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Hi! I know you're very much "in" the zine community (i loved your hqmm zine!) so I had a question that I was wondering if you could answer. on projects where it was a physical zine, how did you order them/manufacture them? because most places refuse to do fanworks. Thank you & have a good day!
Hi there & good day to you too 👋🏼
Firstly, thank you so much for the compliment, I'm really happy you liked the Murder Mystery Zine (it was a really cool project with a lot of amazing people) 💕
I am by no means a big production guru (there are mods out there with years of experience and dozens of projects more than me who really know almost every single manufacturer there is and have tried and compared them all) but I'm always happy to answer zine related questions and help to the best of my knowledge — I'll put the booklet related tips below the cut but if you have any other zine or production questions, please don't hesitate to ask again or DM me ☺️
To answer your question, for physical booklets, I, personally, tend to use Mixam UK, because in my opinion they have the best price/cost relationship (there are certainly manufacturers who deliver a better quality and more paper options, but if you are trying to keep costs low, then Mixam UK does a very good job! You need to pay attention though, because Mixam also has a US site, but I would advise against using them, because they are both more expensive and their quality is at best acceptable and at worst subpar — depending on what size and page count you have it can also be cheaper to order from the UK site with shipping to the US that ordering directly from the US site, so be sure that you are on the right Mixam site. There is also a Canadian & Australian site but I have not yet worked with them so I can't speak to how they compare—as far I remember the hearsay though, they seem to be doing okay) ☺️
I have also been part of 1 zine where the booklet was ordered with PixartPrinting (though not as a moderator), who seem to do great work with their finishing (though that was some years ago and last I checked they don't offer shipping to the US/international anymore, only EU, but you might be able to get more info if you contact customer service). I have also heard good things about Jukeboxprint and Skating Bear (especially if you want things like foil on the cover, etc), but never actually used them myself because from what I hear and the prices that I have been quoted for past projects, you need to reach a high quantity (250 & upwards) for the costs to balance out. Mixam has recently also added foil options but I have not yet tried them so I can't judge their foil work.
All of these have a website where you can order directly, except Skating Bear, who operate via Alibaba.
I have also never heard of any of these manufacturers (or any other) cancel or refuse an order because it was fan work, so not sure where you have that information from 🤔 I have only heard of a single instance where a sticker manufacturer wanted proof that you could use the designs (I guess they became suspicious because the designs had different art styles?) and it was all resolved by the respective merch artists sending them a message that the project had permission to use their designs—as far as I recall this was a very small, local manufacturer though and it was also some years ago. So, if you are trying to print locally and go somewhere in-person, small shops may very well have individual policies on not printing fan works or be more pro-active when checking the designs for originality 🤔
If you had a big/online manufacturer refuse your order because it was fan work though, I would be really curious to hear which company it was, if you don't mind sharing! That could be really helpful information for future and ongoing projects which company to avoid or have a backup plan for.
I think that was it, my 2 cents on making physical zine booklets, and I really hope that it all makes sense and was roughly the information you were hoping for 😅 If there is anything that you are unsure about or want more information on, please don't hesitate to ask or DM me directly 💕
I only got my first 2 zines to completion because I had amazing co-moderators around me giving advice and sharing experiences, so I am always open to passing on that knowledge to others and help them realize their zine ideas ☺️
your story snippet was actually the tipping point for my buying the gilgazine (it arrived today!!) and its so good! absolutely loved your section as well as everyone else's so thanks for being amazing!!!
Oh wow, thank you so so much for the nice words!
It was my first time writing a Fate/ fic so it makes me really happy that you decided to get a copy of the zine and that you liked the writing ☺️💕
Thank you for the support ~
EDIT: The fic is now available on Ao3 btw 😉
If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not! Let’s get to know the person behind the blog! ❤️
Ahhhh, this sounds fun, let's go ✨ Fact 0: I put this in my drafts as not to loose it and then totally forgot about it anyway because my brain is essentially a potato 😂😅 In other news I really enjoy singing shanties (and am arguably very bad at it or anything that has vaguely to do with music - like... absolutely no talent what so ever), I row(ed) for sport — taking a break due to yee old pandemic but hoping to be back on the water next spring —, aaaand my all time favorite movie is "The Road to Eldorado" (the music, the characters/dynamic, the memes... *dreamy sigh*).
hey :D I really enjoy your seijoh plants AU; maybe a nekoma version?
Ah thank you so much ^-^<3 I'm really happy that you like the plants AU.
To be entirely honest, this was more of a joke idea we had on the IwaOi BigBang server based on some silly talk and how there are animal versions of many characters but not Seijoh because they don’t have a mascot animal and less a serious AU concept, so I probably won't do any other teams as plants >.< But if that is something you're interested in, I will definitely keep it in mind for the case that I ever run out of ideas ~
Thank you for the tag~ Please tell me more about/show me more of How not to be an immortal 101 with Oikawa Tooru! It sounds super fun! ^o^
ahshs okay, so I need to see that I don't start rambling about that one XD It's an IwaOi spin-off to my TsukkiYama Urban Fanstasy University AU. Also mini TW for gore and death to be safe.
Essentially Oikawa was born during the Copper Age, though his tribe is betrayed and he gets murdered on his wedding night by his own fiancé. But because Oikawa is Oikawa he refuses to accept his death and resurrects himself out of sheer pettiness, ending up as an undead spirit of vengeance who feeds on the hearts of the living. Queue to Oikawa just... stumbling through history and finding himself in all kinds of places until he meets a half-dragon hatchling (Iwa) and due to a lack of alternatives decides to start life over (again).
Result: Oikawa Tooru, accidentally immortal, Mayan deity, bane of the Roman Empire, inventor of the great pyramids and parttime Oracle of Delphi, follows his boyfriend to university to study architecture and discovers that his entire life experience of ~8k years is practically useless. Because none of it could have prepared him for dealing with a creative slump on his design assignment, Ushijima following him around campus and pestering him to join Shiratorizawa fraternity and Hanamaki continuously stealing his glasses because he's too lazy to go buy his own pair.
So long things short ~ lots of uni shenanigans and Seijoh 4 being dorks, with a good pinch of yee old angst and relationship drama + some urban fantasy magic and mystery spice 👀
Hello fellow writer of fanfiction. What's your favorite fanfiction you are currently working on and what was the inspiration for it?
Oh my gosh, I totally forgot this was still in my ask box, I am so, SO sorry >.<
Anyways out of the current ones it is really hard to choose but given that the ask is a bit older I’ll cheat a little and make it “Rise of a King” (on Ao3).
It’s an Alternative Sports AU which I created for the Haikyuu Olympics Big Bang and the inspiration just... appeared - I was torn between this and another pitch but I decided on the IwaOi story because at that time these characters just came to me more easily.
Thanks for the ask and sorry again for forgetting about it ^-^'’
Tell us about urban fantasy tsukkiyama!!
Gosh I would LOVE to, but tbh I don’t know if I’m even allowed to tell since the story is for the HQ Urban Fantasy Bang (Go follow them btw, there were some wicked cool summaries and everyone involved is really giving it their all ~)
So... I’m not sure how much info I’m allowed to give but the centre of the story is Uni Student Yamaguchi who has no idea what kind of species he is and Kuro and Bokuto are trying to help him figure it out. Tsukki and a whole lot of other characters are also there, but the focus will be on Yams!
Genre-wise it will be somewhere between comedy, an overdose in wholesome friendship/mentorship, some mild blood and angst, fluff, pining and BoKuro sharing half a brain cell >.<