Two-day fairs need more than a tote bag. This list exists because we forgot half of it last year.
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.
Before the doors open
- A tablecloth that covers the legs
- Price signs you can read from two meters
- Coins, small notes, and a card reader
- A snack you actually like
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.
Put the best thing on the front corner.
At the table
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.
A note on paper: we buy recycled 80gsm by the box and it runs through every machine we own. Heavier stock is lovely for covers, but it will jam the old copier if you try to feed it more than ten sheets at a time.
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.
Marcus Yoon
Bookmarked, printed, folded, and stapled into my notebook.
Rosa Lindqvist
The bit about making the dummy first is so true. I learned that the expensive way.
Jonah Mbeki
The bit about making the dummy first is so true. I learned that the expensive way.
Ines Duarte
Seconded. A workshop would be brilliant.
Rosa Lindqvist
The pull quote is going on my studio wall.
Jonah Mbeki
This is exactly the push I needed. Printing issue two this weekend.
Priya NandakumarAuthor
Seconded. A workshop would be brilliant.
Lou Ferreira
Honestly this made me dig out a box of my own old zines.
Jonah Mbeki
This is exactly the push I needed. Printing issue two this weekend.
Ollie Brennan
Honestly this made me dig out a box of my own old zines.