Amateur Press Association

Amateur Press Associations (APAs for short) are very similar to zines as far as interactivity. They are another example of something tedious historically that fans made cool.

History: The first APA was a journal called NAPA (the National Amateur Press Association). It was a batch of newsletters by journalists to other members, simply a bundle of newsletters, often materials only other journalists might find interesting.

In the 1940s with FAPA (the first one of a fantasy fiction theme) Donald A. Wollheim pioneered what's part of most newsletters today: Mailing Comments. These are individual members feedback on what the others have produced.

APAs can deal with different topics both generalized (such as comicbooks and rolplaying games) or specific (such as dedicated to a specific series like the Legion of Superheroes, a specific genre like furries, or a specific game system like GURPS). All develop their own communities and in-jokes over time.

An APA is similar more to the old school BBS in that MC discussions between members can stretch for years. While the Internet has brought the age of instand communications, there are still many who prefer these less rapid conversations.

Methodology: Every member creates their own newsletter (maybe a mix of original content and Mailing Comments) and makes a number of copies as decided in the group's by-laws. They then mail these copies to the person designated the central mailer (CM, or DM for Distribution Manager). In tern this person willcompile volumes with one copy apiece of every newsletter, put on a front and back cover and perhaps an opening editorial and table of contents - then mail these finished volumes back to the contributors.

Links

(This section will grow over time)

[Comicopia]http://comicopia.net

--Jeffrey Allan Boman 17:56, 11 July 2006 (EDT)

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