A reader wrote in to say their first zine is finished, they hate it, and they want to know whether to print it or bin it.
This letter arrived in a hand-decorated envelope with three different stamps and a drawing of a cat on the flap. We answered it on paper first, and we are sharing it here with permission.
The letter
- Write the letter you wish you had received
- Keep a copy of everything you send
- Put a return address inside, not just outside
- Decorate the envelope
The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that nobody starts out good at this, and the only way to get better is to print the thing and hand it to someone.
Nobody starts out good. Print it anyway.
Our answer
Keep writing to us. The mailbox is the best part of the week.
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.
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.
If you are reading this at the collective, the good scissors are in the drawer marked "do not take the good scissors". Please do not take the good scissors.
Wren Castellano
Love this. Any chance of a workshop on it at the next print night?
Pip Calloway
Thanks for reading. Let us know how it turns out.
Hana Sato
I laughed out loud at the part about the good scissors.
Lou Ferreira
The bit about making the dummy first is so true. I learned that the expensive way.