FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

DO I HAVE TO PAY TO DOWNLOAD THE FINAL ZINE?

No. Hermitzine is a not-for-profit project, which means all Hermitzine content is completely free to download and enjoy! Please do not give us money; we’ll refund you 100 percent if you do.

DO I HAVE TO DOWNLOAD THE ZINE TO VIEW IT?

Nope. There’s multiple ways of viewing each Hermitzine edition. On this website, you can view each zine within the webpage devoted to that specific edition, as well as downloading the original PDF file in high quality from the same page.

You can also view each Hermitzine edition from our Gumroad, which is the platform we hosted our zines from before creating this website. In order to view the PDF without downloading it on Gumroad, all you need to do is follow the same steps you would if you were downloading it, then click “read” instead of “download.”

HOW MANY PAGES ARE THE FINAL ZINES?

It all depends on multiple factors, including how many participants we have, what sizes their final pieces are, and more. Our recent editions are usually over 100 pages in length.

DO YOU SELL PHYSICAL PRINTS OF HERMITZINE?

No, we’re a digital-only zine. We don’t print it at all, to sell or not. You’re free to print the zine at your own expense if you’d like, as long as you don’t intend to sell it.

WHEN DOES THE NEW EDITION START?

Hermitzine doesn’t run on a strict schedule. We start up new editions of the zine when we can, usually after giving everyone (including us mods) enough time to enjoy the previous edition and reboot for the next one. 

HOW DO I PARTICIPATE IN HERMITZINE?

When a new edition starts, we open applications for contributors through a google form. The form stays open for two weeks — the dates of which will be specified in the form itself as well as announced on our social media accounts (tumblr, twitter, and instagram) beforehand. We leave the form open for two weeks to make sure everyone has the time to apply. 

Once the application period is over, we (the mods) then select contributors based on a portfolio they show us consisting of 3-5 pieces that they consider their best work. From there, selected applicants will have 9 weeks to make a piece following the theme of the zine.

WHO CAN APPLY?

We have three requirements: 1) you’re 15 years or older, 2) you can speak enough English to communicate about deadlines and other important zine-related discussions, and 3) you have a Discord account, as that is how all communications with contributors will be made. A free account is fine — we don’t send files through Discord itself, so there’s no need to buy Nitro.

WHAT DO I NEED TO DO / HAVE TO APPLY?

For all of our applicants, we ask for a small portfolio of 3-5 pieces of your best finished work. We ask for a small portfolio to keep our views of your work focused on what you think is you at your best. These portfolio pieces don’t necessarily have to be Hermitcraft related, or even belong to a fandom. As long as it’s your personal work and you’re proud of it, we want to see it.

For writers: we ask that the 3-5 works you submit are around 3,000 words maximum, since that is the vague limit you will have to work within the zine. You can submit excerpts from longer works as long as you specify that somewhere within the application piece.

If you apply for both positions (illustrator/comic artist as well as writing), you can submit 3-5 works of each, meaning 6-10 works total.

DO I NEED TO BE WELL-KNOWN OR HAVE A LARGE SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWING TO BE ACCEPTED?

Not at all. Social media following does not factor into whether or not you’re accepted. You could have one follower or one thousand — either way, we’re looking at your portfolio. You don’t even need any social media at all! We ask for social media handles in the application in case we want to check out more of your work beyond your portfolio.

CAN I APPLY IF I DON'T HAVE ANY SOCIAL MEDIA AT ALL?

Yes! All you need is a Discord account in order to participate. We ask for social media handles in the application in case we want to check out more of your work beyond your portfolio. This is especially helpful for people who apply both as an artist or a writer.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR IN THE PORTFOLIO JUDGING CRITERIA?

We look for several things when judging portfolios. For artists, the list includes:

• Your ability to finish zine-quality pieces (fully-rendered, backgrounds, not rushed-looking, etc)

• Hard skills: composition, color theory, anatomy, perspective, shape language, etc

• Comic paneling skills, if applicable

• Solid illustration styles that interest us and we want to see more of

For writers, the list includes:

• Your ability to finish zine-quality pieces (complete and concise work, with a full narrative if applicable)

• Good grasp on writing basics (grammar, punctuation, spelling, sentence flow, etc)

• Solid writing styles / voice / characterization

• Ideas and we find intriguing, interesting, or otherwise would like to see written in full

If either of these lists are daunting to you, don’t worry! We are very interested in people who are eager to try new things and push themselves as artists and writers. We’ve accepted many people before based on their apparent eagerness to improve and collaborate with others.

We also like applicants with a unique or unusual approach to making art. Some examples include: traditional media, 3D modeling, photo manipulation, graphic design, typography, poetry, etc. While these skills are fun to include, don’t worry — not having them won’t detract from your chance of getting accepted.

CAN I APPLY FOR BOTH AN ARTIST AND A WRITER POSITION?

Yes you can, but if you’re accepted, we’ll choose you for only one of the two options. For example, if you apply to both and we accept you for writing, we expect you to create a written piece for the zine only, no illustration. This decision will be revealed to you in the acceptance email you get once the application period is over.

CAN I PARTICIPATE IF I'M A TRADITIONAL ARTIST?

Absolutely! All we require is that you have access to a scanner in order to submit high-quality images of your work. We work around the 300dpi range, and unfortunately photos taken with phones or webcams usually aren’t high-quality enough for us to include.

HOW MANY ARTISTS AND WRITERS DO YOU ACCEPT?

The number of participants (artists and writers combined) we accept depends on several factors — the most important of which are how many mods we have working on the zine and how much we decide we can handle. Historically, our acceptance count ranges anywhere from 35 to 75 participants, with our most recent editions hitting numbers closer to the top of that range.

HOW DO I KNOW MY APPLICATION WAS SUBMITTED CORRECTLY? WHAT HAPPENS IF THE LINK TO MY PORTFOLIO DOESN'T WORK?

If you don’t receive any word from us from the time you submitted your application to when the acceptance and rejection emails go out, then congratulations, your application was submitted correctly! If something is wrong with your portfolio, like if one or more of your links don’t work, we typically request access — which will then appear as an email in the inbox of whatever email is linked to the drive you shared your portfolio from. If the issue persists, you might receive a private message requesting access from one of the mods on a social media handle you included in your application. If you don’t receive an email or message from us, then everything with your application works.

HOW ARE WE NOTIFIED ABOUT WHO GETS ACCEPTED?

We notify applicants by email, which we ask for in the application form. While we do NOT share this email with anyone (keeping your personal information private is extremely important to us), we typically suggest using either a throwaway email or something that doesn’t have your real name associated with it to apply.

WHEN ARE WE NOTIFIED ABOUT THE APPLICATION RESULTS?

We do our best to send out emails within the week after the application form closes. Historically, emails have gone out anywhere from two to five days after the form closes. There will be posts on our social media announcing when emails have been sent out, so you can’t miss it!

HOW DO I JOIN THE DISCORD SERVER IF I'M ACCEPTED?

If you’re accepted to the zine, your acceptance email will include the link to the server. All you need to do is click on that link, and you’re in!

DO YOU GUYS SEND REJECTION EMAILS?

We do. If you apply to Hermitzine, you’re going to receive an email from us regardless of whether you’re accepted or rejected. If you’re rejected, we give you the opportunity to ask for feedback with your portfolio.

I APPLIED BUT NEVER GOT AN EMAIL. WHAT'S GOING ON?

If you haven’t received an email even though we’ve announced they’ve been sent out on our social media accounts, please check your spam folder to see if it accidentally went there. This has happened a lot in the past!

IF I'VE BEEN REJECTED FROM AN EDITION OF HERMITZINE, DOES THAT MEAN I CAN NEVER APPLY AGAIN?

Absolutely not! You can apply to any edition of Hermitzine you’d like, from now until forever, regardless of the results of previous applications. We love seeing friendly names show up in applications!

DO PEOPLE WHO HAVE PARTICIPATED IN PRIOR EDITIONS OF HERMITZINE HAVE A HIGHER CHANCE OF GETTING ACCEPTED AGAIN?

No. Applicants who’ve participated in previous editions have the exact same chances at getting into the newest edition than any other participant.

WILL YOU GUYS POST A LIST OF PEOPLE WHO ARE PARTICIPATING IN THE CURRENT EDITION?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. In our most recent edition, #8, we made social media posts highlighting all of our participants. We might do the same in the future!

WHAT DOES HERMITZINE'S SCHEDULE LOOK LIKE? HOW MUCH TIME DO I HAVE TO MAKE MY CONTRIBUTION?

Hermitzine’s schedule typically spans anywhere from 9-12 weeks. To keep everyone on track, we have three check-ins (spaced every two weeks) before participants submit their final work. This schedule gives participants plenty of time to create their zine pieces, as well as giving us mods enough time to assemble the zine itself.

WHAT CONTENT IS ALLOWED IN HERMITZINE?

The content we allow depends on the zine edition we’re working on. Most editions have some sort of unifying theme: some prior editions were season-specific, others were linked by some other element (ex: Hermitzine #7 focused heavily on landscapes). Requirements for a piece are only to feature Hermitcraft and / or the Hermits primarily, and to follow the theme. That means that crossover content (ex: the Empires crossover) and hermit-adjacent people can be included.

WHAT CONTENT IS NOT ALLOWED IN HERMITZINE?

Hermitzine strives to be a family-friendly zine, just like the hermits themselves. Therefore, we try to keep elements like foul language and heavy themes to a minimum. Other things like hermitshipping, NSFW, and inappropriate thirsting for any content creators aren’t allowed either.

IS COLLABORATION ALLOWED?

Not only is collaboration allowed, it’s encouraged! We love when participants combine their skills and ideas to make cool stuff. The collaborations we see the most often are artists pairing up, but artists and writers are both free to collaborate with whoever they want!

Collaborations can be formed once the participants have joined the Discord server. To make things easy for everyone, we usually create separate private channels for collaborators to use so the mods can jump in if needed.

WHEN CAN I POST MY ZINE WORK? DO I NEED TO KEEP IT SECRET UNTIL THE ZINE IS PUBLISHED?

We ask that participants keep their work a secret until the zine is published. This is so we can make sure people look at the zine first and foremost. Once 24 hours have passed since the zine’s release, that’s when it’s okay to post your work. Before that, you can post up to 1/4 of your piece as a teaser for the zine’s release.