Making a Catalog? Printable order form?

[Brittney]

I've had a few emails asking if I had a catalog that I could send to them.

And I've had one person ask me if I could email them a printable order form. I juts have a few questions:

Does anyone here do/make a catalog?

Do people order from it?

How do you make it, and where do you print it?

How often do you make one? Yearly? Or quarterly?

And does anyone have any experience with printable order forms?

What did/does it look like? What does it have on it?

Is there a place to write a credit card number?

I really want to make one, I just don't know where to start!

Thanks!

[Rick Bradford]

I think print catalogs are a whole lot less common these days since most people have their "catalog" at their website. I'm not even sure a print version would be worth the work for most folks unless they're also going to use them as free handouts at shows or the freebie section of their local record/zine/comic shop, etc.

That said, I love print catalogs and I wish more people still made them...

Of course, one option for people who would just rather have the option of a printed version is to create a PDF catalog or something like that that would be easy to print/assemble. Like this really cool one Richard Krauss made for the Poopsheet Shop, for example:

http://www.poopsheetfoundation.com/page/poopsheet-shop-distro-catalog

[Erin H]

I made a print catalog once, 7 years ago. Maybe one person ordered from it. You make it the same way you'd make a zine, and copy it at a photoshop. Or you could just do one sheet, if your catalog is small.

As far as printable order forms, you can make one in a text file. Just include a space for name, address, and then include lines so people can write down the zines they want. Add a space for a total, and include the address to send the order to. Like this:

Name:
Address: _______________
________________
__________________

Zine Title Weight Price
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
Total Weight:
Shipping Price:
Total Price:
Your address here

You'd have to tweak it to fit your distro's needs. And I don't think people will use their credit cards via mail, so I wouldn't worry about it.