The Harbor Street fair had sixty tables this year. We had one of them and took photos between sales.
Arrive early, tape your price signs down, and put the thing you most want people to pick up at the front corner of the table. People reach for the corner.
Bring small change and a way to take card payments, but expect most sales to be trades. A zine fest is as much a swap meet as a market.
Take breaks. Ask a neighbor to watch your table and go walk the room. Half the fun is coming home with a bag full of other people's work.
We keep a guest book by the door. Some people write their name, some write a poem, and one person drew the entire floor plan of the shop from memory. It is the best zine we have never printed.
Print nights are pay-what-you-can. The jar covers toner and paper most months, and when it doesn't, we hold a swap and sell the duplicates from the lending shelf.
Everything in this post works just as well at a library copier or a corner copy shop. You don't need a studio, just a flat table and about an hour.
Hana Sato
Love this. Any chance of a workshop on it at the next print night?
Ollie Brennan
Bookmarked, printed, folded, and stapled into my notebook.
Aurelie Fontaine
Saved this to print out, which feels like the right way to save it.
Marcus Yoon
Saved this to print out, which feels like the right way to save it.
Sam WhitlockAuthor
Legal size works; just trim a strip off the long edge first.
Ollie Brennan
Same here. We keep the paper in a sealed tub now.
Wren Castellano
Honestly this made me dig out a box of my own old zines.
Ben Achterberg
Honestly this made me dig out a box of my own old zines.
Hana Sato
Saved this to print out, which feels like the right way to save it.
Lou Ferreira
This is exactly the push I needed. Printing issue two this weekend.
Pip Calloway
Saved this to print out, which feels like the right way to save it.
Ollie Brennan
Thank you for writing this down. It’s the kind of thing people only ever explain in person.