why are there two different "add to cart" buttons...& sometimes
three! which one do i
use?
the pink & red button is for orders being shipped to addresses within the united states. the blue &
purple button is for orders being shipped to international addresses (including canada!). so use the button approriate to
where your order is being shipped. it's important to use the right button because all prices are now
postage-paid, & postage rates are different depending on whether an order is being mailed domestically or
internationally. the yellow & green button is only for wholesale orders. read on if you have questions
about placing wholesale orders.
how did you figure out the postage-paid prices?
the vast majority of orders i receive are big enough to be shipped via flat-rate priority, so i divided
postage on a flat-rate envelope, both domestically & internationally, by fifteen, which is the number of ounces in
an average order. that gave me an approximate rate for how much it cost to ship each ounce (35 cents in the u.s. &
75 cents elsewhere). i then applied those rates to the retail price of each zine according to how much
each zine weighed. i developed a bulk postage system for heavier items--the price drops by five cents
an ounce for every ounce over three. then i compared a bunch of real orders i have received & how much folks paid using the old
figure-the-postage-yourself system to how much they would have paid using the new postage-paid shopping cart system.
everything came out about the same, so i guess i did something right!
do you have wholesale rates?
indeed i do. some of the zines in the catalogue have a green
& yellow paypal button under their descriptions. this is the button to use for wholesale orders. you
can only wholesale the zines that have those buttons (though if you are interested in other zines
for wholesale, drop me a line & i'll see what i can do). i ask that people order at least three copies
of each zine they want for wholesale, but other than that, go nuts. the wholesale price includes
postage (yes, to anywhere, but if international wholesale orderers feel inclined to kick in an extra
$5 or $10 for really big orders, it would definitely help defray postage costs). wholesale orders must be paid upfront; i can't bill people & anticipate a later payment right
now.
i'm a zinester that wants to be paid via trade. how does that
work now that all prices are postage-paid?
i pay for postage on trade packages to zinesters that want to
be paid that way in exchange for zines they are sending to the distro. click here
to see a price list for all the items in the distro without postage included. select the zines you desire &
use the postage-free prices to add up your total. if you have ten dollars worth of trade coming your way,
you get ten dollars worth of zines, postage-free. then e-mail me your list. simple enough.
will you accept checks?
i greatly prefer cash or paypal, but if you
absolutely must send a check or money order, you absolutely MUST make it payable to ciara xyerra, & NOT the name of the distro.
(before you ask--xyerra is a word i made up, it rhymes with ciara, it's not indicative of any
particular ethnicity.) i can't accept any checks that aren't written out to ciara xyerra, & i reserve the right
to hold orders until checks have cleared.
why can't i pick my own zines for the subscription program?
because the quantity of zines i have in stock shifts with every
order i receive & i can't guarantee that a zine you want is going to be in stock when subscriptions
are mailed. if it makes you feel better, every subscription order is tailored to the subscriber, to
try & ensure that the subscriber isn't receiving any zines that s/he has previously ordered from me. i
have an exhaustive record-keeping methodology in place for this. obviously, i fuck up sometimes, & i
also can't guarantee that subscribers won't receive zines that they've already gotten from other distros
or zinesters themselves. but i do my best, & can take individual requests under consideration to a
certain degree.
why are subscriptions so expensive?
i know $50 or $60 seems like a serious outlay of funds when
you're not totally sure what you're getting with that money. but let's break it down: you're receiving
four packages over the course of the next year. let's estimate that each package costs $4 to mail--that's
$16. each package includes some awesome hand-crafted item that probably cost at least a few dollars
in supplies, plus labor, so call that $5 each times four, or $20. that's $36. that leaves $14, & for
that, you are receiving 24 zines. that's less than $1 a zine. very few zines in the catalogue cost $1
or less, so that's a significant savings. it's actually a pretty awesome gamble. (the extra $10 for
international orderers is an effort to defray the expense of mailing items internationally.) in the unlikely event
that the distro closes down before all four of your subscriptions have been mailed, i'll refund your
money at the rate of $12.50 per unmailed subscriptions for u.s. orderers, & $15 for international
orderers.
what happened to the frequent orderer rewards program?
it still exists! now, instead of receiving a single subscription
under the former rubric, you receive a six-month subscription under the new one. in other words, when you
place three orders for eight or more items (discounting wholesale orders & subscriptions),
you become eligible for the rewards program & will receive two subscriptions.
that link ought to explain what subscriptions are. in the event that you've already subscribed, your reward subscriptions
will be tacked on to the end of your paid-for subscription period.
do you have (insert name
of zine here) in stock?
the web catalogue is updated whenever
a zine comes in or goes out of stock, sometimes daily. if a zine is permanently
sold out, it will be removed from the catalogue entirely. if a zine is
sold out but i am expecting copies soon, i will leave the image & description
up but with a bold headline stating "temporarily sold out". the distro
info page also has a list of all the zines that are currently out of stock,
as well as zines i am expecting to come in soon & zines that have
recently been added. if a zine is expected to sell out soon (ie, i have five or fewer
copies & am not planning on getting more), the quantity i have available is listed at
the end of the description. these quantities are updated as zines sell & so are
almost always accurate.
did you get my order/when will
my order be mailed out?
i update my livejournal
on a daily basis about orders coming in & going out, as well as additions
to the catalogue. if your name isn't listed in the journal, i didn't receive your order. (also, no
one can tell what you ordered just by seeing your name listed on the journal. i also don't use last names
or cities on the journal. just first names & states/countries, which should be enough for you to
identify yourself.)
i also e-mail everyone who pays via paypal to let them know their orders
were received. i go to the post office on a near-daily basis. nine times
out of ten, your order will go out the day or day after it was received.
it will never take more than three business days unless i am out of town
or was instructed to wait for a particular zine to come back into stock.
do you accept zines for consideration?
i do. pretty much all your questions can be answered here.
why are wholesale rates lower than retail prices?
can you give me a discount?
can you recommend some zines
to me?
what does "half-standard" & all that stuff mean?
i linked you--will you link
me back?
i loved your zine "a renegade's
handbook"--do you have copies left? are you working on anything new?
can i rip off your descriptions
to sell zines through my own distro or on auction sites?
are you single?
questions, comments, or suggestions?
get in touch with me! i don't bite, i swear.
ciara xyerra * 12 lincoln ave. #3 * somerville ma * 02145
it's because running a distro involves a lot more expenses
than just ordering stock from distros. zinesters sell me zines at a basic wholesale price & i sell them
at a retail price & the extra money i make goes to pay for expenses like envelopes, packing tape,
other office supplies, photocopies, tabling fees at zine fairs, web hosting, craft supplies for subscriptions,
etc etc etc.
in short, no. the distro doesn't
make a profit. see above to learn about the hidden costs of maintaining a distro. i'd love to cut people deals, i'd love to make
zines as accessible as possible. but i can't afford to do it, not even
for my friends. please try to understand that i live on a fixed income
in one of the most expensive cities in the united states. i run the distro
because i love zines, not to get rich. i'd be taking money out of my own
pocket to cut you a deal & i just can't afford to do that.
i can, but i won't necessarily know
what kinds of zines you like. suffice to say, i like all the zines in the
catalogue or else i wouldn't carry them. i like some better than others,
but those aren't necessarily the ones you'd like. if you ever want clarification
about any zine in the catalogue though, don't hesitate to e-mail me (address
below). but because i get asked this a lot, i've created a collection of ten zines,
available postage-paid anywhere in the world for $20, of my own personal selections. the
list is on the news page & more information can
be found here too.
my choices are updated every once in a while.
"half-standard" means the zine is the size of a standard
sheet of paper (8.5" by 11") folded in half. "quarter-standard" means the zine is the size of a
standard sheet of paper folded into fourths. "half-legal" means the zine is the size of a legal
sheet of paper (8.5" by 14") folded in half. "quarter-legal" means the zine is the size of a legal
sheet of paper folded into fourths. "full-standard" means the zine is the size of a sheet of stdard paper.
"half-standard long" means the zine is the size of a sheet of standard paper folded the long way,
so it's tall & skinny. "less than half-legal" means the zine is a weird size that is almost
half-legal but not quite. "5" square" means the zine is square-shaped, though the 5" demarcation is an
estimate. "eigth-standard" means the zine is the size of a standard sheet of paper folded into
eighths. "audio cassette" means the zine is a cassette tape. "audio cd" means the zine is a cd.
if you run a zine distro or if you are one of zinesters
whose zine i carry & you have a personal site, yes, i would be delighted to exchange links. just
let me know what the address is. right now, other distros & zinesters i work with are the only
people i'm linking to. that may expand, it may not.
my former zine, "a renegade's handbook
to love & sabotage" is completely sold out & has been for a really
long time. but i do have some new-ish stuff available! i wrote a personal zine called "you live for the fight when that's all
that you've got" (published in february 2006). i also wrote a zine of zine- & punk-themed logic puzzles called
"up the logic punks!" (published in july 2007). they are both available
from the distro here, or just
send $2 for "you live for the fight..." or $1.50 for "up the logic punks!" to the address below. a second
issue of "up the logic punks!," with all new puzzles, was released in september 2008 & is available through
the distro or for $2 direct from me. i also
finished a personal zine called "love letters to monsters" (here)
in the summer of 2007. it's available alone for $1.50 or as a split with the first logic puzzle zine for $2.50.
a new "love letters to monsters" is in the works.
no, don't be a jackass. i'm glad
you like my descriptions, but i work hard on them & i at least want
credit if someone is going to steal them. incidentally, selling zines in
auction is a really fucked up thing to do. sell 'em for postage or give
'em to a zine library. don't try to turn a buck off someone else's work. you can just send the zines
directly to me, if you want, & i'll donate them myself to the papercut zine library in
cambridge. see how easy?
(ps--you are of course welcome to use the descriptions i wrote if they
are about your project.)
sorry, folks, i'm spoken for. but i do enjoy friend-dates.
learningtoleaveapapertrail@hotmail.com