connecting across the pond

[Jerianne]

I think it is great to see zinesters represented here from so many different countries. It got me wondering if we could put our heads together and come up with ways to better promote zines internationally. My zine (Zine World) would love to include more reviews of zines made outside of North America. We've improved this a bit recently by having some foreign correspondents -- one reviewer in Australia and another in Spain who submit reviews. But I know that's still just a drop in the bucket. We also don't sell that many copies of our zine to overseas readers. The cost of mailing our zine overseas is so high, we have to charge $7 US, and we're still losing money on the deal. We have a couple of overseas distros who stock us, but again, that's still just a drop in the bucket. So we can't get the word out to overseas zinesters about US-made zines either.

I've wondered if there are some alternatives to be explored, to increase our connection and access. We don't publish our reviews online (and don't have plans to start) so that's not an option. One idea I had was to perhaps make a PDF of our zine available, at a nominal fee, for overseas readers? But that feels a little too much like we'd be sliding into online zine content, which we don't want to do because we are a print zine, dammit.

But enough about my zine; that's not really my point. I just think it's great that we're all ending up here from all over the globe, and I hope we can really use this site as a way to build those international connections. But how do we make it happen, with the cost of mailing overseas being so high?

[Emma Jane Falconer]

Why is the cost of mailing yours so high? Do you use priority mail? I live in the UK and sending stuff 1st class and priority get here in the same time and just as safely, but the 1st class seems significantly cheaper. Also $7 is not much in the UK, it's £3.50 which is the same as a coffee or pint of beer.

[Trent Rampage]

£3.50 for a pint of beer is expensive! it;s about £2.20 here.

to Jerianne: perhaps distros could buy said PDFs exclusively from you for print purposes only to print in the UK (and other places) to distro your zines? this could be applied to other zines. that's the only idea i could come up with.

i heard there are revisions in postage rates in the US. is that why they got so much more expensive now?

[Emma Jane Falconer]

SE England is rip-off central, apparently it's one of the most expensive places in the world!

Trent Rampage said:

£3.50 for a pint of beer is expensive! it;s about £2.20 here.

to Jerianne: perhaps distros could buy said PDFs exclusively from you for print purposes only to print in the UK (and other places) to distro your zines? this could be applied to other zines. that's the only idea i could come up with.

i heard there are revisions in postage rates in the US. is that why they got so much more expensive now?

[Trent Rampage]

gotta save up for brighton then! =(

[Emma Jane Falconer]

Yeah it's significantly more expensive than the North.

Trent Rampage said:

gotta save up for brighton then! =(

[Jerianne]

It's a large zine -- it's full size and usually weighs 5-6 oz, which means it costs $4.40 or $5.20 (under current rates) to send to Europe or Australia.

[Emma Jane Falconer]

I think people in the UK will be perfectly happy to pay $7 or $8 dollars for it then if it's a generous thick one.

Jerianne said:

It's a large zine -- it's full size and usually weighs 5-6 oz, which means it costs $4.40 or $5.20 (under current rates) to send to Europe or Australia.

[Emma Jane Falconer]

I think people in the UK will be perfectly happy to pay $7 or $8 dollars for it then if it's a generous thick one then.

Jerianne said:

It's a large zine -- it's full size and usually weighs 5-6 oz, which means it costs $4.40 or $5.20 (under current rates) to send to Europe or Australia.

[Gianni Simone]

Here's a list of German zine review zines and other zines that apparently review stuff. It's three years old but I think most of them are still alive. All of them are written in German, of course. I understand the zine/DIY/punk community in Germany is quite big and very active. You may contact them and try to find a way to collaborate (e.g. ad swaps, web links, etc.) so that Zine World or other zines are better known in that part of Europe. Ox-Fanzine has a huge circulation so this could have a lot of potential.

> Ox-Fanzine, P.O.Bax 102225, D-42766 Haan, Germany
> BIG punk/alternative musiczine with lots of reviews of zines, films,
> etc. , big circulation (over 10.000 I think)
http://www.ox-fanzine.de

> PNG, P.O.Box 301438, D-04254 Leipzig, Germany
> Small but nice "art&music-scene"-Fanzine, always curious for something new
http://www.luftgitarre.de

> Monocrom, Sch$B!&(Bbrunnerstr. 32/27, A-1050 Wien, Austria
> Real crazy collages, storie, art, review, madness and trash -FanzineHELL
> from Austria. Think some parts of it are kind of mailart-thing?!
http://www.monocrom.at

> Betonbruch, Tim Siebert, Stubbenkammerstr. 5, D-10437 Berlin, Germany
> Small but real innovativ Zine with lots of stories, poems and reviews.
> Tim do some very strange electronic music,too.
http://www.ersatzbank.tk
[e-mail]

> TRUST, P.O.Box 110762, 28087 Bremen, Germany
> Another BIG punk/alternative fanzine, less commercial than OX-Fanzine
> with more Interest on the underground, lots of independent reviews
http://www.trust-zine.de

> FCZine, P.O.Box 200545, D-56005 Koblenz, Germany
> Very sarcastic, humoures zine, writing about EVERYTHING. The style of
> writing is a little bit in the vein of good old egozines: respectless,
> crazy, true!
http://www.fczine.de

>Take a look at http://www.fanzine-index.de there you will find over 100
>german fanzines with a short discription and all contact data
>(everything up to date). Unfortunately it's all written in german so if
>there's something you don't understand in any way ask me I will
>translate it.
>Do you know the weirdos from WEIRD CRAP? http://www.weirdcrap.com (or
>weird-crap.com ?!?). This a monsterous linkarchiv of the insane!!!! Tons
>of super funny, strange & crazy websites (and some zines). Maybe one
>more address for you to send some material out in the world?!

Most of the Japanese zine scene is Japanese-language only, but we have www.wasabi-distro.com that is run by an American expat. Even in this case you can try something. Among expats in Japan I don't think there are many zine readers but it's better than nothing.

Even though I'm all for paper zines, I think the idea of making a PDF of ZW is worth exploring. I'm sure there are people who can't or don't want to pay a lot for a zine and would be happy with a PDF version.