Murder or Suicide? You Decide

[morgandawn]

From the early 2000s:

"The biggest fear in print fandom is that the internet will kill print zines. If it does, it might be a timely death. If it does, we will call it suicide - not murder - because print zine Editors and contributors will have chosen death instead of change. Fan fiction will go on regardless. Fan fiction is free. Long live free fan fiction."

More here

Comments

[carose59]

From those figures, it looks like the writers of the article made their contributors pay for their copies, since trib copies aren't factored in.

[tazlet]

Also, they don't factor in:

- the up-front costs of typesetting and layout - paper, boards, tape, glue, ink - Selectric or computer/software - damn expensive back then - what about the art? want a color cover? silk-screen? separate off-set print run? - not to mention feeding the friends who turned out to collate the zine (they were fans, so their time didn't count).

- other distribution costs - dealer's tables, hotel rooms, labor (granted it was frequently other fans doing the schlepping, so their time didn't count) - transportation/shipping to and from conventions - what deal did the publisher make with another publisher to agent for them?

- the risk/cost of the money if the publisher tied up their funds and/or charged all of the above - zines didn't necessarily sell quickly and not all sold out.

- and absolutely they don't mention time - after all, it's a hobby, a labor of love, and therefore "priceless".

[carose59]

Oh! And don't forget the long distance phone calls sometimes needed to get stories edited in time.