Self publish how to start?

Does anyone here know how to do cover art for things like magazines or zine? I've been playing around with the idea for awhile know and I have MS Publisher on my computer and I was figuring I would give it a go and try my hand out. I don't really know the first think about self publishing, can anyone give a hand.

First of all, congrats on deciding to start up a zine. Indie-publishing is a time-honored tradition and a great way to get some publishing experience under your belt. In addition we live in a heavily commericalized time, so having independent voices out there is always a good thing. With regards to cover art, you have to think about what you are able to do and what your resources are. So you're using MS Publisher. I don't know if that app exports to PDF, but if not you'll have to find a copy service that takes Publisher files. As far as the cover art goes, you have to determine your art/drawing/painting abilities. Lets assume you have no art experience. That's okay. Go with collage illustrations. Basically grab some magazines, newspapers, or even printouts of your own smartphone photos and start cutting out all the relevant parts. Then take those parts and assemble them into a hybrid image. If you need text in the image, you can do the same thing with printouts of letters. This should get you going until you find someone to provide art services. Since you're also asking about self-publishing in general, here are some thoughts (for what they're worth): Have a specific topic for the zine, or at least a specific point for the issue. Being general is not necessarily a good hook for a potential viewer. Mainstream magazines can get away with that thanks to production value and a large budget. The exact topic is something you're going to have to figure out on your own, but at least in the beginning keep a narrow focus. The actual design and layout of a zine can be done using whatever tools you would like to use. You mentioned MS Publisher, which I have no experience with, but if it works, go for it. Some zines have been made by hand, so really it comes down to "whatever works" Getting the thing manufactured is going to take some thought. Zines in the 80s and earlier were made using copy machines and then hand-bound (staplers or more traditional techniques). Today you can take a PDF to FedexKinkos and just place an order. The pages will be printed, stapled and folded for you. That takes money, however, so you might want to print at home. Inkjets are cheaper, but the ink may run if the page gets wet. Laserjets are more expensive, but the ink is some kind of wax base that is less likely to run. If you print at home, binding will be an issue. If you print on double-sided 8.5x11 (assuming American standards) then you can bind the zine by gluing one edge of the pages and then putting a cover on top. Look up "perfect binding" on YouTube. You can also sew the pages together, but as the number of copies grows, this will become cumbersome. Office supply stores like Staples of Office Depot may have a type of stapler that costs about $100 or so. It will have a long reach, which will enable you to staple the center of an 11x17 sheet of paper. This means you could print up a bunch of double-sided 11x17 pages, staple them, then fold them. The outer edges of the zine will appear uneven, so you might want to take an X-acto knife and pare down the edges. You'll see what I mean if you try to bind your zine at home. If you really want to get fancy, you might be interested in a self-publishing service like Lulu.com, although that's mostly for books. Everything will get handled, but you'll have to purchase the books just like a normal buyer. I don't think they'll give free copies to distribute. A potential resource for you might be "Watcha Mean, What's a Zine?". This is a book on zine-making. I have a hard copy, otherwise I would post it. You can find it by ISBN: 978-0-618-56315-9. It was published in the US by a company called Graphia and was written by Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson. It was printed in 2006, but I don't think the environment has changed enough to make the book truly outdated. Hope that helps! Good luck!

>>2898 Wow, thanks a lot it really helps a lot! your really big help!

>>2900 Happy to help! Good luck!

i just finished creating a zine. now the question is, how do i market it? it is completely free, but i just want people to read it. where/how can i spread this into circulation? here's a backup link in case the attachment fails: https://layer01.club/FHYS.pdf

>>3252 after looking around a bit I found two reccomended sites http://www.magcloud.com/ https://issuu.com/ Both have a free pdf hosting account with limited options, as for getting readers, looking at the zine, it seems to be dedicated for a smaller audience (lainchan) that's not a bad thing, but you won't get far hosting and publishing it to a small forum like this. Best of luck lainon!

Also look at https://itch.io/ They have a model whereby people can pay what they think the zine is worth. In addition a minimum price can be set. So you can set a minimum price of, say, $2 and if someone likes it enough, they can add extra for however much they want. Or, you can set no minimum and buyers can pay what they please, including $0. It's a good way of gauging the value of your work. The main issue is getting people to notice your work. With that you have to basically hustle to get people to look at the product. You could create zine samples and pass them around. You could find any remaining indie bookstores and see if they support indie zines. If they do, see if you can deliver a few samples to them. If you really get serious, then conventions are a good place to go and pass stuff around or even leave randomly on tables. I see that all the time. Create some flyers to pass around as well. I hesitate to suggest social media, but the truth is that building a Twitter or Facebook following would help. I've attached a PDF that is comics-centric, but still discusses the ins and outs of building a business. The author has a successful comic book line built under his own efforts with no mainstream backing. Even if you don't want to go as far as he did, it's worth going through his book. Hope that helps a bit. Good luck!