Where To Put Your Zines? Here's 10 ideas!

Anti Burnout, 9/6/2025

Zines are really cool and there is so much that you can do with them. Here are some places I like to put my zines, maybe you can too!

Phone Boxes!

Try making one zine a month and leaving copies in local phone boxes. It's a dry place so they won't get ruined and who know who is going to find them! So, it's a neat way to guerilla market your work... just make sure you add your website or social handle on the zines!

Zine Archives!

Try googling 'Zine Archives near [insert city] and see what comes up! This is another great way to expand the reach of your work - on a much larger scale than the phone boxes. It does cost a bit of money to ship them, especially overseas, so bare that in mind whilst you're researching them.

If you're in Plymouth, UK then there's one at Arts University Plymouth which is pretty cool. They have over 200 zines! You can send yours to this address to submit zines:

Emily Watkins

AUP Library

Arts University Plymouth

Tavistock Place

PL4 8AT

Queer Out Loud! (and other similar initiatives)

Another option for you Devon-based folk is Queer Out Loud. They stock work from lots of different Queer, Disabled, Neurodiverse artists based in the South-West. You can email or DM them on Instagram to ask about trading with them; just search for Queer Out Loud!

Hide them in Libraries and Bookstores!

I love to do this! Borrow a book from the library and pop in one of your zines before you return it! Or, just pop zines in books whilst you're browsing. Better yet, make a zine in the shape of a bookmark and hide those in books in the library! Ooh, i might do that...

Where else might people who like books, reading and paper based arts also hang out? In bookstores? Who might also be an ideal audience for your paper-based, zines that need reading? People who go to bookstores!

Walk around and leave zines in books or on shelves in bookstores. Manifest your future!

Exhibitions and Art Shows

Zines can be a great tool for advertising or promoting projects you are working on. From larger scale publications, to art shows. Zines have a place in the process! Make a zine for your artist statement or in place of a poster for the show. Zines also have a place as an outcome so why not submit yours for an exhibition and/or art show!

In the Mail!

Choose some companies/artists/friends to mail out your zines to. Start a zine pen pal club and share your work with other zinesters like yourself and have fun with it! Art doesn't have to be for profit!

The Hands of your Loved Ones!

Make zines instead of birthday cards, give them out for Existence Day (If you know, you know) or just give them to people for no reason! You might be grown now but you should still be making art for refrigerators.

The Recycling Bin!

Not all zines need to go somewhere. Not all of them will be good. Not all of the ones you make you will like. So, there is nothing wrong with not wanting to keep them, share them or sell them. You can always recycle them, make collage from them or blend them up and make them into new paper.

Art Fairs!

This is a bit of an obvious one but, if you do want to sell your zines... don't forget about art fairs! There are some fairs solely focused on zines like the annual Comic and Zine Fair in Plymouth and Zinezilla in Bristol. Do some research and apply for everything you want to. Don't worry about not getting in. Just shoot your shot!

Social Media...

Another obvious one. A social media page is a public exhibition space you can curate and control without needing an agent, a gallery space or, well, a curator. SO, make the most of it! You can also sell works online if you fancy it but again - no pressure to do so!

So, there you go... 10 ways to share your zines and stop them gathering dust in a shoebox! Which ones are your favourite? Let us know in the comments below!