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Lele Saveri: It's very straightforward. Most of the photographers who were serious before the blogging thing just always made zines. It was the cheapest way to make a book. I started getting into distribution cause it just made sense. My friend was trying to think of a place where she could have a small release party for her latest zine and at the time we were working at a pool hall so we decided to just throw it there. Since there was so much space, we thought it'd be a good idea to have others participate. So it snowballed from a one-time thing to a convention?
It just clicked. A pool hall is a perfect place. We reached out to smaller publishing houses and we had the whole fair booked within a week. That's where we got the name 8-Ball.And the zine fair caught the interest of Alldayeveryday?
Yeah. We always had a pipe dream of taking the zine fair and making it a little more permanent. Like a pop-up shop. They noticed the vacant spot and got in touch with the MTA. At first they were very skeptical since you could only lease it in ten-year increments. They eventually realized that it wouldn't be a bad idea to have someone there temporarily.

There's some commuters who come in and drop off stacks of free books. I met this one guy who makes these political T-shirts and was wondering if we would sell them. And we do. I want this place to be an open forum for anyone to do what they want, creatively. We mostly focus on zines because that's our specialty, but anyone can participate regardless of age, or budget. Most of our inventory comes to us organically. For example, we started with about 150 zines and now we're at 500.Does the MTA have any reservations about the kind of things you sell, and the crowds you draw?
I don't think they care. At most bodegas you can get pornography.Are there any plans to make the Newsstand a more permanent venture, through crowdfunding, say?
There's never really been any serious talk of doing that. I think this space works particularly well because of its location. There are about 17,000 commuters who pass through here every day. I think that's why we've been getting a lot of attention. A few people have approached me and told me that a Kickstarter approach could work. Who knows?Follow 8-Ball Zines and Alldayeveryday on Instagram and stay up to date with the Newsstand.Check out Lele's work in the 2013 Photo Issue.