Artist Self-Publishing: A How-To Guide by Sofia Niazi
A guide to artist self-publishing for early career artists and practitioners. Commissioned by VASW and University partners.
This is a guide for those interested in employing publishing formats as a vehicle to share their art and ideas and build creative communities.
Getting on the same page
The world of artist publishing is broad. In this guide, I will focus on self-publishing or DIY publishing, often associated with zines, small edition publications and artist books. It’s not too important to have a rigid definition of what an artist publication is but the descriptions below might be helpful if the world of self-publishing is very new to you. In my own work, I tend to flit between using the word ‘publication’ and ‘zine’ depending on the context.
Publication: a book, magazine, newspaper, or document in which information or stories are published. Cambridge Dictionary
A zine (/ziːn/ ⓘ ZEEN; short for MAGAzine or FANzine) is a magazine that is a "non-commercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialised and often unconventional subject matter".[1] Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. Wikipedia
Artist’s Book: A term referring to publications conceived, designed, and illustrated by artists, often self-published or published by arts organisations in large or unlimited editions. These books are usually printed commercially with the photolithography (offset) technique and meant to be an affordable art form. MoMA gives a definition and examples here.
My journey into DIY-publishing began over 15 years ago when I made and distributed my first zine. I was fresh out of art school, where I had completed an Art Foundation course, and was itching to make something to put into the real world. I made a zine, a term I had come across in a workshop at a gallery that our teacher had encouraged us to attend, photocopied it at home and assembled a small batch. I made it with my sisters and friends in mind, so it was exciting to distribute it amongst them, they found it funny and silly which was very encouraging. Shortly after, I noticed a few bookshops were stocking zines and comics, so I approached them with my zine and they started stocking it. Since then, I’ve made many more publications and self-publishing has become an important part of my broader art practice. I work collaboratively with Heiba Lamara and Rose Nordin as part of artist collective One of My Kind (OOMK), together we currently run Rabbits Road Press, a community risograph printing press in London. I’ve always thought about self-publishing as an ‘eco-system’ which involves ideas, production and distribution. In this guide I’ll explore all three and how they could apply to all sorts of art and artists.
Why Self-Publish?
DIY publishing exists within a radical tradition of grassroots publishing and, as such, community plays a significant role in supporting and nurturing much of its activity. I really like this quote by poet, publisher, and activist John La Rose that Heiba included in the OOMK manifesto:
Publishing provides “an independent validation of one’s own culture, history, politics - a sense of one’s self.” - John La Rose
Below are a few reasons why you might consider DIY-publishing:
+ No permission needed: self-publishing gives people the chance to share their ideas and participate in culture without having to go through gatekeepers and institutions.
+ Label free: You don’t have to be an ‘artist’ to make zines and publications. Whether you’ve gone to art school or not, a lot of people don’t feel comfortable calling themselves an ‘artist’. The great thing about zines is, they’re supposed to be punk, the whole idea is that you just do it and don’t wait around for permission or approval.
+ Affordable: it’s not too expensive to make and print a zine. You can make them by hand and with a little research you should be able to access a photocopier or printer to make your first zine for a few quid.
+ Forgiving medium: with its punk and fandom roots, it’s acceptable for zines to look a little bit crappy. They are not expected to be professionally designed so you don’t need to complete a qualification in graphic design or be proficient in design software to be able to put one together. If the content is good and legible, it can still be a really good zine.
+ Accessible: paper travels well so it can be posted to people who may not be able to get to a gallery.
+ Friendly: it’s very common for people to make zines and publications which are open to submissions/collaborations so there are lots of entry points. With publication launches, zine fairs, hours of cutting and folding paper together, self-publishing is a great way to meet new people and make friends.
+ Art after school: if you went to art school, you might struggle to keep up your art practice after graduating. With no external deadlines or studio or peers, things can start feeling floaty and finding motivation or direction in your work might feel difficult. Working on a zine alone or collaborative zine making can give you a sense of accountability and help ensure you finish something.
+ Containing ideas: a publication format is a great container for ideas; it has parameters but is also very versatile. With a beginning, middle and end, the format can help you to structure your work a little so that it gets done.
+ New audiences: there are lots of publishing fairs you can take your work to, you can also sell them online or distribute them through small bookshops. Objects have a way of moving that can be unpredictable and it allows your work to reach new audiences.
+ Relatable: whatever the content of your publication, books and pamphlets are a format that everyone understands. This makes it easier for people to access the information/content and means it is immediately suitable for a whole range of contexts, it can go through a letter box, in a flyer stand, in the library, in an information hut in a tropical rainforest, literally so many places.
+ Longer life: unlike something that’s been published on the internet, publications are objects that can demand the same attention whether they have just been published or were published 200 years ago.
DIY-Publishing Eco-system
Like an eco-system it’s best to think of ideas, production and distribution as being closely involved with each other and not easy to isolate so expect lots of overlapping in the sections below.
Ideas + Development
As a creative person in the world, you are likely to have some ideas or works that lend themselves well to making a publication. Whilst you can make lots of collage or sketch zines very quickly, the publications I tend to work on are more like ‘projects’, they are normally about a story, idea or small body of research that I want to share. To make these types of publications, some planning is required. Making a publication can be time consuming and, although it’s not the costliest art form, it does require some resources. The process in and of itself is a great editor and you’ll quickly sense if your idea or material is worth the effort.
It’s important to consider why you’re making a particular publication and who it’s for. The answers to these two questions can help guide the development, production and distribution of your publication and allow you to stay on track. There are so many reasons you might want to make a publication: to explore an idea, to try to make a point about something you strongly believe in, to encourage you to draw or write, to be part of the DIY self-publishing world, to share some research, to make friends, to table at a zine fair, to make some money, to contextualise some other work, to find people who are interested in the same subject matter, as a response to something, to educate people about a particular history or issue, to learn more about self-publishing by doing, to use up lots of paper you’ve got, so many different reasons.
With self-initiated work, I always think of myself as a reader and try to be honest about whether I would buy and read the thing I’m thinking of making. If you’re making a publication in a collective or as a commission, ensure you do research into the audience/community you want to reach and consider what factors might affect whether they engage with your work.
Planning is important for any publication, even a simple collage zine, and you’ll need to consider how you work best. What materials and ‘systems’ do you need to ‘make work happen’? If it’s a more ambitious project, make a flow diagram of what you need to do and if it involves working with other people, make some decisions about how you will work together from the start. A deadline is very helpful. Gathering and editing content can take ages. With a publication that will have a lot of writing, I normally start with a Word document and once the written content is finished, I’ll sort out the images after. But if I’m working on a comic, then I work on paper and think of each page as a final page. Collaborative projects often involve lots of hanging out, conversations and negotiating - this is where life is, you’ll come up with great ideas, have fun and have some difficult situations which you will hopefully overcome.
Production
You need to know how you’re going to produce your publication early on, even before you start gathering content. I find it very helpful to decide on which size and roughly how many pages the publication will have before I start so that I don’t gather too much content. It’s important to know about restrictions with your print options too, what would you love to do? What’s feasible within your budget? What’s viable given any time restrictions/access? Once you’ve done some research and made some decisions, you can ensure you stay within word count limits and that you are gathering images in the right format to print.
There are so many different formats you can play with when it comes to artist self-publishing. Do lots of research into different formats before you make a final decision and figure out if there are any that suit your project/fancy. You can visit the London Centre for Book Arts or bookartbookshop for inspiration. I normally go with a standard size format because I tend to print work myself and it’s quicker to assemble. If you’re doing a very small edition or just making a single book then the options are endless. And, if you’ve got loads of money, you can also do some exciting stuff with book formats/production.
Printing options:
+ home printer. Can be cheap.
+ traditional printing methods like lino printing or screenprinting.
+ find a photocopier nearby: universities, libraries, work, internet café, my local pharmacy randomly has one. Photocopying used to be a lot cheaper, so you might have to do some research or invest in a printer. Can be cheap.
+ commercial printers: send them your files, lots of highstreet printers and online options available. I didn’t have files when I first started so scanning and making a PDF was a little hurdle I had to jump over. Can be quite cheap especially if you print a lot of copies.
+ risograph printing: if you know how to prepare files for this, riso printing can be fun. There are lots of community focussed printing presses that you can get in contact with and resources online to help you learn how to prepare work. Can be quite cheap but also can be very expensive.
+ premium options: I don’t know about these personally but I know they exist because I’ve seen some wacky stuff at publishing fairs. If you find a very fancy book you like it will often have a credit for where it was printed.
Distribution
You might have very fixed ideas about where you want to distribute your publication; or it may be that as a commission, it’s someone else’s problem to figure out. If it’s your problem and you’re low on ideas, here are some:
+ A launch event
+ Your website / social media
+ Your friends and family
+ Zine/Publishing fairs
+ Shops that sell zines
+ A distro like Pen Fight
Zine and publishing fairs are a great place to sell your publications and hang out. Table prices can vary but a lot and most fairs have an application process but many also offer a communal table for people with only a few titles to sell their work from. @nicezines on Instagram do regular updates about fairs/events.
https://duplicatepublishingfair.com/ - May 2026
https://www.pagemasters.co/gallery - May 2026
https://www.glasgowzinelibrary.com/glasgow-zine-fest - May 2026
https://cfpr.uwe.ac.uk/save-the-date-babe-2026/ - June 2026
A final word on skillz
DIY-publishing requires some skills, you will have to learn about pagination and formats even for the simplest zine (YouTube awaits). Once you start making stuff and trying to print lots of copies, there will be hurdles, you might have to learn how to use a scanner or figure out how to change paper settings and comprehend what image resolution means. Everyone who embarks on this journey has to wrestle with these things. If you get really into it, you will probably come to a point where you want to do things that are beyond your skill set, perhaps in terms of graphic design or image editing. When I started out, I just used paper, pens, a typewriter and collage and would colour photocopy the pages at home. The collaborative publications I made looked good because I worked with people who had different skills to me, mainly Rose, and over time it inspired me to learn how to use digital software and tools to edit images, organise content, design publications and gain a little more confidence. Today, to my own dismay, I am even a printer technician. All this to say, there’s so much to learn, don’t hesitate to start from where you are, be ready to wrestle a bit and your best bet, is to work together.
Sofia Niazi is an artist based between London and Birmingham. Her work spans painting, textiles and video with a current focus on the relationship between art, craft and religious practice. Her practice is continually engaged with pedagogy and artist publishing, working on many publications both independently and collaboratively along with co-organising publishing fairs across the UK. She works with Rose Nordin and Heiba Lamara as part of artist collective One of my Kind (OOMK). OOMK publish works exploring art, politics and faith and run Rabbits Road Press, a community Risograph printing press in London. Sofia currently runs both Duplicate Publishing Fair and Print and Matter (arts programme) in Birmingham.
This guide is commissioned in partnership by Arts University Bournemouth, Arts University Plymouth, Falmouth University and VASW.
