Stickin' it to the self-publishers: A Rant by Patrick King

So I've started making my own movie. Got me a cheap lil' digital camcorder, using my best bud's kick-ass computer to edit the thing. I feel great. It feels great. Just like my fiction writing, this has been horribly stressful, creative and all that shit.....but there's one difference: when I put my movie on the web or on video tape, I'll no longer be a self-publisher.

Why? Because, for some reason, independent movie-making isn't considered self-publishing. Just slap a production company name on the thing and it gives the impression that, well, there is a company behind it, even if you did everything from shooting to editing the damn thing yourself.

I mean, seriously, do you ever hear someone utter, "I saw this self-published movie last weekend," or "You've got to see this self-published movie" while standing around the 'ol watercooler on Monday morning? Of course not. That's because they're called independent films, which sounds hip, cool, all that jazz (actually, to be fair, this usually does refer to movies with budgets of thousands of dollars or more. Truly DIY movies are rarely seen beyond the film-festivals).

But for years, the independent literary scene has been branded with this seemingly horrific label and it doesn't look like this'll be changing anytime soon. Self-publishers. Can't get their shit published. Or worse: unpublishable.

Fuck it. This has to stop. Independent movies have thrived while independent literature has all but vanished. But I love it. And I know others do too. If you're new to independent literature and maybe reading this on a lark, let me help you out. Below are just a few of my favorite zine-related websites:

www.ashabot.com
www.members.aol.com/vlorbik
www.literaryrevolution.com
www.groups.google.com (click on alt.zines)
www.zinethug.com
www.timeliketoons.tripod.com
www.undergroundpress.org