Rock Bookshelf: Volume 6

Mom, where do zines come from?

Nov 05, 2023

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I am sitting here pissed off at myself with nowhere to put my anger. I’m getting ready to finally release a new zine I’ve been working on and a simple oversight on my part cost me $50 at the printer, bringing me nothing but a stack of misprinted photos that must now go in the trash. I guess 50 bucks isn’t the end of the world, but it came at an inopportune time.

I’ve been trying to land on a price for this zine and have been going back and forth in my head about what amount is both fair for the consumer and (at least somewhat) cost-efficient for me. I do this every single time. What is a good price? $15? $20? I never know what people are willing to pay. Keep in mind, I grew up in the punk label/distro mailorder days, where CDs and shirts were economically priced down to the dollar. So I always want to aim to make everything as affordable as possible. But the world is different now. I can’t charge 1998 prices anymore. That was 25 years ago. Everything is more expensive to make these days. Ask any band you know who has had t-shirts or stickers printed lately. Materials cost more and shipping rates are up and consumers are less willing to spend money to support artists. Slim profit margins are even slimmer. And this is before taking into account the percentage eaten up by webstore platform cuts, credit card processing fees, taxes, etc. Feels like you’ve got to pay ten bucks to make five. (There was an article this week by Zach Schonfeld about how a slight change in Discogs’ fees has effectively made selling records for profit nearly impossible.)

So I wrestle with prices constantly. Whenever I release something new, I am crunching every dollar until the last minute. This particular zine project took a lot of time and effort. When I consider the hours and days I spent traveling to collect the material for it, it adds up, and will probably never recoup financially. With that in mind, $20 seems like a reasonable asking price. I buy a zine for at least that much probably weekly. My friend Amanda Fotes, who took the photo on the cover of my book SELLOUT, recently pointed me in the direction of a new photo zine by photographer Jamie Wdziekonski. I was not familiar with their work or most of the bands they shoot but the photos look amazing. Plus, it’s listed as a hefty 328 pages, so to call it a zine is underselling it. It was a bit pricey at around $40 USD, plus the shipping from Australia. I think it came out to around $70 USD. But it’s a cool object and I’m excited to own it (provided it actually makes it here from around the world).

Some industries don’t give a fuck about this nickel and diming stuff, of course. While I’m fretting about how many people I’m alienating with a $5 increase, there are companies selling sneakers for $900 and not batting an eye. But I have inborn punk guilt and it will be my financial downfall. Why do I operate this way? It is impractical to idolize our economical heroes of the 80s and 90s! Times were different then. Sure, Discord Records keeps prices low, but at least Ian owns a house.

And so, readers, this is my longwinded way of saying: I have no answers. I am caught between not wanting to devalue my art while still making it accessible. As usual I am sure I will go back and forth until the very last second. “Wow, Dan, these are way too many thoughts to stem from checking the wrong box on a printing website,” you may be saying. Yes, well, welcome to meeeee.

Anyway. Support the artists you like in whatever ways you can. It goes a long way.

But wait! I still haven’t gotten to the bottom of this zine pricing business. So I asked fellow zinester/fellow guy named Dan, Dan Bassini, for his thoughts. Dan hosts a shooting-the-shit podcast called Run Into the Ground that a bunch of my friends have appeared on. Oh, and me too. Dan also publishes a longrunning guerilla fashion photography zine called No Invite. The other day I was in a camera shop that had a single rack of zines and No Invite was the only one they were selling. I don’t know how Dan managed that monopoly, but I grabbed the most recent issue ($20). He also has new work coming out in December called, and this is a killer title, When I Kill God I Will Find The Spigot From Which He Meters Out Grace And Smash It Permanently Open. You can pre-order one now. To put my money where my mouth is, I vow to purchase a copy next month and give it away to a paid subscriber of this newsletter.

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I asked Dan a few questions, hoping he could shed some light on things.

Dan, I’m trying to get to the bottom of something. What do you think is a fair amount to charge for a photo zine?
Dan Bassini: I think that really all depends on what it costs to make it. You could be making a 12-page Xeroxed pamphlet stolen from Kinko’s, which costs next to nothing, or a tabloid-sized, full-color magazine, with wildly different price points. I’ve settled into a pretty repeated form factor of 8.5” x 5.5”-sized booklets, 60 full-color pages, saddle stapled. At this point, I’ve basically been calling them books. I recently bumped my prices up from $15 to $20 because materials cost has gone way up. If you calculate the actual film and processing costs to make the photos that go into the zine, I just might be breaking even on the whole endeavor.

You’ve been making zines for a while. Do you feel like people are less willing or more willing to buy print media? Which direction do you feel the trend is going?
I think there is a certain audience of people who collect zines and photo books who will always be more receptive. It’s tough to track the trend. Every new zine I put out, I feel like I gain a bit more traction in that world. I hope it’s trending up. If you’re doing something cool or different, that will grab someone’s interest, especially if it’s something that you can display and flip through more than once. I also use my zines as a way of democratizing art a bit. Not everyone can afford a fine art print of mine, but 20 bucks gets you 60 pages of my work.

What have you seen change during the time you’ve been making and selling zines?
Other than costs? I’ve seen the access to printing definitely expand with so many online services available. When I found the company that has printed my last 14 books, the closest thing they offered was a “catalog” that I then upgraded the paper stock to something better for photos. Now they offer a “zine" option.

What, for you, is the appeal of making physical media, as opposed to just posting it online?
I love physical media, and have really grown to loathe Instagram. It turns art into this really disposable and dismissible thing that you scroll past in half a second at the end of the night just trying to get to the end of your newsfeed before you can go to sleep. I’m just as guilty of it. Physicality adds an inherent agency to art. It makes you pause and give it a second glance. With a zine, I can hand it to someone and say, “This is a completed idea.” A print on a wall gives you the ability to get close and look at details or step back and take it all in.

Tell me about the premise of No Invite. Is the idea to shoot fashion events with no press credentials?
No Invite started with me being interested in New York Fashion Week but having no real connections to the industry. I started finding out where the shows were happening and finding my way into the events. There is a perceived exclusivity to fashion week, and it’s fun to break down those barriers. Fashion is such an exploitive industry, it’s my way of exploiting them to create my work. Seven years and ten zines later, it’s taken my career in a direction I never expected. I get some invites now, and end up giving them away to friends.

And what about When I Kill God…? How did that project begin?
When I Kill God… started during peak lockdown, Summer of 2020, when two friends and I drove out to Schuylkill County, PA. Our brains were scrambled eggs from being cooped up and we pretty much jumped at the chance to go anywhere. We ended up loving the area. It’s a complex region with the beauty of Appalachia and the blight of post-industrial coal country. Spending time at a lake house in a former resort community, it’s kinda become a central meeting place and a nice break from the city. I’ve been taking photos of the area the last three-plus years on my trips out here and put together a collection of images that document the area in a faithful and loving way. I’m actually writing this email from the lakehouse now.

What’s something you wish you knew earlier about the process of making zines?
I’d say knowledge of the materials and binding methods. The first photo zine I made that wasn’t from Kinko’s, I really wanted to make special. I made a lot of mistakes and the printer didn’t really give me much guidance. I went to a local printer, had it printed on thick matte paper and perfect bound, which is the flat glued spine you’d find on a paperback book. They didn’t tell me that with that paper choice and perfect binding, the spine would be fragile if someone tried to open the book too wide or press it flat, the kind of things you want to do with a photo book. I’ve found that saddle stapled is much more durable and better for photos. If you’re working with a new printer, it’s worth coughing up the cash for a proof copy, and really inspect the quality before putting in a full run.

And lastly, what advice would you give for someone who wants to make zines or photo books?
Same advice I give to anyone making anything, just do it. Don’t overthink it. Be considerate of all of your options, your paper choice, photo choice, spreads, layouts, and be mindful of the work you’re making, but just make it. If you don’t follow your gut and overthink every decision, you’ll never finish the project. Do what feels right and feels good.

When I Kill God I Will Find The Spigot From Which He Meters Out Grace And Smash It Permanently Open is available for preorder now and will be released December 7, with a party and exhibition at Brooklyn Film Camera in NYC.

BLACK PUNK NOW OUT NOW

I type this minutes after getting home from a launch event at Skylight Books for Black Punk Now, the new anthology from James Spooner and Chris L. Terry. I will talk to them about it more extensively in a future edition of this column, but I just wanted to give the book a shout out in the meantime. I am a big fan of books that move the conversation about music, and specifically punk and hardcore, forward. It’s 2023 goddammit why must we still suffer through biopics about the Sex Pistols??

Side note: I don’t know how I manage to make direct eye contact when taking a photo of Chris every time he’s doing a reading but this was not the first time.

GAZE UPON THIS NIGHTMARE HOUSE

And lastly, I was driving around Burbank a few days before Halloween and stumbled upon this nightmare clown house. Upon doing some research I discovered that this neighborhood holds an annual Halloween decoration contest and that this house came in second. SECOND! It had a fucking working clown ferris wheel! Not sure what came in first but I assume it was the actual portal to hell. (a.k.a. the entrance to the 101 am I right??? Ah, Los Angeles traffic humor. Very relatable and not at all alienating to most people. OK later!)