what am i looking for? paper trail distro is a zine distro, so i am mostly looking for zines. i will consider other items (books, artwork, clothes, jewelry, etc), but i do want to maintain an emphasis on zines. you can peruse the catalogue to get a sense of what kinds of zines i like (& placing an order to get an even better idea of things wouldn't hurt either), but in essence, i like insightful, original, well-written, eye-catching zines on topics such as bicycles, urban planning, recipes, crafts, parenting, reproductive health & justice, mental health, sex work, punk, anarchism, feminism, anti-oppression work, death & loss, etc. this is not a comprehensive list by any stretch of the imagination, but ideally, it gives you the gist of what i'm after. i especially like personal-style zines (by an individual or comps) with a political edge.

what am i not looking for? i absolutely won't distribute anything sexist, racist, classist, homophobic, or otherwise oppressive. i make decisions about these matters according to my own political values, which are of the anarcha-feminist variety. you don't have to be an anarchist or write an anarchist zine in order to be distributed by paper trail. but i won't carry zines that offend me, this much should be obvious. aside from this basic rule, i am also unlikely to carry comics, music zines, poetry, & litzines. there are exceptions to every rule, & if you think your comic zine might be up my alley topically, send it in. but in general, these are types of zines i don't really go for so much. i'm also unlikely to carry anything that refers to itself as a "magazine" or has an ISBN number of a staff of people putting it together. again, there are exceptions, but generally i try to keep my focus on zines, & magazines aren't zines.

how do i get my project to you? easy. just mail a copy to the address below (make sure the envelopes are addressed to ciara xyerra). bear in mind that i don't look at online samples or web zines. not that i'd prefer not to look at webzines, or that i won't place a distro order based on a webzine, but that i actually will not look at your webzine or PDF-formatted zines, no exceptions. i need an actual hard copy of the zine (or other item) that i am considering for distribution. send it in along with contact info (preferably both a mailing address & an e-mail address) & your suggested wholesale & retail prices.

an interlude about wholesale prices: lately i've received a lot of zines with prohibitively high wholesale prices, which will inevitably translate to prohibitively high retail prices. the common split between distro & zinester is 60/40 or 50/50, which means you sell your zine to me for, say, $1 a copy & i sell it through the distro for $2. (an explanation of the retail mark-up can be found in the FAQ.) a $2 wholesale price results in a $4 retail price, which in some cases (a 100-page legal-sized zine, a hand-sewn letterpressed art zine, etc) is totally legitimate. but it won't fly for your average 32-page quarter-sized zine. it may be the best zine in the world, but the price will prevent people from ordering it. i understand that postage costs are going up, & finding copy scams is becoming more & more difficult. but the reason wholesale prices exist is because a distro is doing a lot of the distribution legwork for you, & they are buying in bulk (hence saving you some money on sending out thirty copies of your zines to thirty different orderers), & they therefore deserve a reduced cost. i can't pay $2 wholesale & charge $2.50 retail. if you want your zine to retail for $2.50, you have to give me a better price. i understand that zinesters are hoping to set retail prices that will enable them to break even, but distros have to break even too, or we'll stop existing. (or at least, we can hemmhorage money.) the bottom line: if i think your wholesale/retail prices are unrealistic, i may contact you & recommend a different pricing or some other alternative, but my goal is definitely to find a compromise that works for both of us.

when will i hear from you? if i want to carry your zine, you'll probably hear from me right away, especially if you included an e-mail address. we'll work out how many copies i want (i never order fewer than twenty copies, so if you think you'll be unable to fill an order that large, we may not be the best matches for each other) & how you'd like to be paid. i pay in cash, check, paypal, trade, or a combination, zinester's choice. when working with new zinesters, my policy is to pay after zines have been received. paper trail distro has been around since the summer of 2003 & has a great reputation with zinesters--ask around, no one has ever gone unpaid or been forced to hound me for payment. my policy exists because i have been burned a few times working with new zinesters who shorted me on zines i'd paid for, etc. if i don't want to carry your zine, you may not hear from me at all. i'm a pretty busy lady & don't have time to formally reject every zine i want to reject (especially without e-mail addresses). if i decide to reject your zine & all you sent was a form letter, you will almost certainly not hear from me. FORM LETTERS ARE A GREAT WAY TO ENSURE THAT YOUR ZINE WILL BE REJECTED. i develop personal relationships with the zinesters i carry; form letters fly in the face of what i value most about running a distro. typed letters are fine, but if you think i can't recognize a form letter when i see one, you're wrong.

in sum, send me zines, recommend the zines of friends, don't be shy about sending in your zines! be patient, & remember: even if i opt not to pick up one issue, i am always open to reading future issues. so keep trying. & keep making zines!

ciara xyerra * 12 lincoln ave. #3 * somerville ma * 02145
learningtoleaveapapertrail@hotmail.com