There is no wrong way to make a zine. You can fold one sheet of paper into a tiny booklet, fill it with drawings, poems, rants, recipes, playlists, or extremely specific opinions about queer joy, and call it publishing.
Honestly, that is the charm.
Zine-making is one of those brilliant queer hobbies that asks very little of you beyond curiosity, paper, and perhaps a willingness to get glue on your sleeve. It gives big feelings somewhere to go. It lets you document your life in your own voice. It creates a small, portable piece of proof that says: I was here, I noticed this, and I wanted someone else to find it.
Zines are community building in action
A zine can begin at your kitchen table, but it rarely stays there. Take it to a zine fair and suddenly you are swapping stories with artists, activists, writers, and fellow stationery enthusiasts. Leave copies in a little free library and your handmade pages begin travelling through the neighbourhood.
Distros: small grassroots distribution networks: make that sharing even easier. They connect readers with independent queer creators through trades, sliding-scale sales, and free copies. No gatekeeping committee in sight. Just people making things and helping other people find them.
Community archives matter too. Flyers, event posters, old zines, photographs, and oral histories preserve the everyday details that mainstream history often forgets. A local queer archive might hold a protest leaflet, a coming out story, or a hand-drawn map to the best community night in town. That is not clutter. That is memory with excellent typography.
How to start a zine: or host a zine swap
Keep it delightfully simple:
- Choose a theme: queer joy, chosen family, first dates, local history, comfort films, or “things I wish I knew at sixteen.”
- Make a mini-zine: Fold one sheet of paper into eight sections, add your words and images, then photocopy it.
- Invite contributions: Ask friends, neighbours, or your queer book club for poems, comics, illustrations, and short reflections.
- Host a swap: Set up a free table at a community centre, library, bookshop, or café. Everyone brings copies and leaves with something new.
- Make access part of the plan: Offer free supplies, a quiet space, large-print prompts, seating, and digital alternatives. Nobody should need a designer budget to participate.
- Ask before sharing: Get clear consent before photographing, reposting, archiving, or distributing someone’s personal story.
A zine night can be social without being overwhelming. Some people will chat. Some will quietly collage in the corner. Both are valid forms of community.
The MM romance tropes hiding at the photocopier
Naturally, the zine table is packed with mm romance tropes.
There is forced proximity when two creators are trapped beside the only working photocopier. There are rivals-to-lovers sparks over who gets the last risograph print. There is a slow burn involving shared scissors, increasingly personal playlist recommendations, and one person always saving the other a seat.
And then there is found family: the person who brings snacks, the friend who fixes the stapler, the lesbian organiser who knows every affordable venue, and the nonbinary artist who turns a chaotic pile of paper into a publication with a spine.
Make room for every queer story
Queer community is not one aesthetic, identity, age group, body type, or experience. Welcome gay, bi, lesbian, trans, nonbinary, ace, aro, questioning, disabled, neurodivergent, and culturally diverse makers. Respect privacy, avoid assuming anyone is out, and never treat someone’s identity as a required contribution.
The best zine spaces make room for joy, anger, silliness, grief, gay fiction, lesbian stories, LGBTQ+ novels, and the wonderfully complicated middle bits.
For more queer love stories, browse Read with Pride for MM romance books, gay romance novels, and LGBTQ+ fiction 2026. Writers can also explore the Free Global Publishing Portal, created for LGBTQ+ authors who want to publish their work.
Follow Read with Pride on Instagram and Facebook, then bring your favourite titles to your next queer book club. Whether you are searching for coming out stories, heartfelt romances, or even the oddly specific “C Section 2026,” there is always room for one more story: and one more person at the table.
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