It’s been a while. Far too long in fact. I sincerely hope you’re all keeping your head above the water during these crazy times?! From my perspective, I’m delighted to say that things are changing around here. Now that I’ve officially set up my photographic business I intend to publish thoughts here more regularly. Let's start with a weekly post, with a Friday deadline and see how we go. Who’s in?
Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to walk you through my experience of producing and self-publishing a zine, so that you don’t make the mistakes that I did… unless you want to of course. I suspect if you’re reading this then you’re probably thinking about producing one too? There’s likely all manner of thoughts going through your head right now: Will anyone buy it? Am I good enough to do this? Do I have the correct skill set to self-publish? What should I have for lunch? These uncertainties and more fired though my brain before setting sail with the project. All I can say is go for it… zines are red-hot at the moment, and for good reason. It’s a beautifully authentic way to drag your work from the throw-away world of social media, to craft something permanent, something real, something tangible. Stepping into the unknown will always bring with it a level of fear, but from my experience, that is also the magical space in which the good stuff happens.
From the soaring heights of conquering your fears to the bumpy landing of dry logistics, part one is going to be about choosing and using a desktop publisher. The closest experience of using any publishing software I have to date is a rudimentary grasp of those word-processing stalwarts, Word and Pages. Would these negligible skills be transferrable to make the leap up to DTP?
Hope’s Nose
You don’t need me to tell you that YouTube means that learning virtually anything is possible these days, so off the bat I scanned various videos from folk who have made zines in the past. Adobe InDesign, it seems, is the publishing industry standard, but like Lightroom and Photoshop, is offered on a subscription basis. Adobe charge £20 per month for the pleasure, but have a thrifty option which would be to get everything ready and plump for a weeks free trial instead. The problem there was that if I wanted to do a zine again (newsflash: I do) then I’d have to cough up the pennies. If it was a large part of my job to publish content, it might be something I’d consider as there’s endless tutorials about every aspect of the programme available online. But when I already fork out £10 pm to Adobe for LR/PS, waving goodbye to an extra £20 sounded expensive. Turns out it was.
A quick search around the subject and a few reviews later and I was downloading Affinity Publisher for a fraction of the price. I was super-lucky with my timing as they were running a 50% sale over the summer so picked up the app for the princely sum of £23. That’s not per month, that’s a one off payment. I understand ‘no-brainer’ is the colloquial term to apply here. Even at full price (£49), it soon pays for itself when compared with the Adobe option, and I only scratched the surface of what was possible within the programme when putting together the zine. One happy customer.
In terms of using Affinity, I found it to be relatively intuitive even for a technological luddite such as myself. There were only a couple of times when I got to the effing and jeffing stages of frustration - something which happens on a minute by minute basis if I ever dare delve into Photoshop. Thats the real reason I don’t digitally manipulate my work (joke). For the most part, I was good to go after skimming through a 30 minute tutorial on AP (thank you Rachel). Please believe me when I say that if I was competent with the basics after half an hour, then you will be too.
Anstey’s Cove
Starting out with a new project was ultra simple. Clicking File > New brings up a host of standard options. I’d already decided that I wanted the zine to be A5, so the dimensions were inputted automatically. You then need to choose the number of pages you envisage (I ended up adding more) remembering to work in multiples of four. Work in the CMYK colour space and don’t forget to include a bleed (3mm in every direction, as instructed by my printers).
When designing the zine, I just copied and pasted once I’d used the ‘Place Image Tool’ on the first page as I wanted most of the images to be of the same size and position throughout. If you opt for a beautiful full page spread, the image should also go beyond the page edges, up to the bleed borders. Thankfully the programme 'snaps’ these into place as you drag the image placement window to fit. For the cover design, I had opted to play with the title of the zine, You R Here (see image below) and include a pin. Again, this was straightforward to do and similar to how you’d create a shape in Word or Pages. For the colour scheme, I just played around with contrasting tones from a Wes Andersonesque palette. The yellow colour I used was ‘mustard’ and you can input the standardised ‘Colour Co-ordinates’ which were easy to Google. The dusty pink colour was one that I’d settled on from tickling sliders within the app.
My only criticism of the programme so far is that it would be great to include a ‘create spine’ button within your document, rather than having to start a separate document and generate one yourself. In terms of the thickness required for the spine (if you are getting your zine perfect bound), it depends on the number of pages and the thickness of paper you choose, but again your printers will be able to help you here.
On to one of the most exciting parts of the entire process: selecting and sequencing your work. You may already have a project that you wish to publish, and however dreadful this sounds you’ll surely have to ‘kill your babies' in due course, or some of them at least. Be your harshest critic. I started by throwing a load of possibles into a folder then from that pool worked out which ones were the must-haves. For me, it's important to have quieter moments in the sequence; I’m just not sure you can have a book full of belters. Think of it like music, even the most banging tracks have a rise and fall. The great thing about a photobook is that it doesn’t need to be all of your best shots ever. There will be images that you’ve taken that really speak to you, but perhaps wouldn’t be ‘enough’ to stand alone as an Instagram post. Those are the photographs that are given space to breathe in a zine, and it’s wonderful to be able to give them life outside of your hard drive.
The next step is where your creativity really comes to the fore - the actual sequencing and pairing of photographs. Whilst in all honesty, this is where it can make or break the zine (no pressure), the good news is that you already have the visual skills required, given that you are a photographer. Don’t get me wrong, there are some who seem to have an instinctive, preternatural gift in this department (Tyrone Williams and Isa Gelb come to mind), however I’ve definitely felt a significant improvement with practice, and you will too.
Some tips to help if you feel a little lost about joining up the dots: look for repeating colours, compositional shapes (including negative space), motifs and, importantly, feeling within the work. Often subtlety is key here, rewarding repeat viewings for the reader, but also consider having some pairings more apparent than others. To practice, try sequencing a carousel post on Instagram if you haven’t already. Pair up some from your archives, then come back to it later. Does it still work? Look to other photobooks and zines for inspiration - in terms of the progression of the story, which ones are your favourites and why? Sequencing and design go hand-in-hand so it’s worth contemplating different sizing of the images, some full bleed, images on both pages in some cases and not others, landscape mixed with portrait… the list goes on. All / some / none of these things can add to the rhythm of the collection when done correctly. I highly recommend this 10 minute lecture for a great analysis of some masterful sequencing. Thank you Tia.
If you’re still frustrated, take your time. Being a perfectionist isn’t a bad trait as a photographer! Weeks and months will yield results as you practice your sequencing more, and perhaps even provide you with the final image that ties the whole concept together (as Robin Friend found with his breathtaking monograph Bastard Countryside). Throughout this process, never lose sight of the overarching narrative of the piece. A story needs a beginning, middle and an end, and your zine should be no different.
To wind things up for this week, I should mention that I was on (I think) version 16 before sending the PDF to the printers. I would export the sequence thinking it’s a wrap, sleep on it, only to then have an uneasy feeling in the morning that three or four images were not quite sitting right. Infuriating, yes, but let's be honest here, what would be the point of it all if it were easy?
Next week I’ll be discussing the printing of the zine, and how I marketed the project, with details of what it cost me in time and money. Stay tuned :)
Addendum - I have been so impressed with Affinity Publisher that I’m seriously considering giving Affinity Photo a go. I really don’t want to keep squandering £120 per year on LR and PS when I don’t even use PS. I’m freelance now, so every single penny is counted, recounted and then totted up again. If Affinity Photo was still at its sale price I’d have bitten already. Maybe it’s time for a trial? Rest assured, if I make the switch, you’ll hear about how the two applications compare here. If anyone has any experience of the app, or want to share their experience of producing a zine, it would be great to hear in the comments below.