But will it be the last ?
When everyone talks about apps, don’t forget APAs !
The idea of an “Amateur Press Association” (APA) for amateur writers and publishers, began in the US and the UK in the late 19th Century.
See eg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_press_association
APAs spread to science fiction fandom in the 1930’s with Fantasy APA in 1937, soon followed by others – and HP Lovecraft had already been heavily involved in the old APA world. The idea is simply to produce amateur publications and send copies to a central Official Editor (OE), who collates them into mailings for all members.
It can be seen as an early very slow and manual Internet on paper… Nowadays it can be done through the net itself. EAPA (Electronic APA) was possibly first (at least in fandom) a decade ago. Its 120th monthly (= 10 years) mailing is coming up in April.
But it may be the last.
The OE has to step down for private reasons and membership has dropped. In the last mailings the few remaining members have discussed What To Do. No one has yet been willing to take over as OE and more members are desperately needed. If you’re interested you can study the “open mailings” of EAPA here: http://www.efanzines.com/eapa/
The October mailings are usually open, others are password protected. It’s been suggested to make all mailings open. Anyone who could step in as new OE would probably have the final say about that and other administrative changes. If you’re interested in joining and help EAPA to survive (against odds that unfortunately seem bleak at the moment) the requirements are easy:
1. Write an electronic “mini fanzine” of at lest one page. Contents can be virtually anything, but fandom and related stuff is often discussed. Comments to previous mailings are common. (It has happened that members short on time have written just a few lines in a big typeface…)
2. Make a PDF-file of it, which can be done directly in many word processors or be easily produced by seperate programs, downloadable for free on most shareware sites.
3. Send it the first day of at least every second month – or every month if you prefer – to the OE chuck.connor@bluebottle.com (note: for use only until April). Shortly, you’ll have a file with the new thrilling EAPA mailing!
To write at least something every second month shouldn’t break anybody’s back – so don’t hesitate! There are no membership fees. And, of course, it may be practical to write in English, though the rules don’t mention language. (Members have this far tended to be from the UK, North America and the Nordic countries, but it would be exciting to connect to other regions!)
See it as doing a small blog by other means. A way to get to know new fans. Test ideas and thoughts in a more informal environment. A place dump those interesting pictures you don’t know what to do with (reduce them first to keep the PDF to a reasonable size). Or that text your cat wrote when it played with mouse and keyboard.
©Ahrvid Engholm (In EAPA since 2011. Join to read my exclusive minizine Intermission!)
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Ahrvid Engholm is a swedish author, editor, journalist and SF fan.
