slowly, but shipping! ⛵️
every launch is a small miracle
Hello my friends!!
It’s the middle of May, and on one hand, by the middle of May, I really wanted to be able to write, ✨ HOORAY, Pouch Issue #1 is officially out of preorder, and with that, Pouch magazine has launched!! ✨
But you know what they say: What you wanna do is not necessarily what you’re gonna do 🥲 Instead, it’s the middle of May, and Pouch Issue #1 is very close to launch but not quite there.
On the other hand, the reason why I’m not ready to launch yet is a good one: I sold out of all my copies of Pouch Issue #1! 😱
You might be wondering, How are you not launched yet but also sold out?! So here’s what happened: Early April I had about 40 preorders for Pouch, so I ordered a print run of 100 copies. I thought that’d be enough to fulfill preorders, sell a few issues at Milwaukee Zine Fest, and then have enough stock to fulfill any additional orders after launch.
Well, I ended up selling WAY more Pouches at Milwaukee Zine Fest than I expected (about 25!) and then after Milwaukee I got another 25 preorders! I have fulfilled all the preorders that were placed as of last week, and I’ve given away a few Pouches too, so….. as of this moment I only have 4 copies of Pouch in my possession!
I’ve ordered more stock, but my printer Mixam is having major delays in production, so I’m still waiting for this order to ship, no less arrive... (Mixam gave me a big discount though so we love that 🫶) Hopefully they’ll come next week and then I can finish Officially Launching Pouch. I’m so ready for it!!
(Also: A friend asked if I’m throwing a party for Pouch’s launch. Am I???? Maybe a Pouch Picnic in Prospect Park this summer! 🌳)
Anyhow, in today’s newsletter I’m mostly telling you all about Milwaukee Zine Fair! I’ve got a grab bag of other things to mention, like what it’s like to send lots of mail in NYC (not straightforward!!), business classes(?!?!), and — most importantly — I have learned Even More about printers.
Hope you enjoy!!! 🛳️
♡ vrk
🧀 My first zine fair!
I tabled at Milwaukee Zine Fest last month! It was at the Milwaukee Public Library and y’all. Did you know the Milwaukee Public Library is MASSIVE?!?!?! And yet there were still SO many zine vendors that we filled up both the first and second floors, and there were so many visitors that even though my friend Meg and I were placed in the back corner of the second floor, our booths were so busy it was hard to find time to eat lunch or take a break to look at the other vendors!
(I keep hearing from zine stores and zine fair organizers that interest in zines has really exploded over the last few years. Like there are just way more zines and creators than stores and fairs can support. I really wanna try to get some numbers on this………. 🤫 but I digress!!)
Vibes: Excellent
Milwaukee Zine Fair was such a wonderful event. It was thoughtfully organized, communication was awesome, and everyone I met at the event was super welcoming and excited to be there.
I haven’t tabled at a fair before, zine or otherwise, and I was worried that it might be super awkward. Like, hello visitors, here I am with my table of handmade goods that I poured my heart into making. Please take a look and I’ll be 2 feet in front of you as you decide whether you want to buy it!!! … Not intense at all!!
But it didn’t feel like that whatsoever! 😆 It was very relaxed, and I think a good rule of thumb is, if you’re not weird about the whole “do you like my stuff / are you buying my stuff / please buy my stuff” thing, then your visitors aren’t weird about it either lol 💞 The crowd was amazing too. Everyone who stopped by my table was soooo very nice and supportive, and I got to have conversations with many wonderful people!
Side note, our second-floor-back-corner location ended up being awesome! The first floor was SO packed and chaotic that it was a bit overwhelming and hard to interact with anyone. The second floor was still very busy, but you could actually have a conversation still and folks seemed to linger longer at booths. It was cool!!
Friends: Made 😌
I got some great advice from a few friends (shout out Lee and Keith!!) who had done zine fairs or other fairs before, and they really encouraged me to have fun and focus on making new friends rather than like, hitting sales goals lol.
Just like they said, this was such a great way to meet other creators and friends of paper!! I made friends with a few other vendors, and I got to make a few new stationery friends as well 💞 Visitors at my booth who happened to love stationery, were REALLY excited by Pouch 🥹 It’s been fun to stay connected over Instagram and support each other’s work well after the event. Yay community!!!
Not the point but also sales: v good
Alright I really don’t want to make too big a point on this, because there are soooooo many random factors outside of your control that affect your sales (such as: where your booth was placed, who happens to be attending the event, how was the fair marketed, are people feeling shy, etc), and you can have the most lovable work that happens to not sell, and I am positive there will be events/fairs in the future where I do not sell much at all, and I personally know people who have literal 6-figure businesses selling zines and handmade good who do not sell well at all at fairs, and over-focusing on “does it sell well” goes against the spirit of making zines……..
…but, I sold a lot of zines at Milwaukee Zine Fest! 🛍️
I had 4 zines for sale and brought 20-30 copies of each:
Receipt Printer RPG, 30? copies, $4
Toaster Zine, 20 copies, $6
Shark Tank Zine, 20 copies, $2
Pouch, 30 copies, $9 (*preorder price, will likely raise slightly post-preorder)
I ended up selling out of Receipt Printer RPG, Toaster Zine, and almost sold out of Pouch. I also ran out of business cards! (I printed about 60 and I probably could have used double that.) Hilariously, many people were disappointed that Shark Tank Zine was not a zine of actual sharks 😂 I got the suggestion to make another version that is the cast of Shark Tanks as actual sharks which really feels right!
My best seller by a lot was Receipt Printer RPG! It was the first to sell out and people were asking about it even after I ran out of stock. I did not expect that at all! I almost brought only 10 copies of Receipt Printer RPG because I was sure that it was going to be a bit too strange and after making 20 Toasters, I was tired of making zines lol. (I love Toaster zine but it is a labor-intensive one). But Davis helped me make the rest so I had about 30 for the event, and Milwaukee Zine Fest visitors were into it!! I think it helped that I got to explain the concept to people visiting the booth and the story seemed interesting enough for them to give it a try 😆 Makes me happy because I spent a lot of time on Receipt Printer RPG, so I’m excited that more people are playing it 🫶
Milwaukee: VERY FUN
Davis and I had a blast in Milwaukee!!! We only had 1 day to explore, so we only stuck to the downtown area near the zine fest. We were surprised by how nice it was. Everything was big and clean and new, and there were a lot of fun attractions, especially for a downtown area: A beautiful manicured park next to the water, a science center and aquarium (we visited and pet some fish!!), fun and tasty food halls, and plenty of things we didn’t have time to check out. I would totally visit Milwaukee again!
All in all, Milwaukee Zine Fest!!! What an event!! Vendors are chosen by lottery too, which makes it very welcoming to zine newbies. Maybe you should make a zine and apply next year!!
📰 In other news
In addition to MZF, I did a bunch of other stuff the last few weeks! I’ll speed-run through them now:
💌 Mailing 60 envelopes in NYC
When I was an engineer at Google, we would talk about how there are problems that occur at Google’s size of user base that just wouldn’t occur in most other engineering scenarios. Problems that you encounter only when you have, quite literally, a billion or more users.
Similarly, I feel like NYC is so small yet crowded that it faces weird NYC problems that few other cities encounter. Like for instance, did you know that the blue R2D2-looking mailbox…. can be completely full? Because I learned that last week, carrying a big bag of Pouches ready to be mailed, and I couldn’t even fit one in the mail drop because it was…. completely full!! 100% stuffed full of mail!! 📬
In NYC, there are lots of private mail and shipping centers outside of USPS, I’m guessing because there aren’t enough post offices to handle the apparent demand. Many of them charge you a small fee for dropping off USPS mail there, and the cost is per item. With 60 packaged Pouches in hand, I really didn’t want to have to pay a dollar per envelope just to mail what would have been free to drop off at the post office if the post office weren’t overflowing 🫠
But luckily(??) I also couldn’t get a PO Box through USPS because all of them have been taken in the neighborhoods surrounding me, so I had to get a private mailbox at a shipping center instead, and my shipping center allows people with private mailboxes to drop off their ~business mail~ free of charge. So that’s how Pouch was mailed and people who preordered seem to be getting their copies!
…The random things you learn when trying to bootstrap an indie magazine in NYC!! 😂
💼 Brooklyn Public Library business school
OK now for cool NYC things (and business things?!): I started taking free business classes from the Brooklyn Public Library!!
These classes are part of a business plan competition called PowerUP, where you can win up to $20,000 seed money to start your small business. A main objective of PowerUP is to help educate curious Brooklyn residents about starting a small business, and as part of the competition, they offer a series of 4 business classes that you’re required to take to be eligible to compete.
Prior to these classes, the only things I learned about business were from Rollercoaster Tycoon 😆 but I’ve now taken a class on how to write a business plan and another on how to conduct preliminary business research!
I don’t think I’ll participate in the competition this year — not the right timing for me — but it’s been a really heartwarming and empowering experience so far. I typically associate “business class” with like, finance bros, tech bros, other bros… but the BPL’s classes are focused on small, sustainable, community-oriented businesses. A lot of the PowerUP winners are still prominent local businesses today too, like Greenlight Bookstore.
Here’s another wholesome slide from the Brooklyn Public Library business class:
Do you see why I love this??? 😭
🖨️ I keep getting better at printing things
FYI everyone, I am getting quite good at printing things on a home printer 😤 I fixed some driver issues on Mac, I learned about color spaces and color profiles and realized I was using the wrong settings in Photoshop, and now my colors are looking way better and more consistent. Like my prints were good before but they are like way better now!!! It is shocking!!!
Much (much much much MUCH) more on this in future newsletters!!!
🥳 Next month: 1 year!!
At the end of June, I’ll be hitting my one year anniversary of going solo!!!
In case you’re new to my newsletter, I quit my job at the end of June 2023 to take up to 2 years of sabbatical. “Sabbatical” is a little misleading, since I’m not not-working, but I’m full-time focused on creating things, learning things, and reconnecting with myself after years of creative neglect. The experience has been enormously healing, rewarding, and fulfilling! I unfortunately can’t not-make-money forever 😂 but I can comfortably go another year or so without an income. By the end of year 2, I’m gonna decide how I want to make money again, whether that’s through starting my own company, or freelancing, or rejoining the corporate world. But until then, I’m dedicating this precious time off entirely to myself and my own interests! Year 1 has been focused on art, design, zines, and Pouch; Year 2 will likely be focused on software for paper lovers. (Though we’ll see what happens!)
I’m planning to write up a reflection post soon about my experience so far. I wanted ask, Is there anything you’re curious about? Anything you want me to cover in this write-up of my time off so far? AMA!! Feel free to reply to this newsletter with your question or leave a comment.
Thanks again so much for reading, friends, and I hope you have a fantastic rest of your week! 💖
Found you while browsing Stationery Fest vendors and ahh your journey is so rad—feeling very inspired and would love to connect with you (and read Pouch of course!)
loved seeing your journey making things!!! I agree the constructing of zines can be a lot of work :,)