Kyousouka
(?)Community Member
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- Posted: Fri, 02 May 2014 17:52:54 +0000
Paraeeeee
Kyousouka
I don't make zines, but as a customer, I can say that if a zine looked like it was printed on an inkjet printer, I wouldn't want to buy it unless I really wanted to support the creator or it was exceptionally cheap (under $3 or so for that page count, assuming a size of about A5). I also wouldn't pay more than that for something that looked like it was printed on a laser printer, but I might be more inclined to buy it as long as the printing was crisp enough.
Printing at home is very expensive if you factor in the cost of the ink, so make sure you account for that. The cost of toner tends to be lower, but is not negligible either. Don't forget all the indirect costs, too! It might turn out that making this zine will cost you more than you could make back with a reasonable price for it.
Thanks a bunch! I'll try light cardstock then, probably. The printing costs aren't too bad, printing the zine would be about... $12, if I staple it myself.
Apparently, though, if I print with KA-BLAM, each is about $2.50, which is... really cheap. Interior 60# high bright paper (???) and glossy cover. Do you know anything about their quality?
Lulu's is a little more expensive, but the paper is 70#. I think that's better?
Also, thank you so much for your advice! I went to my first artist alley a month ago (Tekko), and browsing through this thread helped me a lot! Ugh, thanks to all of you terribly nice people!!!
You haven't said whether you're printing in colour or B&W; that's a pretty important bit of information xP
Ka-blam's quality is so-so but it's good enough for a zine, especially at that price. I don't know what Lulu's quality is like these days, but 9 years ago it wasn't any better than the 3-year-old Ka-blam books I have. Note however, that I can only speak of their colour printing, I haven't seen their B&W books.
The # refers to the weight of the paper. 60# is pretty flimsy (and is my chief complaint about the books I have from them) and #70 is better, but you should consider the cost and the value of that paper to your customers. I personally prefer heavier paper and I think even uninformed customers would prefer the feel of it, but to most people, it wouldn't justify a significant increase in cost. So, you shouldn't increase the final price of the book if you go with the better paper, but do take into account that it might increase the chance the books will sell by a little bit (in other words, you'll make less profit per book, but you might sell more books).