A fanzine is a nonprofessional publication created by fans of a particular celebrity, trend, hobby or phenomenon. Fanzines are self published by the creator and are typically amateur in appearance when compared to professional media.
There are two things that you need to know about self publishing. First of all, your fanzine will be a labour of love. It is highly unlikely that you will ever turn a profit and if you do, it will be minuscule. People choose to create fanzines for the love of the subject or the love of self publishing.
Second of all, there are no rules when it comes to fanzines. The content, size, format, layout, staff, distribution and everything else are entirely at your discretion. Having said that, the following are recommended guidelines for putting out a quality publication.
The first thing you will need is content – articles, photographs, stories, letters and other forms of interesting subject matter. As the editor of your fanzine, you will probably do a lot of this yourself, especially in the beginning. You can also ask friends to submit articles or get online looking for helpers; place an ad on
Gumtree or put up an announcement on a relative forum.
Once you've got your content, you will need to set it out in a pleasing and easy to read format. You can do this by cutting and pasting your pieces onto sheets or paper or by using a computer program like
Adobe PageMaker or even
Microsoft Publisher. Once you're satisfied with the layout, print it out and start making photocopies.
The easiest format for a fanzine is A4 landscape, folded in half and stapled in the middle. This format does not require any specialist equipment, just a photocopier. And if you are paying for your copies, A4 is nearly always the cheapest size.
Now that you've got copies of the finished product you can start handing it out. Give copies to friends and family, hand them out to people in the street or ask local business owners if they would mind stocking copies.
If you would like to get serious about self publishing, check out
this e-book.
