Start Select Reset Zine – Return of the Real

Starting today, Start Select Reset Zine will be sent via sail mail to paid supporters subscribed at £5 a Month or above 4 times a year. Sign up to get issue #002.

SSRZ #002 – Return of the Real is 1 sheet of double sided A4 laser printed on 120 gsm colour paper, hand folded and posted by me.

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Why Start A Physical Newsletter in 2022?

In September of 2018 I put out a collection of podcast transcripts on the attention economy and social media as PDF called Start Select Reset Zine #001 – Your Attention Is Sovereign. Since then it has been download over 14,000 times.

Back then my intention was to continue to collect podcast transcripts and post them as PDF zines online. But creator friends encouraged me to post Permanently Moved episode transcripts as as blog posts online instead. Both for accessibility reasons and my own reference – this proved to be correct advice.

In 2020, I launched the paid supporter page on my site. At the time I didn’t want to put 301 behind a paywall in anyway shape or form. Instead asking people to support the show if they liked it – I am extremely grateful to all those who have subscribed and supported my work so far.

Going in to 2022 I hadn’t made any more zines but really wanted to. I also continue to make the show and post it on the internet for free.

One of the problems I have been experiencing however is the dreaded ‘value proposition’. What do paid supporters get in return for their support? Until today the answer has been nothing. From today:

Paid supporters Subscribed at £5 a Month or £100 a Year will receive a hand made zine via snail mail seasonally.

Making 301 every week, writing the essay, recording, editing the video and audio versions is in all honestly, a huge amount of work. I’ve set the value on these zines 4 times a year at a level that I think is fair and comparable to other types of value supplied by creators substacks and patreons that I pay for myself. I mean this sure sounds (to me) like better value than paying 5 bucks a month in exchange for emails?

As I was moaning about the other week, I still need to set up the infrastructure to better support the subscription levels, people’s address’s and zine shipping. But all this costs money. I’m hoping that any new subscribers will boot strap the funds to sort this out.

For now, if you subscribe you will receive an email from me asking for your address.

Once the zines are gone, they are gone – if any remain when the next issue goes out in August, they will go up for sale on thejaymo.net.

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My friend JD O – Check out his 301 podcast episode – recently withdrew ‘pay what you want’ pricing for his novels and set fixed price on Gumroad instead. Like me, JD O is a child of the 90’s, Napster, Soulseek etc – influenced by the early ‘Information Wants to Be Free’ web.

But in 2022 this is unsustainable. Here’s what JD O wrote about why he was re-pricing his novels

the act of writing and reading are sacred, meaning they require sacrifice to fully appreciate/realize/experience.

You pay a Tarot reader before a reading. You have to. Same with any magical exchange. Don’t go asking spirits for things unless you’re ready to leave an orange and some incense at the very least. And the same holds true of the “ritual space” of art experience. Reading a book, watching a movie, listening to music, playing a video game, admiring a painting…all of it requires payment, especially if it affects you.

Payment can be monetary, or perhaps spreading a little “word of mouth,” but in 2022, it’s monetary. It feels good, feels right, to pay for things you enjoy. And then you can share them!

In 2019 I wrote the only reason you’re not selling out is because nobody is buying. Lots of people thanked me for that line at the time, but I didn’t take my own advice. People had nothing to buy that they couldn’t already get for free.

I’m starting a physical zine, a physical newsletter, in 2022 because I belive thats where I belive real value is.

As our culture moves / trends towards ever greater levels of abstraction, making and sending real things to real people is the way forward. The essay in issue #002 is all about this ‘real’.

If you become a paid supporter, you are paying for the zine/newsletter and getting my weekly podcast for free.

I hope you will consider supporting me.