Here’s an update on We Make Zines losing its free status:

In case you don’t know, Ning (the site that hosts this community) is no longer offering free accounts. Today they announced the payment plans and the cost that works for us is $19.95 a month or $199.95 a year. You can see the plans here.

The plan Ning Plus offers almost everything we have (with the exception of being able to add videos, maybe, bummer) plus now that we are paying we can have our own domain name (glad I bought wemakezines.com a long time ago) and no ads. We could also sell ads as a way to keep the thing running. Let me know your thoughts on that. Would any of you want to buys ads on WMZ?

Anyway, here is the donate button. Donate what you can. Even a couple dollars will help. I am hoping we can get enough in the next month to hold us over for more than a year. I would rather not have to ask for money every year.

The Donate button will not work on here for some reason. So, please CLICK HERE TO DONATE.
Thanks so much!

–Krissy and all of us at We Make Zines

Ning, the social network platform where We Make Zines is hosted, has announced that it will be phasing out its free service, meaning that networks such as WMZ will have to pay a fee. The pricing scheme has yet to be announced, but WMZ founder Krissy plans to ask WMZ members to make donations in order to keep the network going.

Follow the discussion over at WMZ.

We’re working on making updates to various resource pages, with content from the new issue. The following pages have been updated:
Zine Review Zines & Websites
Zine Libraries & Infoshops
Stores & Distros
U.S. Postal Rate Chart
and there’s loads of new upcoming events listed, too.

Have information to share with the rest of the zine community? Send it our way! Email updates to wordofmouth@undergroundpress.org.

We hope that 2010 is going to be a great year for zines, and a great year for Zine World. So, to start the year off right, and as a thank you for you readers who have stuck by us, we made a little calendar that you can download and print. The calendar features some of our favorite Zine World covers from throughout our years, including artwork by Jeff Meyer, Mike Tolento, Violet Jones, Shawn Granton, Jim Sumii, Bobby Tran Dale, and Susan Boren. Download from the link below. Cut on the lines to make it a mini-calendar, or don’t to have a 3-months-on-1-page calendar.

Zine World 2010 mini-calendar

A big part of the reason why Portland is considered such a zine-friendly city is because of the Independent Publishing Resource Center, which is one of the greatest resources a zinester could have. Check out the documentary below to learn more about the IPRC or to reflect on how awesome it is.

IPRC Documentary

Hi, everyone! The Multnomah County library system in Portland, OR did a great job of pulling together talented zinesters for their Zinesters Talking and Historic Zinesters Talking series this fall. And lucky for all of those who don’t live in Portland—as well as those who do, but didn’t make it to the events—all of those talks were recorded. They’re now up online as part of the Zinesters Talking podcast. Listen up here!

ZineWiki returns! After a nearly year-long absence, ZineWiki.com, the open-source encyclopedia devoted to zines and independent media, is back online.

Two long-time zine publishers and librarians have recently taken over administration of the wiki. Jerianne Thompson (of Murfreesboro, TN) is the editor and publisher of Zine World: A Reader’s Guide to the Underground Press, the nation’s largest zine review zine. Dan Halligan (of Seattle, WA) is the former publisher of music zine 10 Things and co-founder of the alternative publication Tablet, which covered culture in the Pacific Northwest. Both have been publishing zines since the 1990s. Thompson works in a public library; Halligan manages an academic library. Assisting the duo is Thompson’s partner, Denny Crawford, who revived ZineWiki after it was taken off-line by a hacker’s attack.

“ZineWiki was growing into such an amazing resource, Dan and I felt it was vital to get the site back online,” Thompson said. “The very nature of zines make them hard to document. No one can really say how many zines have existed or how many are currently being published. ZineWiki gives us a way to document the breadth of zine publishing.”

ZineWiki features more than 2,300 articles about zines, publishers, and many other aspects of the small press. It was originally created in June 2006 by Alan Lastufka and Kate Sandler to document the vibrant underground publishing world. In its first year and a half, hundreds of contributors wrote articles covering the history, production, and distribution of the small press worldwide. Thompson and Halligan plan to continue the project where it left off.

“While we’ve seen a rapid decline in print publishing internationally, the independent press and zine publishing community continues to remain quite active. And as the mainstream media continues to merge and consolidate, it’s even more important to highlight and recognize independent voices and publications, which is exactly what ZineWiki aims to do,” Halligan said.

If you had an account on ZineWiki before, your account will still work. If you don’t have one, please sign up. Log in, make edits, add content. Please help us spread the word. See you at ZineWiki!

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

A message from Cristina Vidal:

Atlanta’s New Alternative Library at Wonderroot Community Art Center!

Books, now more than ever, play an important role in our society to serve as the fundamental capsule for knowledge. Many artists have been creating zines, books, and other types of publications to inform each other of alternative ideas apart from mainstream media. I think an Alternative Library is important for our city so that we can collect these honest publications and have a source of knowledge outside of the evening news. In the next few weeks, I hope to collect donated materials for our reading room. I want the visitors to Wonderroot to feel inspired by our reliquary and have somewhere to look for source material. I hope that after seeing all of the hand-made, hand-published, and revolutionary things we can offer, people get inspired to make their own!

After weeks of collection and organization I hope we can have a huge get together to start this thing off right! All donations can be mailed to me or if you are local we can arrange pick up/drop off. Please contact Cristina at: cristina-vidal@hotmail.com.

Thank you! Vive ex libirs!

Cristina Vidal

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.

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