There are many zine- and print-related events which encourage people to create physical objects for their own and their community’s reading enjoyment. There’s the 24-Hour Zine Thing, Revenge of Print and right now UK-based Pushpin Zines is encouraging creators to make a personal commitment to make that zine they’ve been mulling over.
It’s a pretty easy commitment to make. By signing up for the challenge, participants agree to make a zine before July 1, 2013. There will be no one tracking your progress, but the idea is that by making the public commitment to zinemaking, you will be able to motivate yourself to get things done. As an added incentive, if you add the 2012 Zine Challenge image (shown above) to your blog or website, you may start being reminded by friends and readers that people are waiting for your zine.
A final incentive from Pushpin is prizes. Participants who send their zine to Pushpin before July 1, 2013 will be added to a draw to win a £10 voucher to buy zines from Pushpin. There will also be the opportunity to distribute your finished product through Pushpin and, if you send your zine to the UK distributor, they will write about your zine in a final round-up on their website.
If you visit the list of challenge participants on Pushpin’s site you can read testimonies from creators who have accepted the challenge. One first-time zinemaker says “I’ve always been really into zines. They’re extremely fun to thumb through and admire. I’d love to create some sort of art zine, but I’m not really sure how I’ll approach it as of yet. But, I’m super stoked to do some research and get to work on my first zine!.”