Responses

[Harley R. Pageot]

How often do you write or e-mail the person when you finish a zine?
How often do you receive responses?


I try to make an effort almost every time to send some sort of short message, even if it's just commenting on a thing or two from the zine. Usually I e-mail, though, because I feel odd about sending a letter to someone I've never spoken to.

That said, I've never received any sort of e-mail or Facebook or letter about my zines from anyone who I wasn't already good friends with. And I've put at least 100 zines out of my hands and into the hands of people at zine fairs and libraries and other places. I don't want to take it personally but it does make me feel like all the people who wound up with my zine didn't like it, found absolutely nothing in it worth commenting on, or just didn't read it at all.

The only time I've actually gotten feedback is on here from trades I did on here. And I've got my e-mail, postal address, and a Facebook group listed at the back of every zine.

[incurable hippie]

Go for it! I've got some zinesters I've been meaning to write to for about 3 years and I'm going to get down to it, I really am!

I'm Not Lion / Zacery said:

Okay then, this week I sent off three letters in the hopes that somebody replies - wish me luck!

I might go through my shoebox of zines and send letters long overdue as well..

[Harley R. Pageot]

Well, after just finishing reading through my last stack of zines, I feel like I should post and play devil's advocate to my original post, because I didn't e-mail or write to any of the people whose zines I just read.

Here's the problem:
They were almost all perzines, which I love, but they were all very negative. They were almost entirely complaints about mainstream media, complaints about men, complaints about girls in their class, complaints about doctors, complaints about religion... like the only time they could actually be motivated enough to write or make a zine was when they were outraged about something. When they were happy, they had better things to do than write.

So it's just an issue with me, I suppose, in the sense that I'm past my angry youth stage. I might have really related to these zines when I was 16 or 21 but I'm at a stage in my life where I have no use for anger. I realise that sometimes the world isn't great but a lot of times it is and I feel like complaining about things isn't going to change anything, especially when you're preaching to the choir. Odds are anyone reading your perzine is going to have similar views to you. It's probably not going to wind up in the hands of a misogynistic jock or a sleazy politician who will suddenly have their whole landscape changed by your opinions.


So I have very little feedback to give. I'm hesitant to write to them and say "Your zine was good but it was too angsty for my liking. Why not write about things you like and things that make your life awesome next time?" because I'm afraid it will come off as patronizing or I'll get a "fuck you, you don't know what it's like to be me, my life is shit and the world around me is a fucking disaster area but you wouldn't know this because you're a white male" kind of response.

So I find it safer to just not write or contact them at all. But I still feel like that's not an adequate solution.

I'm really torn on this issue. I know different people have different tastes but that seems like a bit of a catch-all answer.

[Amy]

My goal is to respond to all the zines I get. I've missed a couple, though O_o

[James N. Dawson]

I try to keep up on my correspondence, but as usual I'm way behind, and some of my main penpals may go for years without hearing from. I'm not sure if I've just over extended myself, or if I'm just inefficient and procrastinating. Once you've been into zines for 18 years---some have been in even longer than that---you build-up a penpal base that can get pretty daunting.

I'm sure there are many zinesters I've traded with that I haven't sent any comments at all to about their zine. I trade to be friendly, to "support the scene", but I can't always go beyond that and try to pretend I have something to say about every zine I get. It's often a bit of an effort just to manage a personal note.

The zinesters I am most likely to write to are those I sense I share some concerns or interests with. I am also more likely to write to a zine with a letters section. I'll admit, there's a good element of egoism in that, but I also believe in LOC-oriented zines as community-builders. I love zines with big LOC sections. They're my version of the Internet social network site, but but more comfortable and understandable to me. Same with APA's.

I've written a lot to prisoners, for the simple reason that they need letters more than anybody else. I have a lot of empathy for their situation, having felt "trapped" many times myself.

Harley, if you pass out a hundred zines at random, it seems it'd be very unlikely they'd fall into the hands of anybody that really wanted or was interested in your zine. 100 copies is about my usual print run, and sometimes it takes years for me to distribute to people who request them after seeing them in review zines. When somebody orders after reading a review or ad, I'd think they'd be more likely have some potential interest in the zine they're ordering, responding to something in it's description.

So. The short answer. I don't respond to MOST zines, except maybe a thank you & a comment or two, if that much. I wouldn't want anybody to feel obligated to respond to any of my zines unless they were REALLY moved to. Dollars, trades or "the usuals", for me, are more than sufficient. That's usually enough to tell me "they're interested" and that's a sufficient compliment/encouragement to me. Which doesn't mean I don't treasure the occassional thoughtful/complimenting/constructively/frankly/critical letter (meaning, of course, that they take my ideas seriously). But I think if there's too much social pressure/guilt in letter/note writing, then the quality of communication can be forced and/or compromised.

[Stephanos]

what does LOC stand for? The only thing I can think of is Leftover Crack....Letters of?

James N. Dawson said:

I try to keep up on my correspondence, but as usual I'm way behind, and some of my main penpals may go for years without hearing from. I'm not sure if I've just over extended myself, or if I'm just inefficient and procrastinating. Once you've been into zines for 18 years---some have been in even longer than that---you build-up a penpal base that can get pretty daunting.

I'm sure there are many zinesters I've traded with that I haven't sent any comments at all to about their zine. I trade to be friendly, to "support the scene", but I can't always go beyond that and try to pretend I have something to say about every zine I get. It's often a bit of an effort just to manage a personal note.

The zinesters I am most likely to write to are those I sense I share some concerns or interests with. I am also more likely to write to a zine with a letters section. I'll admit, there's a good element of egoism in that, but I also believe in LOC-oriented zines as community-builders. I love zines with big LOC sections. They're my version of the Internet social network site, but but more comfortable and understandable to me. Same with APA's.

I've written a lot to prisoners, for the simple reason that they need letters more than anybody else. I have a lot of empathy for their situation, having felt "trapped" many times myself.

Harley, if you pass out a hundred zines at random, it seems it'd be very unlikely they'd fall into the hands of anybody that really wanted or was interested in your zine. 100 copies is about my usual print run, and sometimes it takes years for me to distribute to people who request them after seeing them in review zines. When somebody orders after reading a review or ad, I'd think they'd be more likely have some potential interest in the zine they're ordering, responding to something in it's description.

So. The short answer. I don't respond to MOST zines, except maybe a thank you & a comment or two, if that much. I wouldn't want anybody to feel obligated to respond to any of my zines unless they were REALLY moved to. Dollars, trades or "the usuals", for me, are more than sufficient. That's usually enough to tell me "they're interested" and that's a sufficient compliment/encouragement to me. Which doesn't mean I don't treasure the occassional thoughtful/complimenting/constructively/frankly/critical letter (meaning, of course, that they take my ideas seriously). But I think if there's too much social pressure/guilt in letter/note writing, then the quality of communication can be forced and/or compromised.

[James N. Dawson]

Stephanos said:

what does LOC stand for? The only thing I can think of is Leftover Crack....Letters of?

LOC---L--etter O--f C--omment. It's an old-school fanzine term, I've hesitated in the past to use without spelling out, maybe with more justification than I thought. :)