Being a green zine

Say that 5 times fast

One of the primary reasons we decided to go with a PDF version of our zine, along with refusing to accept hard-copy stories, was our belief in being as green as possible. Of course, budget also played a factor when it came time to decide how to do our first issue, but they sort of go hand in hand with each other.

It’s not about refusing to print. We are already looking ahead to doing a “Best of” anthology at the end of the year, and we are possibly going to do a limited print run of Issue 2 depending on how well subscriptions sell for Issue 1, but if we do ever print we are going to be printing on recycled paper, despite the fact that it actually costs a little bit more than regular paper. Why? Because green means that much to me.

It’s not just about the green things, however. It’s also about the time and resources required to deal with print and post. Not only would I have to pay a printer to handle the load of printing, I would also have to worry about postage, shipping and handling, covers for the magazines to protect them in transit, and the whole “dealing with the post office” routine that would have me spending countless hours at the post office, or paying someone else to do it for me. All of which takes time. Time I don’t have to spend on archaic functions that are no longer a requirement when everything can be done with the click of a mouse button.

The beauty of PDFs, above and beyond the green factor, is the sheer ease of use. You can open, you can click through, you can increase or decrease the size of the pages as you see fit, and you can save it on your hard-drive where it won’t take up space on your shelves.You can even print it out if you so choose, allowing you to read in the comfort of your chair if you don’t like reading off your laptop or monitor. Me, I have a super-comfortable office chair, a 22 inch LCD monitor that’s bigger than any hardcover novel, and if I really want to get cozy I can take the laptop with its 17 inch LCD monitor and snuggle up on the couch underneath some blankets with the cat and my wife to keep me company.

Submitting to green zine is easy, too. There’s no postage, there’s no shipping and handling, there’s no waiting in line at the post office to get your manuscript weighed so you can send it off and wait weeks/months to hear back from the publisher, all the while praying that your ‘script doesn’t end up water damaged or crumpled. There’s only write, attach, and click send.

And let’s not forget the cost. Being a green zine means we get to keep our costs down, which we can pass on to you, the readers. It also means we can spend less money on the actual publication of each issue and more money on making sure the people involved in the making of this magazine get paid as fairly as possible. That’s important to me, and while our rates aren’t as high as I’d like them to be, this is also our first issue, and like every other publication in the world you have to start somewhere. This is where I chose to start.

In the end, being a green zine is a lot of different things complied together. In the spirit of the 21st century we are moving ahead utilizing the technology that has allowed mankind to evolve past hand-cranking a printing press and relying on archaic methods of printing, and into the future where everything is digital.