The Perils of Publishing

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Title:	The Perils of Publishing
Creator:	L.C. Wells
Date(s):	1983, 1984
Medium:	print
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The Perils of Publishing is an essay by L.C. Wells.

It was published in two parts: Contraband #1 (4 pages, 1983) and "Contraband #2 (4 pages, 1984)

The topic was how to create a print zine.

The second part is a bit more Star Wars focused, but both pertain to general media fandom.

Some Topics Discussed

• dealing with rejection and bad reviews
• how to cajole and recruit artists
• finding help to put a zine together
• dealing with a printer
• plagiarism
• artists, art, policies
• dealing with fans: their expectations and feelings

Excerpts

From the First Part

Publishers come in all sizes, shapes, and even two sexes! They're usually voted into power by being the one who says, off-handly [sic], "Wouldn't it be fun to do a zine?" or "Let's put out our own zine and get our stuff published!", or (to a friend) "This is good enough to print! You really should publish it!", or... the permutations are endless.

Once you've got the job, there's usually a helpless feeling for the first few minutes. You then begin scrabbling frantically for HELP. Experienced HELP should be cherished. Once you've got that, the publisher gets a false sense of security, expecting that the experienced HELP will always be there when you need them (midnight, 2 AM before deadline....). Unfortunately, even experienced HELP tend to have lives of their own.

The publisher then looks around for material. New publishers, shy publishers and wise publishers look close to home. It's hard to get a writer/artist to meet a deadline if you're in Maryland and they're in Australia. It's also cheaper to call close to home on Ma Bell. Once you've made a name for yourself, you can look farther abroad. The writer/artist may"hSve more respect for your deadlines. You also don't have to worry about losing the stories/art/articles to the Postal Service.

Having gotten some material, the publisher, who is usually the E*D*I*T*O*R as well, will peruse it and hopefully make useful, enlightened, and KIND comments on the baby offered up by the writer/supplicant. They then return their comments to the author, who looks at the mutilated remains and considers committing hara-kiri. With a Dull Blade.

The publisher, having taken the edge off on the authors, then looks for artists. Usually it is found that all the BNAs (Big Name Artists) have waiting lists several years long. So the publisher turns for some of the lesser names or newcomers, who are just delighted to submit! (It is recommended that you not make the artist feel like you're doing them a favor by publishing their work. An ego boost takes very little time and pays a great deal.) Or, if you've got enough friends, unearth an artist. The publisher may then drop a voluminous letter to the chosen one informing them which story has been allotted and spelling out what they want in the way of art. Giving the artist a copy of the story is helpful. Only sending selected paragraphs can lead to an author saying, "Didn't the artist know Leia's wearing hot pants? And fish-net stockings? And a metal girdle? CAN'T THEY READ?" If the publisher trusts the artist, they might even let them choose what to draw! (This is good for an artist's ego. This can lead to nice illos of people they can draw, rather than bad illos of people they can't draw!). It might even be a good idea to match author and artist and let them fight out what illos are needed.

[snipped]

Taking time to think clearly before stating your needs [regarding art] will solve this problem and lead to warm feelings among the fannish community. Also, a decision on how the zine will be reproduced will also be appreciated by any artist. Artists whose work ends up being reproduced in mimeo rather than off set like they were told it would be, are likely to line up for the Dull Blade. And never submit again.

Reproduction is important. That's what people judge you on as well as writing and art. A good zine can be dumped on if the repro is bad. If finances require mimeo, please note that certain problems will arise. Heavy blacks tend to spot other pages than their own and bleed. Maps fall apart. Shading...what shading? A Gestetner is very helpful for transferring artwork to your stencil. But any publisher who has slowly cranked a mimeo machine because 1) the page being run has a large black illo that messes up the page opposite, or 2) has a map necessary for a story which has sliced the stencil apart and the ink is spreading the stencil further every page ('*The river widens at that point according to the story!" is considered a lame excuse on the publisher's part) will understand why line drawings are appreciated. The map can be saved (maybe) by scotch tape carefully placed (Saying "There's a dam, there", doesn't go over well either.) A new stencil is not a good substitute. It will have the same problem. You end up using a lot of stencils.

Making sure that typing corrections on stencils are done cleanly will prevent readers from losing the plot of the story. Authors appreciate this. Finally, keeping the pages of a story in the right order (this means you have to know vaguely how the story runs) will save you from printing three-quarters of a zine, then finding the page where 'Boy meet Girl' has been left out. (Page 24, 24A, 24B, 24.5, 24.45, 25,.."). Authors get upset if pages are in incorrect order...so do readers.

[If] you've decided on off-set, a large print run and a good printer. You have your writers going wild, artists crying on their crowquills (and rusting the tips); you then look around for the experienced HELP, because the next step is... typing. Usually, asking the writers to provide camera-ready copy will provide horse laughs heard from coast to coast. Also it isn't reasonable to ask because unless they have an artist under thumb, the story will be un'decorated'. The writer will withdraw the submission and go elsewhere, where such silly requests aren't made. There are those typists who tout word processors, those who tout Selectrics, but general agreement is that (especially with mimeo) you DO NOT USE manuals. Uneven type repros BADLY. There are those publishers who insist the type be the same all the way through the zine and end up typing it all themselves or with whoever else has the same font. There are others who, more realistically, don't fuss about the same type all the way through but insist on it being readable. This means you can use the HELP (lucky them!). The editor should also look for readability in Prestype, FORMATT, Letraset, etc. This dresses up a page nicely! It can also clutter. NOTE: Letraset that is five years old can crumble. It is hellishly expensive, but has the most interesting fonts.

The publisher can now start counting pages, money, and hope that there is enough of the latter. Fat zines cost. Off-set costs. New zines are eyed with suspicion in a well-established fandom where the "standards" are set. Charging high prices will lead to trickle outflow unless you go to a con where the zine may be looked over (like a promising horse). Friends will show friends their copy and you may get more orders in time, but be prepared to be eyed with suspicion in the beginning. So, as the page count mounts up, the cost goes up and the publisher, depending on personal reaction to pressure, either eats more or less.

The collection of other zines' flyers for a courtesy corner or zine listing can make you good friends in fandom (as well as adding to the page count). Trading flyer space for room in another zine warms the cockles of fannish hearts. Also you get circulation!

Well, you've gotten it back from the printer all bound and beautiful, and and you're preening yourself and you've given out the free copies to the HELP that they deserve and to the artists and authors (another good reason to look for submissions close to home—postage builds up!), and you decide you need more publicity than your flyers. So you send a copy of your child to a letterzine for a review, or a letterzine tells you that your zine has been chosen for this month's 'review', or even, you pick up an established BNZ (Big Name Zine) and find they have a review of your zine! You've just delivered your first born to the (blank). Depending on your self-confidence you can be pleased or appalled. I know few publishers who don't have a few collywobbles at the thought of a review and a new publisher, who is not known widely, can get very tense.

And you can get all sorts of reviews— they can be enthusiastic (The zine has excellent writing, good art, good reproduction but lacks...); kind (The zine needs to be more careful about layout and choice of type, proof reading; the editing is good...); opinionated. (1) If you like this kind of subject/story/art..., (2) The publisher should be banned in East Lansing for putting out this —!, (3) This is a good zine for () readers but doesn't appeal across the spectrum...); condescending (There, there, next time will be better if you get a new publisher...), and cruel. There is nothing like a review that destroys your writers, artists and yourself for daring to publish in the august circles of fandom. This kind of review hurts the most because you don't dare reply back to it as a new publisher with no following. You must hope that someone will do it for you. It destroys your enjoyment in the creation of your zine. And the worst of all, is a review from a BNF who has forgotten what it is like to be a newcomer and need encouragement.

Hopefully you can pick yourself up, ignore the cruel review, and go on. NOTE: It is possible that the reviewer knows no more than you about zines. But that's just one more of the Perils of Publishing.

From the Second Part

In the course of human encounters, human beings (artists/editors/writers/or combined three-in-ones) usually meet with others of their kind and they sit down and discuss the state of the universe... whichever universe! Artists sit down with other artists and bemoan disagreeable editors or uninteresting stories; authors bemoan unrealistic editors who don't understand the problems of "writer's block" and blind artists; editors commiserate with each other about writers and artists who continually miss deadlines or never reply to letters, etc... So it goes in the real world — ah, fandom, excuse me. Right. These stories can be very helpful in surviving in the fishpond of fandom, if you strain them through a salt filter. Moaners of any type can have a legitimate gripe. Then, again they could have been guilty of a number of sins and are smarting from a well-deserved response, and are,just mouthing off. So, a listener needs to be selective and balance what is said with what he or she hears with the personality of the moaner. When such complaints get into one of the letterzines, then it's even more important and difficult to strain them. You may have no idea if the person who is rabidly biting another has had earlier correspondence with the victim; such vicious snarling may be based on what was in the correspondence versus the letter in the letterzine. If the attacking letter seems completely incomprehensible as well as weak in its logic, then the attack probably stemmed from private correspondence. This is the kind of interaction that makes the Fan Press such a hotbed of action and intrigue, and keep the barf bag promoters in business.

As a result of my listening, various stories with similar characteristics have turned up. Many of the horror stories are based on lack of adequate pre-production. As in movie-making, pre-production is very important. Delicate handling of the process of soliciting work or submitting work and the handling of such work is important. Deadlines are important... but they also need to be realistic. The editor, author, artist, and reader all, need to understand the time requirements, and each other's problems, and be tolerant. Deadlines are good things when realistically contemplated. In the pre-production phase, the editor should take into account as many as possible of the outside factors that will conflict with the time they will have to spend on the zine. School, jobs, men, women, "real" life, etc., all may be a problem. Of course, there are unforeseeable problems, like deaths and breakups. It comes down to in the end, that if you make a commitment, (and those who say you should be committed get to type thirty pages without a ribbon) to do a fanzine, and have taken money for it, then you must seriously consider the amount of time you will have to spend on it, and not treat it casually. You have a responsibility to the people who have sent money or work. And you though fanzines were just for fun! Well, it fun doing a zine. But whenever you deal with other people, you must be careful not to totally alienate them by just being careless.

Another unpleasant problem which I have heard of happening at least twice should be mentioned. Several years back a zine was published which had stories very, very much like another zine. There was much fang-gnashing and hair-tearing, and fandom made their disapproval evident. (The second issue of that zine was far more original I hear.) Well, now I have heard from several sources of a similar situation as applied to art. A zine apparently made unauthorized use of art from a number of sources, changing the items slightly with opaque white painty and removing the credit line or signature. The illos were also cut apart from other story illos. The artists inquired (acidly, no doubt) and were sent a blanket apology. This sort of incident puzzles me. Why do people become thieves in such a small circle of people? They are bound to get caught. It comes down to trust in the end, trust in fandom. You have to trust these people who say they will print your work or send you a zine. This trust is broken, by those who don't send the promised item after a reasonable amount of time; who abuse you (the writer/artist) by adding or subtracting things without consulting you and in a number of other ways which back issues of JUNDLAND WASTES, COMLINK or the defunct ALDERAAN show. Just like real life, eh? The point is that with careful planning the potential for problems and careless inflicting of pain, diminishes. I want to add that most of the people I have met through STAR WARS fandom are trustworthy souls who do have consideration for others. Most of them.

Don't think that mentioning money is indelicate, in the Victorian sense, or that it shouldn't be mentioned in public. We publish for fun and egoboo, to meet other people, sharpen skills, and other reasons you've probably heard mentioned. But we can't do it without money.

The REAL Perils of Publishing are not in the pre-production, or the layout area, or in getting a printer well trained (here, Rover!). They lie in human relations. How do you, as an editor, lay out the format of your zine without hurting anyone's feelings? Who should go first? Who doesn't mind going last? How can you give ego support to young writers and artists but still separate them all over the zine? How do you deal with a contributor who is continually late, but very close to you? What happens when you are just not "comfortable" with your contributor any more? Do you wait forever for an artist or writer to send his or her work or call (nag) them? While you, as editor, are justified in calling to remind them of the obligation, it doesn't breed good fannish relations.

Many, many fans write for their friends or contacts to publish, not taking chances with strangers. Tales of cruel editors who send back work dripping with red ink, or eat the. story ("It was never heard from again!") abound. Some fen will send to editors that they've heard good reviews about, another potentially dangerous process. The editor may have liked their friend's work but just tear theirs apart. A friend may be very different as an editor, even a close friend. And since the fannish fishpond has become more dangerous since the late 70 s (Don't believe me? Check the Fan Press reviews and the reactions to such), it behooves a new writer, artist or editor to notice what's swimming around in it (Sharks! Piranha! GUPPIES!!!) before leaping in with abandon. Don't assume anyone will accept you at first contact. They may decide you are inferior" stuff or unimportant to their ambition except as ego fodder or decided that you are an interesting person to know. Also, when you do get to the "top", that it is a long fall down.

One person told me, cynically, that "Today's darling is tomorrow's pariah". But, hey, if you've got talent, and gall, jump in to the pond, feet-first — and expect that others will be startled by your action and may react differently than you thought they would. If you're more tentative, you may go unnoticed...which may be safer but not be what you had in mind either. There are no safe routes through the turbulent waters out there. Just be careful. By putting out your own zine or publishing in someone else's, you are putting yourself on the line to be judged by others. What impression would you like to give others? That is the real peril of publishing.

Reactions and Reviews

[It is a subject] already covered many times in other zines, but [is] well-written and with some unique viewpoints which freshen the subject matter. Wells' 'The Perils of Publishing' is a "how-to" on publishing a fanzine for the first time, full of the Fear and Trembling a new zined feels at the thoughts of criticism from the general fannish public, especially in the form of reviews. (It makes me feel a bit guilty about every less-than-complimentary word I've put into this critique [of "Contraband"]!).