Some of you might recall zines.  This little self-publishing trend was "big in the 1990s" (and late 1980s) but faded...yet still survives in altered form.

 

Zines tend to be wordy and personal, but there are a very few place-based ones.  LIke "Brooklyn" and "Geneva" (both from NY...Brooklyn and Geneva, NY). 

 

And theres going to be one...this summer I hope...from Dayton.

 

I plan on reworking some Urban Ohio posts and posts from my old blog, + new material, into a Dayton-oriented zine.  Tentatively titled "The Dayton Documentation Project", since the main theme will be to document the vacant/abandoned cityscape before the bulldozers get to it...plus the usual historical/geographical/vernacular architecture hoo-hah y'all come to know and love from my posts here. 

 

There will be some "people stuff' too, to give a bit of human interest (just talking about buildings is boring and cold)...mostly music/art things, but also person-on-the-street pix, like they used to have in the old (as in 1980s-era) i-D (which started as a zine, I think).

 

Of course, with stuff like this, "if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it does it make a sound?". 

 

So I have to distribute it somehow. 

 

Obviously Id be sending it out to review zines like Xerography Debt, Broken Pencil, Zine World, maybe MaximumRR (since they do zine reveiws beyond just music stuff). 

 

But I'd like to do a hard-copy distro to music stores and bookstores here in Ohio (& maybe in Lexington and Louisville and Indy).  Interestingly I have no intered in distributing this in Dayton proper since the audience is envisioned to be out-of-town people.

 

The question is HOW and WHERE?  Any advice? 

 

My first attempt at this was maybe Shake-It Records in Cincy.  I talked to the owner or manager there and he said he'd have to look at it before he'd agree to it.  We didnt even talk about pricing or how that would work.

 

So I need some advice.  How would one do this.  How is it usually done....selling self-published (really self-xeoroxed) stuff in record or book stores? 

 

Or maybe this doesnt make much sense and I should stick to publicizing via review zines.

 

 

You will need to do direct connection with the retailers, once you have an actual product. It is essentially consignment, and it is really about personal selection. If someone sells zines, they read zines, so you need to write something that they care about. But ultimately, they put it up on the rack, maybe it sells, you collect the leftovers when you restock with new issues. Make a list of possible locations, write a nice letter, and include several of the zines in the stack. Maybe even say, the first month is free to retailers, but ask them to sell it at the cover price. Followup once you get the ball rolling. See if it is selling. There are small scale distributors of zines, but frankly, if you are writing something Dayton specific, hand to hand is probably as far as you need to go. 

I can't speak to publishing, however, I have never traveled to urban explore, but I'd be interested in coming down from Cleveland and shooting some of these buildings you are talking about.

^hey jeffery i sent you a PM (which may or may not be helpful)

I would expect to take a loss on the project, but I like the idea.

 

There used to be several DIY record stores in Cincy in the '90s that stocked lots of zines (in the Corryville area especially), but they and the zines are long gone. I don't think the owners were very cunning business people, LOL.

 

You might try Everybody's Records in Pleasant Ridge (Cincy). There is also this weird record store in OTR. I've never actually been there; it's kind of mythical to me. Its name doesn't help: Another Part of the Forest. I assume they're still open(?).

 

Off topic: Does anyone remember The Void punk club/record store in Cincinnati in the mid/late '90s? I think it was in a building on Short Vine, but you entered from Glendora. They weren't open long, due to code violations. Good times!

There is also this weird record store in OTR. I've never actually been there; it's kind of mythical to me. Its name doesn't help: Another Part of the Forest. I assume they're still open(?).

 

This week's Soapbox has a story on this store.

http://www.soapboxmedia.com/features/071911hotwax.aspx