Berit

Fan
Name:	Berit
Alias(es):
Type:	zine ed
Fandoms:	Star Trek: TOS, K/S
Communities:
Other:
URL:
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Berit is a Kirk/Spock fan. She is the editor of the German zine Nevasa.

From Scribbling Women: Editors Talk Back

What made you decide to print artwork given that it is expensive and difficult to reproduce?: “… reproduction is not such a problem here. At first we don’t sell that much zines as the US publishers, I think. Second, one of my co-editors has the chance to make colour copies at her work from time to time so even that’s not that expensive. She copies the art for us. The black and white we do in a copy-shop.”

When you decided to publish a zine what were your thoughts about art?: “Til 2003 there was a German newsletter-zine, some sort of a mix between the KSP and a real zine with stories and recs and discussion etc. I was a member of the club (called “ClassiK/S”) who published this, as were my two co-publishers. As we wrote more stories than this newsletter could print the idea was born to publish a real story zine. At first we wanted to do it with this fan club but then there were some differences with them and we decided to go our own way. In fact we first had the stories and looked for some people who could illustrate them. My co-editor Myra draws and a couple of our authors also, so mostly a story comes with drawing added or we asked them if they could do a picture for their story.”

How do you find artists? Have you chased artists you like or just waited for the submissions to come rolling in?!: “We got our authors (and therefore artists) first through the club and now merely through our website and the GermanK/S-group at yahoo. Some just came in, some I just asked. If there was an artist I would like to participate I would ask. So far as said they all are authors as well.”

What was your policy—would you take all art? Or only that judged to be good? What is your policy on very explicit material? And CGA?: “So far we’re merely lucky to get art. We don’t have that many artists here like in the English fandom.” I think she means the US unless there are many K/S artists hiding out in the UK? Berit continues, “For a Holmes zine I once asked some artists in the US and GB to help because I couldn’t find more then one in Germany. But with all the shipping costs and free zine- copies that’s just too expensive. I also think the K/S-artist are bound to their publishers.” She goes on, “Nevertheless, if a piece of art is not good we surely wouldn’t print it. Thankfully I think we got some talented artists here nevertheless. We never felt the need to refuse artwork so far.” So will she print very explicit material? “Sure!” And CGA? “So far we haven’t had one, but if it was good we wouldn’t have a problem about printing it.”

How do you feel about the visual impact of the zines you produced?: “I don’t know. I have to admit that I’m a philistine when it comes to art. I backed off art class at school as soon as I could. And personally I rather buy a zine with well written fiction and less or no art than one with good art but bad stories. So for me the quality and quantity of the fiction is more important. Art is a nice addition but not the main focus.”