Originally posted to Backwash - Bonnie Burton: How to be a Zine Queen

Making your zine isn't as hard to do as you may think. If you know how to use a scissors, glue and a copy machine, you're half way there. Think of a zine as part scrapbook, part journal. You will want to make your homemade publication interesting to read and fun to look at. But before you start production, here are a few tips to begin the process.

Read other zines Any happy zinester will tell you that before burying yourself in paper, read the zines that are out there now. Do you want your zine to have a different theme each month, or do you want it to be a random mish-mash of ideas and pictures? Perhaps you'd like your zine to be on a certain subject all the time. There's no rule saying you have to make your zine a certain way. After all, it's YOUR zine. But a becoming an avid zine reader, could help you decide what kind of zine is missing from the rest. For example, if you want to do a zine dedicated to snowglobe collecting, make sure there isn't one out there already.

But let's say you want to do a zine on something like Barbie - if there are tons of zines with your theme, try taking a different approach, such as writing articles on weird Barbie art or women who have plastic surgery done so they can look exactly like Barbie. Chances are, if you've been wanting to do a zine, you already have an idea of what you want to do.

Find your stuff When you decide what theme you want to do it's time to gather your stuff. By stuff, I mean comics, poems, essays, articles, photos, illustrations and whatever else you need to put together your first issue. Please keep in mind that you should be gathering art and illustrations that are copyright-free. Don't just take art from magazines and paste them in. The best way to illustrate your zine is to draw the pictures yourself, get a artistic friend to do it, or buy a few clip art books from the local book or art supplies store. You don't have to draw like a pro to get the job done. In fact, some of the more popular zines have art that could make your little sister's scribbles on the fridge look like masterpieces.

Just be creative and take a few chances. Your stick people drawings may be the highlight of the zine! The same courtesy goes for articles, essays, poems and other writing. Don't copy someone else's work to put in your zine. Get their permission first if you can call, write or email them. There's really no need to copy someone else's work. If you can't write and draw everything yourself, get some of your pals to contribute. Gathering stuff for your zine is also a great way to meet people. Put a notice on your community bulletin board or post a flyer in your favorite coffee house, asking for submissions for your zine. You'll be surprised how many talented people have something to offer!

Also think about advertising. I suggest waiting for a few issues before asking people to pay you money to advertise in your zine. This way you can concentrate more on what you want your zine to look like, than how much money you want to make from it. You might want to put in free ads of places you like to shop at or other people's zines, but be sure you ask them if this is okay first.

Put it all together Once you've collected all the stuff you want to put in the zine, start organizing it on paper. You can make your zine as large or small as you like. Some zines are the size of greeting cards while others can be the normal size of a paper. Again it's all up to you, but keep in mind that if you plan on mailing out your zine, the smaller, the better.

Before you paste the pictures and articles on the paper, organize them in different ways. See how placing a photo in the middle of a blank page attracts the eye differently than when it's surrounded with words. Look at other zines and see how they put their articles together with illustrations. Take some chances. Experiment with different typefaces. Use your own handwriting with a few headlines, or get on a computer and chose a funky font other than Times New Roman or Courier. This is your time to have fun with the design and layout of your zine.

Once you paste (or tape) your content into the zine, you will want to make copies. The cheapest way to do this is find a friend that works in an office or copier place, like Kinkos. Or ask your roommates/spouse/neighbor off a few copies of your zine at work. Sometimes, you can offer to put free advertising in your zine, for places that will make free copies. There's always a way to get free access to a copy machine if you put your mind to it. This is important to think about since most of the times a single copy of a one-sided page can cost ten cents or more. This can add up to be a lot of money if you have a big enough zine. So be careful.

After making copies of your zine, you will have to decide how you want to bind the pages together. Most zines are stapled together because it's fast and cheap. But if you plan on only making a few copies for family and friends, you can get a three-hole puncher and bind your zine together with brads or fancy ribbon.

Send it out Now's the time to distribute your zine. You can send copies to friends or family members, or try sending out a few to people you admire. Most people love getting fun stuff in the mail and new zines are no exception. Try sending a copy of your zine to a magazine that reviews zines such as The Zine Guide. There are also plenty of Web sites that review, distribute and trade zines. So do a few searches online to see what's out there.

Enjoy it One of the best things about doing your own zine is knowing that you have complete control over what goes in it. You are the editor, so you can make the decisions. If you want to do an entire issue devoted to Troll dolls, do it! If you want to dedicate an issue to your pet cat, Crackers, then do it! Have fun with it and try new things. The more you work on your zine, the more you'll learn…and entertain your readers in the meantime!

Welcome to DIY publishing -- now get out there and make a zine already. Sheesh.