THIS IS AN ANNOUNCEMENT -
(a zine club announcement)
-and the announcement is that the zine club is back!
(scroll to the bottom if you just want to know how to get in on it. otherwise, enjoy my rambling about it)
I started the zine club in August 2021 and went on a little break after I put out the July 2024 issue. I put out a new zine every month during that time, and I loved it! I loved going to print off all the zines every month and the ritual of assembling them and getting to decorate the envelopes and drop them off. I loved hearing back from the people who had received the zines and getting to know what resonated most with them. I loved the way that after I started shooting on film, creating a zine helped me to make sense of the photos I’d taken. I loved making zines every month because it helped me to be experimental and vulnerable in my practice - it helped me to play.
At some point I started getting more in my head about the zines, and worrying that I needed to create something that was worth my subscribers’ money, but also the cost of printing and stamps went up and the money wasn’t actually covering it anymore, and it got harder to play - thus, the break.
I intended to spend the break re-learning how to play and producing tons of zines so that when I came back, I’d have dozens to choose from, and I wouldn’t have the pressure of having to come up with a new one every month, I could just choose from what already existed that hadn’t gone out into the world yet.
I didn’t really do that. I have made a ton of zines, but they’ve mostly been gifts for friends or community collaborations or one-off zines just for me that in theory I could scan and reproduce but it would be too much work now that they’re all assembled and that sounds annoying. I have played though! I have played and I feel like I can come back to this without putting pressure on myself and just enjoy connecting with you all via zine mail again. Also, I now have a full-time job at a non-profit and the accompanying huge massive salary that tends to come with jobs at non-profits so I am no longer stressed about being able to pay for the zine club without raising the price.
Part of the no pressure is that I won’t necessarily make a 16-page quarter-size zine every month - I’m going to let myself incorporate 4-page zines, and mini 16-page zines, and mini 8-page zines that unfold to be prints, etc. etc. We just found a tiny tiny mini zine that we got at the Portland Zine Symposium last year, and I think that would be fun to experiment with. It will still be mostly zines, but I’m even going to give myself permission to just send out a small photo print with a handwritten something-or-other on the back or a drawing or a collage if I don’t have a zine in me some month. I’m giving myself permission to do whatever keeps this fun for me, and keeps the cost low to you without putting me too far in the red for the project as a whole.
THIS IS WHERE YOU SCROLL TO IF YOU JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW TO GET IN ON THE ZINE CLUB
I’m going to keep this simple for myself as well, and just activate pledges on my substack to keep track of subscribers.
To join (or rejoin) the zine club, just do the $5/month pledge for this newsletter and message me your address, and you’re in!
(note: if you pledge for May, you will still only get the zine starting in June. I will be grateful for your contribution though. but if you only want to pay money if you get something concrete in return then you just need to remember to join in June)
(second note: yes, I will still post the zines internationally!)
(also, I will not be attempting to accept payments via any other platforms (venmo, paypal, etc), unless you want to pay for a year of the zine club up front. working with other platforms would only lead to me chasing people for $5 a month and that sounds like a version of hell specifically tailored for me)
As a zine club member, you will get a physical zine or zine-related piece in the mail every month. Also, we will become best friends and lovers. Such is the power of zines.
ALSO ALSO ALSO here is a giveaway
and the the thing you could win is being subscribed to the zine club for the rest of 2025 (so 7 months worth. awkward number but oh well).
TO ENTER -
subscribe to this newsletter. this is how I’m tricking the remainder of the people I want to see on here into getting on here.
if you are seeing this, you are maybe probably already subscribed to the newsletter. HOWEVER you can still enter if you get one other real person to subscribe to the newsletter. just tell me who they are and then you and them both get one entry each.
giveaway starts when this email goes out and ends end of the day montana time on May 31! although actually I won’t be in montana on May 31 because I will be in california getting ready to install my show. ahhhhhh. so end of the day california time. still May 31. just do it before May 31.
okay that’s all let me know if you have any questions love you bye
xoxo,
the mindful narcissist
P.S. if you are also a zine-maker and you want to do a monthly zine trade, please please please hit me up!!!
I'm still desperate to learn how to make my own zine and I'm paralyzed by it for some reason. Watching you make these has always been inspiring, it's such a beautiful concept of a timeline of your experiences and art in the world