Jan

5

The Trading Network

Filed Under resources | Leave a Comment

The Trading Network is a resource for people who are interested in trading their projects with other people. These projects could be your zine, artwork, crafts, and other DIY things… On the website, you also find Postal Traffic. This is a resource for people who want to receive and send mail. This was inspired by the late postcardx.net. As a whole, the purpose of the site is for sharing your ideas, creativity, and passion to others by swapping your work with someone else. The purpose is to send mail and receive mail. For more information, check out www.thetradingnetwork.org, or write: sinoun., P.O. Box 1602, Decatur, GA 30031 USA

Sep

2

new websites, new stuff

Filed Under resources | Leave a Comment

Several exciting things to share:

We Make Zines is a new online community for zine makers and readers, created by Krissy of PonyBoy Press: “Although there are many social networking sites out there, there is little that focuses on zines. We all have our myspace or blogs, but those accounts are filled with friends from work, from the third grade, people who don’t know what a zine is and some who probably don’t care. This space creates a place that focuses on the zines. I want this place to be less about personality and friends and more about the zines - what we produce and read. You can create a profile, list your zineography, post images of zines, partake in the forums, find other zine writers, read about new releases, read reviews from your favorite zine writers and leave comments about the zine you just read on the actual zinesters profile.”

Crabby Media is a group of zine-lovin folks who built a website to share info. Sign up to participate in their forum, which includes space for zine announcements, skill shares, comp zine call for submissions, and much more.

Microcosm Publishing has released new editions of two classic references on zines: Notes from the Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture by Stephen Duncombe - a well-regarded, academic study of zine publishing, including their history and origins, and their importance within society and culture, originally release din the 90s — and Make a Zine! by Bill Brent — a solid how-to guide to zine publishing, also originally released in the 90s. We haven’t seen either book yet, so we don’t know how they compare to the originals, but their release — and the promise of a new edition of Stolen Sharpie Revolution — make this a great year for zines.

And: Taylor from Parcell Press tells us his revamped website (www.parcellpress.com) is finally online, and it looks pretty swanky. Also, he’s got a new address: Taylor Ball, 626 S. 8th St., 3rd Fl., Philadelphia PA 19147. We’re working on other updates to our stores & distros page; those changes should be online in the next day or so.

Aug

14

talkin zines, makin zines

Filed Under publishing, resources, zine news | Leave a Comment

Recent articles about zines:
Wanted: Pen, plain old paper, imagination, Christian Science Monitor

You Could Learn A Lot from a Punker

The Rozz Tox Effect on Comics, Zines, and Libraries

Collecting the Wretched Refuse: Lifting a lamp to zines, military newspapers, and Wisconsinalia, Library Trends, by Chris Dodge (zinester, librarian, and former Zine World reviewer)

Other stuff:
Check out Barnard College Library’s online zine exhibit: Elections and Protest: Zines from the Barnard Library Collection. It includes scans of selected pages and lesson plans for three different age groups on using zines in the classroom.

Here’s a few links to booklet templates and online tools that could be useful in making a zine (as seen in LiveJournal’s zinescene community) :

Also, we’ve made a big update to our upcoming events page, adding lots of cool events that will be happening this fall.

Jun

22

worthy zine blogs

Filed Under resources, zine news | 2 Comments

Xerography Debt, the review zine with perzine tendencies, has started a zine review & commentary blog. XD has long made its reviews available for download via its website; now XD’s contributors will be posting reviews and other zine-related posts to its blog between issues.

Baltimore County Public Library introduced a blog for its zine collection this spring, in which they give updates on new zines in their collection, events, and other topics.

Another zine library with a worth-reading blog is Barnard College’s blog at Livejournal. Librarian Jenna Freedman is a huge champion of zines, and the blog includes highlights from Barnard’s collection, plus interesting ephemera. (Of course there’s also lots of zine communities at Livejournal, such as Zine Scene and Stolen Sharpie. And, speaking of Livejournal — did you know that Zine World’s blog is syndicated there?)

The Syndicated Zine Reviews blog is updated pretty much daily with a variety of reviews and zine news.

What other blogs did we miss? Where do you go online to keep informed about zines (other than the places we’ve got listed on our Resources page)? Let us know via email, or post a comment!

May

9

Updated postal rate sheet

Filed Under mail, resources | Leave a Comment

New postage rates go into effect on Monday. To help you make sense of it, we’ve updated our handy U.S. Postal Rates sheet. In addition to increasing rates in all categories, USPS has now applied shaped-based pricing to all international mail. For an explanation of shaped-base pricing and how to use media mail or bound printed matter, check out our Zinester’s Guide to U.S. Mail (PDF).

We’ve also updated our events page!