How to Make Your Own Zine!

Author

Ami Voeltz and Susan Leem

The Twin Cities Green Guide/ Utne Reader

Step 1: Create

This may include writing down what you create, via computer, typewriter, feather pen or crayon. Try to make your thoughts and images relatively two-dimensional as this will make them easier to reproduce.

Step 2: Gather

Gather materials which may include not only your work, but that of your neighbors, friends, your neighbors' friends etc. This is your chance to make and feature your culture. Those doodles, homework assignments, scraps of paper, lists, and found art are just a few possibilities for content. Nearly all acts of communication can be zine-worthy.

Step 3: Layout

Time to break out the office supplies! Tapes, glues and tools that slice will serve you best at this stage. Make a mock up of your zine with blank paper held together by a rubber band and start filling the pages.

Decide how many pages and what size your zine will be. If you are simply attaching loose pages together, just assemble away! If, however, you are folding each page at its center, make sure the total number of pages is in multiples of 4, to avoid blank pages.
Put the pages of your zine in (pre-stapling) order once your mock up is assembled.
Have Kinko's copy your first "master" copy on a high quality machine.

Step 4: Print

Makes copies of your zine by placing the master copies in the paper feeder and then selecting double-sided (1 to 2 sided) printing.
You may have already printed some of it on the computer (black and white or color), another option is screenprinting and the ever-popular photocopying (color too!). Experiment with different types/colors of paper!

Step 5: Bind Here are some possibilties:

Fold in half
Fold in half and staple on spine
No fold and staple in left corner
Fold in half and hand bind (sewing with thread, with ribbon, with rubber bands, etc.)
Cut in half and glue bind (perfect bind)
Cut in half and spiral/coil bind
Cut and place inside a box, envelope, or folder

We're not limited to black and white, oh no, talk to your copy center staff about spot coloring. Color copiers can also produce nice effects and is cheaper than you would expect. You can stamp your zine with colored ink, hand color/paint it, screen print it, or even take it to a 4-color professional printer.

Step 6: Share

If a zine falls onto a sidewalk, does anyone get to read it? Maybe, but to increase your chances of finding a reader, try sending it to one of these distributers after sending them to all of your friends: