Self-Publication with Punk Rock Ideals: Zines ≠ Vanity Press Publications

SHARP Conference, July 2007 Minneapolis, Minnesota

Jenna Freedman, Barnard College

outline

• Different types of publications: vanity press, self-publications, zines

• Punk rock ideals in zine publishing, contrasted with motivations for other self-publishing endeavors

• Libraries' role in collecting and preserving these and other alternative press materials

publishing industry statistics

• In 2004, 950,000 books out of the 1.2 million tracked by Nielsen BookScan sold fewer than ninety-nine copies.

• Another 200,000 sold fewer than 1,000 copies. • Only 25,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. • The average book in America sells about 500 copies. In

other words, about 98% of books are noncommercial, whether they were intended that way or not.

Chris Anderson, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less instead of More (New York: Hyperion, 2006), 76.

mental traps

• Everyone wants to be a star • Everyone's in it for the money • If it isn't a hit, it's a miss • The only success is mass success • "Direct to video" = bad • "Self-published" = bad • "Independent" = "They couldn't get a deal" • Amateur = amateurish • Low-selling = low quality • If it were good, it would be popular

Ibid., 167.

comparison

Vanity press Self-publications ZinesScorned Tolerated InvisibleOwned by publisher Owned by author Owned by author, if

ownership is claimed at all

Publisher does most of the work

Publisher does much of the work

Author does nearly all of the work

Author has minimal control over design or anything other than content

Author has more control

Author has total control

Publishing costs shouldered or shared by author

Publishing costs shouldered or shared by author

Author solely responsible for publishing costs

Bikini Kill, "Riot Grrrl Is…" Girl Power, no. 2. No date: unpaginated.

Cindy Ovenrack, "Secrets," Doris no. 17, "Reprints." Winter 2000: unpaginated.

April Hornbuckle, "[Intro]," Cartography for Beginners, no. 5. Summer, 2005: unpaginated.

scope of barnard zine collection

library bill of rights

library zine collections

links and contact

• This slideshow and paper http://jenna.openflows.com/talks/sharp/2007

• Barnard Zine Collection http://barnard.edu/library/zines zines @ barnard dot edu

• Zine libraries list http://www.barnard.edu/library/zines/links.htm#libraries

• IM (AOL, Google, Jabber.org, Yahoo): BarnardLibJenna