leaving your zine in random places?

[KellyRose-Pulse Zine]

hey i know some people have mentioned this on here before, but i just wanted to know everyone's opinion on leaving your zine in random places..

i mean just leaving a copy at a coffee shop or library or store in the hopes someone will pick it up and read it or just for the hell of it.

have you ever done this? if so why and did anyone who ever "found" a copy of your zine somewhere contact you because of it?

[Heather Wreckage]

One time I left a bunch of my zine on the table of a house that was having a show.  I was just about to leave, and I did it when no one was in the kitchen.

[Musculoso Barbaro]

This isn't very random, but Newbury Comics in Leominster, MA let me leave a stack of "La Lucha!" in their shop, so i'm pretty stoked.

[bobby madness]

I alway's leave zines on the bus,or in soup kitchen's.Nobody has ever replied through this method,but the same can be said about sending them to people to review-nobody replied to me through that either.

[Fergus]

Two weeks ago I was interstate and left 3 copies of my zine outside a book store I was walking past (amongst the flyers & street press) and a few days ago I had letter in my PO Box from someone who had picked one of them up. Quite thrilling.

[Big D]

I left mine in a local library this evening.  From what I have read here, this hasn't been a very successful way to get a response but it will be fun to see how long it stays there. 

[Aspire]

I had a big day of this in sydney today, rode around with gaff tape and a tonne of zines. Found obscure spots/alleys/comic shops and left them for anyone to find, so much fun!

[zeraph dylan]

I used to leave my zines around for free until I started getting death threats, plural, in the mail for talking about feminism in the mildest of terms (this was in 2004/5). Lesson: If you think your zine is controversal, be very cautious about including anyway to contact you or identify you.

[Heather Wreckage]

Just left a bunch of my zines around random spots in Reno, we'll see how that goes.

 

Also, Zeraph, that's really terrible, I'm really sorry you had to deal with that.

[Bucket Siler]

The very first zine I made was a free quarter-sized poetry zine. I made about a hundred copies and left them around, in various free zine racks, sent them to friends, etc. Photocopying was also way cheaper then (this was 2004 or thereabouts), so I wasn't worried about the cost. No one ever contacted me because I didn't leave any contact information on it. This is not something I would do now, just because I think that my zine is more likely to end up in the hands of someone who actually wants to read it if they have to lay down a few dollars first, besides which I don't have extra cash to print zines and not charge anything for them. But I still love the idea, and I definitely pick up free zines and read them myself when I find them.