TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Insider tips: What you need to know about independent publishing
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Mishmash: Independent publishing often provides greater artistic freedom compared to the mainstream media. (Courtesy of Goethe-Institut Jakarta/-)
T
here is no shortage of topics out there for any aspiring writer to explore. But what if the one you’d like to write about is so niche no mainstream publisher would pick it up?
For most writers, going down the route of independent publishing may be the obvious answer, as seen through the number of zines out there covering topics ranging from indie art to feminism.
Yet independent publishing is not without its hurdles.
Sonja Eismann, cofounder and coeditor of the bimonthly feminist journal Missy Magazine, shared her insights on what prospective zine makers need to get started in the scene.
Eismann, who started making zines during her time as a university student, said her first ever zine only had one issue because the people behind it “ran out of energy”.
“[The zine] came out of long discussions with my best friend. We were interested in popular culture and we read a lot of magazines on popular culture, but we felt it was a very ‘male’ perspective that was presented,” Eismann said during a recent workshop on independent publishing held by the Goethe-Institut Jakarta.
