Make Something. Mail Something. Receive Something.

Zine Exchange is a free-first community platform for sharing, trading, discovering, and mailing independent zines. It is not a creator marketplace. It is not a content engine. It is a small piece of infrastructure for moving handmade media person to person.

What is a zine?

A zine is a small, self-published work. It can be art, writing, comics, essays, guides, poetry, collage, manifestos, research, jokes, recipes, field notes, grief notes, or whatever else you can fold, staple, print, copy, or mail. There is no length minimum. There is no quality bar. There is no review committee.

If you printed it, photocopied it, folded it, and handed it to someone — congratulations, it's a zine.

Ways to participate

1. Receive zines. Sign up, add a mailing address, opt into things you want. Real envelopes show up at your door.
2. Send zines. Submit a zine you already made, or make one for an upcoming exchange.
3. Trade zines. "I'll send you mine if you send me yours."
4. Join a topic exchange. Every month, a prompt. Make something. Get matched. Mail it out.
5. Form a group. Friends, classmates, local scenes, mutual aid networks, book clubs, art collectives.

The four-step ritual

1. Create or list a zine. Upload a cover, write a description, choose your format and how people can get it (free, trade, pay-what-you-want, fixed price).
2. Join a topic or exchange. Pick a monthly prompt. Or just publish standalone. Or join a private group.
3. Mail it out. Send your zine directly, coordinate a trade, or (eventually) use our print-and-mail tools.
4. Get weird mail back. Receive zines from real people with real thoughts, real obsessions, real stamps.

You do not have to become an influencer to have readers.

How exchanges work

An exchange is a small, defined swap with a deadline. Every month we open new topic exchanges. You can also start your own — public, private, friends-only, classroom-only, scene-only, whatever fits.

• One-to-one trade. Two people. Two envelopes. Done.
• Topic exchange. A monthly prompt. Everyone makes a zine. Everyone gets matched and sends/receives.
• Group exchange. A circle of members exchanging within a private group.
• Free distribution. Mail it to whoever raises their hand.

Mailing guidance

Zine Exchange is creator-fulfilled: when a reader opts into your zine, you (the creator) mail it to them directly. We are not a print-and-fulfill warehouse. We are not a middleman. We are a piece of infrastructure that briefly hands one envelope's worth of address information from a reader to a creator, and then forgets it.

Use whatever envelope fits your zine — manila envelopes, mailers, mini-zine pouches. Postage varies by country and weight; if you're nervous, weigh it at the post office once and you'll know.

How your address is handled (the short version)

The mailbox is sacred. We protect it with three rules:

1. Vetted creators only. The ability to publish and ship is gated. New accounts can't see anyone's address; they apply, and an admin reviews them before flipping the publish switch. If a creator abuses the trust, they lose it.
2. Just-in-time exposure. When you opt into a physical zine, you click a consent box, and we hand your mailing address to that one creator for that one zine. Your address never sits in some global "creators can browse readers" directory. It exists on one opt-in record, and only while it's needed.
3. Scrub on ship. The instant the creator clicks "Mark as Shipped," your address is deleted from their dashboard. They can't look it up again. They can't re-export it. If they need to contact you again, they go back through Zine Exchange — they don't have your address sitting in a folder.

Admins can still audit address handling — that's how we enforce the rules — but the everyday creator workflow has the address available for as long as it takes to write it on an envelope and not a second longer.

Addresses you can use

You don't have to use your home address, and you don't have to use your legal name. The post office will deliver to:

• A PO box — cheap, anonymous, the classic zine community move.
• A university mailroom or residence hall.
• A workplace address, if your workplace tolerates personal mail.
• A trusted friend's house, with their permission.

You can put any mailing name you want on your address — the carrier delivers to addresses, not to legal identities. If you're "Glitter Possum" to the world, you're "Glitter Possum" on the envelope. Many regulars use a pen name plus a PO box and never use a legal-name-on-home-address combination at all. That is, in fact, the recommended setup.

If something goes wrong

Every shipped zine on your dashboard has a small "Report an issue" link. Use it for empty envelopes, abusive material, things that never arrived, anything weird. We read every report. Creators who don't ship what they promised, or who misuse an address, lose creator status — first quietly, then permanently. Two strikes is generous.

Community expectations

• Send what you committed to sending.
• Respect boundaries.
• No harassment, doxxing, or threats.
• Credit artists, writers, and contributors.
• Don't be a fascist creep.
• Weird is welcome. Harm is not.

What "Free Forever" actually means

The first 100 members get permanent free access to the core exchange features — profiles, listings, topic swaps, groups, and the community side of the platform. Future paid features may include printing, bulk mailing, storefront tools, advanced group features, and custom fulfillment. The core community will stay free for the first 100.