zines are fun, amazing projects and I’m thrilled so many people are getting to experience what it’s like to participate in zines. however, there are some concerning habits popping up across projects and people getting burned as a result, so i wanted to make a post on basic zine etiquette. zines–especially zines that involve money exchanging hands–straddle a delicate line of being business and fun and, while there’s no hard and fast way to handle running a zine, there are some things that should be givens. so as a mod, here are some things you should be doing, and contributors and buyers, here are things to look out for:
protect contributors and buyers and any information they entrusted you with
this refers to BCCing emails, not giving out personal information like names or addresses, etc. mods are asking people to trust them with this type of information: don’t let them down
in addition, don’t discuss your contributors or applicants behind their backs. that’s incredibly unfair and cruel, especially in the case of mods discussing (and in a certain case: mocking) apps to contributors. don’t trust mods that do this. they won’t be professional in other settings and you’ll always be walking a tightrope with them
check for similar themed/timed projects first
check current zine themes and schedules. projects of similar themes and too similar timelines just hurt each other and a zine market can’t support that kind of competition. there’s so many zine resource blogs out right now, the excuse “but i didn’t know” doesn’t hold water–especially since it suggests the mod hasn’t done much research on how to mod either. speaking of:
DO YOUR RESEARCH BEFORE STARTING A ZINE
zines are rewarding but a ton of work. go in with your eyes wide open and a lot of research and resources under your belt. there are so many people out there willing to help, you don’t have to face this alone. badly prepared mods result in flopped projects and/or people losing money, something nobody wants
list mods’ personal mains/active sms in an easily seen place on the zine/project blog (or an easy link in the case of mobile)
when money exchanges hands, people want to know who they’re placing their trust in. if mods aren’t willing to list this information, you need to ask what they’re hiding and why
have channels/spaces designated for contributors/buyers to ask questions and prompt response time
good communication can make or break a project. contributors will want to know everything that’s going on and buyers will want to know what’s happened with their money. if mods can’t answer questions within a 36 hour window, they should at least have something explaining why there’s a delay
i’m infuriated i even have to start with this, but first and foremost:
DO! NOT! THREATEN! CONTRIBUTORS!
i cannot believe the audacity of mods threatening contributors who might be late on their pieces. this is fandom. people are doing this for fun. zines are projects to bring us together over our love of a story. life gets busy, dates get lost, etc etc.
“but they’re late!!1!” / “it’s just a joke !!” / literally any excuse ever
you are a mod. you have no excuse. you were trusted with personal information. you were trusted with a project. you will be respectful, no matter what, end of story
don’t rank contributors’ contributions/anyone’s workloads
some projects rank people to determine pay in for-profits for some baffling reason?? it makes no sense. zine’s are group projects. no one, not even mods, are doing so much work as to warrant more than a fraction’s more pay than others. everyone’s work in creating the zine is important and suggesting that one person’s work is more crucial than others is not only cruel, but also downright wrong. in addition, zine’s rarely make enough money for a system to break up pay unevenly to be a reasonable, or sometimes even feasible, method of distributing profits
don’t send other mods or contributors hate/inappropriate messages
why do i even have to say this
but to be thorough: i don’t care how much you don’t like someone. i don’t give a shit if they frustrate you. i don’t give a fuck what went on, you never send inappropriate messages, especially not hate. besides this just being wrong all around, this sort of behavior reflects on your project and to an extent, your contributors as well. as a mod, you need to be better
ps: if you think you’re protected by anon just. stop. you’re not. there are ways to find out exactly who the hate anon is, even on this hellsite, anon really doesn’t protect you the way you think it does
there are many different ways to run a zine and no zine is run exactly the same. however, there are some constants that all zines should follow. i worry a lot about the inappropriate behavior that’s being handwaved when it really shouldn’t be. mods need to care about etiquette because it can and will affect the success of their project, contributors should care because it can and will affect their experience in the project, and buyers will care because they need to trust where their money is going
also, friends, if you think there’s something fishy going on with a zine, trust that instinct. zine mods need to build trust and respect with contributors and buyers from the ground up instead of presuming it to be a given and that needs to start now
