riding public transportation, sitting in the tub.
People who are incarcerated and those without internet access will thank you for keeping print alive and making your zine.
Print is alive and well-loved. Maybe it's loved by fewer, but it seems to be loved more deeply. You can forward an ezine or blog, but you can save print. You can HAND a friend something in print and say "Look at this!", then gush about it or argue over it, but either way you're more connected.
Print is alive and well-loved. Maybe it's loved by fewer, but it seems to be loved more deeply. You can forward an ezine or blog, but you can save print. You can HAND a friend something in print and say "Look at this!", then gush about it or argue over it, but either way you're more connected.
I love zines. This post inspires me to begin work on my own zine. It's been years but I think they are still a viable and essential art form!
Print, my Girls, PRINT!!! Sure, I read more online these days, as many of us do; And don't ever neglect the necessity of online tidbits & marketing for any and all projects, BUT, as many others here have noted, PRINT is for any place, and any situation! I feel it the way I will also be constantlyh overwhelmed by nostalgia for old songs and classical stories!
Add it to that the fact that, if the shit ever hits the fam and we're w/o our precious electricity, PRINT is all we'd have left...
Print Away!!!
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