A single sheet leaflet or as it's called in the US a pamphlet
This is by far the easiest publications to produce and because it's short also by far the cheapest. Basically anyone with a computer or even a typewriter can write a leaflet, bring it to a local stationary shop and photocopy as many copies as they can afford. Most of the time leaflets are produced to advertise a particular event (a march) or to try and mobilise people around a particular issue. (For instance at the time of writing we are considering producing 20,000 leaflets urging a No vote in a referendum.)
The disadvantage with a leaflet is that you can't say very much - there isn't enough space. So while they are useful for promoting a single idea/event it's difficult to do much more. Have a look at some of the 'Anarchist News' leaflets we produced which as well as addressing particular issues also try and also introduce some explanation of what anarchism is.
An anarchist paper
Most groups try their hand at some point at producing an anarchist paper. Here over a number of pages you can combine articles on anarchism with articles about particular issues. But the higher cost of producing a paper means you will almost certainly have sell them to people rather then giving them away. Although with a good subs structures, a few members in full time employment and a thin paper you may be able to do this - currently we are doing this with 'Workers Solidarity' allowing us to distribute 6,000 copies six times a year.
A paper should really be directed at people who are not convinced anarchists and perhaps who don't even see themselves as left wing. So it needs to address issues that concern the 'guy in the street' is a serious way. A lot of anarchist papers don't do this very well, they tend to be full of articles that are relevant to the anarchist movement or which simply sloganise about particular aspects of capitalism.
Articles should be written as if they are going to be read by you non-political friends, relations and work mates. In fact you should be quite happy to sell these people your groups paper and feel that they will get something out of it. Generally this means that you need to avoid 'jargon' and address issues in a way that will make sure they read to the end of the article rather then throw the paper into the corner after the first paragraph.
If your saying something 'unpopular' for instance (and a lot of the time you will need to) you need to carefully argue for your point of view and back it up with as many facts as possible. And when your using facts its often a lot more convincing if you can say they come from a source people accept as valid. So for instance rather then simply saying "top executives earn 419 times the average wage of a US blue-collar worker" you should say "Business Week reported that in 1999 top executives earned 419 times the average wage of a US blue-collar worker."
A magazine
We publish a magazine called Red and Black Revolution. The idea of this magazine is that we can publish quite long articles (up to 7,000 words) that can look at issues around anarchism is a lot of detail. This is quite useful if you want to influence the thinking of other sections of the anarchist movement and also to demonstrate to activists here that anarchism is not just a couple of nice slogans but can uniquely add to our understanding of historical and current struggles.
This means that a lot of the articles require some real original research in order to be written. Rather then writing articles in day or weeks as you can for a paper the articles often need to be researched and written over months.
I think this sort of magazine is quite ambitious, definetly something you shouldn't try until you have established a regular paper. Apart from anything else it appeals to a much narrower layer then a paper can. Many of the technicalities of publication though are the same for a paper, you just need to leave a lot of extra time for each stage.
In Ireland a pamphlet means a short book of 20 or so pages. These are a lot easier to produce then a magazine but allow you to cover a topic with the same sort of details. Arguably the first thing you should consider producing is a pamphlet that explains what anarchism is and how it would work using local examples. This is particularly the case if you leave in a region where people know very little about anarchism.
Editing
Something that you should have with every publication is an editoral procedure. In a very new and small group it is often a good idea for the entire group to edit the groups publications as this will help to develop skills and also will procedure a useful mechanism for discussion.
There are several important aspects to an editing procedure
Political content
Is the articles in general agreement with the groups position, if it's not should it be published anyway with a note saying it is the writers view. Often the writer may just have not fully thought through what they are saying so then the best thing is for the editoral group to make suggestions about how the article could be changed. Sometimes though the writer may want publish an article that disagrees with aspects of policy - the group will need to agree how this is to be done.
Some anarchists are nervous about this sort of political editing. But I can say after having gone through many years of it both as a writer and as an editor it is actually extremely useful to the writer as well as the organisation. It is often difficult to spot all the implications of everything you write. Something you read one way may be read in a completely different way by someone else. Often I forget to cover particular details or get distracted and waffle on about stuff that is not all that relevant. A good editoral procedure not only corrects this but also helps me write in a better way in the future (at least I hope so).
Article balance
The editoral group should make sure the overall composition of the paper is balanced. Basically its best if the organisation as a whole defines a guideline of what a balanced paper should look like. For instance this could be at least 1/4 anarchist history/theory, 1/3 local news (of which 1/9 should be about unions), 1/4 international news which should as far as possible be about victories.
For each issue of the paper the editoral group should first sit down and work out a list of articles that will reflect this balance. They should also give an idea of what points they think should be covered and how long the article should be (e.g. 400 words). They might also decide who should be asked to write each article or in a small group they could just bring the article list to the next meeting and look for volunteers.
Every now and again the organisation should discuss the paper and tell the editoral group whether or not they felt the balance was right. Over a period of time this should help to develop a consistent paper quality.
Proof reading
A common problem with anarchist papers is that they are riddled with spelling mistakes and incorrect grammer. Now while this doesn't worry me much the world is full of people who will use this as an excuse not to take the ideas they contain seriously. Let's not give them that excuse!
After articles have been agreed someone from the editorial group who is good at 'proofreading' (basically spotting mistakes) should look carefully at them and either correct the article themselves or pass the corrections on to who ever is doing the layout.
Layout
While its true that the better your publication looks the more seriously many people will take it today with the help of a computer and a little bit of time anyone can produce a nice looking publication. Include lots of graphics and don't make the text too small - this will encourage people to read it.
Printing
For small numbers of copies, up to a couple of thousand then photocopying may be the cheapest way to produce your publication. But for larger number and for a better looking publication you will should get it printed. Start off by asking where other small left or community groups get their printing done. Odds are this may be the best choice for you as well. Failing this ring around a number of printers for quotes &endash; check also if they are unionised, the last thing you want to do is do your printing via some union busting corporation!
Distribution
Any sort of public protest or left/union/community meeting is probably a good place to distribute or sell material. Also consider doing a street sale at a regular time every week or month which can also be a way of people getting to meet you. If there is a large workplace in your area which has clear shift changes this can also be a good place to distribute. Finally many groups distribute 'door to door', one advantage of doing this is that it means the same people can be given consecutive issues of the publication and so can 'get to know you'.
Its always worth encouraging people to volunteer to help you with distribution. Often people who don't have the time to be fully involved with the group will be willing to help give out or sell a few copies of each publication you produce.
By way of a conclusion
Producing a publication is pretty easy, the trick is not to be too ambitious and to aim at a level you can achieve. There is nothing wrong with starting off with a single page leaflet for instance. Or in producing a paper a lot of whose content you simply take off the internet to add to the few local stories you have time to produce. It's something you will learn as you go along, both in terms of how to produce your publication but also in terms of what to write about that people will find interesting.