PADS

A British APA-like-thing sponsored by the BSFA. PADS was short for "Printing and Distribution Service" PADS was meant for British fans who wanted to publish fanzines but did not have a mimeo. Fanzine editors sent their material to a central mailer, who produced the fanzines and bundled them into a mailing. PADS helped fans with little money publish, but on the other hand, each PADS-published fanzine looked a lot like the others. PADS was criticized by Ratfandom as being a means for production of crudzines. There were a few genuinely good fanzines that resulted from PADS, such as Mike Ashley's Xeron.

Beryl Mercer did much of the work of fanzine production. There were ten mailings in all from 1964 to 1967. In 1965 it became an "official BSFA service" as part of BSFA's Fanzine Foundation and it ended sometime in 1967 when the Fanzine Foundation itself folded. The last Official Editor was Charlie Winstone.

Contributors:

• Harry Bell -- Grimwab
• Beryl Henley -- Link
• Mary Reed -- Link, Crabapple

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Publication

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