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| Department for Creative Fandom |
| Collaborative Fandom Part II: FANZINES by Rizwaana Husaini |
| Related Link: ASHTON PRESS HOME MAIL PINK KHAKI |
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| Fanzines are one of
the oldest fannish concepts in existence. In the Stargate universe, most
take the form of collected works of fiction - stories about SG1, printed
and bound for the avid reader. Even the Internet, with its attraction of
abundant material, isn't enough to halt the enthusiasm. There's just
something about that printed copy... Like many other fan devoted projects, hard work and devotion are the keys to its success. A better person to explain the "ins" and "outs" of fanzines is Annie (of Ashton Press) - A veteran in the zine world and producer of some of the most popular stargate compilations. Below, she kindly shares with us her many years of knowledge and experience in production. It really is a highly collaborative effort :) |
| You've been
producing fanzines for over ten years. What are its main attractions and
how did you get started? I've actually been publishing fanzines for about twenty years. Years ago, when I first discovered fan fiction and fanzines, I also discovered that I was addicted to reading fan fiction. This was long before the internet, of course. Fanzines were an expensive hobby. I began writing fan fiction (primarily in Star Wars fandom, at first) so that I could earn contributor's copies. After about a year of writing and traveling to various conventions around the country, I found myself friends with a number of editors and publishers of fanzines. Lots of my fannish friends began urging me to do a fanzine of my own and many of them promised to send submissions. So, "Southern Knights," a Star Wars zine, was born. A short while later, I published "Southern Lights," a multi-media fanzine because my fannish interests and writing had begun to expand further than just Star Wars. Incidentally, my friends who promised to submit material all came through for me and, to this day, some of them still submit to my fanzines. The main attraction? The sense of accomplishment and pride when you hold the finished product in your hands and the absolute thrill of having readers tell you how much they enjoy the stories and artwork. Nothing beats it. What a rush. Oh, and you get to read lots of marvelous stories ahead of time! How do you put a fanzine together - what's your process? Well, the first thing to decide on is the "theme" of the zine. What fandom? Gen or slash or ship? Any special themes? For instance, in Stargate fandom, I do a gen zine called "Redemption" that is focused on the friendship between Jack and Daniel and the "classic" team of SG-1 and I do another Stargate genzine called "Splinters" that is focused on alternate universe stories (ala the quantum mirror episodes). The next thing to do is to ask for submissions. I usually advertise on various lists and I also ask writers and artists I've worked with in the past or whose work I admire to submit. Many of them say yes and some say they don't have time. It never hurts to ask, though! Sometimes abject begging works, too. Then, it's just a case of taking the submissions as they come in, editing them, sending them back to the author or artist for comments and rewrites. Once the piece is ready, I slot it into the master copy and format it for publication. Usually, I'll be working on the master copy as the edits are going out and coming back in. The computer age has made this process much quicker and easier. Once the master copy is done, I print it out, look it over, make any adjustments that might be necessary or corrections and then I take it to the printer. While the bulk of the zine is at the printer, I work on any color artwork, printing that myself. When the zines come back from the printer, I collate the color pages into each copy, punch and bind the copy using a GBC binder, and then I hand check each copy for printing or collating errors. Finally, after all of that, I make up mailing labels, package up the zines and mail them out to the anxious readers! What types of problems have you encountered along the way? Oh, my. So many things. Writers who don't really want to be edited. It is, of course, always their prerogative to take their work elsewhere if they do not agree with my edits. It is sometimes disheartening, however, after having spent perhaps hours and hours of work on the story. I've had authors who waited until the zine went into print and then they posted their story online as soon as they received their contributor's copy, even though they were well aware of our policies which require a minimum of one year between print publication and online publication. Needless to say, they weren't welcome to contribute at Ashton Press again. I've had problems with people who have agented for me at conventions, as well, or who have printed and produced my zines. Sometimes through no fault of their own and sometimes through outright fraud, alas. I estimate I've probably lost at least $7,000.00 over the years due to various difficulties [ouch! - ed.]. Consequently, I no longer farm out my printing although I do allow a select few agents to carry my zines at conventions. Over the years, I've changed printers many times, for various different reasons. Sometimes because of dissatisfaction with service or quality. Sometimes it has been difficult to find a good printer for the more naughty material. <g> Right now, I have an absolutely awesome printer and the best part is that the manager and some of his staff are big science fiction fans and even convention goers. They are excited every time I bring in a new issue and they absolutely adore seeing the new color covers that my artists come up with. Confidentially, I think they read the zines. In fact, I know they do because one of them told me how much he was enjoying the stories. Was there ever a time when you thought, "No more. Time to finish this pursuit."? Certainly. Many times. In fact, before I became so heavily involved in Stargate fandom, I had vowed I would never publish another new fanzine except for my own novels. I had some pretty bad editing experiences in Highlander fandom, alas. Some good ones, too, of course, with many new and old friends. But the bad began to outweigh the good, I was having trouble finding a local printer, my agent had a horrible accident and became permanently disabled, and I decided it was just perhaps better to stick to publishing my own material. In Stargate, I was approached by several friends who had a big batch of Stargate stories already written. They offered them to me for a zine. Since they were some of my favorite Stargate writers, there was no way I was going to turn them down. I set out to find other submissions so that I could spread out their stories over several issues and "Pretense" was born. Around the same time, Bev Singer approached me and asked me if I would publish a Stargate genzine in honor of her daughter Beth's wedding. Since Bev did all the hard work of finding contributors and begging them to contribute, I was happy to oblige! This zine became "Gateway to Eternity" (Bev also decided on the name). From there, my Stargate fanzines snowballed. So, although I've thrown in the towel before, I've never done so permanently! Fanzines are very much a source of entertainment to both fans with and without access to the Internet. Do you find that with the increase in availability of Internet access that there is less interest in printed fiction? I don't think so. I haven't noticed too much of a decline in the number of people buying the zines, although I'm sure there are many who either can't afford them or who just don't bother when they can find fiction online. I know that for myself, I love a printed zine and I'll buy one, even if the story is available online. In fact, if I really want to read a story, especially a longer one, I print it out anyway. I don't care for reading on the screen. I think that people who buy a zine, especially one that has a nice mix of stories, is well-edited, and nicely laid out, come to appreciate the art form and they don't mind paying for it…or they want to contribute to the next issue so they can get a contributor's copy! What are your current productions and do you have a personal favourite? Right now, I'm producing mainly Stargate fanzines although Leah came out with a new Highlander genzine last May and we still have the fourth novel in our Highlander series to finish up. I'm publishing several Stargate genzines, a slash Jack/Daniel anthology and also will have a number of stand alone novels by various authors going into print over the next several months. I do have a few favorites out of the zines I've produced over the years, although it's hard to pick, really, since I've done over fifty zines. I think "Pretense," especially the first issue, but really all of them, out of my Stargate zines is definitely a personal favorite. I go back and reread the stories even though I've already read them over and over again while editing them and putting the zine together. I am thrilled that so many of the best authors and artists in Stargate fandom have trusted me and honored me by allowing to publish their work. I'm still proud of the first novel Leah and I wrote together, a Blakes 7 novel called "Last Stand at the Edge of the World." And I'm very fond of the Highlander novel series that we've written, especially the third one called "Touched by Magic," which was a blend of drama and humor. Of course, the Blakes 7 comedy series that Leah and I wrote for many years, "Bizarro 7," also remains a big favorite and we still hear from fans of that series, including some of the Blakes 7 cast and crew! I have a website for our fanzines where you can always see what's new: http://fanzines.ashtonpress.net/ What would you say were the fundamental qualities of zine fiction? Is there any genre you wouldn't accept or read in publication? Why? I'm not sure what you mean by "fundamental qualities"? [Me either. It was late - Ed. :)]As to genre, I'm not quite sure what you mean there, either. Do you mean different types of stories, such as bondage or S&M? That type of thing? [Yes! - Ed] I'll read just about anything, quite frankly. I might not like it, but I'll give it a try. I'm not overly fond of extremely explicit sex in stories, especially if it seems to go on at length. I'm more interested in the *story* itself. Very explicit violence and torture isn't really something I particularly like to see, either. Whether or not I would accept these things in my publications…it's entirely dependent upon the story itself. I know that a lot of fans don't like to read certain "pairings" of characters. I have my favorites - in Stargate it's Jack and Daniel - but I'll read and like just about any pairing. In my zines, what I will accept as far as "pairings" is dependent upon the theme of each individual zine. The one kind of story I no longer like to read is fiction involving the death of a major character. I will not accept deathfic for my publications, although I have in the past. I've had a change of heart about these kinds of stories in the last few years and I find I can just no longer read them. At first I thought I would still accept them for my zines, even though I didn't like them myself…but I found that I couldn't even bring myself to open the files to edit them. What would you say were the motivations of your contributors? Have you ever had to "reject" a story from a regular contributor because it wasn't "up to standard" so to speak? I think there are many things that motivate someone to write fan fiction and it's not necessarily the same for everyone, of course. For myself, when I started writing for zines, I had sparks of ideas for stories, a desire to share my stories, an ambition to sharpen my writing skills, and a desire to obtain lots of fanzines with limited amounts of funds. <g> So, I think the lure of contributor's copy helps…but I think someone also has to be moved to write or draw or create something and then want to share it with fellow fans. Yes, I've had to reject material, even from friends or a regular contributor. Although, very rarely, and usually it's a case of perhaps the story or artwork just not fitting the theme of the zine in question. In fact, this just happened a couple of days ago when a longtime contributor and friend wanted to send me a Stargate story. I would have loved to have taken it from her but it just wasn't suitable for any of the zines I produce. Sometimes I have had to reject material simply because the author did not want to accept my edits, but this has never happened with a regular contributor. Feedback can be a writer's only reward. Do you feel that people are less inclined to give feedback now than, say, five years ago? I think that there can never be enough feedback to satisfy a writer or an artist…or even a zine editor. But, no, I don't really think there is less feedback nowadays. What I've seen over the years is that when a fandom is "new" and "hot" and really hopping and the stories are first appearing in zines and online, the flow of feedback is often hot and heavy. As the fandom "ages," so to speak, the feedback usually slows down. Many of the readers are busy people and they just aren't as wide-eyed and enthused and they feel like they've already done their part…and I think they also feel like the big name authors probably get lots of feedback and that theirs doesn't matter (they are wrong, of course, because there can never be enough feedback!). Newer readers who enter the fandom will often be more forthcoming with feedback and sometimes there are those who just always seem to find the time to feedback to almost everyone. They are treasures. I have noticed that smaller fandoms will sometimes also keep up a steady flow of feedback easier than the larger ones. I'll tell you what I have seen declining over the years and that is the writers themselves writing feedback to fellow writers. The letters of comment pages of zines used to be full of comments on each issue and if you were to peruse them, you'd probably notice that the people most likely to comment and provide feedback were the contributors themselves. It was, almost, I think considered fannish etiquette that if you submitted to a zine, you would provide a letter of comment and feedback to your fellow contributors. I see that happening very rarely nowadays, either online or in zines. I also think it's ironic that I often have potential contributors tell me that they don't want to submit to a zine because they won't receive much feedback…and then the same folks complain online about their lack of feedback for their online stories! I've posted stories online and, of course, in numerous fanzines and I've never seen much difference in the amount of feedback, to be honest. Online feedback can often be quicker, of course, and since I do travel to many conventions, I often receive verbal feedback, face to face. "Mediawest" is a big multi-fandom convention gathering without paid guests. Zine producers consider it a particular favourite because fans attending the event are much more involved and experienced than usual. Have you ever been, and what is your take on this as opposed to guest-type conventions? Have I ever been to MediaWest? Oh, only about twenty times or so! Leah and I have rarely missed a year and Leah actually attended the convention before it was even called MediaWest. It is a wonderful, fantastic convention for media fans of all persuasions and the best part of it is that it is all done by fans, for fans. The *fans* are the guests. For fannish artwork, panels, videos, fanzines, and more, there is just no better place. It is one long party, especially since the fans completely fill up and take over the hotel. I think the most fun is wandering the hallways of the hotel, where huge numbers of people have their doors open (and often decorated). You can just wander in, visit a while, join a party, buy merchandise like fanzines, art, buttons, bookmarks, t-shirts, tote bags…it has to be experienced to be believed. Guest conventions are a completely different animal and certainly have their place. I love guest conventions, adore meeting the actors and practicing my photography skills on them. But for sheer fannish interaction, MediaWest is the place to be. Like many fan related projects, zine production can be fun. What's the most memorable moment so far? After so many years, it's hard to think of one memorable moment. I remember being wildly excited when LucasFilm actually ordered (and paid for!) copies of my Star Wars fanzines. That was a thrill, even though I know they ordered them from just about every zine editor in those days. There was one year at ScorpioCon in Chicago where they used to give out awards for Blakes 7 zines and fan fiction and one of my zines won three awards. The awards were presented by actors from the show, so that was certainly thrilling and memorable. Oh, I know. Two similar incidents. Someone once wrote to me about a fan novel that Leah and I wrote and told me that it literally changed her life. I won't go into details, but it was very moving. And another incident, a professional author told me that I actually encouraged her into becoming a pro. She's become very successful and we still keep in touch. In fact, she sometimes writes for my zines under a pseudonym. Do you have any personal comments you'd like to add? :) I'd just like to say that it's been an honor and a privilege to publish some of fandom's most talented authors and artists over the years and I can't thank them enough for allowing me the pleasure. Artists like Suzi Lovett, my wonderful partner Leah Rosenthal, Laura Virgil, Karen River, Wilma Hoogland, Lightfoot, Wanda Lybarger, Dani Lane, and so many more. The new breed of graphic artists, like Alice and Amy and Corinna and The Cat's Meow Creative Arts. Writers like Pat Nussman, L.A. Carr, Susan Hall, Cheree Cargill, Sheila Paulson, Ellis Ward, ELG, Brenda Anders, Biblio, PhoenixE, Tiv'ester, Ellison Wonderland, Jean Lorrah, Graculus, Jean Graham, Kathy Hintze, Tenaya, Deb Walsh, Linda Knights, Bryn Lantry, Jane Carnall, Shoshanna Green, and so many, many more. I could go on for hours. I've left so many out, so all I can say is thank you all!!! |
| ENDNOTE The Internet has been a great place for people to obtain fiction created by fans, but the lure of printed fanzines is as strong as ever. We wish Annie and all who contribute the continued success and enjoyment they receive from their endeavours - the editors |
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