I wanted to start a distro because I feel there is a definite space in the zine community for more distros. In the early 00's there was a glut of distro action, and it seemed almost an expected thing for someone to open a distro eventually, even if they were totally inexperienced with zines and knew nothing about running a business. Most of these distros folded after only a year or a few months, which I think led to a distrust of all distros that were not large and well-established. I personally have lost money on these fly-by-night distros so know how hard it is to trust. But I have been involved with zines for the past eight years, give or take, and am pretty good at organizing things, handling money, and promotion. This will not be a fly-by-night enterprise; I intend to stick with this distro for as long as I continue to feel its presence is needed in my life and in the zine community.

The name of this distro, Black Light Diner, is also the title of a Wesley Willis album. I'm not a huge Wesley Willis fan, I just like the way it sounds.

Black Light Diner at the 2009 Richmond Zine Fest!

How to Order

Once you've finished filling your cart, choose the shipping option that applies to you (US or International). Shipping prices are based on amount of zines ordered, like so:

US Orders:
up to $5 ---> $1.50
$5.01 to $10 ---> $3.00
$10.01 to $30 ---> $5.00
Over $30 ---> free!!

International Orders:
up to $5 ---> $3.00
$5.01 to $10 ---> $5.00
$10.01 to $25 ---> $8.00
Over $25 ---> $15.00

All zines will be sent First-Class within the U.S. and abroad, unless you order enough to fill a Priority Mail envelope, in which case your order will be sent in a flat-rate Priority envelope or box. I will not send zines media mail, the potential for losing a package or getting it ripped apart is too high.

Postal orders are cool too! My address for sending them:

Erica S./Black Light Diner Distro
1417 W. 37th St., 1st Floor
Baltimore, MD 21211

For cash/money order, just write the names of the zines you want on a piece of paper and tally up the postage-paid prices that are listed below the zine descriptions. Please list an alternate or two in case I am out of something.

Submitting Your Project

(Note: Right now, I'm not really adding very much to the catalog. "Business" is not good, and while the point of a zine distro is not to make money, it does TAKE money to run one, and I am currently unemployed and thus without a lot of money of my own. Black Light Diner, like 95% of zine distros that have ever existed, is not self-supporting and right now I don't have the means to support it. I'm also debating whether or not I even want to continue running the distro, or just sell zines at shows or in person, or whatever. So while you can still send zines to me, chances are good I won't get back to you quickly or at all, and it will just make me feel bad and guilty for not being a good distro owner. If you want to TRADE zines, then, I am more than down with that! Email me first, but yeah, I'd rather trade and have you "get something out of it" than feel bad you sent me something because I can't carry zines I might otherwise really want to carry because I have no money to buy them with. --E.)

Any well-written zine or other printed matter object will be considered, however I am most strongly interested in carrying:

-- minicomics/self-produced comics in all genres (with a slight bias toward personal or reality-based comics)
-- personal zines -- how-to zines/guides (knitting, cooking, crafting, gardening, etc.)
-- fiction zines, assuming that they are done in the DIY spirit

I am not so much interested in carrying music zines, non-comic perzines, art zines, or zines with a wholesale price much above $2. But if you think I'd be interested in your project anyway, send it on in! Regardless to say, racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic/etc. material will not be considered; neither will "zines" that carry a bar code.

I will need to see a physical copy of your zine or comic or etc. to make my decision.

That address again:

Erica S./Black Light Diner Distro
1417 W. 37th St., 1st Floor
Baltimore, MD 21211

Physical copies of zines will not be returned unless accompanied by return postage and a note saying you would like them to be returned. In your note, please also state the retail price of your zine if it is not noted on the zine itself. All zines will be paid for up-front at a 50/50 rate (see "payment," below).

NOTE: Due to current financial constraints of the distro, I am unable to consider zines/comics that are priced much higher than $3 retail. Simply put, zines more expensive than that don't sell very well either online or at fests, and I also can't afford them on a personal level. This distro has never and likely will never make any money (since that's not the point!), but I don't want to dig a deeper hole than I'm already in. Thanks for understanding!

Music: Not accepting new unsolicited music at this time, thanks.

Payment

All zines, comics, and other printed matter will be paid for up-front, at a 50/50 rate. This means that if your zine's retail price is $2.00 per copy, you will receive $1.00 per copy, from me, as soon as I receive your zines in my mailbox. At this time, I will more than likely only order ten copies at a time, and strongly prefer to send payment by Paypal.

You can also receive payment in trade, in which case shipping is on me.

But why do you feel entitled to a special rate? A distro is a business, albeit not one designed to make any money, but a business nonetheless. In the example above, that extra eighty cents goes to pay for envelopes, a P.O. Box, advertising, storage containers, going to regional zine/craft fairs to promote the distro, and the time I put into maintaining this website, going to the post office, packaging orders, etc. Eventually, I hope to host this on a site other than Freewebs; the "extra money" goes toward that, too. Also, considering that it may cost you fifty cents to mail your zine, plus the envelope, plus the time, it all sort of comes out even. You get a lump sum to put into your projects, I receive enough "profit" to promote this site, we both win.

That's It!

I hope this FAQ answers most of your questions about this distro. If you have any other questions, please email me at blacklightdiner at gmail dot com.

xo,
Erica