Special thanks to is Press for this amazing idea and for setting this up!
< Illustration by Chandler Dolan @chandlerbreeart, © Chandler Dolan >
< All text – no-copyright / CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication: share / post / copy / paste / pirate >
Quaranzine Fest 2020 ~ a viral safe-space! | APRIL 4th & 5th 2020 | #quaranzinefest
Inoculate against boredom! Self-quarantine is not exciting! Start stockpiling zines before panic buying starts!
Quaranzine Fest is a (cough…) viral concept to connect zine makers and patrons in this turbulent time of social distancing. In the face of Federal Government ineptitude, callousness, and lack of empathy, the DIY community has come together to… not come together. As we work in solidarity to honor the social contract and flatten the curve, many of us in the international zine, art book, and DIY community have been dramatically impacted by the closures of the art book fairs and zine fests where we connect with each other, discover exciting new work, and (for us vendors) make part of our living.
Quaranzine Fest is simple. Post your work on the platform of your choice April 4th and 5th with the hashtag #quaranzinefest – no submission process, no selection process, no fees, no leaders, no volunteers, no building, no table, no limit on vendors, no fire code restrictions, no peanut butter fingers touching your zines.
Vendors:
Prepping – this is like getting ready for any zine fest but for an online space.
- You likely already have the content you need. Go back through your social feed and gather images. Don’t stress about professional quality images or social media marketing. Be a human and remember people like zines because they aren’t glossy and marketed to them.
- Any new zines you’ve been working on need to be photographed – remember people at zine fests like to look at several spreads. Good platforms for images that accommodate hashtags: instagram, tumblr, pinterest, twitter, behance, facebook (kinda’)… A phone camera is perfectly good for this.
- If your zine is narrative based consider getting some excerpts ready to post – remember people at zine fests like to read a page or two before deciding to buy or talk to you about your zine. Good platforms for combining image and text that accommodate hashtags: instagram, tumblr, issuu, wordpress, facebook.
- Write fun 1-2 sentence descriptions of your zines – think about what you tell someone at a fest when they first pick up your zine.
Get your biz together – you likely already have the ability to do e-commerce.
- Don’t worry about “best practices”. This is a triage situation. Do not add to your stress by trying to build a website with e-commerce. Use whatever is most accessible, immediate, and within reach.
- Set up a social payment account: Venmo, PayPal, Square Cash, Zelle, Google Pay. Venmo and PayPal are the most ubiquitous in the zine community so consider using those.
- Don’t be shy about listing your venmo or paypal handle with your work. If you are fortunate enough to have an online store don’t be shy about linking to it.
- If you have a website with e-commerce make sure your inventories are accurate, the pics reflect the current edition, and the descriptions are current.
- If you do not have e-commerce be sure to price to accommodate shipping by adding about $2.50 for media mail in the domestic US for shipping 1 to 2 zines. Add $10.00 for international shipping of 1 to 2 zines.
- Consider deals, promotions, sales or gratis shipping on a couple titles.
- If you are self-quarantining by April 4th and 5th be sure to set expectations about mail fulfillment times. We will all understand if you can’t get to the Post Office for a couple weeks. However, you MUST must honor the DIY code and get people their goods.
Quaranzine – On April 4th and 5th:
- Flood your channels with zines pics, zine videos, zine stories, and zine text tagged with #quaranzinefest
Fans & Patrons:
Prep your affection vector – who’s zines have infected your mind or heart?
- Look through your zine collection. Often time the author or publisher will list their name, social media, or website on the inside front cover or inside back or back cover. Make sure you are following them, or have them bookmarked, and let them know about #quaranzinefest
- Scroll through your social media and put any zine vendors you follow on a highlight or watch list and let them know about #quaranzinefest
- Add #quaranzinefest to the tags you are following.
- Consider how much you typically spend at a zine fest and how many fests you would have gone to during this spring. If, considering current circumstances, you are still able to afford that support of independent makers consider this your Quaranzine Fest budget.
Everyone:
Make it viral – help us get people excited and prepping.
- Before April 4th and 5th: right click the featured illustration by Chandler Dolan at the top of this post and “save image as” to save it to your media. Use the pic and any, all, or an edit of, the copyright free text at the top of this post to help us promote the idea of Quaranzine Fest with #quaranzinefest.
- On April 4th and 5th: Like, comment, and share the work of others using #quaranzinefest.
Be a good samaritan – do more than just browse and passively like.
- If you can afford it, buy some zines – after all it’s a zinefest!
- Comment, chat, and if invited, DM vendors about their zines – remember a huge part of any fest is talking to people.
Commit to the Social Contract – be cool.
- It’s super unfortunate we need to remind people of this BUT please refrain from stalking, harassing, discriminating, baiting, trolling, sending unsolicited inappropriate DM’s, or arguing with others in this forum (and you know, all the time…) Remember EVERYONE is fighting a battle right now and this is to uplift people not put them down. Anyone violating this policy will be reported, investigated, posted on this page as a bad actor, if warranted reported to the local authorities, and everyone will be invited to ad-hoc block them.
We must work together to support this medium we love! We must subvert corporate communications platforms to make human connections in a time of crisis. We must make sure independent publishers can sustain their practice! We must refuse to be alone and isolated when we socially-distance. We must apply the ethics of DIY to engender connections and support for those who are suffering. We must support and elect a competent and empathetic power structure that will prevent Quaranzine Fest from becoming annual event…
Until the infocalypse,
is PRESS
Patient zero
Quaranzine Fest
