The Beginner’s Guide To Making Your Own Zines

Zines, way back before the internet made connecting with like-minded people possible, were a means of connecting with a fandom of a particular niche, such as sci-fi or punk music. Generally, they had a homemade, handcrafted element to its production, and usually drew on ideas and values not represented by the mainstream media.

As many people have embraced creativity during the lockdowns imposed to restrict the spread of the coronavirus, they have been gaining popularity again in a variety of circles, with a growing zine scene all around the world.

Zine-making is a fantastic way to get the creative juices flowing and produce new and alternative works of art and design, or to showcase poetry and short stories, or even share your thoughts on TV and film with other fans.

We have a few beginners steps on how to get your own zine started.

Choose your format

Stepping away from the traditional magazine methods of producing magazines allows you to be more creative with how to present your zine. The emphasis is on low-budget, not simply for practical reasons, but to showcase your creativity and individual style.

You can experiment with different sizes, fold-outs, and various ways of binding. There is a variety of folding and binding options here.

Decide what it’s for

What do you want to achieve with your zine? What is the concept and content you want to share with others? Figuring this out will help you determine how you want it to look, what you want to include and who you want to share it with.

Comic strips, visual narratives, artwork, reviews, fiction – the potential list is endless, but it is best to narrow it down at an early stage.

Pick the right name

Picking a name can be the trickiest part of the process, and not to be taken lightly. It will become the reference point for everything from selecting the work to include to the format. However, there are no restrictions in terms of there title, so let your imagination run wild!

Build a collective

There’s nothing wrong with making your zine a one-person production, but if you want to stop it all sounding the same, or run out of ideas for content, you might want to think about other contributors to your zine.

Decide your layout and order

While the punk ethic of a zine means there’s no right or wrong when it comes to making a zine, it would be of benefit to you to have some kind of structure. Once you have the content of the zine worked out, the next part is to plan the structure. You might want to create a contents page or separate the different works into sections, such as art/reviews/poetry/photography/music.

Create a master copy

The master copy is the test piece you create before you start printing the final publication. This stage is a great time to experiment with the format/layout and typography used, the type of paper you use, and how you decide to fold and bind the pages. The final copy will often look markedly different, as the examples above and below demonstrate.

Once you have that, then why not use our zine printing services in the UK, and get it out there! Depending on the subject, you might want to see if local record shops or comic book shops will stock it, or perhaps give it away to some musically like-minded fans to get the word out.

Most of all, have fun, and feel good for having created something!