The High Price of Xeroxing
| Open Letter | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The High Price of Xeroxing. |
| From: | Alexis Fegan Black |
| Addressed To: | |
| Date(s): | 1990 |
| Medium: | |
| Fandom: | Meta, Zine |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The High Price of Xeroxing was a 1990 essay by well-known and prolific zine publisher and fic writer, Alexis Fegan Black in the program book for Cali-Con #2.
The letter's audience was fans who bought, read, and created print fanzines, and the subject was zine piracy.
Context
See The Revelcon Zine Piracy Letters for context of this letter, as well as ones three years later.
The Essay
"It's just one copy of one zine, and it can’t really matter."
Believe it or not, that’s become a very common rationalization in fandom today, and it’s one of the primary reasons that zine costs continue to climb higher and higher. More and more, bootleg copies of zines are turning up at conventions - either in the form of someone’s old collection or, all too often, in the hands of the zine pirates.
While high-volume zine pirating has been discussed previously, this article is primarily concerned with the low-volume zine pirates - those folks who are "just making a few copies for friends".
Recently, it came to light that a lot of people are doing this. Why? The most obvious answer is that they do it because they can. Since many fans work in large offices and/or have access to free or cheap xeroxing, it’s not surprising that they would want to help their friends out by making a "few copies". It’s not surprising, but it is detrimental - not only to editors, but to fandom as a whole.
The words, "Oh, I’ve already got Generic Zine #2 and I’d be happy to make a copy for you" will eventually be the downfall of zine fandom.
Many editors have reported that they were selling approximately 400 copies of any given issue of their zine within a year. Now, in 1990’s market, a zine editor can count herself luck if she can sell more than 200 copies in a year. It goes up geometrically rather than mathematically. ' Fandom hasn’t decreased in size. It’s increased. So why is it that zine sales haven't! Could it be Satan? Hmmm? No, it isn’t that special. It could, however, be the zine pirate - the person who doesn’t really consider themselves a pirate, but who with legitimate innocence xeroxes "one copy of K/S #11 for Betty Sue, one copy of Blake’s 7 #3 for Judy, and two copies of Beauty’s Night on the Town - one each for Debbie and Martha".
It adds up - quicker than anyone understands. Look at it this way: if only 20 people out there are each making 2 copies of any single issue of a zine for their friends, it stands to reason that the editor is selling 40 copies less than she otherwise would have. In the long run, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s happening. By the time 50 people are each xeroxing 2 copies of a zine for their friends, there won’t be any zines left.
Maybe you think it doesn’t matter. Maybe you tell yourself that the one single copy of a zine you accept from your friend won’t make a difference in the overall scope of things. In one way, you’re right. In a million years, it won't matter. But in fandom - in the here and now - it’s undermining editors’ efforts to the point that many have already left fandom, and others are in the process of shutting down zine production altogether. When it reaches the point where an average print run of a zine is less than 100 copies, the cost of that zine could be expected to be somewhere in the vicinity of $30.00. But, of course, that doesn’t affect those who continue to get the zine "for free" - because Janie has a big xerox machine in her office and stays late after work making copies.
Old long-out-of-print zines are one thing. While it might not be entirely ethical to xerox those either, it’s not that type of xeroxing we’re concerned with. Rather, it’s the folks who xerox brand new or almost new issues of zines - without care or concern to the editor, writers and artists who made the production possible. The fact that Janie may have spent $15.00 or even $20.00 for that zine does not give her the rights to it. So any xeroxing she does is, in essence, stealing, especially if the zine is still in print.
Maybe you’re one of those folks who rationalize it by saying that you wouldn’t have bought the zine anyway but you might want to read it some night curled up in front of the fire. If that’s the case, just maybe you might want to suggest to Janie that she loan you her copy - send it through the mail entrust it to the post awful etc - just like editors do. You’ll find out pretty quick that Janie doesn’t want to loan you her copy - which is why she’s so eager to make freebies for you at work. She’s not really doing you any favors. In the long run, she’s contributing to the ruination of zines. Harsh? Maybe. But statistically true. Just remember: every time you accept a freebie zine from Janie, you’re making the editor’s print run diminish. And every time that happens, you’re taking zines one step closer to extinction. Your one little copy counts.
So while it may be cheaper and easier in the short run for you to accept Janie’s overwhelming generosity, just remember that the ultimate price is much higher than the cost of any zine.
Please... think twice.