Planning

I don't believe in interest checks.

Well, let's qualify that statement. I don't believe in interest checks that rely heavily on letting the general public make decisions that you should be able to do. Figuring out the marketability of a zine is one thing, but pricing and cost control strategies should be up to the mods. You should know how much you can afford to spend for a zine if it doesn't break even.

From the beginning, and unless it is a free digital zine, you need to think about money. Run a zine with the understanding you are commissioning 20-60 creators for their time and skills, because quite frankly a free PDF for work that shows up in a physical product is disrespectful of a creative's work. Have the means to at least provide them with free physical bundles, even if it is a charity zine. (They can opt out of it, sure, but you should be able to give them the option.)

A Checklist of Decisions

Budget:

• How much money are you and your mods able to set aside to bring this zine to life, regardless of its commercial success?
• Is the zine for-profit or charity?
• Who is handling the PayPal/Stripe account? (Generally one person will have to, though it is advisable that everyone on the team has access to the accounts in case of emergencies. The person whose name the PayPal/Stripe is connected to is not always the same person running the budget.)

The Zine:

• What is your zine's theme?
• What rating is it going to be?
• How big is the zine itself going to be (size and page count)?

Contributors:

• Based on the page count of your zine, how many artists and writers can you take in?
• Are you taking in guest contributors? How many and what is the split between artists and writers?
• Which mods, if any, are contributing pieces and will thus take page slots?

Merch Specs:

• What kind of merchandise are you including?
• Where are you sourcing merchandise from?
• How much will these merch items cost? Are there minimum order quantities (MOQs) to consider?
• How would you package the merch (and how much will it add to the weight of the packages)?
• Will there be any stretch goals? (Stretch goals are merch items that have a high MOQ and therefore won't make sense to buy unless in bulk.)

Mod Responsibilities:

• Who is on your team? What kind of experiences do they have?
• What kind of responsibilities are you splitting? Which responsibilities are owned by specific mods? How will you cover for mods in case of emergencies? (Shipping may be the one responsibility that can be the hardest to back up, especially if the mods are not geographically near each other. In my experience I was lucky to live in a city where, in an emergency, a friend could come and help if needed.)
• How will you communicate with each other? What kind of things should you communicate? (Important to set ground rules for how long absences from Discord/email are acceptable, for example.)
• How will you manage decision-making? The bigger the team the harder it can be to coordinate, and some decisions will have to be made faster than others, so a 100% consensus may not always be possible. Decide unanimously, decide early, so when conflicting opinions do arise you already have a predetermined method of resolving it.

Accounts:

Figure out what your zine name is early, because it affects everything that follows here. Make sure you and your mod team have a way of accessing all these accounts too, and that you know where to keep all the passwords.

• Which social media sites do you want to advertise yourself on? (Tumblr, Twitter, CuriousCat, Instagram, etc.)
• Where will most of the information about your zine live? (Carrd, Tumblr, Google Sites)
• How can people reach you best? (Email, CuriousCat, Tumblr Asks, etc)
• Other accounts:
  • Shop platform (BigCartel, Tictail, Storenvy, Etsy)
  • Payment processing service (Stripe, PayPal)
  • Mailing List service (MailChimp)