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Old 06-05-2012, 10:35 AM
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StainlessSteelCynic StainlessSteelCynic is offline
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As much as I like the enthusiasm this idea is generating, don't over-think it and don't over-plan it.

We're talking about a fan made magazine that most likely will be in PDF (to get the easiest and largest distribution), so it's not going to be a professionally made or set-out magazine and it's not going to be a nice glossy production with expensive graphics. Fans will forgive this as they aren't paying anything for it and many will be happy just to see new ideas in print.

Being a fan made magazine means you'll be relying on the fans to submit material. Yes you need to set some standards and yes it can be good to have a focus for each issue (but it isn't a necessity) and it doesn't hurt to request certain types of article.
But if you make it a hard and fast rule to plan out specifically what you want for each quarter or each issue and you tell people that you want only those articles, the fans who are actually creating the material are more likely to say it's too much work or they haven't got the time and they won't bother to submit anything - they like to write articles but they don't necessarily like being told what articles to write (unless it's some 'special' issue like for Halloween or April Fool's Day and so on).

A fanzine simply cannot afford to be as demanding as a professional publication - you're not paying these writers anything for their work so you can't place too many demands on them. People will want to submit articles that interest them, not articles they're being told to write.

One of the most important things was mentioned by Tegyrius, that is, to have effective editors/managers. People who are motivated to make the magazine work and have the management ability to realize it's production. This is much more important than having someone with all the magazine production credentials in the world because these people will be making the fanzine out of love of the subject nor for love of the dollar. It really does not need to be a big, fancy, over-organized production with a large staff planning every little thing.

The second is to decide how you're going to produce it, e.g. for a pdf fanzine, what software you're going to use to produce the magazine (some of it is stupidly expensive for something as small scale as a fanzine that isn't being made for profit), if you're going to accept only open source images etc. etc. If it is to be a pdf then the other need is for a hosting site so people can download it.

There have been a number of successful fanzines that have thrived on nothing much more than the motivation and enthusiasm of the fans and the editors. Some of those fanzines were made by three or four people and sometimes only one or two. Examples include Demonground that had a staff of only three then later four (they were from Australia, the US and New Zealand) and ran for 15 issues over several years (before some health problems prevented two of the staff from continuing), the other is Protodimension with a staff of three (one from the UK and the other two from the US). Protodimension is now up to issue 12 with submissions being requested only one month before production deadline.

The bottom line - it can and does work if fans put the work in but it doesn't need to be organized like a military operation.
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