publishing_and

It's tempting when making stuff (especially publications) to finish the bulk/body of the work and stop there. Making zines and publications is time consuming enough as it is. However one of the things that is most exiting about printed matter is all of the little embellishments and features that make up the publication. Even just the quality of the paper or the method of binding is enough to set one publication apart from another. Encountering a zine or a publication is a physical experience, and you should play to that as much as possible. The more there is to experience in and around the zine the more exiting it is for the reader.

MAKING ZINES AND PUBLICATIONS

Making the zine or publication is relatively straightforward. It's just sheets of paper folded/collated and put together.

One thing to remember when preparing them digitally is that if you are printing your zine the amount of pages will always be a multiple of 4, as a sheet of paper folded in half has 4 sides/pages. Make sure you add in extra/blank pages to accommodate for this.

As for binding if you are producing the publication yourself you are generally limited to stapling, perfect binding, hand sewing or ring binding.

However even these simple methods are potentially inaccessible during the lock down. If you don't have the kit to use any of these methods, there are a few binding alternatives that use things that can often be found lying around the house;

It is also quite easy to replicate perfect binding at home (the glue wont last for years and years but it will hold the book/zine together for a decent amount of time;

TOP TIP
this method can also be used to make stacks of tear off postcards (if you use card and don't use as much glue).

EMBELLISHING

As i said before, once you have made the publication it's important to not forget about all the other little bits that you can add to something to make it look nicer.

>The simplest way to make the zine more interesting is just to use different types of paper or different methods of printing. Using different colours/different weights (thicknesses) of paper can help section up the publication, and add a variety of textures to make the reading of it a more exiting tactile experience.
Using different methods of printing can also help to add emphasis to different sections of the book, and also save on cost.
For instance if you had a book of text with 4 illustrations that you wanted to accompany it. You could get the illustrations risographed or printed on a high quality colour printer, but the bulk of the book could just be printed in monotone/black and white on a photocopier. This is much cheaper than getting the whole book printed professionally in full colour/RISO.

>Using a heavier weight of/thicker paper for the cover of a zine is a good way of making it feel like a more professional product.

>Another way of making individual images or pages stand out is by using "tip ins" or inserts. A tip in is a traditional method of putting colour images into books from when colour printing was still incredibly expensive. The images would be printed in high quality on glossy paper and then glued just along the top edge and stuck onto the page. This is a goo way of inserting glossy high quality images into books if you don't want to use glossy paper stock for the entire publication.

> You can also just insert small prints/flyers into publications. This works especially well in perfect bound books as the paper is held together very tightly at the spine and if a piece of paper is slotted in it usually holds quite well. This is a good way of adding in material that you don't want to be explicitly part of the publication but you do want to include. I.e: flyers (for relating events), sticker sheets, prints and other small ephemera.

>Belly bands are also a good addition to publications. A belly band is just a strip of paper that is wrapped around the book width-ways, holding it shut. This is a good way of preparing publications for sale as it keeps them from folding, being opened or damaged before they are sold. It is also a good place to include information about yourself/practice that is relevant, but that you did not want to put in the book. Mainly however it is just a good way of making your book/zine cover look more dynamic/interesting.

>Labels and stickers are also a good way of spicing up your publications (check the label/sticker page for more about how to do this yourself).

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and at the end of the day, any small alteration/slight deviation from the basic zine/publication template is going to make your work look and feel more exiting. Experiment, try stuff out, use different sizes/types of paper, do anything and everything to make your work not just a set of 5 a4 spreads folded in half and stapled together.