A zine is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group, and are popularly photocopied into physical prints for circulation. A fanzine is a non-professional and non-official publication produced by enthusiasts of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest. The term was coined in an October 1940 science fiction fanzine by Russ Chauvenet and popularized within science fiction fandom, entering the Oxford English Dictionary in 1949.
Powell's Books is a chain of bookstores in Portland, Oregon, and its surrounding metropolitan area. Powell's headquarters, dubbed Powell's City of Books, claims to be the largest independent new and used bookstore in the world. Powell's City of Books is located in the Pearl District on the edge of downtown and occupies a full city block between NW 10th and 11th Avenues and between W. Burnside and NW Couch Streets. It contains over 68,000 square feet, about 1.6 acres of retail floor space.
A small press is a publisher with annual sales below a certain level or below a certain number of titles published. The terms "indie publisher" and "independent press" and others are sometimes used interchangeably. However, when a distinction is drawn, there are about 100,000 small presses and about one million independent presses.
AK Press is a worker-managed, independent publisher and book distributor that specializes in publishing books about anarchism and the radical left. Operated out of Chico, California, United States, with a branch in Edinburgh, Scotland, the company is collectively owned.
Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc., is an American comic book distributor serving retailers in North America and worldwide. It transports comic books and graphic novels, as well as other popular culture products such as toys, games, and apparel, from comic book publishers or suppliers to retailers.
Ramsey Kanaan is a Lebanese-Scottish publisher and distributor of anarchist literature. In 1987, he founded AK Press, named after his mother, Ann Kanaan. In 2007, he founded PM Press, where he remains the publisher.
British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. They're comparable to similar movements internationally, such as American minicomics and Japanese doujinshi. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to distinguish them from zines about comics. Notable artists who have had their start in British small press comics include Eddie Campbell, Paul Grist, Rian Hughes, Jamie Hewlett, Alan Martin, Philip Bond and Andi Watson.
Siue Moffat is a Canadian vegan chocolatier, cookbook author, filmmaker, zine maker, video activist and film archivist. She began writing zines in the late 1980s. Her two-page zine, "Roy Spim", was cited as life changing, blunt, and fearless by an author of a reflection at Broken Pencil.
Ingram Content Group is an American service provider to the book publishing industry, based in La Vergne, Tennessee. It is a subsidiary of Ingram Industries.
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of:
Jesse Reklaw is an American cartoonist and painter, author of the syndicated dream-based comic strip Slow Wave.
Independent Publishers Group (IPG) is a worldwide distributor for independent general, academic, and professional publishers, founded in 1971 to exclusively market titles from independent client publishers to the international book trade. As per other book wholesalers and distributors, IPG combines its client publishers’ books into a single list, comparable to the larger publishing houses. IPG’s distribution services to publishers include warehousing, bill collecting, and sales to the book trade. IPG currently represents about 1,000 publishers. They are based in Chicago, Illinois. IPG distributes publishers based in Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Ireland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Israel, and others.
Small Press Distribution (SPD) was an "exclusively literary" nonprofit book distributor for the small press that operated from 1969 to 2024. It abruptly closed in March 2024.
Baker & Taylor, a distributor of books to public and academic libraries and schools, has been in business for over 190 years. It is based in Charlotte, North Carolina and currently owned by President & CEO Amandeep Kochar. Before being acquired by Follett in 2016, Baker & Taylor had $2.26 billion in sales, employed 3,750, and was #204 on Forbes list of privately owned companies in 2008.
Nicole J. Georges is an American illustrator, writer, zinester, podcaster, and educator. She is well known for authoring the autobiographical comic zine Invincible Summer, whose individual issues have been collected into two anthologies published by Tugboat Press and Microcosm Publishing. Some of her other notable works include the graphic memoirs Calling Dr. Laura and Fetch: How a Bad Dog Brought Me Home. In addition to this, Georges creates comics and teaches others how to make them, produces the Podcast Sagittarian Matters, and illustrates portraits of animals. She currently divides her time between Los Angeles, California and Portland, Oregon.
Capital City Distribution was a Madison, Wisconsin–based comic book distributor which operated from 1980 to 1996 when they were acquired by rival Diamond Comic Distributors. Under the name Capital Comics, they also published comics from 1981 to 1984.
Bud Plant Inc. was a wholesale comics distributor active in the 1970s and 1980s during the growth of the direct market. The company also published a selection of comics and zines during the same period. Starting in 1970 as a mail-order distributor specializing in underground comix, Bud Plant absorbed some of his smaller rivals in the 1980s, and then sold his business to Diamond Comics Distributors in 1988. He still, as Bud Plant's Art Books, sells quality reprints and graphic novels.
Quality Bicycle Products (QBP) is a large distributor of bicycle parts and accessories in the bicycle industry, based in the United States, with revenues of $150 million in 2008. In addition to wholesaling bicycles and components from other manufacturers, QBP owns and manufactures several brands of its own. QBP also participates in activities which support its community through cycling advocacy and green building.
The Jones Cash Store was a mail order catalog business established by Portland, Oregon, entrepreneur Henry J. Ottenheimer in 1882, and is a building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Before moving to a larger, more prominent location, the Jones Cash Store operated out of a building at 80 and 82 Front Street in the downtown area of Portland. As popularity of the mail order catalog grew throughout the Pacific Northwest, Henry sought to find a larger building within which to operate. He later purchased the property at 111 SE Belmont Street and began construction on his state-of-the-art 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m2) catalog supply store. Because of its location by the railroad tracks and the river, the store could easily ship and receive goods by railroad, steamer ship, and via truck. The building remained the Jones Cash Store until 1929 at which time it was sold to Montgomery Ward.
United States 