HOW DO I ZINE?
There’s many easy ways to make a zine, the most traditional way consisting of photocopying some A4 sheets of paper on both sides (make a little dummy booklet first to figure out what goes where), folding them, and stapling them with a long arm stapler (any art supply shop should have one). Guillotines are not strictly necessary but will save you a lot of time and save your hand a whole lot of hurt if you’re trying to get edges neat or are making a smaller-scale zine. Here’s a few handy guides around the internet:
Rookie – How To Make A Zine: a great little guide to making my favourite kind of zine, a little folded mini zine. Easy as pie, infinite possibilities for content. To see a great example of how lovely these can be, please consider buying B. Mure’s Songs about Animals.
The Beginner’s Guide To Making Your Own Zine: a nice little general guide to different kinds of zines you can make and what to do with them from Creative Bloq.
Wikibooks – Zine Making/Putting Pages Together: a moderately detailed step-by-step guide to different ways of making/folding zines.
Whatcha Mean, What’s a Zine? on Amazon: this book is “for teens” but I am 33-years-old and I own it and use it without shame because it is VERY useful and nicely put together. Order it from your local bookshop if you can afford to avoid Amazon. I got my copy at Gosh! Comics.
HOW DO I ZINE MORE PROFESSIONALLY IF I WANT TO?
Here’s some places I’d recommend for getting your zine/comic/book printed at:
DIGITAL
Inky Little Fingers: these guys have never let me down. Easy forms on the website to fill out what you want, instant quotes, a nice choice of paper stock that includes matte recycled paper that feels more expensive than it is. Super quick turnaround. Handy artwork preparation guide.
Comic Printing UK: loved and recommended widely across the comics world and used by almost everyone. Great if you want to get away from the same old A5/A4 format.
RISOGRAPH (if you have a limited colour palette and what something a bit EXTRA)
Hato Press (London)
Ditto Press (London)
Two Press (London)
Bellevue Press (Southampton)
Workhorse Press (Edinburgh)
Footprinters Workers Co-Operative (Leeds)
OTHER
Awesome Merchandise: will take care of literally ANY kind of merchandise to compliment your zines that you can possible think of. Based in Leeds, have always been very reliable for me.
Ripe Digital: A good place for prints.
WEB PUBLISHING
If you’re far away from anything or everything, why not publish online? Here’s some good places where you can build websites quickly and easily.
onebeatzines.com 