Stallholder Info
Hi makers! On this page, we've tried to cover everything you'll need to know as a stallholder at the Comics Zine Market on Sunday May 5.
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All our stalls for this market are now booked out. We're running a waitlist for anyone who'd like a spot - the link for this is further down this page.
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This market is one of our smaller, regular themed markets held earlier in the year. For the Comics Zine Market, we're asking all of our stallholders to have at least one comic one their stall. You'll find more details on this stipulation below.
Make sure you read through everything before booking for a stall, even if you regularly hold stalls with us, as we've refreshed our guidelines. This page will keep updating as things progress closer to the market.
Further down this page, you'll also find details on how to submit for the Community Table.
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What to Sell
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Items sold at Wellington Zinefest must adhere to our Code of Conduct, which prohibits the sale of material which is deemed discriminatory or offensive. R18 content is fine as long as it adheres to the code of conduct, though bare in mind that there may be children at the market.
As a general rule, stalls at Wellington Zinefest must be selling zines. It's important to us that Wellington Zinefest remains a space that celebrates self-publishing, first and foremost.
Because of the comics focus of this market, we're asking that each stallholder have at least one comic they're selling on their stall. Your comics don't have to be well-made or feature high quality drawings or narrative. Experimental, lo-fi and cheaply made work is absolutely fine! For a sense of what counts as a comic, read through this blog post What are Cartoons and Comics? by Sam Orchard.
We won't be vetting what exactly qualifies as a comic. However we do expect stallholders to take this requirement in good faith. We're specifically hosting this market in celebration of Aotearoa's comics scene, and we want to make sure the our stalls reflect and emphasise that.
If you're a regular stallholder who hasn't worked with comics before, perhaps try using this market as an opportunity to explore the form.
Other items like stickers and badges are fine to sell, but zines (and ideally, comics) should be the focus of your stall. You're welcome to sell work on any and all topics, as long as they align with our Code of Conduct.
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Venue
We're lucky to have the support of our hosts, Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka - School of Design Innovation Te Kura Hoahoa.
The venue, and its bathrooms, are wheelchair accessible. Because it's the centre of town, parking can sometimes be tough to find, so if you're driving do allow time for that.
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Arriving
Stallholders are asked to arrive from 10am in preparation for an 11am start. You'll have the time between 10 and 11am to find your stall and set everything up.
The stall placements will be laid out before you arrive. If you can't locate your stall, one of the Wellington Zinefest team can help you find it.
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The market closes officially at 4pm, and you're welcome to pack down your stall from then onwards.
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Stalls
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We'll provide tables for you to use for your stall, and we'll have these set up before you arrive.
If you have any specific requirements regarding where you'd like to be placed you can let us know on the booking form. We'll do our best to accommodate these.
We're using bigger tables this time around! Each stall is 1.8m wide and 0.76m deep. We're estimating there's room for three seats behind each table, maximum. It may be cramped with three, so two or one will likely be more comfortable.
Make sure you think over how much space you have when you prepare your stall.
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Accessibility Hour
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The market will open to the public with 'accessibility hour', which runs from 11- 12pm.
This is a chance for any visitors who, for whatever reason, can't attend when our markets are crowded. We'll have no music and try to maintain a low-stimulation environment.
We ask that our stallholders keep this laidback atmosphere going by not hard-selling any of their work during this hour.
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What to Bring
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The key things for you to bring are your zines and comics and a cash float. We also recommend bringing some signage which describes the names and prices of your zines.
People often pay with bank transfer, rather than cash, so some signage with your bank account number on can be really helpful.
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Stallholders often like to decorate their stalls with table coverings and stands. These aren't essential but they can be fun. You can check out photos here of Zinefest Weekend 2023 if you'd like some inspiration.
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Lastly, we'd recommend bringing some snacks and water to keep you going throughout the day.
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Other Queries
If there's anything else you're not sure about, please read through the FAQ section further down on this page.
If after reading that, you're still not sure about something, feel free to email us - wellingtonzinefest@gmail.com - and ask. Please allow several days for a response.
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Booking a Stall
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Generally, booking is on a first come-first served basis; Zinefest markets aren't actively curated, and everyone is welcome as long as they meet our requirements on what work to sell.
We've outlined the booking process below.
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Submitting a Booking
To book a stall, you'll first need to fill out our booking form. This form closes automatically once we've reached capacity; once we're fully booked, we'll open a waitlist for any stalls that become free.
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Once you've submitted a form, you should receive an automated email with a copy of your responses. If you haven't received this, it may either be that:
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- it's in your junk / spam folder, or
- you didn't enter your email address correctly.
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We do need to have your correct email address in order to contact you about the market. If you haven't received an automated email with your responses, please email us and tell us the name of your booking, so we can amend this.
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Stall Offer
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In a few days time, we'll be back in touch over email to offer you a stall. Don't panic if it takes us a week or so to get back to you; the market is run by volunteers with other responsibilities, so we can't always respond immediately.
In this offer email, we'll send you our bank account details, and you'll need to deposit the $10 booking fee into our account with your name as the reference. We use this deposit to cover the costs for table hire, promotion and other expenses associated with hosting the market. It's non-refundable - if you cancel your stall, you won't get the fee back.
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Paying the fee is important, as your stall won't be confirmed until we've received this. If someone else books and confirms ahead of you, you may lose your spot at the market.
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We'll also send you a link to a second form, where we'll ask for a name, short bio and image from you and any other creatives on your stall. This is optional; we use this to promote your inclusion in the market.
Stall Confirmation
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Once we've received your $10 in our account, we'll get back in touch and confirm your stall.
Please allow us a few days to get back to you on this, and don't stress if you don't receive an instant response - rest assured that if you've received an offer letter and paid your deposit, your stall should be secure.
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Sharing a Stall
You're very welcome to share a stall with other creatives! There's only room for three chairs behind each table, but your stall can represent as many different creatives as you like.
To avoid confusion in the booking process, for the purposes of the initial booking form, your entire group only need to enter the form one time. Each submission in the booking form counts as reserving an entire stall.
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Even if there's more than one of you at the stall, you'll only need to pay the $10 stall fee once.
When we send you the stall offer email, there's space for each person in your group to submit your individual names, bios and imagery.
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Waitlist
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Once all the spot for stalls have booked up and been confirmed, we'll open a waitlist.
People who sign up for the waitlist will be contacted if any stallholders cancel their stalls, and will be offered to take their place. We encourage stallholders to let us know as soon as possible if they can't go ahead with the market, so that people on the waitlist have as much time as possible to prepare.
If you want a stall but missed out on securing one of the initial places, we strongly recommend going on the waitlist - spots almost always do become available for people on the waitlist.
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Cancellation
Understandably, sometimes our stallholders need to pull out of participating in the market for various reasons. The stallholder booking fee is non-refundable, but we'd still really appreciate you giving us as much notice as possible if you can't go ahead with your booking.
With enough notice, we can offer your spot to one of the people on our waitlist. If you cancel at the last minute, it is unlikely that someone one the waitlist will be available and prepared to stallhold.
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Community Table
The Community Table is a stall where the Wellington Zinefest team will sell your zines and comics on your behalf.
We'll keep a tally of what you've sold, then transfer your takings to your bank account. We encourage makers to have their own stalls, if they can - it's part of the fun!
But if you can't make it, the stalls are booked out, or you don't feel you can fill a whole table with your work, the community table is a good alternative.
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What to sell
The Community Table is exclusively for zines and comics (we won't sell stickers, prints or other related materials).
We accept a maximum of three different zines from each creator. We'll accept up to ten copies of each zine.
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Submitting your zines
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First, we'll get you to fill out the Community Table form where we'll get your name, the names of your zines and comics, how much they cost, and your account number.
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To stock your zines on the Community Table, you'll need to first get them to us. You can either:
- bring them to us on the day, at the start of the market, or
- post them to us at: Wellington Zinefest, 105 Rakau Road, Hataitai, Wellington 6021. Make sure they arrive in time!
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You can pick up your unsold zines and comics at the end of the market. We won't return unsold zines through the post. Any unsold zines which haven't been collected at the end of the day will be added to the Wellington Zinefest zine library.
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If you want to book for the community table, please use the form linked below:
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FAQS
How do I price my work?
This isn't something we can really answer for you; pricing is subjective. When pricing, make sure you consider the cost of paper, printing, binding and any other production expenses.
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If you're interested in the budgeting side of things, this blog discusses how one zinemaker approaches pricing.
It's worth mentioning that zine culture centres non-commercial exchange. Rather than to generate income, zines are traditionally made and distributed for the purposes of self-expression, information, cultivating community and the joy of creation.​
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How many zines should I print?
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Unfortunately this isn't something we can't answer, simply because there's such a wide range of zines out there, and they all sell differently.
Do you know another zinemaker who makes and sells similar work? Consider asking them what works for their stock.
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Can I share a table with someone else?
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Of course! Lots of people do this, and it will be even easier this year because we've increased our table size. We recommend a maximum of three chairs behind one stall.
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In the Booking section above, we've discussed how to book for more than one person.
Where do I print my zines?
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Anecdotally, most zines sold at Wellington Zinefest are printed on printers at offices, university libraries or at home.
In Wellington, public printing is available at Wellington City Libraries venues as well as at a range of private, professional printers.
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How many different zines do I need to have?
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While you do need to have zines or comics on your stall for Wellington Zinefest, there isn't a hard and fast rule about how many different kinds.
We expect stallholders to have, on average, at least 50% of their stall be zines or comics. Additional items typically are paper-based - things like stickers and prints.
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What counts as a zine / comic?
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We won't vet exactly what counts as a comic for the purposes of this market, but we expect you to use your own judgement on whether your work fits the requirement. If you're unsure, this blog post by Sam Orchard does a great job of exploring what qualifies as a comic.
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We explored the topic of what counts as a zine last year when preparing for our Zines Only market. Take a look at the Zines Only Theme page for discussion on what constitutes a zine for the purposes of our market.
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Can kids stallhold?
Kids are more than welcome to stallhold, as long as they have adult supervision during the market. Please note that some of the content sold at the market won't be 'all ages' or appropriate for younger people, so bear than in mind when browsing the stalls.
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