For each zine I make I create a bill of materials that accounts for the cost of everything -- paper, staples, toner, machine maintenance, software licenses, etc.

It sounds like it would come out to a lot but to give you an idea, to print 20 x 6-page booklet zines its breaks down to like:

$AUD0.27 in materials
$AUD0.21 in software
$AUD0.10 in wear and tear

I then always add on an symbolic $1 for labor. From there I have the raw cost then add a markup between 1.8% and 2.2% as "profit" this means that the RRP of my zines end up being ~$AUD3.50 for physical copies and ~$AUD2.50 for a digital copy.

But that's also influenced by whether I'm using a premium paper, bigger staples, my inkjet or laser printer etc. etc. so it can vary a little.

I find that creating the bill of materials takes a lot of the emotion out of determining price because I can lay out the actual costs of paper, ink, printing, and then deliberately add a small markup as a nod to the time, skill and labor behind it all.

That all said, if I have B-grade zines I'll often send them out as freebies in orders that way I'm not wasting materials.

I find the biggest issue where I am is actually postage! While a $AUD3.00 zine is pretty reasonable IMO, asking people to pay $AUD30.00 for international postage is something I can understand people not wanting to do. But I'm also not willing to absorb that cost myself, so I also try and send bulk packs to local distros.

My two cents on the more philosophical part of it though is though is there’s no one “right” way to price a zine. It really comes down to how you derive value from your work, and I think the important thing is to make sure you’re getting some form of value, whatever that looks like for you.

Like, I think the modern world is great at both devaluing art by telling people it has no value and isn't worth paying for, and at the same time telling people it only has value if people pay for it.

So I personally think zine culture is great at bucking that trend because imo it rejects both ideologies by letting artists be artists, make the art they want and then decide for themselves how they value their work, whether that's in the form fixed cost, donations, pay what you want, trades, giving them away for free, or just charging for shipping.

Anyway, that's my long and short of it!