When a zine isn’t a zine…

Whimsical watercolor illustration of a zine and a chapbook personified as friendly characters sitting beneath a tree, holding hands while autumn leaves fall around them.

I recently discovered that some of my beloved “zines” aren’t zines at all—they’re chapbooks! What began as mild embarrassment turned into a delightful realization: I’ve accidentally been running a small press. In exploring the tangled history between zines and chapbooks, I found that their difference isn’t about rules—it’s about intent, and the shared joy of making stories personal again.