#We can spread our efforts out methinks

[astro-b-o-y-d]

I also said it before but I cannot find the post, but there's probably a very specific reason people are quicker to sympathize with Pacifica over Gideon and/or focus more on giving her redemption than him and it starts with an f and ends with a phobia 🫤

[matsuoclan]

you and me and this temptation

Pairing: Morgan x Det. Lucy Liang (f/f) Rating: Explicit (MINORS DO NOT INTERACT) Content: explicit sexual content, kissing, fingerfucking, dirty talk with mentions of exhibitionism/voyeurism, d/s undertones

Summary: The detective attempts to lay down some ground rules. Morgan does her best to sidetrack her.

Notes: Takes place sometime shortly after book 2, before book 3. Also brownie points to whoever can tell me who the mentioned siren is and what series they’re from!

[ read on ao3 ] [ masterlist ]

–

She’s doing this on purpose.

Lucy shoots another look at Morgan from across the table. All Morgan does is grin shamelessly and lick her lips, not at all paying attention to Nat’s mini lecture on various supernatural species.

“Sirens are incredibly rare that we know of. Most of them keep to themselves and try to interact with humans as little as possible until they have full control of their powers. There used to be a great family of them in Greece, and they’re probably still there, but the only one I know of is in Houston, Texas…Lucy, you still with me?”

Lucy jumps in her seat and smiles sheepishly at the vampire next to her. Morgan snickers. “Sorry Nat. Continue, please.”

“Hmm.” Nat trains a suspicious eye on Morgan but then turns back to the massive tome open in front of her. “Anyway, when they’re exercising their powers, some sirens can manifest translucent wings. The color will vary depending on the siren, and some are even said to have…”

Morgan shifts in her seat and once again Lucy’s gaze is drawn helplessly in her direction.

Every. Fucking. Time.

It’s been like this for over an hour. She watches as Morgan runs a slow hand through her hair and it’s not hard to imagine those fingers in her hair instead, tugging to give her that slight flash of pain. Morgan leans in like she knows exactly what Lucy’s thinking, eyes falling to her mouth, and even though there’s an entire table width between them, the heat that spikes through Lucy is enough to make her breath catch.

“Morgan, I am right here,” Nat snaps.

Lucy stifles a groan. Caught. Again.

“Yes, but can you blame me when the detective’s sitting there looking good enough to eat?” Morgan’s eyes haven’t moved, still trained on Lucy’s mouth, and Lucy shivers.

Nat splutters. “That’s hardly appropriate. Stop distracting Lucy, this is important knowledge for her to have.”

“If the detective wants me to stop distracting her, she can tell me herself.” Morgan smiles lazily at her. “Right, sweetheart?”

Lucy opens her mouth to respond. Mortifyingly, nothing comes out. Nat takes pity on her and sighs.

“We can pick this up tomorrow, Lucy. I don’t think we’ll get much further today.” She stands and closes the tome, setting it off to the side. “And Morgan, I’m serious, I want you nowhere near the library tomorrow.”

“We’ll see.”

“Nowhere. Near. The. Library,” Nat growls.

Morgan leans back in her chair and winks at Lucy. “Like I said. We’ll see.”

Nat takes her leave with an exasperated shake of her head and a muttered good-bye. With Nat gone, there’s nothing stopping Lucy from feeling the full weight of Morgan’s attention, and she shoves back from the table to put more distance between them before she does something incredibly stupid, like jump her bones in the middle of the library.

“I think we need to establish some ground rules if we’re going to keep this up,” Lucy says, gesturing between the two of them.

Morgan raises an eyebrow. “This is just sex. And you’ve liked everything so far.”

The arrogance. Lucy grabs a stack of books to reshelve them, just to give her hands something to do. Fortunately these books belong on the opposite side of the room and it’s with half relief, half disappointment that Morgan doesn’t reach for her when she walks by. “Yes, but—”

“You’ve liked every single thing I’ve done to you. Don’t pretend you weren’t remembering all the places my mouth and fingers have been just now.”

Lucy whirls around. “You can’t keep saying stuff like that when I’m working!”

“But you like it when I do.”

“That is so not the point.”

“It’s completely the point.”

“Fine,” Lucy grits out. “I do, but it distracts me, and I can’t afford to be distracted at work. Nat was right, this is important knowledge for me to learn, and I can’t learn any of it when you’re looking at me like...like that!”

“I want you,” Morgan says, shrugging. Like it’s as simple as that. “I don’t see any issue with letting that be known.”

“Morgan.”

“All right.” Morgan rises from her seat and slowly saunters over, collapsing into an armchair a few feet away. Lucy’s throat goes dry. “How about...I cut back by twenty-five percent?”

“Excuse me?” Lucy squints. Unbelievable. “Are you negotiating?”

“Yes. And sweetheart, I suggest you take it because you’re not going to get a better offer.”

Lucy turns on her heel and starts aggressively placing the books back where they belong. “Is it that hard for you to keep your comments behind closed doors?”

“Just my comments?” Even without a visual, Lucy knows exactly which infuriating smirk Morgan’s sporting as she speaks. “So you’re fine if everything else is out in the open?”

“Morgan.”

“You let me fuck you at the carnival where anyone could’ve seen, so the lady doth protest too much about this, methinks.”

Lucy drops a book.

“Actually, given our track record, I’m inclined to believe you have a thing against closed doors.”

The conversation has spiraled so completely out of control, but she shouldn’t have expected anything different when it comes to Morgan. It takes a massive effort for Lucy to turn back around and adopt a calm, pleasant expression. “Fifty percent and I’ll kiss you after we finish this conversation.”

Morgan’s eyes darken. “You’ll kiss me anyway.”

“You seem awfully confident that I’m a sure thing,” Lucy says shakily. A hysterical laugh threatens to bubble up inside her. She already knows she is. The slow smile unfurling on Morgan’s face says she already knows Lucy is, too.

“...aren’t you?”

Lucy doesn’t respond. She can’t.

“Fine, fine.” Morgan rolls her eyes and extends a hand in Lucy’s direction. “Come here.”

Lucy eyes it suspiciously. “Why?”

“A show of good faith. Kiss me so I know you’re good for it, and you’ll have your forty percent.” She pats her lap and motions again.

“Fifty percent.”

“That’s what I said.” Morgan is unrepentant in all her glory. “Come here, Lucy.”

One day she’ll figure out how to resist Morgan’s pull. It’s not good for her dignity that Morgan has all but figured out she only has to crook a finger and Lucy will come running despite herself. But until then...

Lucy takes two steps in Morgan’s direction. Instantly Morgan reaches out and pulls her in to straddle her lap, hands resting on her waist as she smirks up at her. The feel of Morgan’s warm hands through the thin fabric of her dress gives Lucy a full body shiver.

“Show me my good faith,” Morgan murmurs, and then Lucy’s kissing her.

Morgan doesn’t bother with easing into it. As soon as Lucy parts her lips, Morgan’s there, licking deep into her mouth until Lucy’s dizzy with want.

Everything about Morgan overwhelms her. Her scent, her taste. The way she sucks on her tongue kicks Lucy’s pulse into overdrive and she whimpers, body on fire. Morgan’s hands tighten at the noise and then she’s running them along Lucy’s shoulders, up into her hair, down her back to squeeze her ass...

Lucy jolts and bites down on Morgan’s bottom lip in retaliation. Morgan laughs roughly against her mouth.

“I like this tart side of you, sweetheart.”

“Saved it just for you.” Lucy leans back with monumental effort, panting. “Is that enough good faith?”

“It’ll do for now.” Morgan bumps her nose against Lucy’s. It shouldn’t be so charming, but fuck, it is. “Anything other ground rules you wanted to go over?

“No. Wait, yes.” This one hasn’t come up yet in the limited time they’ve been doing...whatever it is they‘re doing, but Lucy figures now is the best time as any to get it out there. She makes to get off Morgan’s lap to allow herself some distance for actual thought, but Morgan catches her waist and maneuvers her so that she’s sitting with her back against Morgan’s chest. “What are you doing?”

“Relax, sweetheart. It’s just more good faith.”

Lucy squirms. It feels remarkably like the time on the carousel, when Lucy thought she might explode from the tension. “I think you’re getting more out of this negotiation than I am.”

“Then get better at negotiating.” The hand Morgan has resting on her thigh tightens just a bit but it’s enough that Lucy has to fight from spreading her legs. “What’s the next rule?”

“...No one else.” Lucy swallows. “No one else if you’re fucking me.”

Morgan stills so suddenly Lucy wonders if she just made a huge misstep. Maybe that’s too much to ask, too soon. She’s not ignorant of Morgan’s past exploits. What was she thinking, asking Morgan something like that? They haven’t known each other all that long, and even if they could probably be called friends on the best of days, they don’t have a relationship where she can ask something as brazen as this—

“No one else,” Morgan agrees quietly. It takes a moment to register, and then the relief is dizzying. Morgan’s hand on her stomach curls and Lucy’s not stupid enough to think it’s possessive but she can pretend it is, for a moment. “That goes for you too.”

Lucy snorts in surprise. “Oh please. Did you forget who you’re talking to?”

“That ex of yours keeps sniffing around.”

It can’t possibly be jealousy she’s hearing, but Lucy calls on whatever bravery she has left to poke. “Worried you have competition?”

Morgan has the gall to chuckle. “Sweetheart, I’m the best you’ve ever had.”

“You are incurably arrogant,” Lucy grumbles.

“And one hundred percent correct. Is that it? All the ground rules?”

“For now.”

“Hmm.” Morgan ghosts her mouth over Lucy’s ear. “Before I agree, I think I need one last show of good faith. Just to know you can uphold your end of the bargain.”

“Morgan, you have a supremely skewed idea of what a negotiation is.”

“Maybe. But for some reason I don’t think you’re complaining.” Morgan slowly spreads her hand across Lucy’s stomach, brushing along the underside of her breast. Lucy fidgets in the cage of her arms and squeezes her thighs together as her breath quickens. “This feel familiar to you at all?”

“...The carousel. When we were undercover at the carnival.”

“Mmm. Made the entire mission worth it, having you perched so sweetly on my lap.” Morgan slides the straps of her dress down her arms, baring her bra. Lucy’s nipples instantly go tight.

“You made the most delicious little gasp when I put my mouth here.” She seals her mouth over the scars of Murphy’s fangs on Lucy’s neck and sucks hard. And even though she should’ve expected it, Lucy gasps all over again, body going taut.

“And that fucking little skirt, teasing me all night long.” A hand idly strokes up the inside of her thigh, close to where Lucy’s pulse is pounding between her legs. And just like that, Lucy parts her thighs. “If I had reached under your skirt like I’m doing now…” Morgan draws a finger over the front of her panties. “...would I have found you just as wet?”

“Y-yes.” Her voice comes out breathy.

“Would you have let me do this?” She pulls Lucy’s pantiest to one side. There’s no urgency in Morgan’s movements as she traces her fingers over Lucy’s entrance, circling her clit, seemingly content to just explore with featherlight motions. “Touch your pussy with all those people around? No closed doors to speak of?”

She palms the front of Lucy’s bra with her other hand and yanks it down, baring her breasts. “Would you have let me do this?” Morgan cups one of her breasts and tugs at her nipple and Lucy almost comes on the spot. “There’d be no hiding what I was doing.”

Fuck. Lucy shouldn’t want what Morgan’s describing in her ear. It’s way too public, way too filthy. But when Morgan touches her like that, all rational thought flees and the only thing left is the image of Morgan spreading her open in front of the carnival and not stopping until she’s screaming.

It’s more than a little scary how much Morgan can make her want.

Morgan sinks her teeth into Lucy’s earlobe at the same time she slides a finger inside her. “I think they’d be jealous of me, if they saw. It’s me who gets to touch you like this. My arms around your tight little body. My fingers fucking your pussy.” She slides another finger inside and strokes a finger directly over Lucy’s clit. Lucy spreads legs even wider, letting them drape over Morgan’s thighs. “It’s me who’s getting you off, and all they’d be able to do is watch…”

Oh god. Lucy lets her head fall back against Morgan’s shoulder and moans as Morgan fucks her with her fingers. Morgan keeps the pace aggravatingly unhurried, like she’s that certain her words are enough to wind Lucy up.

She’d be one hundred percent correct.

“Would you put on a show for them, sweetheart?” Morgan sounds supremely unaffected and Lucy hates her for it, just a little. “Let them see how wet you get at the idea of an audience? Moan when you come so prettily around my fingers?”

“Please. Please, Morgan.” Lucy writhes in her lap, not even sure what she’s begging for, but as always, Morgan knows exactly what she needs. She shifts the hand at Lucy’s breast to hold tight across her stomach and pushes a third finger into her. The pleasure building inside Lucy spikes sharper when Morgan finally, finally, speeds up.

“I’d let them watch if you asked. They can watch as much as they want and imagine they’re the ones you’re desperate for, but at the end of the day they’ll know it’s only me who’s allowed to do this.” Morgan pinches Lucy’s clit and the tiny shock of pain sends Lucy careening.

She cries out when she comes, grinding down on Morgan’s fingers as Morgan continues her strokes. Distantly she registers Morgan’s mouth on her neck again, and something that feels suspiciously like fangs dragging on her skin.

“Beautiful,” Morgan murmurs against her ear when she finally slumps back against her, completely spent. “So fucking beautiful.”

Lucy turns her head to get a look at Morgan but Morgan just kisses her, gentler this time. It’s a kiss without a goal, and Lucy’s happy enough to sink into it and be swept away. When Lucy finally draws back for breath, Morgan’s grinning at her in that self-satisfied way of hers and even after everything Lucy’s heart still skips a beat.

She leans in to press another kiss to the corner of Lucy’s mouth. “Sweetheart, we have a deal.”

[fairiesherefairiesthere]

(Fraxus) The Duel-ity of man

Title’s a pun, not a misspelling :D

This was a request by @useless-slytherclaw, who requested Laxus realising he’s in love with Freed! Thank you for the request! Fic under the cut

Maybe, just maybe, the reason Laxus hasn't thought of Freed as dating material up till now because the man gives him so much more to think about, although he's never able to dwell upon those thoughts for very long because the man is a whirlwind of brilliant activity. If Laxus' thought were a neat pile of papers (a very hypothetical situation), then Freed is a cheeky spring breeze, luring those papers outside, scattering them in every direction that man wants them to go.

Perhaps Freed is more like a matchstick, inconspicuously landing on those imaginary papers and setting them ablaze without being conscious of the furnace he's created. One of the things Laxus is sure of, is that he's no good at neither analogies nor poetry and that he should stop trying to encapsulate the essence of his best friend in one image, because no image he could possibly conjure could live up to the man himself.

Said man is currently distracting him from trying to form coherent thoughts. Nothing new there and as the truly wise people say, thinking is overrated anyway. "What's got you thinking so hard?" Freed asks, tone teasing as he places himself on Laxus' desk, legs crossed. Effortlessly, he paints a picture of elegance that Laxus would never dare to attempt to try himself. "I don't think", he answers.

Dignity. A gift that isn't bestowed upon any member of the Dreyar family, but Laxus hopes that at least his pokerface can save him from selfinflicted embarrassment.

His pokerface doesn't stand a chance against Freed's ages of knowing and the other man raises a brow in retalation. Granting him some mercy, Freed shakes his head with a little smile. "Apparently so", he grins and Laxus thinks about throwing him off his desk. It wouldn't be that hard, Freed isn't that heavy. He knows because he's carried him before, which was all in all a nice experience.

"You're really out of it today, what's up?" There's no escaping Freed's perceptiveness and knowing this like no other, Laxus doesn't even attempt to. "I am having thoughts." Seeing the grin reappear on Freed's face, Laxus throws a paper ball in his direction. "Asshole", he mutters and the bastard has the nerve to shoot him a wink. "I'm having a crisis, but I don't know about what. Not yet, really."

Freed hums at that and gives Laxus a once over, lingering at his eyes. As they wordlessly gaze at each other, Laxus swallows dryly. He thinks he can take this tension, until Freed reaches out and tilts his chin up. Involuntarily, he shivers and his eyes quickly flits from Freed eyes to his lips and back.

Just when he's about to ask what Freed is doing, the man lets go and jumps from his desk. "Being cooped up in here isn't going to help you methinks. Darling, will you join me for a walk? Or are you gonna stay in this musty ass place, bitch?"

The difference in tone and wordchoice kicks Laxus in the teeth and damn it, he doesn't like to be on the receiving end of Freed's verbal whiplashes. "Yeah, I'm coming", he says and follows the man outside.

Freed is first and foremost, a trickster. A conman, if he must, a charming piece of man only following his own rules. Without a doubt, Laxus can say that he knows no one quite as wellspoken as Freed Justine. Without a doubt, he also knows that no one can even try to compare to Freed when it comes to cursing someone to hell and back. The man is a master of language and applies it however he wishes, pulling people in with pretty words or provoking them with vicious insults.

Whatever he wants, he will get and Laxus finds it a fascinating process to watch. (Or sometimes, plain disturbing. Once, Bickslow had been showcasing the language of the youth these days he learned while getting kidnapped by a travelling circus and Freed and him had talked in this foreign language for three whole weeks. It was awful.)

Most of the time, Laxus is merely a witness of Freed's sharptongued, quickwitted vocal charm. Whenever he's subjected to it, it leaves him a bit stumped. It probably paints him as a dim fool in Freed's mind. Sure, he isn't the brightest mind around here (how can he be when Freed's walking right next to him), but he'd like to be a tad bit better than that. He resolves to not let himself be played with that easily next time.

"Here." With a careful gesture, Freed hands him an icecream. "You're spacing off again and since you didn't answer when I oh so considerately asked you if you wanted some icecream, I took it upon myself to get you some anyway."

"Oh. Thanks." Awkwardly Laxus takes it. "Strawberry, because you have the taste of a first grader on a schooltrip", Freed smirks, sticking his tongue out like an actual first grader. "Put that tongue back or I'll give you something to do with it."

"Oh yeah?" Freed asks, voice teasing with a hint of breathlessness, lips slightly parted. Unceremoniously, Laxus shoves Freed's own icecream into the man's mouth. As the man sputters and coughs, Laxus pats him on the back.

After the coughing fit, Laxus, feeling a bit bad, finds them a scenic place in the park to sit. The trees grand them some relief from the sweltering sun and Freed ignores the perfectly fine bench to spread his jacket underneath him and lay down on the grass. His long green hair is arranges itself like a halo around his head and Laxus twirls a few strands of it between his fingers as he sits down next to him. Looking at Freed, he gives the other man a barely there smile (he's been told he's not that good at smiling).

"Camouflage", he jokes and Freed rolls his eyes. "Whatever", he says and puts a few strands of gras between his lips, like some sort of really white cowboy. "Cannibalism", Laxus whispers obnoxiously close to his ears. Freed's brows twitch in irritation and the man opens his mouth. Nothing comes out and he purses his lips together instead. With a huff, he lays his head down in Laxus' lap and closes his eyes. "I'm not acknowledging that, I'm going to take a nap instead."

"You do that captain", Laxus snorts and moves Freed's a bit, so it's more comfortable for both of them. Although he's using the title mostly jokingly in the moment, Laxus truly respects the work Freed does for their little ragtag group of friends. All of them are powerhouses in their own right, but Freed's the mastermind behind their teamwork. Laxus doesn't think that anybody in the whole world could juggle their personalities and abilities as well as he can.

For someone who looks so unassuming, Freed is a beast of a man. Most of the time, he puts his effort in making sure their team works efficiently together, disappearing in the background. It's whatever Freed in the shadows that makes them able to pull through. But on the few occassions that Laxus has seen him showcasing his strength, he's been left astounded.

Freed's an allrounder in more ways than one. On the battlefield, he's their biggest defense player, one of the best closerangers and he can take care of longer ranges too. Often he doesn't need to, because his strategic mind allows him and his team to win battles without too much trouble. He's a menace and often more brutal than Laxus dares to be.

Off the battlefield, he's the only reason none of them have died of food poisoning. Basically, Freed's what keeps them going.

With soft gestures, Laxus takes it upon himself to decorate Freed's hair with nearby flowers. As he places white and pink flowers in green tresses, he can't help but note how handsome the man in his lap is. The serenity of his expression brings out his youthfullness and as Laxus stares at this accumulation of grace, strength, beauty, competence, brilliance and so much more, Laxus finds his mind to be completely peaceful.

Although they both are men of action, Laxus wishes that moments like these wouls occur more often. A flash of Freed in a fight, deadly power contained in a smirking man, is always enjoyable but such moments are too short to truly relish in. Right now, he can breathe peacefully and stare at Freed as long as he wants. The man's not doing anything special right now and yet Laxus still feels a thrilling admiration when he looks at him. All Freed's competences and abilities are neat, but they are not the core of his being, not the exact thing Laxus is attracted to.

"Hey Freed?" he murmurs, as he feels like speaking in a louder tone will shatter this picture perfect moment. "What would you do if you liked someone?" Without opening his eyes, Freed answers, a dramatic tone colouring his voice.

"Why my dear Laxus, I would challenge them to a duel. They would accept the challenge, but little do they know, it's not a fight in an arena. Nay, we fight in the streets of the city that has seen us grow together and as we give each other little nicks with our knives, we come to the conclusion that we are deeply and madly in love. We will elope and become pirates and as the sun sets above our ship, we kiss, because we waited untill marriage for any kind of physical contact."

His gorgeous blue eyes snap open and Laxus feels pinned into place. "Then the kraken will drag our ship down and eat us alive. Reverse sannakji."

"That's awful."

"Thanks, it was pure improvisation."

Laxus sighs a bit disappointedly and Freed closes his eyes again. "I don't know. Probably ask him out for icecream." There's no misunderstanding his smile and Laxus rushes to get the words out. "I love you", he nearly spits out and Freed smiles a little wider. "I know", he says and the calm, warm tone settles any restlessness that might've still been in Laxus' body. Softly, he presses a kiss to the back of Laxus' hand. "I love you too."

He says the words like they're the easiest in the world. Laxus can't wait till he can say them that naturally as well. For now, he puts a few more flowers in his lover's hair, hoping that actions speak louder than clumsy words, although he's got a feeling that Freed will get the message nonetheless.

[inky-thoughts]

How to Organize a Zine 101 #6

I think I talked a lot about planning out your whole zine that we finally can go on with the next step:

Phase 2: Applications

A zine wouldn’t be a zine (okay, yes it would because there are plenty of zines where only one artist contributes to it but that’s not why you’re here) if it wasn’t for the contributors of a zine. The application process is probably the busiest part of making a zine, and it’s right at the start so you basically are shoved into the cold water immediately without much of a pep talk.

Ideally, if you start open applications, you

have gathered some mods so you don’t need to go through this whole ordeal alone

created a web presence (tumblr, twitter, etc.) to spread the word and have people easily gather all info they need to apply (plus some kind of corporate design that makes everything look like a unit)

thought about what is a reasonable number of contributors for you to handle and what type of contributions you want to allow (writing, illustrations, comics, cosplay shoots, ...)

thought about your zine format (printed/digital, size, wordcounts, etc.)

have a budget + printing services (if you have anything printed)

have a solid, manageable schedule figured out (note it probably will change a little bit along the way but ideally really not much or not at all)

Some pointers of how you can figure these parts out are on previous parts of this series, so maybe read up on those if you have any questions. Others will come now as they are something that you kind of figure out at this stage or are simply a budget/taste or goal-oriented thing.

During this phase, you need to basically cover the following steps:

launch all your social media/web presence if you haven’t yet

write down exactly what your zine is about, what format you’ll use and any other specs

have a FAQ

create application forms or regulations on how to apply

gather contributors

weed out those applicants you don’t want on your zine

constantly answering questions people send you (even though you probably stated so in the FAQ)

confirm participation, backups, and declined applicants

The number of contributors

I think the number of contributors is something you kind of have an idea of in the beginning but it will flesh out more as soon as other things get settled and can highly depend on what kind of works contributors create.

Probably the most time-intense thing for mods to handle are fic-writers, which is why there are (sadly) so few zines that allow many or even any writers at all. Writers usually get the most pages per person, need a beta-reader, need their fics to be formatted properly in the zine file to make them look like a unit, and, if you allow collaborations with artists, may have illustrations that also need to be included to the fic. Artists are much more autonome as they just deliver their final file and you just insert it. While it sounds great at first because you as a mod seem to not have that much of a workload to do, I must also mention the fact that I found it harder to work with artists than with writers according to their reliability.

Zine culture somehow established that there are more zines featuring more artists than writers, thus writers per say don’t have many zines they can work on, leading to a cleaner schedule than especially popular and high-quality artists tend to have. Depending on how professionally artists organise themselves, I had to run after quite a few artists for every deadline despite sending reminders via e-mail and our discord channel. The time and effort you save in the planned production you will most likely need to invest at a later point, so it’s not exactly that much of a difference as long as you have mods who work in the respective media themselves.

Generally speaking, having 1 mod per 10-15 contributors is probably a good rule of thumb, but yet again, there are exceptions, and if you split the general fields of modding between your mods, you probably could take on more contributors as you probably don’t need to care about your social media accounts in addition, and everyone works with contributors they can actually relate to due to the shared expertise.

Also, don’t forget that you also need to budget your whole zine, and if you happen to make a printed zine, this also means you should compensate the contributors with a free copy. Think about how many contributors you can afford if you don’t make any sales and how likely it is to get a good (printed) zine out of that number. Having an affordable number also means that you need to think about how many pages your zine should have. Usually, the binding is more of a cost factor than the number of pages, though it also definitely makes a difference if you have 40 or 60 pages (or 100). Be aware of that, too.

With certain themes also comes a specific number of contributors. I think my best example is the HQ Manager Zine I worked on as a contributor. Its theme was ‘Four Seasons,’ featuring the nine confirmed Haikyuu!! Managers, with the specific rule that per manager, in all four seasons was at least one art and one written piece included. Thus we were 36 contributors with a minimum of 9 writers and 9 artists (we ended up with 27 artists I believe.) With those zines, it is crucial to have a highly functional backup system because there always are a few who just drop out.

What kind of contributors do you want to have?

This pretty much goes along with what I mentioned above but also ... not.

There are zines that are about specific topics and where especially certain groups of creators are encouraged to contribute to give them a voice. Usually it’s about women/girls, trans and nonbinary people, LGBTAQ+ people, PoC, disabled, ... or any combination of the above and how those groups experience the fandom, characters, or topics featured in the zine. If you want to create a zine where you especially represent a certain group, make sure to explicitly say so in your Call for Submission posts, and also define it (for example want your contributors to be girls and women, specify if you also allow feminine-presenting nonbinary people as they usually have a similar experience as women if that’s what you’re aiming for), so that possible applicants know if they should even bother to check out your application form.

If you want to cover adult/NSFW themes in your zine, make sure you have an 18+ policy simply to not accidentally become a criminal.

If you have any more specifics because they are crucial to your content, incorporate them as early as possible so you don’t get somebody’s hopes up for nothing. It also helps you as a mod to check certain criteria when you look through your applicants. (And no, I don’t mean ‘must be actually good at art’ or something like that.)

Applications or Invite Only?

Above criteria don’t only apply to open-for-application zines, as Invite Only or a mixture of both need to handle their contributor numbers as well. However, the process of gathering contributors is different.

Invite Only zines have several pros:

you don’t need to justify why X got hired and not Y

you can assure a certain level of quality simply because you know what the contributors are capable of

you can better predict what kind of feel the zine will have

as they usually feature popular contributors, they are likely to sell quite well

you don’t need to dig through tons and tons of applications and can save some time

less time pressure as there are not over hundred people waiting to *finally* get their e-mail

However, there of course are some cons as well:

getting popular /contributors you admire interested in your zine might be difficult if you yourself aren’t very well-known/don’t know the contributors personally

your invited contributors might just say no, leaving you with fewer contributors than intended

the zine might come off as elitist

it’s more difficult to get people invested into your zine from the start as the first public phase (applications) is also hidden away behind closed doors and basically just pop out of the closet several months later with a finished zine up for preorders

I personally don’t really have much experience with Invite Only zines, but generally it feels more like a group project than “one is the manager and everyone else are just the employees” as it tends to be more with open-for-application zines. This can be both, positive and negative, this is something you need to figure out for yourself.

Pros of Public Application:

you don’t really need to worry about not getting enough contributors

you might discover many gems you didn’t know about at first at all because they navigate on different parts of the fandom

you have a big variety of applicants to choose from and find a tone of your zine later on if you’re unsure about it at first

no-one really feels left out because they could just apply

people can get pumped up about your zine early on and possibly save up for it

Cons entail:

there is usually quantity over quality and it takes some time to get to the Good Stuff™

it is a time-consuming process with usually a lot of time pressure because everyone just wants to know who’s in and who’s not

people might get dissappointed because they didn’t get in ‘despite being so much better than XY’

especially artists tend to juggle several zines at once and might not have the time and headspace for your project that you wish they had

you don’t quite know if it will attract more popular contributors

Public Appliations are currently the most common form of gathering contributors methinks, but as I mentioned, both have their pros and cons, and it’s something you need to figure out yourself and what fits your zine best. PA zines have a more democratic feel when it comes to who’s on it as basically everyone could have a chance, though that probably isn’t the case when you move away from the application phase. PA zines tend to be more rigit in their original purpose compared to IO zines.

What also is a thing that zines do is a combination of both. That way, you can target specific contributors that probably would get in a larger crowd, and get public applications too. The more popular contributors also might encourage their fans to apply simply by being named as an already set contributor because, really, who wouldn’t love to work on the same project as their idol (and maybe get senpai notice them)? The better and more popular the already set contributors are, the more quality contributors they might draw in. Stressing ‘might’ here because you can’t always be 100% sure.

How do you want to host applications?

Currently, most zines I have seen use Google Surveys to create application forms as it is pretty easy and intuitive to work with and lets you export all your answers into spreadsheets (plus it’s a cloud device so all of your mods can have access to it.) I personally can only recommend it. I don’t know if there are similar online services as I know that not everyone likes using Google, so if you have any which are similar, please let me know!

Another option is letting people apply via e-mail, though I would advise you to only do that if you know you’ll have very limited applicant numbers or have to deal with just the Invite Only traffic, otherwise it’s probably going to get messy as however small an nieche the fandom is, there will always be plenty to apply to, simply because they hope to finally be on a zine.

I also would suggest to have seperate forms for the different positions you offer (e.g. zine artist, bonus artist, writer, ...), that way you can already split up who’s covering which applications and you’ll be done faster.

I think the next few installments will deal with how to build up a functional application form, what to cover in your FAQ and the important specs on your Call for Submission, but that’s it for now!

Thank you for reading, I hope this is somewhat helpful.

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