the price of a zine

The heyday of the fanzine started with the introduction of the photocopier in the 1970s and ended with the arrival of digital publishing and then the interweb (my new preferred moniker for the web- stolen from the gasmonkey garage presenter Richard Rawlins). The 'zine was first music and then football- those were the cool ones- but then lots of others followed. My friend Rich Lisney and I made one a while back- part photo based part comic- it was a lot of fun and sold out quickly even though we charged £4 for it. When something is black and white and looks photocopied means that only people who are into homebrewed comics and zines will fork out real money for them. To Josiah Publik the zine is like the big issue - a charity job and the big issue is £2 or less. So the max price for a zine should be around £2.50 for a skinny one and maybe £2.99 for a fat one. The key thing is to reduce costs. We had ours printed (essentially just hi quality photocopied) so it cost serious money. Instead find a big corp or iindustrie or shcool or org and use their photocopying facility and paper for free...Or get donations. As an analogue activist go round analogue businesses and beg for help. Also beg for postage and envelopes. Your aim: zERo prodiction cost...then the £2.50 for each zine is pure profit.