So I ran across this post on Instragram a while ago and it makes a lot of sense to me:

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Tum Wuthipol Uj. (ตั้ม) (@wuthipol.designs)

I often see a lot of zines online and somebody says that they’re open to trades. I’ve always been reluctant to trade zines, but I could never really put my finger on why until I ran into this post. And now it makes sense to me. Here’s the first comment, in case you don’t have Instagram:

The whole idea of zines comes out of the punk subculture, and it’s not about making money, never has been. Lots of artists do sell their zines bc [sic] all artists deserve to make a living ofc [sic], but I think you might be missing the point of the whole zine movement, which is about spreading art and politics and ideas for free or low cost, or to trade for other art/ideas. It’s about making art accessible to all.

And here’s Wuthipol’s response:

Thanks for your explanation. I love it, and I now understand it much better. I think I’m fairly new to this culture because I tend to do more of an art book than a zine. It’s also very interesting with the zine culture in Asia. Not sure if you have come across it. The zines in this region aren’t cheap to make, artists put heaps of effort into the craft and material. So yeah, I think it’s great that we can share and learn from each other. Thank you

Personally, I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say the point of the whole zine movement “is about spreading art and politics and ideas for free or low cost, or to trade for other art/ideas” because part of the zine movement has also been about self-expression. 

Further along, someone else posted:

The culture around zines is heavily focused on doing things ourselves for low cost or free. I guess it’s fine if you don’t want to trade, but it is kind of rude to assume that your work is “more valuable” than others in the zine community. It’s not about monetary value, or even craftsmanship. It’s about the process and intention.

The thing of it is though, that my work is more valuable than some other zines out there. I know how much work, how many hours I put into each one, how much thinking went into each issue, exactly what my costs are, etc. It’s pretty easy for me to put a value on them. And yes, the culture is very much about doing thing ourselves, but I’m sorry—toner costs money and ink costs money and paper costs money, and I’m way beyond the days when I could just sneak into an unused office somewhere and print things on somebody else’s nickel. So I can’t do things “for free”. Everything I do costs me money.

And further along, someone else posted:

I think people here have already made great points about zine culture. The only thing I’d like to add is that I trade zines of equal quality. Mine are little paper books. I would not ask someone with quality printing and significantly larger pages to trade. I agree on paying to support an artist.

And this is kind of my point exactly. I put tons of work into my zines. And it’s rather disheartening to see someone with a zine where they’ve obviously just cut out pictures at random and glued them down and called it a zine and now want to trade. (I’m not disparaging collage zines here, either. I’ve seen really good collages, and I’ve tried to make them myself and well—collages are really difficult to do well, which explains why you don’t see them in my works.)

I know I can make back the cost of toner and paper and ink, but I will never make back the 80 or so hours that go into one of my zines. It’s not gonna happen. I get that. I’m not trying to make a living off making zines, because that’s just not possible under capitalism. My zines are generally anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 words. I have always felt bad about what I do charge for them, because it means that some people just won’t be able to afford them. But if I just charged for the material costs, then I would be undervaluing them. I would essentially be saying that my work, my effort, just doesn’t mean that much to me. But it does, or I wouldn’t be willing to put what basically amounts to a two-week vacation just to produce a zine.

I don’t mean to disparage a zine that is basically the equivalent of “pretty leaves I found outside and glued together”. We all have to start somewhere, and it’s important that we don’t do anything to discourage or gatekeep. It’s important to be encouraging so that beginners will keep going and learn. But one of the most important things they need to learn is how to value their work. They also need to learn that you have to do more—often much more—than just the bare minimum to be taken seriously. 

Someone else came up with a workable solution:

I trade, sell, and gift my zines. It just depends who the recipient is. My mom always gets free copies – as do any people who have directly influenced a particular issue. I trade with some of my local zinester friends in the spirit of sharing and support for their work. And I sell to everyone else.

I do have friends who always get free copies, and if I had local zinester friends, I would gladly trade with them, but I am apparently in the middle of a zine desert. 

I still want to be encouraging. If I were at a zine fair, and someone just starting out liked my zines and wanted advice and to just talk about zines, I would be more than happy to do that. In fact, I would be happy to spend hours talking to anyone who wanted to get started creating zines. If we had a good conversation and I knew they could draw some inspiration or influence from my work, I would gladly given them one of my zines. And if they wanted to give me one of theirs regardless of the quality, I would gladly accept it and treasure it. 

But trade zines? Nope. Trade a zine + a conversation? Definitely.

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