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on my own zine

so I was sitting there skimming through lists of science fiction/fantasy magazines to submit a short story to and kept reading these hip little editors talk about what kind of work they want. I started thinking, "Man this dude is cooler than me. Why is he cooler and hipper and probably fits into tighter more stylish pants then I do?"

I came up with two answers.

1. I'm married
2. I don't have my own magazine to play literary god with.

So I came up with an idea of starting my own fiction zine. It seems relatively cheap (I figure I could probably make 20 copies of the zine out of a 5 dollar package of printer paper if I just used full size sheets, which I'm not (thinking more like a sheet folded in half size) I'd be getting more than 20 copies per 5 bucks.)

I can publish all the work I think is cool, namely my own and people who impress me with their word smithings, and my friends. Local artists could help illustrate. Those kinds of things.

I can distribute it to local bookstores/coffee shops/public restrooms to give away for free, because everyone likes free stuff.


Now I don't expect to make money off of this. In fact I fully expect to lose money as I don't plan on charging anything for it, unless some cat in Indonesia wants one for some reason that guy will probably have to pay for it. I really just want my work out there in print and zine sounds like such a fun way to do things without having to jump through the hoops of getting a short story published in some obscure fiction magazine. Which is what I was trying to do.

I'm wondering if there is anything I need to look out for. What's the best way of doing right by my contributors without paying them.
Is there any problems with not demanding any rights (I'd really like to keep as much power in the author's hands as possible)
Any other thoughts or suggestions for me?

Only one--you can't publish a story without "demanding any rights." If you publish someone's work in a magazine, you've automatically used their First North American Print Rights (assuming, of course, that you're in North America).

Generally, the best way of "doing right" by your contributors without paying them is making the magazine as visually and intellectually appealing as possible. That means a) no crappy art and no crappy stories. Harder than it sounds, since the editor has no control over what is submitted to the magazine, only over what s/he selects to publish. You owe it to yourself and to your authors to only select the best.

Finally, don't expect editing a magazine to make you cool. It is a LOT of hard work, and frankly, no one will remember you after you publish his/her story. Writers have huge egos. There's no room in their hearts for editors.

Now how long do I have to hold onto the North American Print rights? I'd like to get them back to the author in a timely manner, but does that mean when they revert back to the author can I still print and distribute that issue of the zine?

Sounds great. I don't have anything to add but as the editor of an ezine I say, go for it. A lot of people say playing editor is an unrewarding job but I would beg to differ. Having a publication to play around with and mould to your will is a lot of fun.

I would also be interested in obtaining a copy of your first edition. How much would it cost to get one shipped over to Australia? Do it for free and I'll review and promote you on my site I'd probably do it anyway.