New postage rates go into effect on Monday. To help you make sense of it, we’ve updated our handy U.S. Postal Rates sheet. In addition to increasing rates in all categories, USPS has now applied shaped-based pricing to all international mail. For an explanation of shaped-base pricing and how to use media mail or bound printed matter, check out our Zinester’s Guide to U.S. Mail (PDF).

We’ve also updated our events page!

Tom Hendricks — publisher of Musea, musician behind Hunkasaurus and His Pet Dog Guitar, and reviewer for Zine World — shares his song honoring our zine:

Earlier this week, Aaron from Fall of Autumn shared an update about changes occurring in the management of their distro and explaining what’s been happening with ZineWiki. In short: Alan is dropping out from most of the distro’s activities, they’re continuing their Zinester Podcast Series (with recent new posts), and ZineWiki got hacked and they’ve not been able to restore the site yet. Read the full announcement at LiveJournal or on MySpace.

Zine World HQ recently received Murder Can Be Fun #20, with an enclosed note saying it “will probably prove to be my final issue.” MCBF is one of those classic zines that us old-school zine folks drool over, the epitome of the ‘quirky’ zine, about weird and bizarre stories of death & mishap. I, for one, will be sad to see it go… but who knows, maybe John will surprise us with a new issue 5 years from now…

If you’ve never read MCBF, don’t let this chance pass you by: $2 to John Marr, PO Box 64011, San Francisco CA 94164.

We hope you like the new look of the Zine World website. We’ll be using this new blog to keep you informed of important stuff in between issues of our zine: news about censorship, publishing, the post office, etc.; announcements about various zine-related things and resources; and much more. If you use an RSS reader, please be sure to add our feed!

Of course, you can still find great zine resources on our website, including our lists of zine libraries & infoshops (U.S. and worldwide), zine review zines and websites, zine distros and stores that sell zines (with recommendations from our readers), links to zine websites and other great sources of information, and upcoming zine events.

If you have news you’d like us to share with the zine community — on our website and in our zine — please email it to wordofmouth@undergroundpress.org. We are always looking for: event listings, recommendations (and warnings) about zine vendors, publishing advice, mailing/shipping tips, and information about places to find zines.

Zine World #25.5 is a supplemental issue featuring 150+ reviews and updates to our lists of zine review zines and zine libraries. Released in March, issue #25.5 is available for free to all current subscribers. If you’re not a subscriber, you can get a copy by sending $1 (or a couple of U.S. stamps) to: Zine World, PO Box 330156, Murfreesboro TN 37133-0156. (Want to become a subscriber? Check out Ordering Zine World for details.)

Interested in back issues? We have those, too.

Yes, I know we are all still getting used to the big changes made to the U.S. postal rates last year. Hate to tell you, but May is bringing another rate increase and more changes to international shipping.

Here’s a highlight of the changes:

For mail outside going outside the US, the Post Office is introducing shape-based pricing, using the same scheme as they introduced last year for U.S. mail. This change will mean a 3 or 4 cent increase for 1/2 and 1 oz mailings sent at letter rate (although the 2 and 3 oz rates will be slightly cheaper than they currently are), higher rates for 1-3 oz large envelope-size mailings to all countries, and slight rate decreases for large envelope-mailings to all countries at 5 or 6 oz. or above, as compared to current rates.

For more info, check out the USPS’s announcement and and a list of new rates and prices.

Yes, it’s confusing. Zine World will be releasing an updated U.S. postal rate sheet sometime in April. In the meantime, you can use our current postal rate sheet (PDF). These rates will be valid through May 11, 2008. For an explanation of shaped-base pricing and how to use media mail or bound printed matter, check out our Zinester’s Guide to U.S. Mail (PDF).