Photography zines, printing, blurb, etc.

[Tin Can]

The Zines I know were Not For Profit, printed on newsprint and for free all over the CITY of Chicago

of course the anti commune often threw it all away

Chicago Reader was an actual free newspaper on every corner

Some used the free paper to wrap fish, or firestarter

I did make 2 books like Blurb for an artist who used them for selling his high end pencil and paper, $1000 each

He was driven to draw very complicated fine art, his day job was City Computers

I copied them all and charged him way too little long ago

[Tin Can]

That is called 'Vanity Press"

A zine isn't free. It still costs money to print the photos if you did it yourself. So Blurb's price runs about $1 a print of 10x10" bound in a soft cover book with text annotations and a photo book cover is reasonable. Their sale price is $40. (24 pages. Pictures on both sides or 48 photos)

[Alan Klein]

That is called 'Vanity Press"

I only made one copy for the birthday boy's parents. That's not Vanity Press.

[Pieter]

Vanity press is any publication that is paid for by the author. Usually because no publisher will take it on. Whether the author chooses to have 1 or 1000 printed, sell it or give it away. Some publishers today want/expect the author to participate in the production and marketing costs, creating a sort of hybrid form of traditional and vanity publication and the opposite of an advance. Promotional pieces produced by photographers, agencies and design firms could be considered a subset of vanity press.

[jnantz]

I only made one copy for the birthday boy's parents. That's not Vanity Press.

if you paid for it, it's a vanity press. Think having a license plate that says "LGFMT" or "4x5FILM" or whatever vanity plates ... you pay for them. back in the day when "vanity press" was a bad word, Brooks Jenson wrote the book about it. think garage filled with 36,000 books, now its print on demand. so you can fill your garage with something else you might want to hoard, like Sylvania blue dot flashbulbs, metal 35mm film canisters, and 122 film spools.
a zine is the way someone outside the "system" make a magazine/booklet. think Xerox machine and a stapler. I didn't go to blurp but their zine is probably a tier less than their traditional inexpensive book
maybe a different dimension, folded instead of bound, newsprint instead of "expensive" paper.

[Pieter]

if you paid for it, it's a vanity press. Think having a license plate that says "LGFMT" or "4x5FILM" or whatever vanity plates ... you pay for them. back in the day when "vanity press" was a bad word, brook Jenson wrote the book about it. think garage filled with 36,000 books, now its print on demand. so you can fill your garage with something else you might want to hoard, like Sylvania blue dot flashbulbs, metal 35mm film canisters, and 122 film spools.
a zine is the way someone outside the "system" make a magazine/booklet. think Xerox machine and a stapler. I didn't go to blurp but their zine is probably a tier less than their traditional inexpensive book
maybe a different dimension, folded instead of bound, newsprint instead of "expensive" paper.

Maybe not newsprint, but probably bond or a light weight text.

The term "vanity press" comes from the time before print-on-demand, when an author wanted a book published but could not find a publisher to accept it, so the author paid to publish it themselves thereby satisfying their vanity. Bookstores would not carry such books and they were considered something of lesser value than a book from an established publisher.

[jasonw]

I feel like I unintentionally brought up a sore subject here. Sorry about that.

If anyone wants to discuss self publishing, feel free to reach out via email or private message. We do not need to discuss it on here. I've used blurb and back in the 90s, xerox'd zines. I collect zines from other photographers.

It's just a fun way for me and others to share what we make, and I thought, potentially some others here would like to share ideas, anecdotes or whatever, so I ventured into starting a conversation about it.

Lesson learned.

[Pieter]

I feel like I unintentionally brought up a sore subject here. Sorry about that.

If anyone wants to discuss self publishing, feel free to reach out via email or private message. We do not need to discuss it on here. I've used blurb and back in the 90s, xerox'd zines. I collect zines from other photographers.

It's just a fun way for me and others to share what we make, and I thought, potentially some others here would like to share ideas, anecdotes or whatever, so I ventured into starting a conversation about it.

Lesson learned.

It is not a sore point. The majority of the audience here is not familiar with the current concept of zines and there is some confusion with self-publishing using print-on-demand services.

[jasonw]

Funny how the "audience" doesn't see the good in people enjoying photography in a way that makes them PRINT their photos and distribute them. Instead, blatantly act ignorant to a concept of printing photos in a way that doesn't please their ideals. Or just would rather to bother sending me on way to another forum.

I do not need recommendations to other forums. I want to be here and possibly find some like minded peers and/or mentors. People who you would invite over to have beers with. If anyone in the future reads this, please reach out. There's some genuine people on this forum ... they reached out to me privately. One didn't even provide information about his book. I found it by googling him and buying his vanity book. And it's good!

[Chester McCheeserton]

I've never considered them to be 'zines' but I've used blurb to print 40 copies of their smallest square book and give them away about 15 years ago. I've also made a bunch of book dummy mockups, using double sided inkjet paper, first made just using photoshop, then later indesign. Also made lots of mock ups using really thin matte red river paper just taping them into blank drawing notebooks. When doing this it helped to cut out every other page to help with bulk/bulge. I've also had a local bookbinder make me custom hardcover "blanks" in specific sizes. And used Lulu, which offers different sizes then blurb.

I see you're based in upstate NY, a person/place to check out if you haven't already might be Whitney Hubbs who works at Lightwork, she has made a bunch of zines herself using a copy machine but I think LIghtwork probably has a collection and/or exhibits such things. In any case she likely knows other makers/resources in that neck of the woods.