marketing yourself and your zine

[CocoaPuss Zine]

so i just posted my first zine on etsy and on myspace and so far i've sold one. i want to sell the other 7 that i have listed and get some sort of following but i'm not sure how to go about that. i think the first step would be getting a digital camera so i can take better pictures of my zine, but as far as telling people about it and getting in a store or to a distro... well i have no idea how to go about that.

any advice would be greatly appreciated.

i'm not sure if someone else started a discussion on this or not so if there is one somewhere, sorry for the repost but i looked through a few pages and found nothing so far.

[Shotgun Seamstress]

hey girl,
i'd say the first step is making connections with people, just like you're doing on here. do you live near a city where a zine symposium or zine fair happens? would you be able to make it down to portland for the zine symposium? that's a good place to start. you'll meet a lot of other zinesters and people who just read & buy zines. you can do a bunch of trades and you'll meet people. also submitting your zine to distros is a great idea because more people will just run into your zine when they're browsing through the catalogues of zine distros. if you need a list of distros, i'll send you one. there are two zine distros i know of that not only distribute online but also send your zine out to stores. they are microcosm publishing and learning to leave a paper trail zine distro. try submitting your zine to both of those distros and see if they're interested in carrying cocoapuss. have you tried to contact indie bookstrores directly? there's left bank in seattle and there's in other words feminist bookstore in portland, or. they would most likely take your zine on consignment. first and foremost, i think it's important to look at it as community buidling instead of marketing. making connections with people with similar values & interests. you know what i mean? hope this helps.

[Rick Bradford]

A camera or a scanner is definitely a plus -- it's too easy to skim through the info and/or forget about a zine there's no good photo/scan of.

Also, stuff like including the link to your Etsy store in a thread like this, in your We Make Zines blog, on your profile page here, etc. You may've posted it elsewhere in another thread but it helps to assume the readers of, say, a new thread haven't seen the other one.

And get a list of reviewzines and sites you can send copies out to. I think there's a list floating around this site somewhere but there's also a good list at the Zine World.

It can actually be a lot of work but that all depends on how quickly you want to get the word out. Good luck!

[Dan 10things]

Think locally. Market your zine locally by doing stickers, handbills, and flyers, stuff you can do really cheap. Find as many local places as you can to sell it--book stores, coffee shops, record stores, etc. Network with other zinesters local to you, consider working with them to do local zine events like readings, workshops (at a local library or teen center is pretty easy), etc. I like the idea of doing a new issue launch at a local coffee shop, bar or club. Nationally, send out copies of your zine to zines that review other zines. Both reviews zines like Zine World and Broken Pencil, but also any zine that regularly does zines reviews, from big ones like Maximum Rock'n'roll, to small perzines that always feature reviews. Reviews in other zines go a long way towards marketing your zine, people keep seeing the name everywhere and will order it. Even a bad review is better than no review. Participate in online zine forums, email or write zinesters who's zines you like, telling them you liked their new issue (everyone loves feedback like that) and send them copies of your zine. All this is stuff you can do from your home... attending zine conventions and larger events it great, but also costly, there are lots of DIY things you can do on your own to market zine and gain more readers... and I've seen some pretty creative ways zinesters have tried it. Think of it like guerrilla or street marketing.

[CocoaPuss Zine]

all your ideas are really awesome. so far i've sold 5 of the 8 zines i have posted on etsy and those were all bought by my friends from myspace. never met them. looks like i have a ton of work to do, in addition to making my second issue. i really like making zines so far, but the money part is definitely a sweet bonus.

[Alex Wrekk]

For future reference with Etsy it is better not to list multiple quantities of item and to just relist the item once it has sold. That way when you relist the item get put back at the top of the search. Otherwise your items are stuck at the same place in the search on Etsy. It is sort of annoying and dumb that Etsy is set up that way, but it is.

[CocoaPuss Zine]

i just did it this way because i knew a few of my friends were going to buy them as soon as i put them on there and that's what happened. but good idea.

Alex Wrekk said:

For future reference with Etsy it is better not to list multiple quantities of item and to just relist the item once it has sold. That way when you relist the item get put back at the top of the search. Otherwise your items are stuck at the same place in the search on Etsy. It is sort of annoying and dumb that Etsy is set up that way, but it is.