Poopsheet Foundation

I'm writing an article about self-published fanzines that use the "old fashioned" style of printing using paper and I thought I'd ask the question here to get some feedback - why print your zine this way when you can reach a wider audience publishing your work on the internet? Some people do both - why? Some people don't print paper copies and only use the internet - why? Any comments will be welcome!

Thanks!

I like the tangible feeling of putting together zines or reading other people's. I can experiment more freely with the layouts. They're little art pieces. I've been enjoying the zine fests I've been to this year.

The internet lets me present the work in color.

Both have different audiences.

A book is just so much more real than bits floating around in the ether of the internet. My books will be here next year and the decade after that. They are REAL and that matters. This site or any other can be censored or deleted at any time. My books have been scattered to the winds.

I haven't published anything in a while but still: what Jerry said. In the not-so-distant future maybe we'll be handing each other Micro SD cards (god, I hope not) but, for me anyway, it's difficult to get too attached to pixels.

Thanks so much for your feedback. It will help with my article. I, too, prefer the paper zine but also enjoy the availability of zines on the internet. Zines are usually printed in such small numbers it's hard to find them, so having them also available on the internet has exposed me to zines and creators I would not otherwise have known about. Thanks!

In my opinion, there are two types of readers: reader-readers, in that they don't care how they read something just as long as they read something; and reader-collectors, those of us who prefer not only to read but see what we've read, have a collection, etc.

Being of the latter category, I work in both print and electronic mediums to satisfy both audiences. To do otherwise, to me, is very limiting to one's market. After all, isn't the purpose of a zine to reach as many people as possible as one is able? Likewise, by doing so, you then increase your ability to make money off your zine thus making it easier to make more zines, and the cycle continues.

In terms of buying stuff, I like paper products because a) I'm a collector, and b) I don't have an iPad or Kindle or something, so reading on my laptop or even desktop doesn't appeal to me. I've tried it. I do see myself getting more into eReading--namely comics--if I did have an easy-to-hold-and-take-wherever eReader.