Born 1967 in Izumo-City, Shimane Prefecture. Writer and editor. Sponsors the Hitohako Furuhon-Ichi(one-box secondhand book market)as representative of “Shinobazu Book Street.”His works include coauthor of“Mini-Comi Damashii.”Resides in Tokyo.
For quite a while, the pleasure of traveling to local cities was stopping by the local bookstores to browse through their magazines and publications. Should anything attract my attention, say its content or design, I would buy it as a memento of that trip, even if none of the names (places, people, etc.) that appear sounded familiar to me.
Lately, however, I hardly run into such publications. Whether it is due to advances in DTP technologies or the cutting down on printing costs, only elegant good-looking magazines and books are lined up on the shelves of every bookstore, and I can no longer detect the scent unique to things that are rooted in the locale.
Nowadays, if you are looking for a good publication to buy as a “souvenir,” the places to look for are cafes and secondhand bookstores. There you would find “Free Papers” and other bits of paraphernalia. The “Free Paper” mentioned here is completely different from zines and other speciality publications available everywhere such as the likes of “Hot Pepper” and “R25,” but paper mediums created by an individual or a small group of people with unyielding passion.
There is a visually elaborate Free Paper by a designer frustrated from his daily work who dedicated all his skills and talents to creating it, a handwritten Free Paper by a female student who wrote down what she felt from day to day in fine small letters as if making a copy of a mantra, and a Free Paper produced by a man in his eighties.
Many publishers fund their papers with earnings from their professions. There is usually no advertising revenue, and printing and shipment fees come from their own hip pockets. Therefore, the more they publish, the less profit they make.
“Why don’t you set a price?” I once asked a publisher. In reply to my query, he replied, “Because it gives me more freedom.” Selling means circulating a product in the distribution channels. In order to do that, the product must meet certain requirements. This is just too much of a hassle. People of the publication industry would sneer, saying,“ It’s a lame excuse coming from a lazy person,” but aren’t there things that become clear for the first time only after being released from profits and distribution channels?
Many Free Papers that I have at hand do not show local colors, but the presence of its publisher is evident in each paper. Each has its own unique aroma.
Web? E-mail? They are fine. However, in my opinion, they cannot beat the drama that is born when a Free Paper flies out into various places and lands in the hands of a stranger.