On zine costs.

[sarren]

kirkspock_recs sometimes has recs for stories only available in zines.

I have a lot of zines, from those dark days before the internet. I try not to think about that time too closely. *covers eyes*

I got thinking about my favourite Kirk/Spock zine - Broken Images. I'd quite like to rec that, so I googled it and found this! http://www.agentwithstyle.com/startrek.htm

And there was a function to search for other stories by the same author. I found two! in a zine called Nome 8! Yay! Except the zine costs $69 AUD!!!!

Who pays this, seriously? Can it really cost that much money to produce each zine? Or is it a business now?

Comments

[klia.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how it all works, but AFAIK, contributors only get their freebie trib copies, so they're basically donating their stories, and the zine publisher is the one raking in the bucks. I assume this person finds writers who are unaware of her bad rep and eager to "publish."

[sarren.livejournal.com]

I've had this Broken Images zine for about 17 years, I think. Haven't these writers found the internet?

Seriously, this whole thing bewilders me.

[klia.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there are some who have and some who haven't. But, I think for some writers, there's something really seductive about the idea of having your work "published" on actual paper, you know? To have something tangible to show for all your time and effort.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

I get that. But once the story's been in a zine a few years, why wouldn't they put their fics up on the net? Especially if they know the distributor is screwing over the people buying the zines?

[klia.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Maybe *they* don't know she's screwing people (after all, you didn't know; as a friend of mine always says, fans shun badly). Or, maybe they're her friends.

[sarren.livejournal.com]

I guess. Of course, I footle about in a very small corner of the internet - I suppose it's possible that some of the writers have posted their stories online, it's not like she could actually stop them, right?

[klia.livejournal.com]

it's not like she could actually stop them, right?

Legally? No, she couldn't. But I think she usually has them agree to not post them online for 2 years.